[obol] Lane coast birds

[Alan Contreras]

I spent a very good day birding coastal Lane County with Holly Reinhard and
Magnus Persmark today.  No vagrants but some good birds: best probably
Lapland Longspur, Pink-footed Shearwater and Ancient Murrelet.

I was surprised that we found no Palm Warbler; we were in lots of good
places for it. We did not see a Glaucous-winged Gull all day.

North Fork confluence - at least 85 Common Mergansers, normal here in
October but almost all of these disappear by December.  Canada Goose flock
here contained several sizes and two Cacklers.

S jetty road - 2 Varied Thrushes, first of season there.  Harrier numbers
have been 2-3 per trip in Sep along here; today there were perhaps 8.
Savannah Sparrow numbers, which seemed to have dropped in late Sep, were
very high along the road, and flocks also contained Lincolns and
Golden-crowned.  Song Sparrow numbers along s jetty rd seem to have doubled
in the past two weeks, though I have not kept a careful count.  Today we had
a few situations in which 3 to 6 inhabited a single bush.

Crab Dock cove - 6 BB Plovers, 4 Dunlin (first "flock" of the fall for me).

S jetty gravel pans - the birdseeding project on the edges of the large
eastern gravel pan has been quite successful; the area was crawling with
sparrows today; also towhees.  And squirrels. But there were no birds
elsewhere at the end of the road.  We did not walk out the jetty.

Dike - Lots of yellow-rumps, with a fairly even split between Audubon's and
Myrtles. No yellowthroats, first time missed this fall, which is about
normal, as the last birds of the season are usually sometime in October.

Deflation plain - it is in glorious condition and STUFFED with birds.  One
to two inches of water covers the north end and there is mud everywhere.
The wet areas had shorebirds scattered all around at high tide, cumulative
totals are Least 200 or so (a few adults), Western 2, Long-billed Dow 2,
Killdeer 2, Semipalmated Plover 3.  Also scattered around were maybe 80-100
highly visible Am Pipits and several flocks of Canada Geese.  One small
flock of pipits flew over with a single calling LAPLAND LONGSPUR; the latter
was clearly visible in the flock owing to its short tail.

Klootchman Wayside (north of Heceta Head a few miles) - An astonishing
nearshore flight of tubenoses was the highlight of the day.  A loose
assemblage of Sooty Shearwaters and N Fulmars (almost all darkish; at least
one brilliant white-phase) was spread out all along this stretch of coast
(some visible from Stonefield, a mile north).  My estimate is 200 Sooty, at
least 40 fulmars, and an amazing 14 PINK-FOOTED SHEARWATERS wihin fairly
easy scoping range. Also here were a number of flying Murres and 2 ANCIENT
MURRELETS that Magnus found on the water and then wickedly hid from Holly
and me.  One male Harlequin Duck was here.

Stonefield Beach - 2 Heermann's Gulls were with maybe 150 California, 1
adult Herring and 20 Westerns.  An oystercatcher was on the point to the
south.

Eugene - back at my house around 5:00, we had 20 Vaux's Swifts flying
around.  Not a record late date (that's October 22) but quite a few for
October 6.  Regular reports drop dramatically after October 10 or so.

-- 
Alan Contreras
EUGENE, OREGON

acontrer at mindspring.com
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