[birding] Coffin Butte gulls & Lesser Yellowlegs again

[Joel Geier]

Hello folks,

Mid-morning today, Wil was doing some practice driving on the way home
from school (he gets out early on Wednesdays) and we happened to go past
Coffin Butte. I saw 30 or 40 gulls swirling around but we didn't stop to
look at them.

At lunchtime I walked back down to the landfill, but only saw about 3 or
4 gulls flying above the landfill, and those were only in view off & on.
One was an immature CALIFORNIA GULL, a couple looked like HERRING GULLS
(one of those might have been a Glaucous-winged x Western, didn't get a
very good look). The other one looked pretty good for an adult THAYER'S
GULL (pink feet, slim bill, dark-appearing eye, lightly streaked neck,
medium-gray mantle and upper wings, dark edges on the primaries). No
gulls were using the "gull resting field" along the dead-end road to the
west of the landfill.

I also checked out Toketie Marsh (the remedial wetlands). A couple of
yellowlegs came flying in from the direction of E.E. Wilson Wildlife
Area just as I arrived. One was a GREATER YELLOWLEGS and the other was a
LESSER YELLOWLEGS, presumably the same bird that was at E.E. Wilson
yesterday. It was fun to watch them flying together; looked like the
bigger bird took more wing strokes to stay apace. They made several low
passes over the pond as if they wanted to land, but then the Greater
gave a couple of calls and then they continued on over the landfill
toward the west.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis