Hi All,
On Wednesday, 1/25/17, I was planning on heading over to Lincoln County to try to add Eric Horvath’s Costa’s Hummingbird to that county list, as well as look for some others I needed in that there, just over an hour to the west of where I live. I almost called Chuck Philo to see if he wanted to join me for the day when my wife indicated some interest in going. So we gathered up the needed things for a day trip to the coast.
As space is limited at Eric’s house, we parked just down the road at the Assisted Living Facility, which was now defunked for lack of business. As we approached his house, “his” Orange-crowned Warbler visited the hummingbird feeder. Eric saw us awaiting the appearance of the Costa’s Hummer and came out to chat. The Costa’s Hummingbird is a Southern California bird which strays up to Oregon once in a while, and this bird was a first year male. Not long after Eric began chatting, the hummer made his appearance. He had been perched in the tree between us and the feeder all along.
Eric explained that the Orange-crowned Warbler was now in his 4th year to winter at his place. We noticed how after feeding, he jumped up and down in front of the picture window, which he called “jumping jacks.” Since the bird appeared a little plump, I was wondering if, after ingesting sugar water every day, if he had diabetes by now. Eric had named him "Piglet" I presume for his interesting feeding habits.
 |
| "Piglet," the Orange-crowned Warbler |
 |
| Costa's Hummingbird - young male |
 |
| Costa's Hummingbird - young male |
 |
| Costa's Hummingbird - young male |
Plans for day were now wide open since we spent so little time waiting for the hummer to show, so I asked Eric how far it was to Florence, to which he said “an hour.” I suggested to my wife Rosie we go there to look for the Brambling which has been around since about Christmas, to which she was game, so we headed south.
We found the location and noticed there were a lot of juncos and a few other sparrow types, but no Brambling. That species is a very rare vagrant from Siberia, a few of which are now seen each winter across North America. After about 20 minutes Nels Nelson showed up, and we walked around the area and came back to the original place, but no Brambling. As this was to be a lifer for Nels, he decided to wait around until dark, so we headed into Florence for lunch at Fred Meyer’s.
We needed a walk after eating, so drove to the south Jetty of the Suislaw River, and headed out to the beach. The weather was quite acceptable with little breeze and gray skies and a fairly warm temperature. It had lightly rained while at Eric's, but the weatherman was promising better. On the beach I noted a few Sanderlings were trying to swipe some tid-bits of crab from a Western Gull, something I had never observed before.
 |
| Sanderling and Western Gull |
 |
| Two Sanderlings fighting over small morsels of food |
Once in the area, I realized it was only another hour to Coos Bay where there was a first year male King Eider which was also found around Christmas time, and Nels had seen it earlier in the day. He was actually tracking these same birds, but starting in the opposite direction with the Eider and planning on ending with the hummer. So I started brainstorming how I might bring up the idea to my wife with phrases like "the weather is supposed to be great," and "we could stay in the same motel as we did for our anniversary last April," and of course things of lesser importance like seeing rare birds and working on my county lists, of course, all to which she said "OK!" Boy, that was easy.
Nels had told me he’d call me if the Brambling showed, and he was going to stay there til dark if need be as it was a lifer for him, and I figured he was still waiting around, so we kept going south. Once in Reedsport, we had enough light to head east a few miles to the Dean Creek Wayside to check for Cackling Geese, Harriers and Kites, three species I needed in Douglas County. We did not find any, but there were plenty of elk as usual. I have been here before a few times, and the few males seen in the past were always young bulls, but this time there were plenty of mature ones with huge racks, so this was a nice consolation.
 |
| Bull elk and Dean Creek |
We slept on and off, not really a good rest, but such it is away from one’s own bed, so I headed out to do some owling about 04:00 coming out of it with one Western Screech Owl east of Reedsport. I came back to the motel so as to awaken Rosie, then back out at first light a few minutes later to try to refind the Gray Catbird located nearby a few weeks ago. I was not successful. It was looking like it was going to be another nice day at the coast, so this was encouraging.
I also note here that Winchester Bay always seem so devoid of birds as compared to bays and estuaries both north and south of there. After returning home I mentioned to Jimmy Billstine that either the place is cursed or I only am there when the birds are not, to which he replied that “Winchester Bay needs a poem about broken birding dreams.” I may tackle that before too long. I did see a couple of otters which was nice.
 |
| A smug Great-blue Heron and an intimidated Double-crested Cormorant at Winchester Bay |
We bought some food items and headed south, eating on the way. We were not done eating when we reached North Bend. Turning to the right after the bridge onto Florida St, heading to the end of the road down to Pony Slough was the Northern Mockingbird, sitting right on the cyclone fence as if on cue. This was about the easiest stakeout I think I have ever encountered, and a great addition to my Coos County list. Next we headed across the highway to the east end of Florida Street to look for a reported Palm Warbler, but he was a no show. Such is birding.
 |
| Northern Mockingbird - Coos Bay -a rare visiter to Oregon |
We next headed west toward Charleston to try for the King Eider, which was also found near Christmas time. Rare birds are often found at this time in conjunction with the many Christmas Bird Counts conducted around the country. The last time I was here was to refind a Brown Booby, which, incidentally, was found by the same birder who found the King Eider (thanks Russ). I spent about 30 minutes scanning the bay through my scope. There were a lot of waterfowl, grebes and loons to look over, both near and far, but I came up empty. So we drove to a wide spot in the road back eastward where I could look back over the birds from a different place/angle, but the results were the same, so we drove down to Charleston Harbor and found the Long-tailed Duck in less than a minute thanks to Tim Rodenkirks’s advice. Long-tailed Duck is not an easy bird to find in Oregon, especially inland. This was the 10th county I have now seen the species in, so that is a fun milestone.
 |
| Long-tailed Duck at Charleston Harbor |
We next drove back to look for the eider, and after another 20 minutes without finding it, we decided to head down to Bandon to try for the Rock Sandpiper Tim recently reported. I could also see that the tide was going out and sensed that the waterfowl were meandering downriver with it, so maybe when we returned later in the day, the eider would be there.
