Oregon Part 1: Birds of the Best Coast

The first week of March was spring break from grad school, which meant I had a whole week to not be in Washington DC (which, after a few months of living in DC, was a very good thing). Many different options were considered, some more exotic than others, but ultimately I settled on a visit to Oregon to visit my sister Morgan and (just as important) her dog that I still hadn't met. 

It didn't hurt of course that there were lots of West Coast-specific birds in Oregon that I still hadn't seen, my only previous experience being a trip to Washington state when I was an even worse birder than I am now. On that front, it ended up being easily the most successful birding trips I've ever had, in terms of very good birds seen, targets ticked, and pictures taken. 

I arrived in Portland on the night of February 27, with just enough time to have a beer with Morgan and her boyfriend Lee and to meet my new (dog)niece before going to bed. The next day my first official outing in the city was to a small park overlooking the Willamette River, which is pronounced /wɪˈlæmɪt/ (wi-LAM-it) for reasons I fail to comprehend. It was here that I saw my first two lifers of the trip: a small flock of Lesser Goldfinches flitting about in the trees and a few brilliantly blue California Scrub Jays in some bushes. A young Bald Eagle (alas, not a Golden Eagle) also flew overhead. 

California Scrub Jay

Bald Eagle

Fox Squirrel that's definitely plotting something

It turned out that that park wasn't fenced, meaning that Sula (the dog-niece) couldn't romp around as greyhounds need to do every once in a while. We went next to a dog park, which primarily was good for watching Sula run at full tilt, a spectacle that is simultaneously majestic and hilarious, probably because greyhounds look like lizards crossed with gargoyles:

Behold: the majesty of a greyhound!

The dog park was also decent for birds, at least some more of my low-hanging fruit lifers: a couple of Pacific Wrens were hanging out by the parking lot, while in a thicket of blackberries was a pair of Spotted Towhees, the bolder and more attractive West Coast version of Eastern Towhees. In a bit of woods was a beautiful Varied Thrush, one of the lifers I was really hoping to get good looks at, while there were also some Song Sparrows of the reddish morphna subspecies (sometimes considered a separate species, although I'm not convinced). 

Spotted Towhee- one of my favorite West Coast trash birds

Varied Thrush

Song Sparrow

The next day I went to Beaverton, the town west of Portland proper, to pick up the rental car I'd be driving for the next week. Beaverton itself isn't really much to write home about, as so far as I can tell it's entirely composed of suburbs and strip malls. Relatively nearby, however, was Dawson's Creek Corporate Park, a surprisingly good birding spot- surprisingly because I rarely if ever associate the word "corporate" with anything good. There was a series of artificial ponds and streams running back to an area of woods, which proved to be a sanctuary for a wide variety ducks and geese. The best of these was a beautiful male Eurasian Wigeon, a lifer for me, in amidst a big flock of American Wigeons. There was also a huge flock of Cackling Geese, more common in this area than Canada Geese, a flock of Wood Ducks by a still pond, as well as some Hooded Mergansers, Common Mergansers, and lots and lots of Mallards.

Eurasian Wigeon

Cackling Geese- much cuter than Canada Geese.

A spectacular male Wood Duck

American Wigeon

There was a small patch of woods at the back of the park, where I saw a couple of Sooty Fox Sparrows, a pair of my lifer Townsend's Warbler chasing each other around, and a Brush Rabbit hiding in the thick raspberry bushes. Best, however, was an Acorn Woodpecker perched in a big sycamore tree, the coolest lifer of the trip up to that point and the main bird I'd hoped to see there. Woodpeckers are one area where the western US very much outperforms the east, and this was a very smart-looking bird.

Acorn Woodpecker

Lesser Goldfinch

Our big plan for that weekend was to make a trip out to Oregon's coast, where we'd rented a house near a beach. I drove out separately in my rental car, partly so that Sula would fit in Morgan's car, and partly so that I could stop for birds without disturbing anyone else. The drive west was a beautiful one, through the low forested mountains of the Oregon Coast Range. This far west it was a proper temperate forest, with huge evergreens draped in long streamers of moss. It was exactly the sort of place one could expect to see a Spotted Owl flying around, though of course I didn't see any Spotted Owls. 

On the coastward side of the mountains I stopped at the Footbridge Trail in Tillamook County, a nice trail along a rushing river. While the scenery was great, and there were some cool bugs in the rocks next to the river, there wasn't much bird-wise around.

Some kind of ground beetle (Carabidae sp.)

