[obol] OFO Family Birding Weekend at Rock Creek, Lane Co. coast

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

Seventeen members of the Dougill, Tracy, Gerke and Geier families,
counting Saki, an exchange student from Japan who's staying with the
Dougills, spent a very pleasant and relaxing Labor Day Weekend at Rock
Creek Campground on the Lane County coast, with short trips to Heceta
Head, Sutton Beach, Seal Rock, and the beach just north of Rock Creek,
plus some wider-ranging trips by smaller groups.

This weekend probably set a record for the "least organized birding" in
the Oregon Field Ornithologists (OFO) Family Birding Weekend series, so
it's hard to give a comprehensive list, but it seemed like everyone had
fun. Hopefully everyone who came from central Oregon managed to get home
safely through the smoke from the G.W. fire around Black Butte.

The boulder-filled creek was a major attraction, with WATER SKIMMERS,
CADDISFLY PUPAE, CRAYFISH, and a ROUGH-SKINNED NEWT being found. Several
WINTER WRENS disputed the kids' territorial claims to a tree-root "fort"
along the creek. 

Saki showed us some amazing CRANES (the origami kind). Other birds
around the campground included AMERICAN ROBIN, VARIED THRUSH, SWAINSON'S
THRUSH (mostly just heard), CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE, WRENTIT, BAND-
TAILED PIGEON and BELTED KINGFISHER. STELLER'S JAYS which woke us with
duck-like squawks each morning. Riparian thickets and the forest toward
the beach held a nice mix of warblers, mainly WILSON'S WARBLERS but
TOWNSEND'S, YELLOW, and ORANGE-CROWNED were also seen.

A mystery bird was heard singing briefly a few times from dense brush
near the highway, but left us stumped. RED CROSSBILLS flying over
frequently were definitely a different type than the ones we enjoyed on
the Pine Mountain weekend; maybe Dave Tracy will tell us what kind they
were if he managed to get a recording.

An ELK COW AND CALF grazing on the slope just across the highway were
the biggest hits of a trip to the nearby beach on Saturday evening, even
cooler than a SEA URCHIN apparently eating a small SEA-JELLY in one of
the tidepools.

A herd of up to eight PORPOISES swimming back and forth just beyond the
surf were the main attraction at Sutton Beach on Sunday, though we also
enjoyed a couple of very cooperative MARBLED GODWITS prying critters out
of the sand. Three species apiece of SCOTERS and CORMORANTS were seen by
scoping offshore, along with regular flights of BROWN PELICANS, a few
PACIFIC LOONS and COMMON MURRES, and one MARBLED MURRELET way, way out
that Dave spotted. Several flocks of 20+ WHIMBRELS flew by but we didn't
see any peeps or plovers this year.

Seal Rock on Monday had a FOG-SHROUDED TATTLER that we assume was a
Wandering Tattler, plus flocks of BLACK TURNSTONES and SURFBIRDS and a
group of four BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS that kept flying around. A couple of
HARLEQUIN DUCKS were on the water near some puzzling scoters that we
decided were male SURF SCOTERS just coming out of eclipse (they had some
white around the bills but in varying degrees were lacking the white
nape patch).

This wraps up the OFO Family Weekend Program for summer of 2007. There
is some idea to organize one or two weekends that would have a different
(non-camping) format during the rainy/snowy seasons, depending on
interest, so please let us know.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis