[birding] Grassland sparrows galore!!!! (plus a few forest arrivals)

[Joel Geier]

Hi folks,

I'm just back from a bicycle loop around the north side of Coffin Butte,
then up the 400 Road in Dunn Forest and down through OSU's Soap Creek
Beef Ranch to return home via Coffin Butte landfill.

The most exciting part of the ride was finding 22 CHIPPING SPARROWS and
9 OREGON VESPER SPARROWS, along with about 20 SAVANNAH SPARROWS (not to
mention Song, Golden-crowned, White-crowned Sparrows & juncos) on the
beef ranch. At one point three Vesper Sparrows flew up into the sky to
tangle with each other about 40 feet above the ground. Most of the
Vesper Sparrows were above (west of) the buildings but one was along the
road near the lower gate. The area around the ranch buildings had a pure
flock of about 10 Chipping Sparrows.

Along the way through Dunn Forest, I also heard & got good looks at a
singing CASSIN'S VIREO, two HAMMOND'S FLYCATCHER, one PACIFIC-SLOPE
FLYCATCHER (heard a couple more), and oodles of BLACK-THROATED GRAY and
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS. I searched for but couldn't find any
MacGillivray's, Hermit, or Townsend's Warblers (might have heard a few
of the last, but every one that I checked out turned out to be a
Black-throated Gray singing a song variant).

I had high hopes of a Western Kingbird along this route, but the one
that Michael Dossett reported west of Coffin Butte must have moved on,
and I also didn't see any at Soap Creek Ranch. WILD TURKEYS were a bit
of a hazard in the roadway. 

I heard a RING-NECKED PHEASANT crowing at the Cold Creek Hunting Club
property -- guess it's a good bet that this is also a planted bird, like
the ones in E.E. Wilson. Some shorebirds were there but too far off to
ID with binoculars -- looked like some Greater Yellowlegs but perhaps
also some others.

The upper remediation pond at Coffin Butte landfill still has six LESSER
SCAUP.

Happy birding,
Joel

--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis