Hood River and Wasco Counties

Hi All,

Last Saturday I left home to work on my Hood River and Wasco County bird lists.  Now that I have 100 in each of Oregon’s 36 counties, my new strategy is to work on the increments of 125, 150, etc.  There are 11 counties  at present of which I am under the 125 bar.

The motivation for where to go to work on any county list now is if there is a rare bird or two which is pretty much essential to beefing up a county list.  So the motivation for me to go to Hood River County is that in the past week or so a number of rarer species have been seen there, and some are more consistently being seen.  The biggest draw was a Tufted Duck.  These are ducks which are common in much of Eurasia, and a few stray each winter to both coasts of North America.  I have seen 5 in Oregon so far, in 4 counties.

Other very good birds seen here have been Red-necked Grebe, Long-tailed Duck, Trumpeter Swan, Surf Scoter, Common Loon, Brant, Snow Goose and Harris Sparrow.  My brother-in-law Glen lives not far away from the town of Hood River and planned to meet me there.  

We met a little after noon and started scanning the raft of Scaup, in which the target bird had been hanging out.  They were about 120 yards or more from the dike we were on so scopes were necessary, and after about an hour decided to give up, wondering if it had moved on.  Having to look over about 1000 similarly colored ducks was getting to us.   Beside having to look at them a football field away, the target bird was simply not easy to pick out.  They were all feeding - diving to the bottom to look for whatever it is they eat.  So the tuft on a tufted duck lays flat on the back of his neck when wet and takes a minute to dry out and become more visible, and we just could not find one with a tuft. 

My Hood River County list stood at 105 and I was able to add Snow Goose,  Mew Gull, Cackling Goose, Shoveler, Ring-necked Duck, Pied-billed Grebe, Hooded Merganser, Fox Sparrow and Bewick’s Wren.   There was one Western Gull in the gull flock which I assumed was needed as well, being somewhat rare.

Seven Snow Geese.  Only the one with the pink bill
is an adult, the rest are young of this year.

We next decided to head east into Wasco County where the first record for a Swamp Sparrow was found a couple days previously.  Fortunately for us he was the most cooperative Swamp Sparrow I had ever encountered, popping up into view often and allowing decent pictures.  Usually they stay hidden, being quite skulking by nature.  Nearby was a Pied-billed Grebe which was also new for Wasco County.   I entered that county with 127, and this rarity  I should not pass it up.  While there I did get a notice that the Tufted Duck was seen before we looked for it, so that was encouraging.  

A cooperative Swamp Sparrow

As light was fading, we headed across the bridge over the Columbia River to Glen’s for the night.  During breakfast we were treated to views of Great-horned Owls, a Cooper’s Hawk, a Rough-legged Hawk, a Kestrel, Ravens, and various smaller birds coming to the feeder.  

Right after breakfast I headed back down to Hood River to look for the Tufted Duck.  The raft was close to shore this time, in the river rather than off in the shallow flats to the south.  I was lucky and saw him in about 30 seconds.  Another birder named Russ showed up shortly, and we took plenty of pictures.  He had a nice set up, so his pictures were quite quality compared to mine.  We studied him as we could for about an hour, after which I went close by to look for a couple Harris’ Sparrows that had been seen recently.  

I did not have any success, and when I got back to my car, a note on my windshield from Russ indicated he had seen a Long-tailed Duck in the raft.  This was a great find of a bird reported a few times in the last week, and so I  joined him again with high hopes.  He then explained that after he had left the note the flock took off and circled around to the south, and only about half returned.  So we looked through them, and then I looked through the other half without success.  Oh well, such is birding.  You win some and you lose some.

Some consoling birds to help build up my list were Redhead, Merlin, and a Snipe.  Eventually I left the area and walked some nearby trails and added Peregrine Falcon and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  After that I headed east again to Wasco County checking two places and did little walking, but was not able to add anything new to the county.  I had been watching the clock as I thought it would be a good idea to return to Hood River with 20-30 minutes of light to look for the Long-tailed Duck or anything else.  My list stood at 123, so only needed 2 more species to reach the 125 bar.  

When I got there the raft, or at least much of it, was in the same area where it was in the morning, so I scanned it over about 4 times.  While the target bird was not there, a couple of Ruddy Ducks were, so that was number 124.  I thought I’d take one last scan out into the river before leaving, and way out there I spotted a Red-necked Grebe.  Bingo!  A great bird to reach the 125 bar.  

Half way to Portland and I was driving in the dark, but my spirits were high from a successful trip.  Got home at 7:30 and told my wife about the trip.  Later on I downloaded all my pictures so I could see them on the big screen.  At least a few of the Tufted Duck were decent.  The challenge here was because it was always mixed in the raft of scaup  that when you saw it,  got the camera ready, you had to aim and shoot because of where you knew the duck was.  So I took >100 pictures all in bursts of 5-10 shots at a time.  You had to do it this way with hopes a few would turn out.

When you do this you discard the majority and save a few worth keeping.  When I was getting down to the last few I noticed another duck with a vague tuft.  After looking it over, I determined it was a second bird.  Wow!  I think this is the first time in Oregon that two of this species were ever seen in the same flock, so making history.  I posted pics of both birds requesting comments on the second bird, and all who responded agreed with me it was indeed a second bird.  

But, a little bit of a downer was that the Western Gull I saw I assumed was rare enough so that it would be a new county bird, but apparently I had seen one there some time prior, so reducing my list to 124.  Oh well, such is birding.  All  in all it was a good trip, running into birders who I only knew by name and finally putting a face with it.  Hanging out with my brother-in-law was fun as well, especially since he is a birder.  

I suspect I’ll make a few more trips like this, working on my county lists.  Long range,,,,,I am toying with the idea of taking off early May for a few weeks to work on the 11 counties under 125.  All but one is along the northern boundary of the state, so that is convenient.  Until next time.

The long hoped for Tufted Duck.  You can see his "Tuft" rather easily

The second Tufted Duck is the one in to the left with the bright yellow eye.  If you look closely, or zoom in on it, you can see his "Tuft."  His tuft is not as long as the other bird's, and you can see his sides are not as clear white either.

I believe this to be the Western version of a Fox Squirrel because he is quite brown.

American Goldfinch in winter plumage

A small sample of the raft of mostly scaup.  The Tufted Duck is in the middle.  The bird to the lower left is a Greater Scaup which you can tell by his more rounded head.  The one to the lower right is a Ring-necked Duck.  You can see his bill has distinct markings and his back is black.  The rest are probably all Lesser Scaup.  Imagine having to look over 1000 of these birds for the one with the tuft?

A Redhead.  Although this bird is in the same genus as the others in the raft, the male (Like this one) is much easier to pick out, and that for obvious reasons.  

Vacation to Southern Oregon

On Friday, September 21 Rosie and I took off with our truck and camper for a 10 day vacation.   Rosie has not been able to take off for about 2 years, having been looking out for her parents.  She was able to arrange for friends and relatives to fill in for her in taking care of her mother, who now lives with us.

Our plans were to head over to the coast for the first week end, camp there, and then head south, but the weather app was indicating a rainy, blustery couple of days, so we went directly south - inland, and ended up west of Roseburg along the Umpqua River, which is the main drainage system for the central Cascades to the coast, and was at its usual low autumn level.

We camped at Tyee Campground, a BLM owned piece of land, and were just east of the wet weather systems, so avoided the rain.  It was usually overcast though.  It was a quiet place and we enjoyed the scenery and went for a couple walks each day.  I also added a few birds to my Douglas County bird list.  I saw about 50 species of birds while there, and one memorable sight was an adult Bald Eagle cruising up river right in front of me.  

Here are some pics from our time there.

