[birding] Santiam Breeding Bird Survey, Linn county

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

My daughter Martha and I ran the Santiam Breeding Bird Survey this
morning. This route starts at Crabtree Lake, a jewel of a spot in the
western Cascades, and runs down the Crabtree Creek drainage (with a bit
of a jog over one ridge) to the Roaring River, then hooks south to end
end up near Lacomb.

Last year the snow was still deep enough in late June that I had to walk
over snow drifts for the first mile of this route. This year was nothing
like that; there was no sign of snow at all. Stonecrop and Oregon
sunshine are already blooming on the rock outcrops around the lake, with
bleeding heart & penstemon blooming in the deeper soils.

SWAINSON'S THRUSH, WINTER WREN, and PACIFIC-SLOPE FLYCATCHER were the
birds of the day, recorded at 38, 27, and 26 of the 50 stops,
respectively. The first two are typical of this route but it seemed like
flycatchers were more vocal than usual this year.

A spontaneously calling NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL (heard at the first two
stops) and 6 COMMON NIGHTHAWKS (all in the first ten stops) got the
route off to a good start. We heard (or should I say "felt"?) SOOTY
GROUSE hooting at four stops and RUFFED GROUSE at one stop in the upper
elevations, plus saw one a couple of Sooty Grouse going across the road,
and one Ruffed Grouse with a half-grown chick just past the end of the
route north of Lacomb.

The most surprising bird of the day came as we pulled in to Stop 34 on
the ridge between the Crabtree Creek and Roaring River drainages, and we
saw a BARRED OWL flying a short ways, then perching to look back at us.
It flew off as I got out of the car to start the 3-minute count. I
thought that we'd have to leave it as a "between-stops" bird. But just
as I hit the start button on the timer for the 34th time of the day,
another one flushed a short distance up the road, to become what I think
is the first Barred Owl for this route.

On our way up there last night, we spotted a male BULLOCK'S ORIOLE
flying over the Albany-Lyons Hwy right at the junction with US Hwy 20,
near Crabtree north of Lebanon -- seemed like an odd place for one.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis