Sunny, Winter’s Day on the Coast

It’s our third winter here in Oregon. The first one was very mild and was a good easing in to living in a place with actual seasons (at least for me, anyway). The second year was a bit more typical for Oregon. But this year has been especially wet and cold. There’s been heavier rain showers rather than just gray mist, and lots more snow and ice. So, when there are sunny days with no rain in sight, we have to take advantage of them and head outside!

What a gorgeous day at Hatfield Marine Science Center Trail

A couple of weeks ago, one of these precious sunny days meant going to the coast. The birds seemed to enjoy this lovely sunshine just as much as we did. There were lots of leaps for joy! Ok, so more like leaps for food, but still fun, nonetheless. It so happened that I got good shots of some of these hopping water birds. Can you guess what they are? Test your bird ID skills with this fun little quiz. Answers will be revealed at the end of the post. (Those of you who already know the answers from following me on facebook or instagram, let others guess!) No peeking!

Bird ID Quiz Pic #1

Bird ID Quiz Pic #2

Bird ID Quiz Pic #3

It was quite a ducky day, overall. We saw both Greater and Lesser Scaup, Common Goldeneyes, tons of Surf Scoters, White-winged Scoter, Bufflehead, Hooded and Red-breasted Mergansers, and Harlequin Ducks.

Female Common Goldeneye

Female Common Goldeneye

Pair of Surf Scoters

We had especially good looks at some Surf Scoters as a few individuals kept floating close by and sometimes underneath us, popping out on either side of the fishing pier where we stood. Most other people on this pier were crabbing and looked oddly at this pair of birders loaded with optics and no crab traps. But it wasn’t just crabs they were catching. One guy pulled up a couple of Sculpin, which he tossed right back into the water, but not before I got a shot of that oh-so-amazing face.

Male Surf Scoter

Female Surf Scoter

What an amazing face on this duck! That bill is wild!

But this face is even wilder! And it looks like his side fins are fingers. 

While walking the trail at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, we had a super close encounter with a gorgeous male Northern Harrier. It was so odd to see him on this estuary trail, and he gave us quite a great show! It was almost overshadowed by our frustration of getting a good flight shot of him, but Nick prevailed and got one awesomely clear shot.

Looks like he's hunting something in the tall grasses

Boom! There it is!

It was also a pretty good grebe and loon day, too. Just ask this adorable Common Loon! We saw a few Red-throated loons, too, but they stayed farther away.

The South Jetty in Newport was especially productive that day. We had super close looks at a Brant. We saw plenty of them at Hatfield, but this one was kind enough to hang out close and in good light. These are definitely one of my favorite geese. They are so elegant and chic.

We also had not just one, but two Long-tailed ducks turn up! We had a male and a female. The male did some funny butt-scooting in the water, almost as if he were trying to sit on his rump. It was weird, and it made for some funny poses.

Female Long-tailed Duck

Male Long-tailed Duck

Duck booty-scootin' boogie!

The South Jetty is a good spot to watch gulls. They gather at the parking area and sit nice and still while you work on your gull ID skills. One other birder there pointed out what looked like what could have been a Glaucus Gull. His wife and he deliberated, and we examined it, as well. It was so evenly light-colored all over, and it did have a dark tip on the bill. But alas, the not clean bill (black bleeding into the inner bill) indicated that it was a very glaucussy-looking Glaucus x Glaucus-winged Gull Hybrid. Bah!

NOT a pure Glaucus Gull, unfortunately for us

So, now that you’ve had some time to look at the bird ID quiz photos, here come the answers. Number one is a female Greater Scaup! I think this one was especially tricky. It’s hard enough to ID a lone female brown duck in the first place, let alone with her head dunked under water.

Female Greater Scaup

If you guessed a grebe for number two, then you were on the right track. And if you guessed Red-necked Grebe, you were 100% right! This was also a tricky one since it is a mottled, grayish grebe, and the bodies of Eared, Horned, Western, and Red-necked Grebes (all of which we saw) can all look quite similar in the winter.

And lastly, this long-bodied bird with a greenish sheen and white flank patch indicates the ever lovely Pelagic Cormorant! The sun was hitting this guy just right, making his iridescent feathers gleam so nicely. And even the colors of his orange bill and red gape really popped. 

Thanks for playing along! I hope you had fun with the quiz and seeing the sights of our sunny coastal day.

Overcoming the Charadrius Radius

The slow, excruciating torture of the eBird needs alert email is an awesome, but ultimately just punishment for the mortal birder's crime of having limited time and resources, while cultivating a series of dependent, voracious lists. When a Mountain Plover first popped up in Newport, OR in early December, inclement weather stopped us from driving out to the coast at the first opportunity. Holiday travel would take us to New York, and later to Texas. And throughout it all, without fail, a daily reminder of our limitations alighted remorselessly in my inbox.

Mountain Plover

For over a month, the plover has been camped out at South Beach State Park, and on January 10 the fates finally cleared the way for us to have our go at it. We parked, crested the sand dune, hiked a quarter mile north, and with only a minimum of effort found ourselves staring down our bins at a small mob of estranged friends: 9 Snowy Plovers and 3 Sanderlings - our first since leaving Georgia almost two years ago. And, oh yeah, the Mountain Plover. It's larger size set it apart, drawing our eyes right toward it, so that it ended up being the first bird we saw along the beach.

Snowy Plover

Plover snacking on an tasty invertebrate

Sanderling & Snow Plover

Sanderling

From South Beach it was just a short distance to Hatfield Marine Science Center, where an overwintering Bullock's Oriole has been the center of some listserv discussion over the possibility of its being an Orchard Oriole. We kept an eye out for the Oriole, but didn't make a concerted effort to turn it up. Instead, we delighted in close-approaching Surf Scoters, and a pair of Horned Grebes. A Common Loon dove and swam right under us, stretching its wings when it surfaced on the other side.

Surf Scoter

Surf Scoter shoving down a bivalve

Horned Grebe

Common Loon

Next, a pit stop at the Rogue Ales brewery, where we ran into a local birder who had just seen a hybrid Common x Barrow's Goldeneye, and a second Goldeneye that was discussed as a possible backcross with Common. Both of them males. The hybrid had intermediate markings, like the white spot in front of its eye, which wasn't quite circular, and not quite a crescent. We saw plenty of pure Commons throughout the afternoon, but no pure Barrows. It looks like we may have to wait until the Winter Wings birding festival next month before we're able to find them easily.

Common x Barrow's Goldeneye

Common(-ish?) Goldeneye

You've got to admire a gull with sideburns

Over at South Jetty, we struggled to stay on a female Long-tailed Duck that spent much more time underwater than above it. If only they were as desperate for our attention as the Golden- and White-crowned Sparrows that gallivanted a few feet away. We pulled the scoter trifecta, turned up loons-a-plenty, and even spotted a male Red-breasted Merganser in breeding plumage.

Red-shouldered Hawk

Black Scoter

Red-breaster Merganser (not the aforementioned one)

Belted Kingfisher

After such an excellent outing, we thought we'd push our luck and hopefully end the day with a Wrentit at Yaquina Bay State Park. The skulky buggers proved too elusive, so we had to content ourselves with half a dozen or more Fox Sparrows, easily the most conspicuous bird along the park's labyrinthine trails. But it would have been asking too much to find literally every bird we wanted with the same ease as the Mountain Plover.

Golden-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

(Sooty) Fox Sparrow