[obol] Lane coast birds

[Alan Contreras]

I spent the day birding the s. coast of Lane Co with Graham Floyd.  It was
overcast but pleasant, with almost no wind.  We found no vagrants but had a
good day.  Highlights follow.

We saw *four* N SHRIKES, all brown imms, along s. jetty road, which is a lot
for one day around here.  Two were near the crab dock, one at the e. end of
Dotterel Dike and one out in the deflation plain.

We saw a RED-shouldered Hawk out the dike and another near Cushman.  A
distant drive-by hawk on Duncan Island was possibly a shoulder also.

Strangely we saw no HARRIERS at all despite spending much of the day along s
jetty road.

Shorebirds were few, with the only significant numbers being a large flock
of BLACK-bellied Plovers.

A female HARLEQUIN Duck is still hanging loosely with scoters near the end
of the s jetty.

We saw nine BROWN Pelicans, including an amazingly pale juvenile with an
almost white back and almost no dark markings on the belly.  There were two
Heermann's Gulls at Siltcoos and 1 at the end of the s jetty.

YR WARBLERS are now in by the hundreds, in essence the main movement of
Myrtles has arrived.

We noted a lot of VARIED THRUSH along the outer Siltcoos Rd where there have
not been any so far this fall.

PIPIT numbers were way down, maybe ten birds all day and none at all on the
dike or d-plain.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON
acontrer at mindspring.com

"Eat more cat.²