From steve at paradisebirding.com Thu Jan 1 08:27:07 2009 From: steve at paradisebirding.com (Stephen Shunk) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 08:27:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Santiam CBC Postponed to Saturday Message-ID: <9a341ea30901010827r2a6ab108t56115705ee8b1741@mail.gmail.com> Greetings Birders and Happy New Year, Due to severe avalanche danger and dangerous winds in the mountains, the Santiam Pass CBC has been postponed until this Saturday, 1/3. Hopefully this will give those Central Oregon birders who defected to the coast for the day a chance to redeem themselves by suppoting another of their local counts (yes, I realize that they coincidentally made the more advantageous decision -- that is, if they don't get buried in an avalanche -- but nonetheless ...). So, if you are interested in a lovely day of skiing, snowshoeing, or hiking in the high Cascades on Saturday (forecast is for 50% chance of snow showers and high of 28 deg, winds of 10 mph; partly sunny in Sisters), please consider joining us for the count. As usual, we will host the countdown at Suttle Lake Boathouse Restaurant, where they make a wicked Irish Coffee. Please email me or call 541-408-1753 to join the party! Steve Shunk -- Stephen Shunk Paradise Birding Sisters, OR USA www.paradisebirding.com 541-408-1753 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/faac588f/attachment.html From grantandstacy17 at gmail.com Thu Jan 1 09:01:08 2009 From: grantandstacy17 at gmail.com (Grant Canterbury) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 09:01:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eurasian Collared-Doves in N Portland Message-ID: Yesterday (12/31) I saw a flock of seven Eurasian Collared-Doves by the top of the railroad cut near the University Park community center in North Portland. I've been waiting for them to show up here in the city since seeing them two or three years ago in eastern Oregon, and having heard reports coming in from the coast, Washington County, Sauvie Island... Have these been seen before by anyone within Portland city limits? Actually back in March I thought I had seen a pair, but on consideration they were suspiciously light-colored and turned out to be a couple of (more recently) escaped Ringed Turtle-Doves. This flock however was all Eurasian with darker undertail coverts. Prospectors from Sauvie Island? - Grant Canterbury -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/1da7613b/attachment.html From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 09:08:19 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 09:08:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Fw: Emperor goose siteing Message-ID: <508136.6041.qm@web45313.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Gary Schaffer just sent this to me. Just in time for the Coquille Valley CBC! The location Gary describes is in the Bandon Harbor area where there is a Coast Gurard station just west of the Harbor (south jetty area). Tim --- On Thu, 1/1/09, Gary Shaffer wrote: > From: Gary Shaffer > Subject: Emperor goose siteing > To: "Tim Rodenkirk" > Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 12:42 AM > Tim If you think it is worthwhile would you post the goose > on OBOL. I can not access OBOL on my iPhone. It was also > seen by Howard Sands & Jeanine Felker of Medford. It > was last seen today floating downriver by the old coast > guard station. I took an Id picture. > Thanks-Gary Shaffer > > Sent from my iPhone From joel.geier at peak.org Thu Jan 1 09:20:52 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 09:20:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Updated schedule/info for January CBCs Message-ID: <1230830452.3866.31.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, I've just caught up on the several CBCs that were rescheduled while I was gone for the Hart Mtn and Antone counts, so the schedule on Oregon Field Ornithologists' web page at: http://www.oregonbirds.org/2008-09_cbc.html is now up-to-date. This page gives dates and contact/organizational information, which has changed slightly in a few cases. Compilers & coordinators, I'd appreciate if you can check this information and let me know if I've missed anything. Happy birding in the New Year, Joel P.S. The remaining CBCs in Oregon are: Jan 1 Cowlitz-Columbia Santiam Pass Jan 2 Sauvie Island Jan 3 Airlie-Albany Coquille Valley Columbia Hills - Klickitat Valley Portland Silverton Tillamook Bay Umatilla County Yaquina Bay Jan 4 Eugene Jan 5 Upper Nestucca -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From manzed_99 at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 09:25:46 2009 From: manzed_99 at yahoo.com (Dennis Manzer) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 09:25:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Vaux's Swift documentary On the Wing to air on OPB Message-ID: <740120.49617.qm@web50410.mail.re2.yahoo.com> if (typeof YAHOO == "undefined") { var YAHOO = {}; } YAHOO.Shortcuts = YAHOO.Shortcuts || {}; YAHOO.Shortcuts.hasSensitiveText = false; YAHOO.Shortcuts.sensitivityType = []; YAHOO.Shortcuts.doUlt = false; YAHOO.Shortcuts.location = "us"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_id = 0; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_type = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_title = "Vaux\u005c\u0027s Swifts movie On the Wing to air on OPB"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_publish_date = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_author = "manzed_99 at yahoo.com"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_url = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_tags = ""; YAHOO.Shortcuts.document_language = "english"; YAHOO.Shortcuts.annotationSet = { "lw_1230830510_0": { "text": "Happy New Year", "extended": 0, "startchar": 731, "endchar": 744, "start": 731, "end": 744, "extendedFrom": "", "predictedCategory": "MOVIE", "predictionProbability": "0.949056", "weight": 0.380734, "relScore": 1.43847, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/other/movie/movie_name"], "category": ["MOVIE"], "wikiId": "Happy_New_Year_%28musical%29", "relatedWikiIds": [], "relatedEntities": [], "showOnClick": [], "context": "Happy New Year, OBOL! 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It\u0027s one", "metaData": { "visible": "true" } }, "lw_1230830510_3": { "text": "Oregon Public Broadcasting", "extended": 0, "startchar": 1895, "endchar": 1920, "start": 1895, "end": 1920, "extendedFrom": "", "predictedCategory": "MOVIE", "predictionProbability": "0.566536", "weight": 0.392529, "relScore": 8.43423, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/tag/other/wiki"], "category": ["WIKI"], "wikiId": "Oregon_Public_Broadcasting", "relatedWikiIds": [], "relatedEntities": [], "showOnClick": [], "context": "The movie is scheduled to air on OPB as follows: Oregon Public Broadcasting air dates: Wed. January 7, 2009 8 p.m. Fri. January", "metaData": { "visible": "true" } }, "lw_1230830510_4": { "text": "January 11", "extended": 0, "startchar": 2118, "endchar": 2127, "start": 2118, "end": 2127, "extendedFrom": "", "predictedCategory": "", "predictionProbability": "0", "weight": 0.189659, "relScore": 4.89533, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/tag/other/wiki"], "category": ["WIKI"], "wikiId": "January_11", "relatedWikiIds": [], "relatedEntities": [], "showOnClick": [], "context": "2009 8 p.m. Fri. January 9, 2009 2 a.m. Sun. January 11, 2009 1 p.m. check local listings for station information Watch", "metaData": { "visible": "false" } }, "lw_1230830510_5": { "text": "Beaverton, OR 97006", "extended": 0, "startchar": 2907, "endchar": 2925, "start": 2907, "end": 2925, "extendedFrom": "", "predictedCategory": "", "predictionProbability": "0", "weight": 0.20468, "relScore": 2.62518, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/place/us/zip"], "category": ["PLACE"], "wikiId": "", "relatedWikiIds": [], "relatedEntities": [], "showOnClick": [], "context": "faces! Cheers! Dennis Yours for better birding! Dennis E. Manzer Beaverton, OR 97006 manzed_99 at yahoo.com", "metaData": { "geoArea": "31.3738", "geoCountry": "United States", "geoCounty": "Washington", "geoIsoCountryCode": "US", "geoLocation": "(-122.85907, 45.522221)", "geoName": "97006", "geoPlaceType": "Zip", "geoState": "Oregon", "geoStateCode": "OR", "geoTown": "Beaverton", "geoZip": "97006", "type": "shortcuts:/us/instance/place/us/zip", "visible": "false" } }, "lw_1230830510_6": { "text": "manzed_99 at yahoo.com", "extended": 0, "startchar": 3144, "endchar": 3162, "start": 3144, "end": 3162, "extendedFrom": "", "predictedCategory": "", "predictionProbability": "0", "weight": 1, "relScore": 0, "type": ["shortcuts:/us/instance/identifier/email_address"], "category": ["IDENTIFIER"], "wikiId": "", "relatedWikiIds": [], "relatedEntities": [], "showOnClick": [], "context": "Yours for better birding! Dennis E. Manzer Beaverton, OR 97006 manzed_99 at yahoo.com", "metaData": { "visible": "true" } } }; YAHOO.Shortcuts.headerID = "931a99af5026b65827860248ac77077a"; Happy New Year,?OBOL! ? ???? The movie On the Wing is a documentary about the Vaux's Swifts which stage at Portland's Chapman Elementary School each September prior to their annual fall migration.? It's one of the largest known roosting spots and is quite a sight to see in person. ? ???? The movie is scheduled to air on OPB as follows:? Oregon Public Broadcasting air dates: Wed. January 7, 2009 8 p.m. Fri. January 9, 2009 2 a.m. Sun. January 11, 2009 1 p.m. check local listings for station information ? ? Cheers! Dennis Yours for better birding! Dennis E. Manzer Beaverton, OR 97006 manzed_99 at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/e88c9127/attachment.html From manzed_99 at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 09:37:27 2009 From: manzed_99 at yahoo.com (Dennis Manzer) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 09:37:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Apology for "gibberish" Message-ID: <568125.28787.qm@web50412.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Happy New Year! ? ??? Please accept?my apology for the "gibberish" that went forth on my recent post for the OPB airing of On the Wing.? If you patiently scroll down to near the bottom the info appears correctly. ? Cheers! Dennis Yours for better birding! Dennis E. Manzer Beaverton, OR 97006 manzed_99 at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/90c7cb57/attachment.html From craig at greatskua.com Thu Jan 1 10:37:46 2009 From: craig at greatskua.com (Craig Tumer) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 11:37:46 -0700 Subject: [obol] Eurasian Collared-Doves in N Portland Message-ID: <20090101113746.3bd901d66b2d769bd36646c62e7e74c3.14c54af62a.wbe@email.secureserver.net> I had an Eurasian collared-dove in Hollywood on September 11, 2007. Craig Tumer SW Portland > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [obol] Eurasian Collared-Doves in N Portland > From: "Grant Canterbury" > Date: Thu, January 01, 2009 9:01 am > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > Yesterday (12/31) I saw a flock of seven Eurasian Collared-Doves by the top > of the railroad cut near the University Park community center in North > Portland. I've been waiting for them to show up here in the city since > seeing them two or three years ago in eastern Oregon, and having heard > reports coming in from the coast, Washington County, Sauvie Island... Have > these been seen before by anyone within Portland city limits? Actually back > in March I thought I had seen a pair, but on consideration they were > suspiciously light-colored and turned out to be a couple of (more recently) > escaped Ringed Turtle-Doves. This flock however was all Eurasian with > darker undertail coverts. Prospectors from Sauvie Island? > - Grant Canterbury
_______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From greg at thebirdguide.com Thu Jan 1 10:49:00 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 10:49:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] No: WashCo Snow Owl, No Prairie Falcon Message-ID: <2CFE2E5A37FA41A9BB6E4ED60A6D0B56@GREG> I spent an hour 2 miles north of Cornelius yesterday without spotting any notable birds (or any birds other than juncos and soggy red-taileds. This morning I went to the junction of Glencoe and Zion Church roads at North Plains (6 miles NE of Cornelius) where the Snowy Owl was really reported from. I then drove all roads from Glencoe to Roy Rd between Zion Church and Hwy 26, looking for the owl and Stefan's Prairie Falcon from yesterday. I also watched for Rough-legged Hawks--quite rare in the Tualatin Valley. This area still has up to 3 inches of snow in some of the the fields and up to 7 inches of water across three different roads. It was raining hard and fog rose from off the snow limiting visibility to less than 1/2 mile. In about 12 miles of traveling farm fields I found 6 Red-tailed Hawks, 4 American Kestrels, 2 Bald Eagles, 1 California Gull, 2 Northern Flickers, and 1 Acorn Woodpecker flying across a field. Pretty typical for the area. The final noteworthy birds of 2008 have been added to the Washington County, Oregon, Bird Highlights: 2008 http://thebirdguide.com/washington/WashCo_2008.htm I've also updated the Annotated checklist of Washington County, Oregon http://thebirdguide.com/washington/washington%20birdlist.doc This document now has the current status of all birds of Washington County, Oregon, as well as individual records for those species with less than 10 records. Greg Gillson The Bird Guide, Inc. greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From joel.geier at peak.org Thu Jan 1 12:26:28 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:26:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Updated schedule/info for January CBCs In-Reply-To: <1230830452.3866.31.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1230830452.3866.31.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <1230841588.3866.177.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello again, Sorry, I see that another CBC succumbed to this year's weather even as I was working on the schedule updates this morning: As Steve Shunk posted, the Santiam Pass is now scheduled for Saturday, January 3 due to avalanche hazard etc. (rather than today as my posting had stated). I've just updated the schedule on the OFO web page, once again. Like the numerous other CBC postponements so far, this one seems like a wise decision. Wil and I were keeping a leery eye on that snowpack as we came down the west side of Santiam Pass yesterday, knowing how much wet new snow has piled up on top of older snow. Happy & safe birding in the New Year, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 14:01:52 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 14:01:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Fw: JV raptor run Message-ID: <807938.31311.qm@web50910.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message from Karen Cottrell from the Jordan VAlley area of SE Oregon --- On Thu, 1/1/09, Larry Cottrell wrote: > From: Larry Cottrell > Subject: JV raptor run > To: "Jeff Fleischer" > Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 1:15 PM > We did the Jordan Valley raptor run on12/29/08.It took 4 > hrs,154 mi., under pc/cloudy skies,temps 47-55 degrees and > winds 24 mph with gusts of 39 mph. There was snow on the > ground in the Arock and Jordan Valley areas. You can find > these areas on pages 92-93 Benchmark Maps. > RTHA- 5 > AMKE-2 > NOHA-8 > BAEA-I sub adult > GOEA-5 > RLHA-3 > Other birds seen on the route: > Horned Larks > Ravens > Canada Geese > Ringed neck Pheasant > Blackbirds moderate size flocks > Starlings again moderate size flocks > Assorted Passerines they didn't fly unless pushed, to > windy > Ducks flying unable to identify. > One interesting thing observed while we had snow on the > ground. Our resident Harriers hunted in our yard very close > to the house. They actually used the house as cover to sneak > in on the feeder. They would fly the creek bottom till they > were even with the house then come up and slip around to the > backyard. They were as close as 6 feet to the house. The > birds at the feeder would scatter, some under the motor > home, some to the Currant bush and the rest trying for the > hay stack.They were apparently successful at this ploy > although we did not see any successful hunts. > Karen > in true SE Or. > south of Burns Jct. > Malheur Co. From coffehound at gmail.com Thu Jan 1 15:14:19 2009 From: coffehound at gmail.com (Demian Ebert) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 15:14:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] Townsends Warblers and Slate-colored Junco in SE Portland Message-ID: Got back from walking the dog this afternoon and found 5 Townsend's warblers eating from my suet feeder. While watching them a slate-colored junco made an appearence. Two new yard birds on the first of the year. Maybe they'll stick around for the CBC. Demian Ebert SE Monroe St Milwaukie, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/aafa3dbd/attachment.html From greenfant at hotmail.com Thu Jan 1 16:32:51 2009 From: greenfant at hotmail.com (Stefan Schlick) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 19:32:51 -0500 Subject: [obol] Siletz Bay Little Blue Heron continues Message-ID: Saw the bird at about 10:30am today from the pullout just east of Gorton & Drift Creek. Stefan Schlick Hillsboro, OR _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/3bb6c0b3/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Thu Jan 1 17:04:48 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 17:04:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] EMPEROR update Message-ID: The Emperor Goose is still at Bandon late afternoon, by the sewage plant. Also locally rare Common Goldeneye, 2 Eared Grebes. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From dhughes55 at clearwire.net Thu Jan 1 17:25:52 2009 From: dhughes55 at clearwire.net (Denise Hughes) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 18:25:52 -0700 Subject: [obol] Ontario Raptor Route Message-ID: <000a01c96c79$0f18dca0$2d4a95e0$@net> I started off the new year with a day of birding. It was raining at home but by the time I got to the start of the route, there was a couple of inches of new snow on the ground. The entire route had 4 to 6 inches of snow on the ground. Red tailed Hawk - 48 American Kestrel - 33 Northern Harrier - 7 Bald Eagles - 4 (2 adult, 1st year, 1 3rd year) Rough legged Hawk - 2 Prairie Falcon - 2 Merlin - 1 Cooper's Hawk - 1 Sharp shinned Hawk - 1 Great Horned Owl - 1 Unidentified Buteo - 3 (most likely Red tails) Denise Hughes Caldwell, Idaho -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/d26b0e42/attachment.html From dhughes55 at clearwire.net Thu Jan 1 17:33:10 2009 From: dhughes55 at clearwire.net (dhughes55 at clearwire.net) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:33:10 GMT Subject: [obol] Ontario Raptor Route Message-ID: <200901020133.n021XAcP030331@host-231.colo.spiretech.com> This report was mailed for Denise Hughes by http://birdnotes.net Date: January 1, 2009 Location: Malheur County, Oregon Low temperature: 26 degrees fahrenheit High temperature: 34 degrees fahrenheit Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 100% Precipitation: none This route starts at Ontario State Park and follows Hwy 201 and back roads to Farewell Bend State Park, back to west Ontario and the area southwest of Ontario. Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose 250 Tundra Swan 3 [1] Gadwall 35 American Wigeon 55 Mallard 50 Common Goldeneye 500 Ring-necked Pheasant 25 California Quail 100 Pied-billed Grebe 3 Great Blue Heron 2 Bald Eagle 4 Northern Harrier 7 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 48 Rough-legged Hawk 2 American Kestrel 33 Merlin 1 Peregrine Falcon 2 American Coot 65 Ring-billed Gull 100 Rock Dove 70 Eurasian Collared-Dove 38 [2] Mourning Dove 65 Great Horned Owl 1 Northern Flicker 15 Black-billed Magpie 28 American Crow 10 Horned Lark 4 American Robin 35 European Starling 550 Cedar Waxwing 20 Song Sparrow 5 White-crowned Sparrow 75 Dark-eyed Junco 26 Red-winged Blackbird 25 Western Meadowlark 30 Brewer's Blackbird 10 House Finch 25 House Sparrow 100 Footnotes: [1] In a field off Annex Road with a large flock of Canada Geese [2] Seen between Ontario State Park and Hwy 95 Spur Total number of species seen: 40 From nepobirds at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 18:23:14 2009 From: nepobirds at yahoo.com (Seth Reams) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 18:23:14 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Help with ID: Unknown Hawk Message-ID: <937259.11624.qm@web46008.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> We just got back from Ridgefield NWR. It was a great birding day and we will send a list of birds in a short while. However, as we were leaving, we took a few photos of a hawk sitting in a field. He was not known to us on sight and now we are having a hard time IDing him. Can anyone help? Thanks. Photos are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nepobirds/3157650301/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/nepobirds/3158480348/ Seth Reams and Michelle King NE Portland, OR - Gateway area portlandbirds.blogspot.com From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 1 18:21:48 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:21:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Unofficial Cottage Grove Christmas Bird Count - 1/1/2009 Message-ID: <495D7A3C.1000605@pacifier.com> I am in Cottage Grove for the next couple of days doing all that Christmas stuff I should have got out of the way last week, but for the snow. I Stayed within the boundaries of the Cottage Grove Christmas Count circle counting birds for about 4 hours at the most interesting spots in the circle. The best birds of the day were a very friendly NORTHERN PYGMY OWL, a couple WRENTITS and a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 25 years ago, when the Cottage Grove count was still running a Red- Shouldered Hawk would have been a really good bird. If you spent any time today inside the Cottage Grove circle and would like to contribute a day list to the count, send it to me and I'll add it to the total. Temperature: 42 degrees Fahrenheit Wind direction: SW Prevailing wind speed: 12-19 km/h gusting to: 20-28 km/h Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 100% Precipitation: showers/intermittent rain Unofficial Cottage Grove Christmas Bird Count keeping inside the designated count circle. Dorena Lake, Cottage Grove Lake, Saginaw/ Delight Valley