[obol] Cape Meares

[Cliff & Joanne Weber]

OBOL, hello!

After driving all the way from Beaverton to Tillamook for the annual Bird
fest at Cape Meares Lighthouse, we discovered to our dismay that we had
somehow neglected to bring along our spotting scope. But that wasn't a fatal
error as lots of volunteers set up much better optics than ours for the
annual event. However, the forces of nature were already in motion to put
the kibosh on almost everybody's fun with fog. I say "almost everybody"
because children were pleased as can be with face painting and an exhibit
with a live Saw-whet Owl and some other birds in cages and pens. So, other
than good numbers of Violet Green Swallows in the air around us, the cliffs,
which usually support a number of nesting Cormorants and Oystercatchers,
were simply impossible to see.

The worst news was the Peregrine Falcons, who in years past had been so
prolific with chicks on the cliffs, nested in total secrecy this year. In
spite of their best efforts, experts have so far failed to locate the
Peregrines' nest site this year, though the adults have been active in the
area.

We went on down to the Lighthouse gift shop to pick out an annual souvenir
and had pretty good luck with that. Then remembering some unusually friendly
White-crowned Sparrows from last year who liked to hang out along the
pathway, we looked for them and sure enough, they were on-site as usual and
still just as friendly as last year. An Orange-crowned Warbler was along the
south path too; in the same shrub with some House Finches.

The fog cleared a little bit to the south of the Lighthouse, enough to see a
Pigeon Guillemot, some Pelagic Cormorants, Brown Pelicans, Common Murres,
and a Sea Lion. We could hear hordes of Common Murres out on the big rocks
to the northwest, but they were totally obscured by the fog this time.

Cliff & Joanne Weber
Beaverton (Rock Creek area)