Looking down river

Rosie overlooking the Umpqua River

Common Mergansers on the river

Frogs

Fresh water crocodile

Looking up river

More Frogs

On Sunday, mid morning, we drove about 50 miles to the coast.  There is an Elk sanctuary near Reedsport where we have observed lots of them in the past, but today it was quite meager with only a few visible.  We next drove down a road to a beach I had been wanting to take for some time as it is more remote than the usual busy places.  It is 4 miles from the highway, and at one point you need a high clearance vehicle to go across a stream.  There were about 8 other cars/trucks there, and we pretty much had the beach to ourselves and walked about a mile south and then back.  If we were to have walked 5 miles were would have reached the north jetty of the Umpqua River, but we were not quite up to that.

We next drove back to Reedsport to a campground at the south jetty of the same river for the night.  We have been to this area before, but as it was becoming windy, we did not venture out until the next day.  On the coast it is usually more calm in the morning, getting windier as the day progresses, so we went for a nice morning walk before heading further south.  Here are some pics from that area:

The dune area at the south jetty of the Umpqua River

The beach area at the south jetty of the Umpqua River

The beach area at the south jetty of the Umpqua River

Heermann's Gull.  These breed in the Cortez Sea and come north each summer.

Mid morning found us venturing south to Coos Bay, and then past Bandon to Floras Lake where we camped for the night.  It was really windy but we went over to the beach for a walk anyway.  It was not as long as we would have liked because of the wind, and  it continued to be windy all night and into the next morning, so we decided to head inland to avoid more of the same.  Which idea may bring up the query of how we actually planned our vacation - we really did not have any concrete plans as far as places to stay, only ideas of general areas we hoped or planned to visit.   As the summer vacation season was over on Labor Day, we did not have to worry about vacancy at campgrounds.

So we drove back to the Coos Bay area and headed east, inland to near Roseburg again, and then took I-5 south to Grants Pass to the Redwood Highway south to Lake Selmac.  (Some of you may have seen the movie “Redwood Highway” which was made along this stretch of road.)  There is a banner like sign over Main Street which reads, “It’s The Climate.”  Yes, the climate here is warmer and drier than in the Willamette Valley where we live.  Since the legalization of cannabis, southern Oregon has become the hot spot for growers of it, and once away from the urban areas, there are “No Trespassing” signs  and locked gates all over the place.  Land values have gone up as well.   Notice the two pics, one of which is a campground that is “user friendly” for cannabis users, the other is not.

Lake Selma is a county operated area, with some 90+ campsites around the lake.  We stayed in one area the first night, and a different area the next two nights.  The weather was warm and the campground virtually empty.  We walked around parts of the lake each day.  I entered Josephine County with a bird list of 110, and left at 127.  We heard Screech Owls at night and Pygmy Owls in the morning.  There were lots of waterfowl using the place, and a heron often came to our cove to search for food.  On the 2nd day an otter paid us a visit.  I tried to get decent pictures, but this was difficult.    Some of the more interesting birds here were Kingfishers, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Virginia Rail, Sora and a group of Pileated Woodpeckers.

One reason for wanting to come here was to hopefully visit a friend of ours named Preston.  We met Preston some 10 years ago while doing prison ministry where he decided Christianity was real and worth accepting, so he made the commitment.  We kept in touch after he got out, went to his wedding, met his new son.  He is now doing electrical work and in a year will have his journeyman’s license, so is doing quite well and has a wonderful family.  We were able to spend an evening visiting as they came to our campsite.   I took more pics here than elsewhere, and here are some of the sights:

A Sora swimming across a short stretch of water

Green Heron

Great Egret

Our first campsite at Lake Selmac

The heron which came to visit us each day

Deer and Turkeys

Our second campsite at Lake Selmac

The heron sunning himself

Otter

White-fronted Goose.  We had a flock of 25 land on the lake while there. 

