The Water Birds of Oregon

I have saved all the water-related birds for the last blog post.  After all, my last lifer on this trip was a water bird, the Mew Gull.  And we got it on the last day before our flights carried us back to the sunshine of Arizona.  And, par for the course, Chris and I had to deal with the rain to find it.  They are fairly common, but trying to locate one in the rain with binoculars getting wet, proved to be a challenge.  So we just stood on the shoreline of the Columbia River at Broughton Beach and started taking photos of a lot of gulls that were traveling upstream in the rain.  

Mew Gull

Gulls are not my forte in the birding world and not one that I would chase a lot.  There are a couple of species that would definitely get my interest to chase, but doubt if either will show up in Arizona.  We were challenged with the identification of the various gulls in Oregon.  Gulls are notorious for hybridizing and we quickly found out that some of the hybrids in this area are quite common.  So we had to approach the gull identification process with caution.  We did have other gulls that were not hybrids and one of them was the Glaucous-winged Gull.  This was not a lifer for me, but it was the first time I got to see one in adult plumage.  My previous sighting was a juvenile in Arizona several years ago.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Below are a few photos of some of the other water birds we observed during our stay.  Some I have seen in Arizona in the past, and some I have not.  But always fun to see and observe some of these species that I do not see as often.  

Horned Grebe

Common Murre

Common Murre

Surf Scoter - Male

White-winged Scoter

Black Oystercatcher

Black Turnstone

Belted Kingfisher

Belted Kingfisher

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Was also pleased to see a few other unusual flora and fauna.  My first ever sighting of a Vole.  I know they are a common rodent and are frequently seen as part of the diet of many raptors including owls. 

My first ever photo of a Vole

Western Skunk Cabbage was a new and interesting plant that we found.  Had heard of it before, but never knew much about it until now.  It is sightings like this that are fascinating as I read up on things like this and understand more about our natural world.

Western Skunk Cabbage

These last 2 photos are of a spider species that was fairly common clambering around on the snow in the vicinity of where we had the gorgeous male Spruce Grouse.  I have no idea what species it might be, but I had never seen a spider on snow before and seeing several of them leaves me in awe of what else is out there yet to be discovered.

  

Spider in the snow!

I returned to Arizona with 9 more new life birds so it was a great trip with some really awesome birds.  If anyone is planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest and have some of these birds on your wish list, I highly recommend contacting Khanh Tran.  He knows his birds well and not only knows where to find many of them, but also how to find them and what time of the year is best to observe them.  

California: Coastal Birding Continued

To continue with my first day of birding in the coastal areas south of Half Moon Bay in California, we had our lunch break at Pescadero Beach. My lunch did not last long as I could not wait to get to the beach to start taking photos and observing birds.  The Black Oystercatcher was a new bird for me.  I have seen and photographed American Oystercatchers in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, but in this location we found numerous Black Oystercatchers.  On this beach, 3 of them paid a visit to us and one of them even took the time to bathe in the surf on the beach.  Definitely not a bird to get confused with an identification.

 Black Oystercatcher

Black Oystercatcher

A Western Gull was leisurely swimming in the shallow surf just a short distance off shore and was quite content.  Many of the other gulls were perched on some rock islands a short distance off shore or flying overhead.  This one made a nice photo op with the deep blue color of the water as a background.  A Heerman's Gull also paid a visit on the beach which is one of the easier gulls to identify.

Western Gull

Heerman's Gull

Other birds that paid a visit to this section of the beach were a pair of Sanderlings.  This is a fairly common bird on most sand beaches and are best known for their behavior of running back and forth with the waves as they come ashore.  

Sanderling

We were also visited by 2 Black-bellied Plovers and 6 Black Turnstones.   The Black Turnstones were another new bird for me.  Don't know why the group was travelling together, but it made for interesting comparisons on the size difference of these 2 species.

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 6 Black Turnstone

 2 Black-bellied Plover and 1 Black Turnstone

Black Turnstone

The biggest surprise and totally unexpected was a Harlequin Duck.  This is a species that has its southern most winter range in this area.  It would be expected much further north, so this species was quite exciting to find.  While it spent most of its time on a rock island a ways off shore, it eventually took to the water and did manage to get a bit closer than the first viewing.

 Harlequin Duck

Harlequin Duck

Also seen on the rocky island were the cormorants; the Pelagic Cormorant and Brandt's Cormorant.  Since both of these birds were new to me, it was really nice to see both species together on the island which helped to distinguish the differences in the two species.

 Pelagic Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

And to top it off, a nice group of Harbor Seals were sunning themselves on part of the rocky island.

Harbor Seals

This was definitely a worthwhile stop as many new birds were seen and photographed.