We drove the 20 miles or so to Bandon, heading out to the south jetty area. When the tide is lower there are exposed rocks near the parking lot, but as the water was still to high, these rocks were mostly submerged. I finally noticed the “rock pipers” were all over at the opposite shore, resting on a large rock just out from the lighthouse, so we backtracked over to the north side. Once there, I was let down because the rockpipers were on the far end of the large rock, and most were not visible.
I then remembered Tim’s post about how he first saw this flock on the south side, then they flew to the north side, and after he got there, they had flown back to the south side, so he did a lot of driving back and forth, something I wanted to avoid. So there was only one thing to do, and that was to try to sneak up on them and hope they did not fly, but if they did, the Rock Sandpiper should be easy to differentiate from the Surfbirds and Black Turnstones, not having the large white wing and back patches.
So I made my way slowly over the first large rock. There was a gully of sorts between that rock and the next one where I surveyed the situation, not sure now to plan as some birds could see me and were getting agitated. While I was trying to get some pics I heard, and then felt, a wave coming over my feet, dowsing my lower pant legs. I looked back at my wife who had this smug look on her face, which implied, “I told you so……but you would not listen anyway.”
Well, at least it would be worth it if I could find the one I was looking for. There were about 30 Black Turnstones and and maybe 7 or 8 Surfbirds, and, while continuing to be agitated by my presence, did not fly off. I got within ten feet of some of them, and finally found the Rock Sandpiper. Bingo! This is a really tough bird to get this far south on the coast, and maybe only the third I have ever seen, but I have to admit I have not put in much effort either.
 |
| Surfbirds and Black Turnstone |
 |
| Rock Sandpiper with Black Turnstones |
 |
| Rock Sandpiper |
I am sure my wife was happy for me. Thankfully she encourages me with my birding, occasionally reminding me to keep my eyes on the road while driving. In heading back down the road to the parking lot, we heard a piercing, loud, shriek of a sound right next to us, but in looking around could see no cause for it, although we knew it to be from some bird. In less than 30 seconds it happened again, but this time we figured out it was from an Anna’s Hummingbird doing his territorial diving to impress a female and to keep other males away. He would ascend about 200 feet upwards, then dive straight downward as if he were some kamikaze pilot, and pull up at the last second, which created the shrieking sound. We have had this species around our home for 5-6 years now, and have not seen this, hence the surprise in not realizing what was making it.
 |
| Male Anna's Hummingbird |
 |
| Male Anna's Hummingbird |
 |
| Wet pants! |
 |
| The lighthouse at Bastendorf Beach |
Time was not on our side, so we sped back north to the eider viewpoint. I started scoping from left to right, and did so quite slowly, making sure to scrutinize any suspicious birds. It actually took about ten minutes to finally be reaching the far right, upriver. With only a few feet left in which to look over whatever ducks were remaining my spirits started sinking as it was looking like it was going to be a no show, so my wife got back in the car. As soon as she closed the door I found it, so motioned for her to come back out. It was really quite obvious with its huge yellow bill, large white breast and flank patch - a big bird also. Ah, the feeling of success! The pic does not do it justice, being too far away for any clarity.
 |
| King Eider - the one with the large white flank patch right of center |
We needed a walk, so headed north to the old Weyco Ponds. I was needing some easy waterfowl on my Coos list anyway, so this was the logical choice. We made another detour to east Florida St to try for the Palm Warbler, but he was a no show. There was a Black Phoebe however, which finally graced my Coos list.
The weather was now gorgeous, very little wind and much blue above. On the first pond were Canvasbacks, Ruddy Ducks, and at least one Lesser Scaup, all new county birds. In the Willamette Valley where I live, one has to comb over the Lesser Scaup to find the uncommon Greater Scaup, but it is more the opposite on the coast, so I found myself trying to turn the greaters into lessers. One, of course, was quite obliging with his rear peaked hairdo. Which reminds me of a conversation I had with some other birders a few months ago which went something like this: The way to tell a Greater Scaup from a Lesser is like comparing Donald Trump to Hillary Clinton. The hair on Trump is puffed up in front like the feathers on the Greater Scaup, whereas the hair on Hillary is more peaked toward the back, like the feathers on a Lesser Scaup. Hmmm……wish solving other challenges were this easy.
We walked all the way to the bank overlooking the beach. On the way back we saw 3 Barn Swallows, early harbingers of spring. Another sign of spring was a Scotch Broom bush all flowered out.
 |
| Scotch Broom in bloom in January |
 |
| The old Weyco Ponds |
 |
| My wife Rosie |
 |
| The beach looking north |
We knew if we were to have any chance at seeing the Brambling we’d have to make no more stops, so drove straight back to Florence where we bought some food at Fred Meyer’s with plans to eat it while we waited for the bird. Nels had called me this morning saying he finally had the bird, so that was encouraging. When we arrived however, there were no juncos around, so this was not a good sign, since it was reported to hang around with the junco flock. After about 20 minutes we figured he was a morning bird and not likely to show up, so headed toward home. I later read that some birders from Corvallis dipped on finding the brambling also. And seeing I have seen three other bramblings in Oregon, it was not life threatening, so to say.
My quest of now finding 200 birds per county made some gains, adding one in Douglas and 13 in Coos County, both now standing at 159. Still have a long ways to go, but, as Ghandi would say, the fun is in the journey, not the destination (or something like that.)