to the rest area on I-5 and Gowdyville. Hours by car: 3 Miles by car 52 Hours on foot 1 Hours by car 3 Birds seen (in taxonomic order): American Wigeon 96 Mallard 6 Green-Winged Teal 39 Ring-necked Duck 2 Lesser Scaup 1 Bufflehead 15 Hooded Merganser 6 Common Merganser 12 Pied-billed Grebe 25 Western Grebe 2 Double-crested Cormorant 30 Great Blue Heron 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 [1] Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 3 Merlin 1 American Coot 15 Killdeer 9 Rock Dove 25 Mourning Dove 3 Northern Pygmy-Owl 1 Belted Kingfisher 2 Downy Woodpecker 1 Hairy Woodpecker 2 Northern Flicker 7 Steller's Jay 3 Western Scrub-Jay 2 American Crow 273 Common Raven 4 Black-capped Chickadee 9 Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 1 Bewick's Wren 1 Winter Wren 2 Golden-crowned Kinglet 20 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 7 Western Bluebird 9 [2] Hermit Thrush 1 American Robin 34 Wrentit 2 European Starling 4030 Yellow-rumped Warbler 12 Spotted Towhee 2 Fox Sparrow 19 Song Sparrow 25 Dark-eyed Junco 5 Brewer's Blackbird 25 Purple Finch 28 Pine Siskin 30 Footnotes: [1] Sears Rd near Saginaw overpass [2] Molitor Hill Total number of species seen: 51 -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From jbw at oregoncoast.com Thu Jan 1 18:45:17 2009 From: jbw at oregoncoast.com (Barbara & John Woodhouse) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 18:45:17 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tillamook rain Message-ID: Anyone thinking of coming to the coast please watch the weather, we live just south of Tillamook out behind the Air Museum and we have had 4.8 inches of rain since 11pm last night and it is still raining hard here. Hopefully the flood waters will have gone down by saturday. Barbara & John Woodhouse Tillamook From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 1 18:57:02 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 18:57:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Northern Pygmy Owl photo Message-ID: <495D827E.9030004@pacifier.com> http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From mariam at easystreet.net Thu Jan 1 19:10:25 2009 From: mariam at easystreet.net (Maria Michalczyk) Date: Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:10:25 -0800 Subject: [obol] Northern Pygmy Owl photo In-Reply-To: <495D827E.9030004@pacifier.com> Message-ID: Awesome picture of the NP owl. Maria > http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ Lance L'Chien (Barkstrong) Inu Shu Cow (Snowball dog) From llsdirons at msn.com Thu Jan 1 19:36:10 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 03:36:10 +0000 Subject: [obol] Ten New Year's resolutions for birders posted to BirdFellow.com Message-ID: Greetings All, Today I posted a list of ten New Year's resolutions for birders to our blog at BirdFellow.com. Pay particular attention to #4, big years are not to be entered into lightly. Please use the "comments" link below the title to add your own birding resolutions to this list. Dave Irons _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/139f9b2d/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Thu Jan 1 21:01:28 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:01:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Coquille contexts Message-ID: <056b4a2c4bd54bdd8bb65fdb53b9f578@earthlink.net> If I were to chose a CBC as exemplary of western Oregon, Coquille Valley would surely be the one. Unlike other coastal counts, this one contains a meaningful amount of sunny, interior landscapes with vegetation typical of places much further inland. Rainfall at this part of the Oregon coast is substantially lower than points to the north, favoring Douglas-fir and Oregon White Oak over Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock. Accordingly, species usually missed on the Coos Bay CBC such as Western Bluebird and Scrub Jay are usually detected in the Coquille Valley. This is where two distinct mountain systems stare each other in the eyes. South of the Coquille River the Siskiyou- Klamath Mountain complex sticks out a ragged thumb. These metamorphic rocks are ancient by Oregon standards. They provide a highland continuum with the volcanic Cascades far to the east. The avian evidence of this arrangement is scant, but I recall Tim Rodenkirk reporting the interior sub-species of lodgepole pine within six miles of the Ocean in adjacent Curry County. Dave Fix has told me about the northern- most canyon live oaks in the Oregon Coast Range, along Highway 42. Though it's tempting to attribute these trees' occurrence to climate, I'd be curious to see exactly where they are growing. The chemistry of the metamorphic rocks is significantly different from the sedimentary deposits of the true Coast Range, whose southern limit is sharply defined by the Coquille River itself. Tyee Sandstone makes up most of the modest mountains that birders from Corvallis, Eugene, and Roseburg hasten through on their way to the beach. Just as interior and maritime plant communities come into intimate contact in this count circle, so do southern and northern. Madrone, chinkapin, and Oregon myrtle are all broadleaved evergreens that occur well to the north of this watershed, but along the Coquille River they are dominant aspects of the landscape. In the adjacent Coos watershed they are already diminished in number. When Alan Contreras gave me a fragment of topographic map showing the Norway Bottoms section of the count circle, the first thing I noticed was a tributary debouching at Johnson Pond with the romantic name of "Glen Aiken". In a phone conversation with my father yesterday I learned that the first, absolutely, positively first, soil survey in Oregon occurred here in the Coquille Valley. One would expect it to have been in populous Multnomah County, or Benton County where the state Ag school resides. But for some reason it was the Coquille Valley, about 1910, that first received the undivided attention of a soils scientist. This required some pioneering soil taxonomy, and one of the new soils described was named "Aiken". A red, clay soil of the uplands, derived from basalt parent material, almost every birder has seen it without knowing it. Thousands of acres of the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys are covered with it. Gradually smaller patches of it occur as far south as Red Bluff, California. The larger and richer state to our south began an accelerated series of soil surveys, adding soil temperature to standard attributes defining a given soil. Never mind that this is typically an imaginary characteristic as soil scientists doing field work seldom stick a thermometer in the holes they dig. The Aiken soils of Oregon are somewhat cooler than those of California, and the California surveys got published before the earlier Oregon surveys. In the name of nationwide consistency Oregon lost the name Aiken for its red hill soil despite hosting the type locality. The soils around Red Bluff bear the name to this day, while Oregon's head soil scientist, in ever tightening underwear, was forced to a second christening by spelling the original name backwards--"Nekia". I realize that this is completely off topic. But I am talking about a place of great biological and geological significance that the majority of Oregon's birders have no direct knowledge of. The revival of this count from its prolonged hiatus is a very good thing, and the large number of participants that Alan has attracted is most heartening. I am looking forward to a most excellent adventure in what happens to be the fiftieth anniversary of my father practicing soil science in Oregon. My guess is that the Coquille Valley was chosen for a soil survey due to the arrival of the railway.It came to Coos Bay in 1905, essentially the last corner of the continental US to be fully incorporated in the grasping web of capitalism. The railroad continued south in the following years until reaching a definitive terminus at Powers. Its arrival precipitated an irrational exuberance not seen again until the dotcom boom of the nineties. Not surprisingly, this bucolic landscape has acquired a post-industrial patina. Landslides not far from Eugene have closed the railroad forever. It had been relatively obsolete for decades. With luck it will revert to the public domain and be converted to a foot/bridle/ bicycle path like the one at the bottom of my hill here in the gloomy, snowbound north. Lars Norgren, Manning Oregon From roygerig at hotmail.com Thu Jan 1 21:40:40 2009 From: roygerig at hotmail.com (Roy Gerig) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:40:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] Dallas CBC Message-ID: We had a pretty nice day for the Dallas CBC on Tuesday, Dec. 30 after a couple weeks of cold and snow. Numbers of sparrows and finches were way down, and that may have had something to do with the fact that just a few miles south there was much less snow and cold. The birds may have moved further south. That is why they have wings. 14 birders counted 101 species, above average for the count. Worst misses were Eurasian Wigeon, Ring-billed Gull, Belted Kingfisher, Hutton's Vireo, Marsh Wren, Savannah Sparrow, and Lincoln's Sparrow. Best birds, or numbers, were 1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE, 5 MERLINS, 1 PRAIRIE FALCON, 1 PEREGRINE FALCON, 1 WHITE-TAILED KITE, 10 GREAT HORNED OWLS, 2 LONG-EARED OWLS, 1 LEWIS' WOODPECKER, 1 WRENTIT (In Dallas), 32 ACORN WOODPECKERS, 16 TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS, 76 LESSER GOLDFINCHES. Some knucklehead also added 5 Lesser Plastic Flamingos, but I will ignore those. Count week bird: HERMIT THRUSH. We also had 91 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, a PILEATED WOODPECKER, only 1 PURPLE FINCH, only 6 AMERICAN GOLDFINCHES (compared to 76 LESSERS), only 71 SONG SPARROWS, only 1 WHITE-THROATED SPARROW, only 69 WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, 46 EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES (In Dallas, and as far as I know none have yet been seen in nearby Salem). Numbers of ducks and geese were low. Roy Gerig, Salem OR _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_speed_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090101/19587f21/attachment.html From nepobirds at yahoo.com Thu Jan 1 21:44:20 2009 From: nepobirds at yahoo.com (Seth Reams) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:44:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Ridgefield NWR today Message-ID: <280303.74616.qm@web46009.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> First off, thanks to all who responded to our call for help IDing the raptor. It turns out that it was a Rufous Morph Red-Tailed Hawk. That was exciting news to us as we have never seen on of these before. Here is a list of all the birds that were seen or heard today (with positive IDs). Cackling Goose - 100+ Canada Goose - 1000+ Trumpeter Swan - 500+ (couldn't positively ID and Tundra) Gadwall - 8 American Wigeon - 14 Mallard - 100+ Cinnamon Teal - 12 Northern Shoveler - 60 Northern Pintail - 15 Green-Winged Teal - 15 Ring-Necked Duck - 8 Bufflehead - 7 Hooded Merganser - 12 Great Blue Heron - 20 Bald Eagle - 8 Northern Harrier - 6 Red-Tailed Hawk - 10 (plus the Red Morph) Rough-Legged Hawk - 1 American Kestrel - 4 Coot - 60 Killdeer - 1 Northern Flicker - 2 Scrub-Jay - 20 Crow - 10 Black-Capped Chickadee - 3 Red-Breasted Nuthatch - Heard Brown Creeper - 3 Bewick's Wren - 2 Winter Wren - Heard Robin - 12 Starling - 6 Spotted Towhee - 3 Fox Sparrow - 1 Song Sparrow - 8 Junco - 15 Red-Winged Blackbird - Heard Western Meadowlark - 2 Brewer's Blackbird - 50 Also, lots of unidentified Gulls and a few Hawks. A Great-Horned Owl was spotted by another party, just between markers 9 and 10. Seth Reams and Michelle King NE Portland, OR - Gateway area portlandbirds.blogspot.com From cgates326 at gmail.com Thu Jan 1 21:46:09 2009 From: cgates326 at gmail.com (Charles Gates) Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:46:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Prineville CBC Message-ID: The Prineville Christmas Bird Count went swimmingly. The weather was great. Counting our feeder watchers, we had 25 volunteers. We saw a total of 81 species. We did not set many records as the earlier cold weather seemed to clear out some species but a good time was had by all. HIGHLIGHTS: High Count Species: Merlin (9), Sora (2), Eurasian Collared-dove (77 the old record was 6), Western Bluebird (12), Harris's Sparrow (2), Tricolored Blackbird (57), Purple Finch (10), House Sparrow (1608) Unexpected Misses: Red Crossbill, Lincoln Sparrow, Pygmy Nuthatch, Pygmy Owl, American Coot Other cool birds: 7 Cackling Geese, 1 Eurasian Wigeon, 2 Ferruginous Hawks, 7 Prairie Falcons, 5 Virginia Rail, 1 Barn Owl (another freshly dead), Red-breasted Sapsucker, 1 Northern Shrike, 7 Varied Thrush, 1 American Pipit, 52 Lesser Goldfinch. Wild Kingdom Moment: 6 Bald Eagles descending on a lone, wounded Canada Goose on the ice at Ochoco Reservoir. Just outside the circle: David Schas and I found a Saw-whet Owl along the Crooked River and Nancy MacDonald had a Pygmy Owl at the Steins Pillar trailhead. Chuck Gates Powell Butte No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1871 - Release Date: 1/1/2009 5:01 PM From sandyleapt at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 08:06:33 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:06:33 +0000 Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's Message-ID: <010220091606.9376.495E3B89000CE0FA000024A022058864429B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Lee, I am so glad you posted this. Last year I asked whether or not immature male Anna's could change to their adult plumage without molting. The question sounded so silly, even to me, that it got no replies. I think the bird pictured is changing into adult plumage without actually molting. The picture you posted is of an immature male Anna's just like the ones I had in my garden the winters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. I would swear the the feathers slowly change color. It seems like the feathers develop a dark center and the color eventually suffuses the entire feather. I took a series of pictures of the young birds in my garden, I don't have one to watch and photograph as of yet this winter (2008/2009). I would love to know if the phenomenon has been documented somewhere. Thanks Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> > Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder yesterday. The > feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda gross!). I would be very > interested to hear what you hummer experts out there think is going on with this > bird. http://thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ > > Lee Cain > Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 02:18:43 +0000 Size: 2169 Url: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/218fe7d8/attachment.mht From celata at pacifier.com Fri Jan 2 08:33:23 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:33:23 -0800 Subject: [obol] Snowy Owl Message-ID: <495E41D3.7070908@pacifier.com> My sister Robin reports that she and a friend saw a SNOWY OWL on November 1 near Sylvan (west of Portland). This is presumably the same bird that is now being report west of there near Hillsboro. So, it would seem the bird has been present for some time. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From jvanmoo at sisna.com Fri Jan 2 09:18:30 2009 From: jvanmoo at sisna.com (Julie Van Moorhem) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 09:18:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Klamath Falls Jan. 1, 2009 Message-ID: <6947C285-AE2C-43F8-AC62-4C9E2EE0A4E5@sisna.com> Marilyn Christian, Kevin Spencer and I birded a few hours on New Year's Day to get a good start on the year. Highlights included: a falcon hat trick--AMERICAN KESTREL, MERLIN, PRAIRIE FALCON; COOPER'S HAWK (3), MOUNTAIN QUAIL (3), CALIFORNIA TOWHEE. Also, before we met for birding: Marilyn had ACORN WOODPECKER, WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, AND PYGMY NUTHATCH at her house; I had DOWNY WOODPECKER and STELLER'S JAY at my house--we didn't see any of these yard birds on our trip. List below in taxonomic order: Pied-billed Grebe Black-crowned Night Heron Great Blue Heron Great Egret Canada Goose Mallard Northern Shoveler Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Barrow's Goldeneye Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Common Merganser Hooded Merganser Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Prairie Falcon California Quail Mountain Quail American coot Ring-billed Gull California Gull Herring Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Northern Flicker Western Scrub Jay Black-billed Magpie Common Raven Mountain Chickadee Bushtit Red-breasted Nuthatch Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Townsend's Solitaire American Robin European Starling California Towhee Lincoln's Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco House Finch Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Lesser Goldfinch House Sparrow Good birding y'all, Julie Van Moorhem Klamath Falls From celata at pacifier.com Fri Jan 2 09:36:30 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 09:36:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's In-Reply-To: <010220091651.23323.495E4614000867BF00005B1B22064244139B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <010220091651.23323.495E4614000867BF00005B1B22064244139B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: <495E509E.80009@pacifier.com> Bill Hilton renowned east-coast hummingbird expert suggests that this is a trick of the light. The white fringes around the dark centers give the illusion that the feather have a droplet shape. http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/RTHUHYMGorgetDetail01.jpg This was my very first impression, too, though I also entertained a more complicated surface tension/water accumulation hypothesis as well. There are, to my knowledge, no comensal flower mites in temperate North America. Gorget molt in Anna's Hummingbird (according to the BNA) takes 10-15 days. It happens fast. sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > Hi Lee, > > I just went back and reviewed my pictures. May I send you a few? > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> >> Interesting idea, Sandy. I really don't know yet, but you may be right -- >> it makes sense. I have also updated the blog to include another >> possiblility. >> Lee >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: >> To: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net>; "OBOL" >> >> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:06 AM >> Subject: Re: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's >> >> >>> Hi Lee, >>> >>> I am so glad you posted this. Last year I asked whether or not immature >>> male Anna's could change to their adult plumage without molting. The >>> question sounded so silly, even to me, that it got no replies. I think >>> the bird pictured is changing into adult plumage without actually molting. >>> The picture you posted is of an immature male Anna's just like the ones I >>> had in my garden the winters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. I would swear >>> the the feathers slowly change color. It seems like the feathers develop >>> a dark center and the color eventually suffuses the entire feather. >>> >>> I took a series of pictures of the young birds in my garden, I don't have >>> one to watch and photograph as of yet this winter (2008/2009). I would >>> love to know if the phenomenon has been documented somewhere. >>> >>> Thanks >>> >>> Sandy Leaptrott >>> NE Portland >>> -------------- Original message ---------------------- >>> From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> >>>> Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder yesterday. >>>> The >>>> feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda gross!). I would be >>>> very >>>> interested to hear what you hummer experts out there think is going on >>>> with this >>>> bird. http://thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ >>>> >>>> Lee Cain >>>> Astoria, Or >>> >>> >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> >> No virus found in this incoming message. >> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >> Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1872 - Release Date: 1/2/2009 >> 1:10 PM >> > > > -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From tanager at nu-world.com Fri Jan 2 11:05:37 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 11:05:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Invasives in Eugene Message-ID: <000d01c96d0d$1962d640$4c2882c0$@com> OBOL- This morning while eating breakfast- Dan & I uttered a simultaneous moan- A EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE flew out of the neighbor's cedar tree. Yesterday the 3 EUCD were at the Madsen tree farm on Clear Lake Rd. Anne Heyerly Barely one mile north of Skinner's Butte in Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/46144c28/attachment.html From dan-gleason at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 11:37:47 2009 From: dan-gleason at comcast.net (Dan Gleason) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 11:37:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] feather color In-Reply-To: <010220091606.9376.495E3B89000CE0FA000024A022058864429B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <010220091606.9376.495E3B89000CE0FA000024A022058864429B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: Sandy, The feathers of all birds are composed of a keratin matrix, similar to (but of different composition than) the scales on reptiles or the claws and nails of mammals. This is non-living material and once a feather is fully formed, it cannot change color by infusion of pigment into the feather. The incorporation of pigment into a feather occurs while the feather is forming as a feather bud in the follicle at the base of an existing feather. Deposition of pigment is under tight genetic control. Once the feather erupts through the outer layer of the dermis, blood begins to withdraw from the exposed portion. By the time the protective sheath breaks away and the feather unfurls, it is no longer living and all color is now fixed within the protein matrix. Feather wear can cause pigment within the matrix to become more exposed and give the impression that a bird has changed its plumage. For example, the shiny breeding plumage of a European Starling is the result of feather wear. This could be interpreted as "changing to