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

[Tim Rodenkirk]

I did murrelet surveys for several years in the early
1990's on the south coast.  The PEAK time to see and
hear murrelets coming into their nesting old growth
stands was the first 3 weeks or so of July, most birds
have fledged by the end of the month and numbers drop
to almost none by August.  Mike hit the best time
right on, from about 45 minutes before sunrise to 45
minutes after sunrise with right around sunrise being
the best time to see and/or hear the birds.  The best
way to find them is to go into a nice old growth stand
close to the coast (within about 20 miles), drainage
bottoms being the preferred habitat (where the moss is
thick on the upper branches), and recon an open area
in the stand where you can see the sky fairly well
(not easy to do in many stands).  Then just go into
this spot the morning of the count and wait for those
speedy little murlits to shoot on in.  Just seeing
them on the ocean does not do this species justice! 

Merry murreleteering,
Tim R
Coos Bay
--- Mike Patterson <celata at pacifier.com> wrote:

> 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
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