Black Phoebe

Our camper as seen from the other side of the lake

A Stellar's Jay getting a drink

User friendly campground

Pileated Woodpecker

The sign speaks for itself

From Lake Selmac we were about a 5 hour drive from home, so I wanted to find a place in between to camp so as not to have to drive so far come Sunday morning, and we settled on a place named Galesville Reservoir, SE of Roseburg.  We arrived there mid afternoon on Friday and found a campsite.  The campground was not big, about 15 sites, and most were taken by RVs or Motorhomes, so we were fortunate to get here when we did.  The reservoir was man made and had a dam at one end.  It appears to have been created for fishing purposes as many trees were left standing, and these you can see in one of the pictures.  These were undoubtedly left for shelter for the fish.  Most, if not all such reservoirs in Western Oregon are emptied out of much of their water in the fall so as to make room for the deluge of the winter rain, and so this one was down some 40-50 feet. 

The rest of Friday and much of Saturday was nice weather, but late Saturday and into the night it rained, the first we had seen all vacation.  It was nice to be in a waterproof camper instead of a tent, which is the way we have camped all our lives.  Both here and at Lake Selmac we experienced an overcast sky due to forest fires, but the rain had cleared the air at last, and the air was fresh an scented.  

We left after breakfast and got home about 2:30, eating at a rest area along I-5.  The truck performed just fine and we had no problems.  

Our campsite at Galesville Reservoir

More of the campground

Song Sparrow near the campground

Galesville Reservoir

Douglas, Klamath and Lake County Jaunt 9/3-8/18

9/3-8/18

I decided leaving on Labor Day would be a good idea since most vacationers would be returning that same day, and campgrounds should have vacancy.  I was right - everywhere I went I had my pick of a campsite.  I wanted to work on my Douglas, Klamath and Lake County bird lists.  As I had never been to Diamond Lake and eastern Douglas County, I had a few high elevation species to check off there, and I really wanted to find Rosy Finches.  My plan was to hike up onto Mt Thielson for such, keying in on info from a birding buddy who had made the jaunt in the past. 

My Douglas list stood at 159 and I was hoping to reach the 175 level.  I stopped for lunch at the Tokatee Campground and saw a Sooty Grouse along side the road, a nice addition to the list.  To add another easy tick, there was a Western Wood Pewee in the campground. Next stop was the Diamond Lake Sewage Ponds, a place I had never been before.  I could tell this small treatment plant was the kind that was contracted out to workers who came sporadically for maintenance and the surrounding fence was downtrodden from the winter snow, so went ahead inside.

One interesting bird I heard was a Virginia Rail, something I did not expect at that elevation, which is about 5200 feet.  I listed some 20 species.  A pair of Gray Jays elicited  some vague excitement until I realized a little later on that I already had them on my Douglas list.  There was a report of some Baird’s Sandpipers and a Brewer’s Sparrow within the last week from here, but I did not find such, and except for a couple of Lewis Woodpeckers added no county birds from there.  Since fall migration is in full swing, I thought I’d return in a couple days and try again.  

I camped at the Diamond Lake campground which was quite empty.  After enjoying a lake side breakfast, I drove to the trailhead to Mt Thielson and began my hike about 0800.  At 64, out of shape, and getting over some recent health issues, I knew this was going to be a grind.  I did not intend to get to the summit, but only wanted to get above tree line to increase the potential of seeing Rosy Finches.  The woods were very quiet, but eventually birds began to be vocal and appear.  I suspect being on the west slope which does not get sun until later in the morning had something to do with it.  Plus, I never got a glimpse of the mountain until some 3 miles up the trail.

Additions to my Douglas list finally started to materialize: Black-backed Woodpecker, Dusky Flycatcher, Clark’s Nutcracker, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitare, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Western Tanager.  In the course of the hike I saw about 10 accipiters, all immature birds.  At first I suspected these to be migrants, but none were in any kind of a hurry to head south. Most were Cooper’s Hawks, but one was certainly a Sharp-shinned Hawk.  At one time there were 3 accipiters dive bombing and harassing each other, and one was so large it morphed the others, and I concluded it had to be a Goshawk. 

