Rich Hoyer from his ongoing tour, Oregon in late Summer

We've just completed the western half of our tour, and it's been gorgeous here with some really fine birds.  We began with a very successful pelagic trip, a highlight being high numbers of very close Black-footed Albatross and Fork-tailed Storm-Petrels.

                                                                                                                                                                         Image: Fabrice Schmitt

One albatross was so close that Fabrice Schmitt, a WINGS leader on a "busman's holiday" as a tour participant, got a photo that showed it had a band – and a readable one. We've already discovered that it was banded as a very young juvenile six years ago on Tern Island in the French Frigate Shoals of Hawaii, about halfway between the main islands and Midway!

Our first full day in the coastal town of Florence was stunningly beautiful

and the beauty wasn't limited to the fabulous landscapes. A swirling Sanderling ballet videoed by Fabrice can be seen here.

Continuing to the Willamette Valley and Coast Range we took a lovely walk up to Mary's Peak preceded by two coveys of Mountain Quail and a Pileated Woodpecker. We learned about White-breasted Nuthatches with the very obliging aculeata subspecies of the Pacific form near Corvallis,

and enjoyed an incredibly birdy morning at Fern Ridge Reservoir with rare Sanderling and Franklin's Gull, as well as a juvenile Peregrine Falcon being harassed simultaneously  by juvenile Cooper's and Red-shouldered Hawks. 

We're now headed to the east side pine forests, marshes, and sagebrush steppes, where lots of fun stuff awaits us.