adult plumage without molting" since the change is apparent but the actual molt comes later in the season after breeding. (But changing from immature to adult, always is the result of a molt, even in the starling.) In White-winged Crossbills, the plumage seems to change from pink to red but no change of pigment actually occurs. The red pigment is found in the shaft and barbs of the feathers and the barbules lack this pigment and appear white. The red color, filtered through the white, results in pink. As the barbules wear away, the underlying pigment becomes more exposed and the bird looks redder. Red Crossbills have the same feather wear but the barbules are also red in this species so it is red at all times no color change is apparent as the feathers age. A few species of birds (mostly tropical in dense forests) have feathers colored by pigments known as porphyrins. Porphyrins quickly fade when exposed to light. (Which is why birds with porphyrins in the body feathers live in dense, dimly lit regions.) The pinkish down on the belly of some bustards will fade to gray in 15-20 minutes if the outer feathers are spread apart, allowing sunlight to reach this down. The only other way to change feather color is by staining the outside. The belly of grebes sometimes turns brownish during the nesting season as it is stained by decaying vegetation within the nest. In the gorget of hummingbirds, the red iridescence is caused by the microstructure of the feather. The structure and alignment of the very specialized feather barbs causes specific wavelengths of light to be reflected back. As the angle changes, the feather looks black. Feather coloration is an interesting topic but much more complex than my very brief description here. Dan Gleason ------------- Dan Gleason dan-gleason at comcast.net 541 345-0450 On Jan 2, 2009, at 8:06 AM, sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > Hi Lee, > > I am so glad you posted this. Last year I asked whether or not > immature male Anna's could change to their adult plumage without > molting. The question sounded so silly, even to me, that it got no > replies. I think the bird pictured is changing into adult plumage > without actually molting. The picture you posted is of an immature > male Anna's just like the ones I had in my garden the winters of > 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. I would swear the the feathers slowly > change color. It seems like the feathers develop a dark center and > the color eventually suffuses the entire feather. > > I took a series of pictures of the young birds in my garden, I > don't have one to watch and photograph as of yet this winter > (2008/2009). I would love to know if the phenomenon has been > documented somewhere. > > Thanks > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> >> Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder >> yesterday. The >> feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda gross!). I >> would be very >> interested to hear what you hummer experts out there think is >> going on with this >> bird. http://thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ >> >> Lee Cain >> Astoria, Or > > > > From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> > Date: December 31, 2008 6:18:43 PM PST > To: "OBOL" > Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's > > > Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder > yesterday. The feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda > gross!). I would be very interested to hear what you hummer experts > out there think is going on with this bird. http:// > thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ > > Lee Cain > Astoria, Or > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/b114afaa/attachment.html From dan-gleason at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 12:13:56 2009 From: dan-gleason at comcast.net (Dan Gleason) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 12:13:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's In-Reply-To: <495E509E.80009@pacifier.com> References: <010220091651.23323.495E4614000867BF00005B1B22064244139B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> <495E509E.80009@pacifier.com> Message-ID: While most hummingbird mites are tropical, at least one species in known in North America. I don't know its full range but it occurs in species of paintbrush found along portions of the California coast and is transported between flowers by Anna's, Allen's and Rufous Hummingbirds. Many years ago, I saw a photo of a Rufous Hummingbird from southern Oregon with what appeared to be mites on its bill. It had been feeding on a paintbrush flower when the photo was taken. At that time, I was not yet aware of hummingbird mites and did not consider that the mites could have originated in the flower. That was much too long ago now for me to recall details that would adequately explain this photo or if hummingbird mites were even a possibility. For those who may not know, hummingbird mites are small mites found within the blossoms of some flowers (nearly all tropical). Their entire life is spent in these flowers but they are too small to move from flower to flower by themselves. As the flower is beginning to shrivel, the mites await the arrival of a foraging hummingbird. When the bird feeds on the flowers nectar, the mites climb onto the beak and quickly crawl up and into the bird's nostrils. When the hummingbird feeds on another flower of the same species, the mites quickly leave the nostril, rush down the beak and into the safety of their preferred flower. Presumably, there is some chemical signal that tells them they have arrived at the right species of flower. The hummingbird appears to not be adversely affected. It is simply the transportation system for these tiny hitchhikers. More than 100 species of these mites are known but only one is known from North America. There is still much that we do not know about these creatures and it is suspected that more species probably exist than we now know. Dan Gleason Dan Gleason ------------- Dan Gleason dan-gleason at comcast.net 541 345-0450 On Jan 2, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Mike Patterson wrote: > Bill Hilton renowned east-coast hummingbird expert suggests > that this is a trick of the light. The white fringes around > the dark centers give the illusion that the feather have a > droplet shape. > > http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/RTHUHYMGorgetDetail01.jpg > > This was my very first impression, too, though I also entertained > a more complicated surface tension/water accumulation hypothesis > as well. There are, to my knowledge, no comensal flower mites in > temperate North America. > > Gorget molt in Anna's Hummingbird (according to the BNA) takes > 10-15 days. It happens fast. > > > sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: >> Hi Lee, >> >> I just went back and reviewed my pictures. May I send you a few? >> >> Sandy Leaptrott >> NE Portland >> -------------- Original message ---------------------- >> From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> >>> Interesting idea, Sandy. I really don't know yet, but you may >>> be right -- >>> it makes sense. I have also updated the blog to include another >>> possiblility. >>> Lee >>> >>> ----- Original Message ----- >>> From: >>> To: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net>; "OBOL" >>> >>> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:06 AM >>> Subject: Re: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's >>> >>> >>>> Hi Lee, >>>> >>>> I am so glad you posted this. Last year I asked whether or not >>>> immature >>>> male Anna's could change to their adult plumage without >>>> molting. The >>>> question sounded so silly, even to me, that it got no replies. >>>> I think >>>> the bird pictured is changing into adult plumage without >>>> actually molting. >>>> The picture you posted is of an immature male Anna's just like >>>> the ones I >>>> had in my garden the winters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. I >>>> would swear >>>> the the feathers slowly change color. It seems like the >>>> feathers develop >>>> a dark center and the color eventually suffuses the entire feather. >>>> >>>> I took a series of pictures of the young birds in my garden, I >>>> don't have >>>> one to watch and photograph as of yet this winter (2008/2009). >>>> I would >>>> love to know if the phenomenon has been documented somewhere. >>>> >>>> Thanks >>>> >>>> Sandy Leaptrott >>>> NE Portland >>>> -------------- Original message ---------------------- >>>> From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> >>>>> Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder >>>>> yesterday. >>>>> The >>>>> feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda gross!). I >>>>> would be >>>>> very >>>>> interested to hear what you hummer experts out there think is >>>>> going on >>>>> with this >>>>> bird. http://thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ >>>>> >>>>> Lee Cain >>>>> Astoria, Or >>>> >>>> >>> >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >>> ------------ >>> >>> >>> >>> No virus found in this incoming message. >>> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com >>> Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1872 - Release Date: >>> 1/2/2009 >>> 1:10 PM >>> >> >> >> > > > -- > Mike Patterson > Astoria, OR > http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/8ca2188e/attachment.html From sparsons at canby.com Fri Jan 2 13:21:56 2009 From: sparsons at canby.com (sparsons at canby.com) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 13:21:56 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Jackson County Rambling Message-ID: <545481537c827d900e6c5317523b6557.squirrel@mail.web-ster.com> We came down from Canby to visit family, and I managed to squeeze in a little birding. At Denman, there was a Northern Mockingbird and a Loggerhead Shrike. At the VA Domacilary there was a Eurasian Widgeon. Mixed flocks of Canada and Greater White Fronted Geese in fields north of Eagle Point, plus a few Tundra Swan. A nice day to be out... From cncschneider at msn.com Fri Jan 2 15:02:33 2009 From: cncschneider at msn.com (Carl & Christine Schneiders) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 15:02:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Green Heron Oregon Garden, Marion County Message-ID: Hi Birders, My sister and I watched a GREEN HERON, at the Oregon Garden, swallow a five inch long Common Carp (koi). I was surprised that a bird that small could swallow a fish that big. Matthew Schneider Silverton, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/af3397bf/attachment.html From cncschneider at msn.com Fri Jan 2 15:02:33 2009 From: cncschneider at msn.com (Carl & Christine Schneiders) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 15:02:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Green Heron Oregon Garden, Marion County Message-ID: Hi Birders, My sister and I watched a GREEN HERON, at the Oregon Garden, swallow a five inch long Common Carp (koi). I was surprised that a bird that small could swallow a fish that big. Matthew Schneider Silverton, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/8484e216/attachment.html From cncschneider at msn.com Fri Jan 2 15:05:54 2009 From: cncschneider at msn.com (Carl & Christine Schneiders) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 15:05:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Green Heron Oregon Garden, Marion County Message-ID: Hi Birders, My sister and I watched a GREEN HERON, at the Oregon Garden, swallow a five inch long Common Carp (koi). I was surprised that a bird that small could swallow a fish that big. Matthew Schneider Silverton, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/3c2d2534/attachment.html From kirkpat at charter.net Fri Jan 2 15:18:43 2009 From: kirkpat at charter.net (Douglas Kirkpatrick) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 15:18:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Baldie in Medford In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <841AAE7C2A67467C97EB10648C5A4510@D7CDFN81> Yesterday we spied a nice mature Bald Eagle soaring over southeast Medford. It's rare to see them away from the Rogue River and/or mountains, except in winter. Doug Kirkpatrick -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/b9a50c20/attachment.html From brrobb at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 15:43:31 2009 From: brrobb at comcast.net (Roger & Betty Robb) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 15:43:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak Message-ID: <43F3A97DCF03456A9B7D17360D61BA6C@RROffice> A feeder counter in my Eugene Christmas Count area called yesterday to report a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. I observed the bird this morning. Are there any Lane County records for wintering Black-headed Grosbeak? Oregon records? Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/36b45121/attachment.html From baybirders at embarqmail.com Fri Jan 2 15:51:22 2009 From: baybirders at embarqmail.com (Carol Cwiklinski & Steve Small) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 18:51:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: [obol] Tillamook CBC a" GO" Message-ID: <1247250997.1750801230940282868.JavaMail.root@md09.embarq.synacor.com> Hello, The roads are much better today as flood waters are receeding. The Tillamook Bay CBC is still scheduled for tomorrow Saturday Jan 3. We will meet at the Fern restaurant at 7:00 AM . If the Fern is once again inaccessible because of water, Plan B is to meet at the new Safeway. The new Safeway is located 1-2 blocks west of Hwy 101 north, on Third street. We will meet by the east entrance. Hope to see you there. Carol Cwiklinski 503-842-4661 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/79593084/attachment.html From sandyleapt at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 16:46:14 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:46:14 +0000 Subject: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's Message-ID: <010320090046.19470.495EB556000650B700004C0E22135285739B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Thanks Dan, I grow a lot of fuchsias in my garden. I noticed some fuchsia mite galls on one of my potted fuchsias when I brought it out of the garage and back to my unheated greenhouse this week. I know from my gardening contacts that these mites are spread by hummingbirds, so I've got mites and hummingbirds. I don't think that's what's going on the with hummingbird I took pictures of last winter. Thank you for the description of how feathers color. I sent a few pictures of the 2007/2008 hummingbird to Lee and Mike. If you would like to see the pictures I'm happy to send them to you. Looking at the pictures you can see how I might come up with my silly idea, even if it is incorrect. I love watching and learning about birds. Thanks again and let me know if you would like to see the pictures. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Dan Gleason > While most hummingbird mites are tropical, at least one species in > known in North America. I don't know its full range but it occurs in > species of paintbrush found along portions of the California coast > and is transported between flowers by Anna's, Allen's and Rufous > Hummingbirds. Many years ago, I saw a photo of a Rufous Hummingbird > from southern Oregon with what appeared to be mites on its bill. It > had been feeding on a paintbrush flower when the photo was taken. At > that time, I was not yet aware of hummingbird mites and did not > consider that the mites could have originated in the flower. That was > much too long ago now for me to recall details that would adequately > explain this photo or if hummingbird mites were even a possibility. > > For those who may not know, hummingbird mites are small mites found > within the blossoms of some flowers (nearly all tropical). Their > entire life is spent in these flowers but they are too small to move > from flower to flower by themselves. As the flower is beginning to > shrivel, the mites await the arrival of a foraging hummingbird. When > the bird feeds on the flowers nectar, the mites climb onto the beak > and quickly crawl up and into the bird's nostrils. When the > hummingbird feeds on another flower of the same species, the mites > quickly leave the nostril, rush down the beak and into the safety of > their preferred flower. Presumably, there is some chemical signal > that tells them they have arrived at the right species of flower. The > hummingbird appears to not be adversely affected. It is simply the > transportation system for these tiny hitchhikers. > > More than 100 species of these mites are known but only one is known > from North America. There is still much that we do not know about > these creatures and it is suspected that more species probably exist > than we now know. > > Dan Gleason > > Dan Gleason > ------------- > Dan Gleason > dan-gleason at comcast.net > 541 345-0450 > > > On Jan 2, 2009, at 9:36 AM, Mike Patterson wrote: > > > Bill Hilton renowned east-coast hummingbird expert suggests > > that this is a trick of the light. The white fringes around > > the dark centers give the illusion that the feather have a > > droplet shape. > > > > http://www.hiltonpond.org/images/RTHUHYMGorgetDetail01.jpg > > > > This was my very first impression, too, though I also entertained > > a more complicated surface tension/water accumulation hypothesis > > as well. There are, to my knowledge, no comensal flower mites in > > temperate North America. > > > > Gorget molt in Anna's Hummingbird (according to the BNA) takes > > 10-15 days. It happens fast. > > > > > > sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > >> Hi Lee, > >> > >> I just went back and reviewed my pictures. May I send you a few? > >> > >> Sandy Leaptrott > >> NE Portland > >> -------------- Original message ---------------------- > >> From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> > >>> Interesting idea, Sandy. I really don't know yet, but you may > >>> be right -- > >>> it makes sense. I have also updated the blog to include another > >>> possiblility. > >>> Lee > >>> > >>> ----- Original Message ----- > >>> From: > >>> To: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net>; "OBOL" > >>> > >>> Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:06 AM > >>> Subject: Re: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's > >>> > >>> > >>>> Hi Lee, > >>>> > >>>> I am so glad you posted this. Last year I asked whether or not > >>>> immature > >>>> male Anna's could change to their adult plumage without > >>>> molting. The > >>>> question sounded so silly, even to me, that it got no replies. > >>>> I think > >>>> the bird pictured is changing into adult plumage without > >>>> actually molting. > >>>> The picture you posted is of an immature male Anna's just like > >>>> the ones I > >>>> had in my garden the winters of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. I > >>>> would swear > >>>> the the feathers slowly change color. It seems like the > >>>> feathers develop > >>>> a dark center and the color eventually suffuses the entire feather. > >>>> > >>>> I took a series of pictures of the young birds in my garden, I > >>>> don't have > >>>> one to watch and photograph as of yet this winter (2008/2009). > >>>> I would > >>>> love to know if the phenomenon has been documented somewhere. > >>>> > >>>> Thanks > >>>> > >>>> Sandy Leaptrott > >>>> NE Portland > >>>> -------------- Original message ---------------------- > >>>> From: "Lee and Lori Cain" <4cains at charter.net> > >>>>> Evan took this shot of a male Anna's Hummingbird at our feeder > >>>>> yesterday. > >>>>> The > >>>>> feathers around the bill are really weird (and kinda gross!). I > >>>>> would be > >>>>> very > >>>>> interested to hear what you hummer experts out there think is > >>>>> going on > >>>>> with this > >>>>> bird. http://thesprucelog.blogspot.com/ > >>>>> > >>>>> Lee Cain > >>>>> Astoria, Or > >>>> > >>>> > >>> > >>> -------------------------------------------------------------------- > >>> ------------ > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> No virus found in this incoming message. > >>> Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com > >>> Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.2/1872 - Release Date: > >>> 1/2/2009 > >>> 1:10 PM > >>> > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > -- > > Mike Patterson > > Astoria, OR > > http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Dan Gleason Subject: Re: [obol] Strangely feathered Anna's Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:14:40 +0000 Size: 25682 Url: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/65a95962/attachment.mht From donalbri at teleport.com Fri Jan 2 16:48:43 2009 From: donalbri at teleport.com (Don Albright) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 16:48:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Upper Nestucca CBC CANCELLED Message-ID: Hi All, The Upper Nestucca CBC, which was originally scheduled for December 15, and then rescheduled to Monday, January 5, has been cancelled. Almost the entire count circle is still inaccessible due to snow on the ground, as well as heavy treefall in many areas, and probably some flood damage as well. Don Albright Newberg, Oregon donalbri at teleport.