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.