A crane fly 

Some kind of wolf spider

Until, that is, I saw a small black bird fly directly into the river: American Dipper! This had been one of my most hoped-for lifers in Oregon, simply because dippers are absolutely amazing birds: the only passerines that can swim and dive underwater! I sat on the bank of the river for a solid 45 minutes watching the Dipper dive effortlessly underneath the water and hop back up onto a rock eating whatever aquatic insect it had caught. Even better, this one was building a nest, gathering beakfuls of moss and flying directly through a small waterfall to build its nest on the rock face behind it. I can say with confidence that Dipper has been the coolest bird I've seen so far in 2019 (although I suspect that will change in the next few months...). 

D   I   P

After I'd satisfied myself watching the dipper doing its thing, I walked for a ways up the trail through the woods, which had more great scenery but not much in the way of birds except for a couple of Song Sparrows. After becoming relatively satisfied there were no Spotted Owls hiding nearby, I returned to the car and continued to the coast to meet Morgan and Lee in Tillamook for a beer. 

The best part of being on the West Coast is the sunset over the ocean, and this evening did not disappoint. On the way between Tillamook and our Airbnb in Depoe Bay I stopped in the small coastal town of Lincoln Beach to catch the sun just before it fell below the horizon. Beautiful sunset over rock formations, with Western Gulls in the background? Be still my beating heart. 

Western Gull

I wasted no time heading out the following morning- there were birds to see! I decided to walk along the Depoe Bay beach towards the headland to the south. Sunrise over the beach was just as great as the sunset- although much colder!

The ocean was surprisingly full of bird life, including lots of my target birds: Red-necked Grebes, Western Grebes, Red-throated Loons, Pacific Loons, Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoters, and Black Scoters all floated along the waves, while a nice variety of gulls- mostly Western Gull, California Gull, and Glaucous-winged Gulls, flew past. Most of the birds were too far out for good pictures, but it was a nice change from the very quiet waters I'm used to in DC and in Michigan.

Red-necked Grebe

Mostly Surf Scoters, with a Black Scoter and White-winged Scoter

Lots and lots of Western Grebes

Western Gull

I reached the headland, Fishing Rock, after about an hour of walking. After I climbed up on the rock, I had a closer-up view of a Western Gull, Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants, House Finches, and best of all a lovely Black Oystercatcher roosting on the rocks above the pounding surf. As I was walking through a thick tangle of junipers towards the road, I heard a churring noise behind me, which turned out to be a Wrentit, one of my long-shot targets I'd been tentatively hoping for. It was hopping around me so fast I could barely take a picture, but even seeing one was cool- they're the only New World representatives of the Sylviidae warblers, looking a little bit like Parrotbills. 

Western Gull

Pelagic Cormorant

House Finch

Black Oystercatcher

Wrentit!

The long walk back home was through a neighborhood that felt like the cross between a suburb and vacation neighborhood- not what would strike one as ideal nature habitat. To my surprise, it ended up being fantastic birding: a singing Song Sparrow and Spotted Towhee, a bold Steller's Jay, a very tame Sooty Fox Sparrow, a pair of American Bushtits building a nest, a flock of White-crowned Sparrows and my lifer Golden-crowned Sparrows, and a singing Bewick's Wren, another lifer. Proof that the West Coast really is better for birding, at least outside of migration time. 

Spotted Towhee

Song Sparrow

Steller's Jay

Sooty Fox Sparrow- they look so different from the Red Fox Sparrows on the east coast it's hard to see why they haven't been split yet by some authorities.

White-crowned Sparrow 

Bewick's Wren

Douglas Squirrel

After a fabulous brunch at the Airbnb prepared by Morgan and Lee, and a much-needed nap, I headed south towards Newport, the biggest town in the area. Along the way I stopped by the Boiler Bay State Wayside, which had some eBird records of interesting birds like Common Murres and Pigeon Guillemots. I didn't end up seeing any alcids, and the place ended up being pretty dead but for a pair of Black Oystercatchers. I was getting ready to leave when I noticed movement on the rocks far below me: a flock of Black Turnstones! That had been another one of my long-shot targets, so I was very happy to see them, even though they were far away in bad light.

Spot the Black Turnstones!

In Newport, my main stop was the jetty south of the Yaquina River mouth, which seemed to be a favorite spot for local birders based on eBird reports. The first thing I noticed there was the gulls: so, so many gulls. Easily over a thousand of them, and the great thing about the West Coast is that there are a dozen or so species of gull, most of them poorly differentiated and half of them hybridizing with each other. There are some people who take a great joy in IDing their gulls by looking at the shade of the inner seventh tertial or what ever the proper lingo is, but I... am not one of those people. 

This. This is not fun.

There was, however, a smaller flock of gulls on the same side of the river as I was struggling to fly against the headwind, which made it easier to get pictures and ID them. While I'll almost certainly never turn into a "guller", the ID practice was still fun (people who know gulls better than me may chime in with corrections to my captions however...).

Second-cycle Western Gull

First-cycle Glaucous-winged Gull

First-cycle Herring Gull?