Most of you might be aware there are wild fires out west in late summer, and this year is no exception.  The result often is a hazy, smoky sky up to many miles away, which ever way the wind sends the smoke.  I was hoping to share some photos of great scenery from the Cascade Mountains, but I am afraid my photos reflect this, except for my morning visit to Crater Lake, and even those are embellished some to show the sky and lake a little bluer than they were in reality. 

I hiked up as far as I felt I should.  Eventually every step was labored and I was in Rosy Finch territory and also had a reasonable view of rocky top where I think I could identify one should the opportunity present itself.  I ate lunch and waited over an hour and did not see my target bird.  Now the hike back down.  I was already sore and my feet felt tender.  It was a long trip back down.  But the views and my adventurous spirit kept me going.   Some time afterward I checked the health app on my iPhone and learned I had hiked 10.2 miles.  Too bad I forgot to bring ibuprofen…… I slept fairly well that night.  In the early hours a Barred Owl hooted, giving me one more tick to the list.  I was not aware they would be at this elevation either. 

The next day it was off to the sewage lagoons again.  This time the results were better.  Among the hoards of Savannah Sparrows was one each of Brewer’s and Vesper Sparrow.  It was now time to head south.  I came into the county with 159 and left with 178, so felt a sense of accomplishment.

Mt Thielson.  

The remains of a conifer cone from the work of a ground squirrel

A view of Diamond Lake from high up on Mt Thielson

Next on the agenda was Crater Lake.  It has been almost 30 years since I was last here or even in that county, and so my Klamath County list has been stuck at 117 since 1990.  My additions to Klamath were slow in coming since I had been to the lake before and had seen most of the common high elevation ones.  Coming in from the north is a large desert like area where there was a Ferruginous Hawk which was a welcome addition to the list. One nice thing about this visit was that my newly purchased “Senior Pass”  got me in for free!  I came in the north entrance and took the east rim drive, stopping here and there at the pullouts for pictures.  My plan was to hike up Mt Scott, the highest mountain connected with the Park at 8934 feet, of course to look once again for Rosy Finches.  I have not seen this bird many times in the past, and I suppose one of my fascinations with it is that it shares the same first name with my wife.  Both are quite lovely.

At least it was “only” 2.5 miles to the summit.  I was not really in shape after yesterday, but pressed on anyway.  The views were splendid except for the smokey sky.  Matter of fact, when I was on Thielson the day before, you could hardly see the features of the Crater Lake area, so I did not even take any shots to the south.  It is a popular hike and many were on the trek, passing me by all the time.  I once again brought food and ate lunch at the top, and hung around for an hour, but alas, no Rosy Finches.  I did add Townsend’s Solitare, Cooper’s Hawk and Sharp-shinned Hawk to the Klamath list at least.  

I headed for Lost Creek Campground within the park, and not too far away.  Turns out it is an unimproved campground, and there were only tents placed.  There seemed to be a porto-potty for each campsite.  Not sure why they needed so many, but am sure they have their reasons.

Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Clark's Nutcracker en route to the summit of Mt Scott

The north side of Mt Scott

Fire tower on top of Mt Scott

Crater Lake from the summit of Mt Scott

I left fairly early the next morning, heading for the Klamath Falls area, stopping here and there to see what I could find.  At one stop along Upper Klamath Lake I added Horned, Clark’s and Western Grebes.  Just north of K Falls, there is a wide spot on the side of the road with a great view of a large mud flat area where I picked up Black-necked Stilt, Long-billed Dowitcher, White-faced Ibis and Greater Yellowlegs. 

One place I have long wanted to visit is the Link River Trail, which links Upper Klamath Lake and Lake Ewauana.  It is over a mile long with a great riparian area along the river on the lower side, and chaparral on the upper side.  Birds were added fairly fast here: Green-winged Teal, California Quail, Eurasian Collared Dove, Belted Kingfisher, Lewis Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Black-capped Chickadee, Bewick’s Wren, Cedar Waxwing, California Towhee, White-crowned Sparrow, Purple and House Finches.  

