[obol] Little Blue Heron at Ship Ashore

[David Fix Jude Power]

I was happy to see Doug Kirkpatrick mention the low profile and the head-bobbing of the Little Blue Heron in northern Del Norte County.  I can only second his thoughts.  I stopped there coming home last night about 6:30 or so.  I scanned the whole rocky island and thought it wasn't there.  Only after I had scanned out over the nearby estuary and was thinking of leaving did I finally see the heron.  It was in direct sight but hunting at the edge of the rocks and water.  There was a cryptic young night-heron perched nearby in the rocks a few feet above it, and this bird was way less noticeable than even the night-heron.  I also was struck by the deliberate, exaggerated side-to-side motion as it got some sort of visual parallax.  It's about 4 miles from the OR/CA line to Ship Ashore.  Pass the ship and turn west on Lopez, go to the motel, turn left and you are looking at the little rocky island the heron uses.  

In addition to visiting Oregon's own David Irons, Jennifer Brown, Diane Pettey and seeing the Heyerlys and others at Royal, I hiked South Sister on 9/1 and found only one bird at the top (except the ravens), a Horned Lark.  I heard one or more Cassin's Finches at about 8000' and there were scads of crossbills all through the area, but there were few other birds.  In some years I have had Chippies and migrant Brewer's Sparrows up there but I think Labor Day weekend is probably too late.  I heard a juvenile Black-headed Grosbeak down at Devils Lake on the Cascade Lakes Highway, probably a migrant or upslope drifter since it sure doesn't look like breeding habitat for miles.  I missed seeing Rosy-Finch and am now 5-for-13 on them there since 1980.  I camped out two nights at Devils Lake and heard no birds.  There were moderate numbers (many hundreds+) of Cal Tortoiseshells on the upper slopes of the mountain.

It was great to see how many people are enjoying Fern Ridge.  You younger birders on this list have no idea how way better it is for birds than it was even 15 years ago.  The improvements have been a magnet, and finally the area off the main pool has become important to shorebirds.  How great to see.   I have to say it was sometimes not even worth visiting Fern Ridge in Aug and Sep in the 1980s.

On 9/2 I was surprised to see two juvenile Gray Jays molting into adult-like plumage along the trail up Spencer Butte, just up from the meadow and old picnic tables.  I never found them there on numerous visits from 1979-1985.  I suppose the young could possibly have fledged from elsewhere along the general skyline but it still was encouraging to see that in Spencer Butte park.

David (uh, "Invader") Fix
Arcata, California    
        
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