[birding] coast

[rich armstrong]

1. a group of 5 corvallis birders headed to the coast this morning at 530 am.
2. we arrived at boiler bay at 650 and saw 30 foot breakers and churning seas. however it was not raining and not windy. it was difficult to see birds with the mists and breakers, and especially with only 1 scope, but we tried for about 75 minutes.
    a. 1 dark morph NORTHERN FULMAR seen on the water and flying a little - i think all saw this
    b. 3 RED-NECKED GREBES flying together
    c. WESTERN GREBES on the water
    d. winter plumage PIGEON GUILLEMOT on the water
    e. many BONAPARTE'S GULLS
    f. many COMMON MURRES
    g. i saw all 3 loons, but others probably did not (the only 1 scope problem)
    h. flocks of BRANT went by close
    i. the legendary phil pickering was there. he saw at least 2 close kittiwakes that i could not get on to at all.
3. depoe bay had scope looks at BLACK TURNSTONE & BLACK OYSTERCATCHER
4. new port jetty area
    a. 1 very cooperative immature SNOW BUNTING seen by all at distance of maybe 7 feet
    b. 2 ROCK SANDPIPERS & about 5 SURFBIRDS & many turnstones on rocks close to the gull puddle
    c. 1 close WHIMBREL taking a fun bath
    d. 10+ HARLEQUIN DUCKS, some within 20 feet for great pictures
    e. 2 WHITEWINGED SCOTERS along with hundreds of SURF SCOTERS
    f. many BROWN PELICANS & a couple HERRMAN'S GULLS
    g. pelagic & brandt's cormorants side by side on same rock for great scope comparison
    h. RED-NECKED PHALAROPES landed next to gull puddle for great scoping
    i.  5 RED PHALAROPES on the water close
    j. walking to the jetty was getting sand-blasted so we barely made it to beginning
    k. a couple brebes we decided were HORNED GREBES
    l. maybe 10 COMMON LOONS, all in basic plumage
5. we had ZERO RAIN from 7 to 1115, and with essentailly no wind it was a fun morning
6. behind the science center it started to rain a little, but we walked out to the little shed, where it began to pour
    a. 1 MARBLED GODWIT right in front of us
    b. 4 SANDELINGS with a few dunlin stopped briefly
    c. excellent comparison of RING-BILLED, MEW, & CALIFORNIA GULLS, and 1 very dark backed gull we decided was a dark western.
    d. 1 bald eagle
    e. a huge raft of surf scoters and bufflehead we could not see well in the rain to look for others with them
7. since it was now terrential rain looking like it would never stopped we drove along the bay and headed home very happy we had over 4 excellent hours. we saw a scaup flock that had at least 2 lessers and many greaters, a couple more white-winged scoters quite a ways inland, and a couple more horned grebes.
8. considering the forcast, and considering we had only 1 scope, it was a very good day.
9. reminder - next saturday is the normal 1/2 day corvallis audubon trip to somewhere around corvallis to be determined.
Rich Armstrong
541-753-1978
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