[obol] Yaquina Bay - Interresting Gulls (possible Little Gull?? - need help), Pelicans, Godwit, Egret Roost, More...

[Cindy Ashy]

Hi OBOLers,

I visited Sallys Bend late afternoon and it was a
phenomenal day for birding. First, the weather was
about as perfect as it could be...cool and sunny with
with just enough wind to fluff up and accent the
softer feathers of many of the birds I was watching.
Second, Yaquina Bay was just chock full of birds
(thousands) as if it was the avian social event of the
season and everyone had been invited. Significant
mudflat was exposed but the tide was in enough that
the birds were mostly congregated close to shore going
all the way around the bend. I watched 4 Killdeer
foraging close by on the flats but being optically
challenged (no scope, just 10x bins) I couldn't quite
identify many of birds in distant flocks. I decided to
drive down the Yaquina Bay Road to get some closer
views and I'm sure glad I did.

To my delight, I found 86 Brown Pelicans bobbing up
and down in a sunny patch of sparkling water right
near the shore conveniently located next to a safe
pull-off. The stage was set and I had a front row
seat. Working as a team, they were seining fish. I was
so close and the light so perfect, I could see their
gular pouches expand just beneath the water's surface.
They moved in  syncronized bird ballat. I was
mesmerized by the beauty and grace of these
spectacular birds which included many adults with
their canary yellow head patches saturated in the
sunlight. I hung out with the pelicans for quite a
while as it was such a treat to be so close to them
while they employed this method of fishing. The Great
Blue Herons did not seem to appreciate them as much as
I did since they were invading their turf. They would
occasionally kick up a raucous fuss and descend upon
them from the air sending all 86 pelicans with their
prehistoric profiles ascending into the air in unison.
The laborious flapping of their enormous 6 foot
wingspan was really something spectacular to see and
hear so close. They wouldn't go far and soon they'd
float right back to me. 

There was also a flock of about 20 Canada Geese
nearby.

It was an interesting gull day with well over 3000
gulls in the bay, mostly mixed flocks of various aged
California Gulls and Mew Gulls (more adults overall),
gathered in fairly tight groups of 100-500. It was fun
to have the opportunity to compare them size-wise and
the different stages with so many. As I studied these
flocks closely, I found some surprises. I found one
pale-eyed Ring-billed Gull (there may have been others
because I got more interested in other gulls and
didn't look very hard for others plus I would have
needed a scope to scan some that were too distant to
see the eye well). I found one adult and several
immature Heerman's Gulls. I also found several
Bonaparte's Gulls, adults in non-breeding plumage.
Then the most exciting find by far (maybe) was a
"Bonaparte-like Gull" that was noticeably smaller than
the others - very tiny - and I studied it for a long
while. The Sibley Guide has some enticing green dots
along the Oregon Coast for Little Gull (I like the
species name of minutus). I did not get a look at the
wing tips in flight to see if they were rounded or the
underwing pattern. However, the wing tips were pale,
not dark, and the legs were darker pink than the other
Bonaparte's Gulls and it was very noticeably
smaller....otherwise, it looked very similar to the
other Bonaparte's Gulls in non-breeding plumage. Has
anyone ever reported a Little Gull in Yaquina Bay
before/Oregon Coast? Maybe it was just an extra small
Bonaparte's Gull with unusual wing tips and darker
legs but it definitely was different enough from the
other Bonaparte's Gulls (and at first I had others
right beside it to compare it to) to get my antennae
twitching. The obvious size difference is the trait
that has me most believing it may have been a Little
Gull. Any other ideas?

There weren't many Western Gulls/Glaucous-winged Gulls
but when they did show up when viewing the smaller
gulls (Mew Gulls) through the bins, it was like
watching a 747 landing in a strip of ultralights.

I had found a shady spot to get the sun out of my eyes
and had been intently studying a gull flock with my
bins for a very long while (the same flock with the
Little Gull) when a Marbled Godwit moseyed into my
field of view which was pretty darn cool. I had to
smile. I followed it as it sauntered down the shore
along the water's edge occasionally probing at
something like a person might pick at a plate of food
they're not particularly interested in. Suddenly, it
found a soupy patch of sand which must have contained
some highly desirable food because it really went to
work in this one area, repeatedly burying its entire
long two-toned beak into the sand with enthusiastic
zeal. I studied it a long while with the "big" Sibley
Guide until I convinced myself it wasn't one of the
more exotic godwits we have some chance of seeing here
(for a fleeting moment, its belly almost looked
rufous) - but still special being the ONLY godwit, or
the only large shorebird for that matter, among
thousands of birds - and it wandered into my bins :-)

Around sunset, I ended up back at my original favorite
spot at Sallys Bend just in time to watch the incoming
tide chase 11 Killdeer from the rip-rap and a very
noisy turf war between 2 Belted Kingfishers with the
summersaulting aerial acrobatics I always get a kick
out of watching. These guys were also diving for fish
and chasing each other down to try to steal them from
one another.

In the far distance I watched several Great Egrets
taking off and heading toward some trees on the other
side of Yaquina Bay Road. It was really far off but I
managed to map out some landmarks. With the sky behind
me filled with salmon colored clouds etched in purple
and the gibbons moon ahead of me still low enough in
the sky that it seemed so exaggeratedly large that the
circling pelicans might bump against it, I raced off
down the road in search of the communal egret roost.
My landmarks turned out better than I expected and I
easily found a clump of trees full of large white
birds, still flying in. In fact, I got amazing
close-up views!!. The sight of giganic birds in trees
will never loose the coolness factor with me no matter
how many times I see it. With the light fading fast,
my bins were surprisingly helpful but the stark
contrast of the feathery white plumage against the
dark foliage is really what made it possible to see
these birds at all. Some of them were nestled quite
deep within the branches. A couple were silhouetted
against the darkening sky. I counted 18 but there may
have been more. Although I never found Great Blue
Herons roosting in the trees, I did see 2 fly out from
basically the same location (nocturnal hunters). The
larger birds seemed to get more vocal as night set in
and the sounds began to get spooky. There was a lot of
raspy communication going on between the Great Egrets
and the Great Blue Herons and the nearby Canada Geese
even joined in with some honking. It was the kind of
sounds you hear when something is about to happen in a
suspense movie. I don't think I should post the exact
spot on OBOL but if you're interested and convince me
that you'd be VERY careful not to disturb the birds
with lights, keep a respectful distance, etc, I might
share the location (although I think it would be
funner for you to follow them in at sunset). I don't
think I would have ever found them just driving down
the road (and it's a dangerous place to go for a walk)
if I hadn't watched the birds fly in. I do plan to go
back soon with night vision goggles if anyone is
interested.

Cindy Ashy




       
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