After getting gas and ice cream, I headed around to the west side of the lake.  This was when I discovered that I did not do sufficient homework in preparing for the trip as my iPhone was inconvenient to do the research needed, so I winged it somewhat blindly.  I decided to take a turn into the Eagle Ridge County Park to eat lunch.  This turned out to be a good decision as I found Green-tailed Towhee, Gray Flycatcher, American Avocets, American Water Pipit, Orange-crowned Warbler, Williamson’s Sapsucker, an unidentified hummingbird, and on the way out a Northern Goshawk flew in front of my truck.  A little further along and a Sooty Grouse was seen on the side of the road, a nice tick for the list.

After adding up my Klamath list, I found I was over the 150 mark, so headed toward Summer Lake.  I took the route which goes through the Klamath Marsh NWR, I place I had driven through years before.  It was quite dry at this time of year, but I added Prairie Falcon, Vesper Sparrow and Swainson’s Hawk.

Cormorants at the beginning of Link River

Bewick's Wren

Scrub Jay

Townsend's Solitare

Turtle along the Link River

My Lake County list had many holes, and shorebirds accounted for a number of them.  I entered the county at 166.  I arrived at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area HQ at dusk, and drove down in to wear you can camp.  After dark another car arrived and set up camp also.  It was windy and my camper was rocking back and forth at times.  Then I remembered a couple months ago, when I was birding to the north in Crook County with Chuck Gates, that I learned we were in the midst of a very dry year. and so began to doubt how effective this part of the jaunt was going to be.  Would there even be any mud flats? I had heard that Summer Lake completely dried up some years.

As dawn was approaching I heard Sandhill Cranes.  I also noted that the wind had ceased.  I got up and looked at the list of birds I needed, and Crane was on it, so I was wondering if that was a good omen.  I went outside and added Savannah Sparrow.  Then it was over to the nearby marsh and within 5 minutes added Virginia Rail, Sora, Coot, Greater White-fronted Goose and Great Egret.  Most birders might figure out that I have never been here much from seeing these easy ticks.  I had been here twice in the past with Roy Gerig, once in April of ’88, and the other during a winter in the late 90s, I think.  Oh yes, I did make a quick drive through in August a few years back en route to find my state Juniper Titmouse.  And my other jaunt to the county was in the early 90s on a family campout to Thompson Reservior.

After a few minutes I returned to the camping area, and saw the two campers packing up their stuff, so thought I’d go over and see if I could glean some information about wear to go to find mudflats.  In short order I learn they were birders from Klamath County - Kevin Spencer and Dave Haupt.  Bingo!  Kevin had just gotten a recent update from the manager Marty St Louis about wear to go for such.  We exchanged phone numbers and I was off to look for shorebirds while they went to visit some vagrant traps on the refuge.

Not too far down the road and there were large alkali flats with numerous shorebirds.  Along with the mudflats,  lakes and reeds, and fall migration being at its height, the place was an amazing spectacle that would appeal to non birders - so many birds of a variety of species, many close to the road and easy to see.

I next added Franklin’s Gull, Long-billed Dowitcher, Least and Western Sandpiper and Marbled Godwit.  As I was walking south along a berm off the SE corner which Kevin recommended from Marty’s directions, I  got a text from him that they found a Blackpoll Warbler just back at a campground I had passed through, so returned there and found it quite cooperative.  That species has eluded me for all my birding years in Oregon, so it was a nice addition to my state list.  

I resumed scouring the mudflats and added Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Red-necked Phalaropes and one American Water Pipit.  At the north end of one alkali lake I met Marty doing some repair work on a fence.  I had wanted to meet him ever since I had heard he was a birder and was happy to provide birding information to those visiting the refuge.  And he was certainly most helpful.  He explained where to hike as he had done a shorebird census off the SE end of the alkali flats, so I meandered back that way with plans to resume walking where I left off when Kevin texted me.  When I finally got there, Marty also arrived there as well, and offered to drive me part way, to which I accepted.

