[obol] Thousands of Birds

[Steve Dougill]

A little long but bird summary at end ….
 
This last weekend Dean Hale, Peter Lowe joined me and Jambo, and squeezed into the truck to bird southern Lake County.  Lake Abert was our first main stop and it is breath taking…. Absolutely amazing.  Abert rim raises 2000ft up above the desert landscape and the lake is one of three main staging points for Wilson’s Phalaropes.  We must have seen about a quarter of the world population in huge flocks and rafts as far as the eye could see.  We counted over 177,000 Phalaropes (under estimate) (10: 1 Wilson’s to Red-necked).  You can hear their calls as a background noise all the time.  Clouds of bugs take off as shorebirds move.  We camped at the northern end of the lake and awoke to Black throated sparrows singing.  Most of the birds were at the northern end of the lake with over 50,000 Gulls (mostly California but with 675 Franklin’s Gulls) and over 10,000 Avocets.
 
We stopped at a few canyons and oasis areas with a few early migrants (Warbling Vireo, Tanagers, Yellow Warblers) and in Plush there was a little grounding of Nighthawks.  We found over 50 out in the open sitting on posts and limbs of trees (there was probably tens that we didn’t see).
 
The second night we spent up at Hart Mountain at an isolated Ponderosa Pine forest (Blue Sky).  Red breasted Sapsucker and a male Black-back Woodpecker were in the forest and higher up in the Juniper / Mountain Mahogany we came across tens of baby Brewers Sparrows and lots of Dusky and Gray Flycatchers and GT Towhees.  Also, Orange Crowned warblers, gnatcatcher and white crowned sparrow (all I presume nest up here).
 
On the way home we took two gravel roads (hog back and XL Ranch Road to get to Paisly).  We counted exactly 50 Loggerhead Shrikes!  Finally at Summer Lake we zipped around the wildlife management area.  There were a few shorebirds including 18 Black Bellied Plovers and 10 Snowy Plover.
 
No lizards, just one bull snake, but lots of great flowers and butterflies that we still need to identify.  By the end of the trip we had see 122 bird species ….
 
Hatfield, Bend:
1 Solitary Sand
1 Wood duck
50 LB Dowitcher
1 Semi P Plover
120 Peeps
 
Lake Abert:
159,000 Wilson Phalarope
18,000 Red-necked Phalaropes
10,100 Avocets
750 Stilt
450 Ibis
385 Willet
750 Eared Grebes
50,000 Gulls (way under estimate as we counted in the morning when many thousand gulls had left).  Mostly California but still lots of Ring billed
675 Franklins and 12 Boneparts Gulls
Black throated sparrows
WF Swift
Family of Scrub Jay (Poison Canyon)
 
Plush:
N Orioles
Warbling Vireo
2 Collard Dove
Peewee
 
Hart Mountain:
Poorwil
Coopers Hawik
1 WC Sparrow
1 Gnatcatcher
Peewee
Dusky and Gray Fly
OC and YR Warblers
Black-backed, Red breasted Sapsucker and Hairy Wood
 
Summer lake:
10 Snowy Plover
18 Black bellied Plover
100 Dowitcher
5 Franklins Gulls
20 Boneparts Gulls
1 Trumpeter Swan
Forsters, Black and Caspian TernsSteve Dougill,Redmond, Deschutes Co., OR
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