[obol] NAMC Shorebirds & Other Birds

[Cindy Ashy]

I spent more than 3 hours at Sally's Bend today. When I first arrived the tide
was very low exposing a very extensive mudflat...the tide was coming in when I
left. The lighting was perfect...overcast so no glare but still quite bright.

Whimbrel - most abundant bird, spread out all over the mudflat
2 Marbled Godwit
1 Greater Yellowlegs
Dunlin & Western Sandpiper mixed flock (very rough count: 20 Dunlin and 40
Western Sandpipers....number changed over the time I was there)
2 Adult Killdeer....an obvious courtship display spreading out wings/tail
feathers to show rufous coloration...then they copulated....male then
aggressively charged the grass and flushed the next bird:
1 Spotted Sandpiper in exquisite breeding plumage...really beautiful
1 Juvenile Killdeer - twice I saw the juvenile go head first beneath the mom's
chest all the way under mom
5 Turkey Vultures
7 Great Blue Heron (but no egrets!)
American Robin
White-crowned Sparrow
Brewer's Blackbird
American Crow
Western Gulls
Glaucous-winged Gulls (not as many as westerns)

In the last 30 minutes as the tide was coming in, the ducks started showing up:

Greater Scaup - mostly these...I didn't really count but maybe 40
Surf Scoter - maybe a dozen
White-winged Scoter - a few
1 Black Scoter

Is this a scoter slam? :-)

I also went to Nye Beach before sunset:

25 Whimbrel
Dunlin (small flock)
1 Glaucous Gull (I think the same one I've seen twice before)
Western Gulls
Glaucous-winged Gulls
American Crows
Rock Pigeons

Scoped from Nye Beach - I could see the end of the North Jetty (from the
western most maker to the end):

38 Brown Pelicans (largest flock I've seen this year)

I'll send the Bonding With Birds list later.

Cindy Ashy

cc: Janelle Wesley
Lincoln County NAMC coordinator


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Looking for earth-friendly autos? 
Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center.
http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/