On that walk I added Canvasback, and when I was almost back, I could see Kevin and Dave walking down on the other side of the mudflat.  I then saw a bird which I identified as an immature Short-billed Dowitcher.  Before I could get a picture of it, it flew across the mudflat to where they would be in a few minutes. These are not easy to separate from Long-billeds, and I later met up with Kevin and Dave at the Summer Lake store, and after comparing notes, found that they had located the same bird, even hearing it, and so confirming such. 

Marsh at Summer Lake Wildlife Area

Great Horned Owl

Blackpoll Warbler

Sandhill Cranes

I ate lunch at the rest stop across the road from the store where I added Eurasian Collared Dove.  This basically proves that I have not birded much in the county for about 20 years, which is when this species invaded the state, and has become abundant anywhere there is some form of urbanization.  It was about 2:30 pm, and I headed north while Kevin and Dave headed east to Malhuer.  I wanted to visit the “water guzzler” at Cabin Lake, another place I have long heard of but never visited.  One can even do a search on google maps and get the coordinates if he types in “Cabin Lake Bird Blind.” 

I arrived at the location about 5 pm having taking my time to enjoying the scenery.  As I traveled north from Silver Lake on Cabin Lake Road, I must have seen over 100 bluebirds, one of which was certainly a Western Bluebird, which I needed for the county, but the rest appeared to be Mountain Bluebirds.  I decided to not visit Fort Rock as I had been there with Roy in the past, and it was too hot as it was.  Finding the blind and guzzler was easy enough.  It appears to be a improved spring which spills out onto a concrete basin, with the blind some 10 feet away.  

The area is where the lodgepole pines meet the sage brush, and I have to admit I was not impressed.  So I got back in the truck and mulled over whether or not I should press on.  But in a few minutes Clark’s Nutcrackers showed up, soon followed by Pinion Jays, the latter of which kept coming and coming.  I estimated about 75 birds in total, which were quite noisy.   By the time the sun was setting 10 species had come: Nutcrackers, Pinion Jays, Red Crossbills, Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches, Hairy Woodpeckers, Flickers, Lewis Woodpecker, White-crowned Sparrow and Mt Chickadee.  Also in the vicinity were Mt Bluebirds and White-headed Woodpeckers which undoubtedly visit the guzzler at times.  So I took lots of pictures and changed my mind about the place.  I even decided to leave my truck and camper parked right there for the night.  

At dawn a Poorwill began calling nearby.  I felt this was a bonus bird as I did not anticipate adding such to my Lake County list.  I assumed they, with the Nighthawks, were long gone and certainly would not expect one to be vocal after a week into September.  But as I don’t live on the east side of the Cascades, I have much to learn about the bird habits there.  But by now my Lake list was almost at 190, not too far from the 200 level. 

After eating and watching birds at the guzzler, I headed north with plans to get to LaPine and gas up.  The road was very washboardy so it took my close to an hour to go some 20 miles or so.  I wanted a change of scenery and decided to not go over Santiam Pass, and instead head toward Willamette Pass.  Once into Lane County I pulled over to look for some high elevation birds which I need there.  None were found, but I did add a Macgillivray’s Warbler which I needed there.

It took about another 3 hours to get back home.  At the rest area north of Coberg was a homeless man panhandling, a site which appears to becoming more common around the state.  He said he was a vet and had been haggling with the government about collecting benefits which were still to materialize some time in the future, and I gave him a few bucks.

Next up……my wife and I might hit the south coast before the end of the month.  We need to work out a few details yet. 

For Rock

Young Pinion Jays

Clark's Nutcracker

Adult Pinion Jay - Isn't he a beauty!

Female Northern Flicker

Immature Male Red Crossbill

Lewis' Woodpecker