[obol] Fox Creek Marbled Murrelet count - 7/5/2007

[Mike Patterson]

Fox Creek Marbled Murrelet count

Neal Maine, Steve Warner and I went up to the Fox Creek Forest
on the NW side of Saddle Mt to do MARBLED MURRLET counts.  The
weather was foggy and visibility was less than ideal.  We began 
hearing in-bound murrelets at about 04:50 and continued to hear
intermittent "keerr" calls until around 06:15.  We did not get
to see murrelets this time...

We saw a single TURKEY VULTURE land in a spot at a clearcut in
such a way that made me think it probably was visiting a nest
site.

We also found a MOUNTAIN QUAIL dusting spot with fresh quail 
tracks in it, but no actual quail.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):

Turkey Vulture                      1 [1] 
Marbled Murrelet                    4 [2] 
Band-tailed Pigeon                  8
Rufous Hummingbird                  1
Hairy Woodpecker                    1
Northern Flicker                    3
Willow Flycatcher                   1
Pacific-slope Flycatcher            9
Warbling Vireo                      1
Gray Jay                            3 [3] 
Steller's Jay                       2
Common Raven                        4
Violet-green Swallow                2
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Brown Creeper                       1
Winter Wren                         2
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush                   5
American Robin                      1
Varied Thrush                       4
Cedar Waxwing                       4
Orange-crowned Warbler              2
Hermit Warbler                      1
Wilson's Warbler                    4
Spotted Towhee                      1
Song Sparrow                        2
White-crowned Sparrow               6
Dark-eyed Junco                     6
Black-headed Grosbeak               3
Red Crossbill
Evening Grosbeak                    1

Footnotes:

[1]  probably near a nest based on behavior
[2]  low estimate, heard only between 04:50 and 06:30
[3]  hatch-years

Total number of species seen: 31

Other species:
 Snowshoe Hare
 Townsend's Chipmunk
 Douglas's Squirrel
 Black-tailed Deer
 Wapiti

 Tailed Frog (larvae)

 Purplish Copper

-- 
Mike Patterson               
Astoria, OR                    
celata at pacifier.com  
 
Malheur NWR Photo Essay
http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2007/05/malheur200705.html