Adult Western Gull

Adult Glaucous-winged Gull

Thankfully, there were more than just gulls at the Yaquina River: a flock of my lifer Brant Goose was on the opposite riverbank, while there were Pacific Loons, Common Loons, Western Grebes, and a huge raft of scoters (mostly Surf Scoters) far out in the river. Towards the end of the evening a noisy herd (school? flock? pride?) of Steller's Sea Lions came in from the bay, to the delight of the flock of gulls wheeling over them snatching up fish they scared up from the water. 

Hundreds of Surf Scoters

Surf Scoters

Horned Grebes

Pacific Loon

Steller's Sea Lion

The best bird of the evening, however, was a pair of Harlequin Ducks roosting and dabbling by the edge of the jetty. Harlequin Ducks were another one of my most-wanted birds for the trip, not because they're necessarily rare, but because they're breathtaking beautiful. Easily one of the most attractive ducks in the world, and these ones put on a great show in the evening light.

Harlequin Ducks- what an absolute cracker of a bird.

The last stop before sunset was the Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area, a headland and lighthouse just north of Newport. The area is a marvel of geology: a peninsula and sea stacks composed entirely of columnar basalt, the remains of a massive lava flow from the Columbia River Basalt Group, most likely emplaced by the Yellowstone Hotspot. The sunset was, to put it succinctly, well worth the $5 entry fee.

Sunset at Yaquina Head, with Newport in the background

Wanting to get the most out of my entry fee, I returned to Yaquina Head the next morning just after sunrise. I descended to the waterline first to a small sheltered cove, and was almost immediately greeted by a small flock of Harlequin Ducks and a very round, very relaxed Harbor Seal, a mammal lifer for me. 

Harlequin Ducks

Harbor Seal

Basalt columns along the shoreline

Moving onto another cove, I found myself directly across from a sea stack with a big group of resting Harbor Seals. There was another flock of Harlequin Ducks (no, I will not stop posting pictures of them), a flock of very noisy Black Oystercatchers flying around the beach, and best of all dozens of Common Murres and Pigeon Guillemots flying around far out to sea. They were quite distant and I certainly didn't get good pictures, but they were my first alcids, so I was very, very happy. Hopefully someday I'll make it to the coast in breeding season when they're much easier to see. 

Harlequin Duck

Black Oystercatchers

Very distant Common Murres

Up at the top of the headland, the main attraction was a pair of Bald Eagles circling around the lighthouse. Whenever they perched, they would get harassed by a pair of very bold (or very stupid) Western Gulls, who I presume were getting ready to nest and didn't want raptors nearby. 

A very angry Western Gull and a very annoyed Bald Eagle

Our Airbnb reservation on the coast was only for two nights, so I had to head back that morning to pack my things up and check out. While Morgan, Lee, and their friends headed back to Portland, I had plans to remain on the coast and make a road trip through other parts of the states first. My first stop after checking out and having clam chowder for lunch was to Depoe Bay proper, a small town perched on the headlands around a small inlet billed as the world's smallest navigable harbor. As fascinating as very small navigable harbors are, I was more interested in the birdlife. And the birdlife delivered: a flock of Surfbirds around the mouth of the world's smallest harbor. Surfbirds were another one of my "long shot" target list, and it was extremely cool to see them, as they're very unique-looking shorebirds. Although I do hope I can see them more closely sometime in the future.

Surfbirds

My last stop along the coast was one final stop at the Yaquina River, mainly for a last-ditch for the Barrow's Goldeneyes that had been reported there recently (and that I had dipped on a couple of weeks earlier in Vermont). I quickly found a flock of Common Goldeneyes, but it took quite a while of eyeballing before I could find one that looked different. I finally found one with a smaller bill and Barrow's-like wing pattern, but something about it didn't look quite right- the white spot in front of the eye was round-ish like a Common Goldeneye, rather than comma-shaped like in Barrow's, and the bill wasn't quite small enough. Finally, I realized it was actually a hybrid between the two species, obviously a much rarer find than a pure Barrow's Goldeneye. However, I couldn't really call a hybrid a lifer, so I was relieved when a full-blooded Barrow's Goldeneye swam right in front of me just before I gave up. 

The confusing hybrid goldeneye

A full Barrow's Goldeneye

There were some other good birds around in the river, including Buffleheads, some Red-breasted Mergansers,  Greater and Lesser Scaups, an unusually tame Surf Scoter, a Western Grebe, a Pelagic Cormorant, and one final Harbor Seal.

Surf Scoter- a very impressive schnozz on that thing

A very sneaky Western Grebe

Red-breasted Merganser

Pelagic Cormorant

Harbor Seal

After one final very successful birding outing, I headed east once more towards Eugene and some very different (but equally good!) birds. But that will have to come in the next blog entry...