Oregon in Summer Field Report
This year's Oregon in Late Summer tour went extraordinarily well, with little to no forest fire smoke, superb weather, a great group of participants, and a fabulous roster of bird sightings during our ten days in the field. Favorites from the coast included a flock of adorable Bushtits at super close range, great views (and photos) of Rhinoceros Auklet between the jetties of the Siuslaw River, and a juvenile Northern Saw-whet Owl that we managed to see perched in the open.
Unforgettable was the magical fogbow that appeared when the sun began burning off the low beach fog, and Snowy Plovers pattered in the sand ahead of us. Finley National Wildlife Refuge's confiding Wrentits were delightful, while in the highest part of the Coast Range alongside stunning vistas from Marys Peak were a trio of Mountain Quail, first spotted skulking in the thicket of a fallen fir tree before flying over alpine meadow.
East of the Cascades we first found White-headed Woodpecker and Pygmy Nuthatch in their classic Ponderosa Pine habitat, while were met with an amazing barrage of water birds at Summer Lake State Wildlife Area: several American Bitterns perched visibly, and Eared Grebes swam with impossibly cute babies riding on the parent's back, while a family group of Great Horned Owls were in the old barn there.
The Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and the whole Harney Basin was a gorgeous place to finish up the tour, where we picked up several migrants and saw flock of the scarce Black Rosy-Finch at the top of Steens Mountain. An unplanned detour through the residential area of Burns on our last morning illustrated how that area's Christmas Bird Count manages to tally the largest number of California Quail in the country – several coveys numbering hundreds of birds scampered and fed in the streets and yards everywhere we looked.
The pelagic trip extension was simply amazing – calm seas and little wind, lots of Black-footed Albatrosses, a few Laysan Albatrosses, and large flocks of Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels were just some of the highlights. In addition to the birds, we enjoyed our picnic breakfasts and lunches in lovely settings and saw some great mammals such as Raccoon, American Badger, and Bighorn Sheep.