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/c082b759/attachment.html From kit at uoregon.edu Fri Jan 2 16:59:46 2009 From: kit at uoregon.edu (Kit Larsen) Date: Fri, 02 Jan 2009 16:59:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene TV Message-ID: <200901030059.n030xp4n031383@smtp.uoregon.edu> This afternoon (Saturday, Jan 2), between rain showers, I found a few birds in the old dump area of Alton Baker Park, Eugene: 2 Turkey Vulture 1 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 Peregrine Falcon 8 Golden-crowned Sparrow 5 Lincoln's Sparrow 1 Fox Sparrow 1 Savannah Sparrow Kit Larsen Eugene From dan-gleason at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 20:01:28 2009 From: dan-gleason at comcast.net (Dan Gleason) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:01:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak In-Reply-To: <43F3A97DCF03456A9B7D17360D61BA6C@RROffice> References: <43F3A97DCF03456A9B7D17360D61BA6C@RROffice> Message-ID: <48968145-0CFF-4D9A-A669-86EFCDB6D655@comcast.net> Photos of the grosbeak were taken by Becky Uhler and can be viewed on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10388448 at N06/sets/72157611634090165/ Anyone care to comment about age? The stripes in the head seem less prominent than on first year males and the appearance seems closer to photos I have seen on winter plumage in adult males. I have not seen adults in the winter so I have no personal experience to go by. Anyone who has access to Birds of North America OnLine might wish to compare Becky's photos with the BNA photos of first winter male and adult winter male. Dan Gleason ------------- Dan Gleason dan-gleason at comcast.net 541 345-0450 On Jan 2, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Roger & Betty Robb wrote: > A feeder counter in my Eugene Christmas Count area called yesterday > to report a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. I observed the bird this > morning. Are there any Lane County records for wintering Black- > headed Grosbeak? Oregon records? > > Roger Robb > Springfield, OR > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/94debe4e/attachment.html From fitzbeew at gmail.com Fri Jan 2 20:07:07 2009 From: fitzbeew at gmail.com (Holly Reinhard) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:07:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Possible Red Fox Sparrow in Eugene Message-ID: Obol, My parents' house is playing host to an odd-looking Fox Sparrow which I think is a Red Fox Sparrow. I posted some poor-quality, yet I believe diagnostic, photos at my photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/fitzbeew/Birds# Any comments are welcome. Dan and Anne Heyerly have my parents' house in their Eugene CBC area for Sunday so they are going to try to see it on Sunday. If others want to try to see it, e-mail me and I can arrange that with my parents; they are very bird- and birder-friendly. Good birding, -Holly Reinhard Eugene, Oregon fitzbeew at gmail.com (this is my new e-mail address) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/d67c8e22/attachment.html From brrobb at comcast.net Fri Jan 2 21:02:08 2009 From: brrobb at comcast.net (Roger & Betty Robb) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 21:02:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak Message-ID: <75335257270A44B380E42F1B28B2EE22@RROffice> Hi Dan, I think this is a first winter male. An adult wouldn't show white in the supercillium and would have a very bold upper wingbar. Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/224c1f38/attachment.html From larmcqueen at msn.com Fri Jan 2 21:11:26 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 21:11:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak In-Reply-To: <48968145-0CFF-4D9A-A669-86EFCDB6D655@comcast.net> Message-ID: Few have seen this bird in winter, but this looks like an ad male to me, which shows the largest white patch at the base of the primaries. It will be interesting to see a plumage change if it stays. Larry _____ From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Dan Gleason Sent: Friday, January 02, 2009 8:01 PM To: Roger & Betty Robb Cc: obol Subject: Re: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak Photos of the grosbeak were taken by Becky Uhler and can be viewed on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10388448 at N06/sets/72157611634090165/ Anyone care to comment about age? The stripes in the head seem less prominent than on first year males and the appearance seems closer to photos I have seen on winter plumage in adult males. I have not seen adults in the winter so I have no personal experience to go by. Anyone who has access to Birds of North America OnLine might wish to compare Becky's photos with the BNA photos of first winter male and adult winter male. Dan Gleason ------------- Dan Gleason dan-gleason at comcast.net 541 345-0450 On Jan 2, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Roger & Betty Robb wrote: A feeder counter in my Eugene Christmas Count area called yesterday to report a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. I observed the bird this morning. Are there any Lane County records for wintering Black-headed Grosbeak? Oregon records? Roger Robb Springfield, OR _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/64b8da6e/attachment.html From campbell at peak.org Fri Jan 2 22:26:18 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 22:26:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pyrrhuloxia 2009, other area birds Message-ID: <079ACC0DE3574DA1936D360F94E9EADB@maryPC> The PYRRHULOXIA survived the cold snap and appears hale and hearty for the new year. Today it spent some time in our back yard, but it seems to head for deeper cover during bad weather. Yesterday, a windy day, it was in the protected area north of the house with the big oak tree. Nobody, as far as I know, has seen the Palm Warbler since December 22. The BLACK PHOEBE was on top of the church this morning. Yesterday, the first, I found a bright ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER in our back yard. A PRAIRIE FALCON flew over town today. I found a SWAMP SPARROW at Snag Boat Bend on Tuesday, the 30th. Right now the area is inaccessible due to flooding. (I was in my kayak when I found it.) Some of you, I think, have seen our back yard and might be marginally interested in what happens here when the water rises. Near flood stage we loose all of the lower yard, and about half of our property becomes a bay. Then we can count on having PIED-BILLED GREBES--often five or six--in our yard. I think they dive to pick worms out of the grass. The past four days we've had a female COMMON MERGANSER patrolling the shallow areas with her face under water and her crest pointing straight up, as if she were snorkeling. For the past two days a GREAT BLUE HERON has occupied a choice spot where the current flows in from the main channel, right past its legs. We've seen it chug down five or six fish. BELTED KINGFISHERS sometimes sit in the willows over the still water, and we always have at least one SPOTTED SANDPIPER bobbing along the water's edge. Of course, fantastically rare birds appear here all the time, but usually no one is around to see them. Randy Peoria -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090102/1502945f/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Fri Jan 2 22:54:01 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 06:54:01 +0000 Subject: [obol] Possible Red Fox Sparrow in Eugene In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Holly, Despite the quality of the images, this looks to be a Red Fox Sparrow of the iliaca/zaboria ilk. It shows a very strong pattern to the face, lots of gray on the nape and upper back, and the wings are very reddish. Great find. Hopefully, it will stick around for the count and perhaps Anne or someone else can procure some better pictures. Dave Irons Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 20:07:07 -0800 From: fitzbeew at gmail.com To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] Possible Red Fox Sparrow in Eugene Obol, My parents' house is playing host to an odd-looking Fox Sparrow which I think is a Red Fox Sparrow. I posted some poor-quality, yet I believe diagnostic, photos at my photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/fitzbeew/Birds# Any comments are welcome. Dan and Anne Heyerly have my parents' house in their Eugene CBC area for Sunday so they are going to try to see it on Sunday. If others want to try to see it, e-mail me and I can arrange that with my parents; they are very bird- and birder-friendly. Good birding, -Holly Reinhard Eugene, Oregon fitzbeew at gmail.com (this is my new e-mail address) _________________________________________________________________ Life on your PC is safer, easier, and more enjoyable with Windows Vista?. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032870/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/7f67daea/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Fri Jan 2 23:56:51 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 07:56:51 +0000 Subject: [obol] Eugene TV In-Reply-To: <200901030059.n030xp4n031383@smtp.uoregon.edu> References: <200901030059.n030xp4n031383@smtp.uoregon.edu> Message-ID: I'm not sure how many Turkey Vultures are around Eugene this winter, but there must be a few. Last Monday I saw two off Gimpl Hill Rd. near the intersection with Sanford Rd and this morning I saw two more east of Fir Butte Rd. near the Amazon Canal and I also saw one more (can't remember the location) in recent days. Dave Irons > Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 16:59:46 -0800 > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > From: kit at uoregon.edu > Subject: [obol] Eugene TV > > > This afternoon (Saturday, Jan 2), between rain showers, I found a few > birds in the old dump area of Alton Baker Park, Eugene: > > 2 Turkey Vulture > 1 Red-shouldered Hawk > 1 Peregrine Falcon > > 8 Golden-crowned Sparrow > 5 Lincoln's Sparrow > 1 Fox Sparrow > 1 Savannah Sparrow > > Kit Larsen > Eugene > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/966153dc/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sat Jan 3 08:03:14 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 08:03:14 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene TV Message-ID: <495F8C42.9000104@pacifier.com> I spent the morning at the Delta Ponds and points North around the Airport, coming back through Fern Ridge. I saw a Turkey Vulture at Coyote Butte and one near the cemetery on W 11th. There were also several 100 CACKLING GEESE in the field across the street from the cemetery and at least 20 GREATER YELLOWLEGS in the puddles off Beltline. WHITE-TAILED KITE also at Coyote Butte, but nothing the cracker- jack counters of the Eugene CBC aren't likely to find. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From dpvroman at budget.net Sat Jan 3 09:07:05 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 09:07:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak References: <43F3A97DCF03456A9B7D17360D61BA6C@RROffice> <48968145-0CFF-4D9A-A669-86EFCDB6D655@comcast.net> Message-ID: <878B158E8F8F4EE59D7AEC0F6F28C203@Warbler> This appears to be a "first winter" male to me (fledged in 2008; it became a Second Year bird Jan. 1). There is very little streaking in the breast and belly, females should show a little streaking at least. Also, note that some of the greater coverts (next to the tertials) have been replaced with black, white edges feathers. The remainder are brown and have not been replace. These black feathers should not occur on a female. The amount of white showing at the base of the primary flight feathers is more than a female should show. The bird has what I refer to as a "baby face" of a fledgling yet (the whites are really white). My thoughts, Dennis Subject: Re: [obol] Black-headed Grosbeak Photos of the grosbeak were taken by Becky Uhler and can be viewed on flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10388448 at N06/sets/72157611634090165/ Anyone care to comment about age? The stripes in the head seem less prominent than on first year males and the appearance seems closer to photos I have seen on winter plumage in adult males. I have not seen adults in the winter so I have no personal experience to go by. Anyone who has access to Birds of North America OnLine might wish to compare Becky's photos with the BNA photos of first winter male and adult winter male. Dan Gleason ------------- Dan Gleason dan-gleason at comcast.net 541 345-0450 On Jan 2, 2009, at 3:43 PM, Roger & Betty Robb wrote: A feeder counter in my Eugene Christmas Count area called yesterday to report a BLACK-HEADED GROSBEAK. I observed the bird this morning. Are there any Lane County records for wintering Black-headed Grosbeak? Oregon records? Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/f7faabb7/attachment.html From tanager at nu-world.com Sat Jan 3 12:08:09 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 12:08:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene "RED" FOX SPARROW Message-ID: <000b01c96ddf$000dd190$002974b0$@com> Saturday January 3, 2009 At approximately 10:30am today I successfully shot a series of photographs of the red Fox Sparrow visiting the back yard of Holly Reinhard's parents. I used the Canon that Anne typically uses, so you can expect fairly good quality images. They look pretty good on the small screen anyway. I have an appointment soon, so I will not be able to upload the photos to Anne's Picasa website today, but she will be here this evening after 7pm so look for a link posted to OBOL sometime after 7pm. This must be the year of the Red Fox Sparrow! It is quite a stunner! As Holly noted in her post to OBOL last evening, please contact her for arrangements to see this bird. She is in Coquille today helping out with that south coast CBC, so it likely would be folly to attempt to reach her for arrangements today. The bird has not been visible from the street and it would not be cool to enter their private yard without permission. THANKS HOLLY. GREAT FIND!!! Dan Heyerly Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/45a26725/attachment.html From pointers at pacifier.com Sat Jan 3 12:16:45 2009 From: pointers at pacifier.com (Lyn Topinka) Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 12:16:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Swainson's there for CBC !!! In-Reply-To: <000b01c96ddf$000dd190$002974b0$@com> References: <000b01c96ddf$000dd190$002974b0$@com> Message-ID: <20090103201640.D85156A4F2@smtp2.pacifier.net> hi group ... the Swainson's Hawk was sitting in one of his favorite trees just waiting for us to show up to count him in the CBC ... he no doubt was enjoying the sunshine too !!!!!! http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images09Jan/shillapoo_swainsons_hawk_01-02-09.jpg enjoy, Lyn Lyn Topinka http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com http://RidgefieldBirds.com From tom-escue at comcast.net Sat Jan 3 14:08:19 2009 From: tom-escue at comcast.net (Tom Escue) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 14:08:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] bald eagle Message-ID: <368DB72C89D049E683BAC5562BD8DB34@TomsPC> I saw a high flying BALD EAGLE near Jasper road and Dondea St in Springfield today. Tom Escue Springfield -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/40714d4f/attachment.html From greenfant at hotmail.com Sat Jan 3 16:53:36 2009 From: greenfant at hotmail.com (Stefan Schlick) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 19:53:36 -0500 Subject: [obol] Hillsboro birds (Washington Co) Message-ID: The wigeon flock at Amberglen Park south of The Streets of Tanasbourne contained a drake Eurasian x American Wigeon. There was not a single Thayer's Gull in the gull flock. A single pair of Wood Ducks continues at the Hillsboro Library ponds off Brookwood. A male Ruddy Duck was new for me for this location. At Jackson Bottom off Wood St, there were a surprising 12 SNOW GEESE and 79 Canvasback. No swans. 10 Eurasian Collared-Doves are still at 30939 Unger Rd about 5mi south of Hillsboro on 219. Stefan Schlick Hillsboro, OR _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/85b36a37/attachment.html From pppahooie at comcast.net Sat Jan 3 16:57:48 2009 From: pppahooie at comcast.net (pppahooie at comcast.net) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:57:48 +0000 Subject: [obol] Preliminary Results - Sauvie Island CBC - OR side only Message-ID: <010420090057.25710.4960098C0001F2920000646E22070216330A070101080E9F9F9F@comcast.net> Friday January 2, 2009 Waking to find some new snow and ice on the ground, a small number of counters (9) set out to cover the Oregon side of the Sauvie Island CBC. We counted 89 species. Some notable finds were 1 Long-eared Owl, 26 Eurasian Collared Doves, 7 Red-throated Loons, 10 Western Grebes, 2 Red-shouldered Hawks and a flock of 4,500 Snow Geese. Reports are still coming in. Count week and feeder watch reports are welcomed. Look for the Ridgefield results - I know I'm eagerly awaiting them! K.Bachman -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/d4234809/attachment.html From jeffharding at centurytel.net Sat Jan 3 17:26:19 2009 From: jeffharding at centurytel.net (Jeff Harding) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 17:26:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] East Linn County Black Phoebe Message-ID: Instead of going to Tillamook today, I nursed a cold by the fire in the morning and took a nice walk in the afternoon to the old mill ponds at Griggs, between Lebanon and Crabtree, Linn County. There was a Black Phoebe working the edge of the main pond by the shops. There were also good numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers, mostly Myrtle, and the usual ducks and geese. There was a nice flock of 22 Western Meadowlarks in the grass field north of Snow Peak Road, west of Bond Road, where there were also a half-dozen Western Bluebirds. There were Acorn Woodpeckers at their usual locations, the oaks at the Nelson Farm, and at Griggs at the Lennox place. At our feeder, there is a White-throated Sparrow along with the Golden-crowned Sparrows, Juncos, Chestnut-backed and Black-capped Chickadees. The Brown Creepers were singing in the oaks out back. A very pleasant afternoon for a walk, and a good start to birding my home circle. Cheers, Jeff -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/ae504088/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sat Jan 3 17:49:43 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 17:49:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] More Pygmy Owl photos Message-ID: <496015B7.4050104@pacifier.com> I took over 20 shots of the Pygmy Owl I found at Dorena the other day. I uploaded the best of those to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24226259 at N06/sets/72157612129657242/ For those who might be interested... -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From rfadney at hotmail.com Sat Jan 3 20:06:33 2009 From: rfadney at hotmail.com (R. Adney Jr.) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:06:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile lane Falcon Message-ID: While out shooting raptor pics today, my wife and I ran onto a Falcon that I am having trouble identifying. Here is a link to view the pictures, and below that is a link to the location of the bird. Photo link: http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/fatrichie/Falcon/ Map link: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117899333720741961609.00045c600e8f1fbac421b&ll=44.433167,-123.022821&spn=0.004589,0.009656&t=h&z=17 We also were lucky enough to see three male harriers and seven female harriers all on Waggener Rd. in Linn County. As I was shooting pics of two of the females I got out of the van and nearly stepped on a male that was sitting like a statue near the ditch. He startled me so bad that I didn't even get one shot of him! Others we saw today were; 1000 plus Starlings in one field 5 Bald eagles (1 Juvenile 4 adults) 20 Kestrals 2 Rough Leg Hawks 8 Red Tail Hawks 2 Coopers Hawks Several unidentified hawks (probably Juvie Red Tails) A beautiful day for birding to be sure! Rich Adney _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_speed_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/e1aff581/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sat Jan 3 20:13:53 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sat, 03 Jan 2009 20:13:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Coquille Valley CBC preliminary results Message-ID: A mostly sunny day in the Bandon-Coquille area allowed teams to enjoy the day. Preliminary species total is 148, with one or two more possible, including a possible Snow Bunting reported on count day. Highlight species included Emperor Goose, White-breasted Nuthatch, Barred Owl, Prairie Falcon, Common Yellowthroat, Say's Phoebe and Sandhill Crane. There were no really bad misses, although the ocean was almost empty all day except for murres. The most surprising misses were Green Heron, Sora, Glaucous Gull, Cedar Waxwing. Count week birds include kittiwake and Lesser Yellowlegs, both of which were in the area the previous day. Many record highs were set. Details in a few days. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From tanager at nu-world.com Sat Jan 3 20:21:54 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:21:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene "Red" Fox Sparrow photos Message-ID: <001201c96e23$f9b72590$ed2570b0$@com> Obolinks, The private link below will take you to a special album Anne set up on Picasa that contains five photos I took of this beauty earlier Saturday morning (January 3, 2009) in the back yard of Holly Reinhard's parents, Dave and Cheri. The photos are diagnostic narrowing it to either the iliaca or zaboria subspecies of Fox Sparrow (Passarella iliaca). If anyone wants to hazard a guess as to which one it is . . . http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/obpC8GuTstRnZ_DEu0AvTQ?authkey=dZNDK1Ge WfE &feat=directlink As noted earlier today, and also yesterday by Holly, if you want to see this bird you need to know that it is coming to a feeder in her parent's back yard. It cannot be seen from the street. Contact Holly for access. Holly's e-mail address is "fitzbeew AT gmail.com" without the quotes and the AT is a placeholder for @. I will vouch for the friendliness of her parents and also the bird friendly back yard. Thanks Holly, Dave, and Cheri. Good Luck and good birding. Dan Heyerly -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/6f062b8f/attachment.html From tanager at nu-world.com Sat Jan 3 20:27:30 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:27:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] "Red" Fox Sparrow link correction Message-ID: <001701c96e24$c1c12b30$45438190$@com> http://picasaweb.google.com/aheyerly/RedFoxSparrow?authkey=dZNDK1GeWfE &feat=directlink Try this link to the "Red" Fox Sparrow album on Picasa. Sorry. Dan Heyerly -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/2a8ff069/attachment.html From campbell at peak.org Sat Jan 3 21:35:09 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:35:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pyrrhuloxia Information Update Message-ID: The Pyrrhuloxia was in our backyard, again, today. When I restricted access to our yard, I was under the impression that it had changed its favorite scratching grounds to places easily seen from Main Street. Since the weather has improved, it seems to be spending more time behind our house. Myself, I have a heart as hard as an industrial diamond, and about the same size, so I don't much care if people can't burnish their 2009 lists with this bird. Mary, though, feels bad if people come so far and then end up peering in vain toward our backyard. So, if you are hunting for this bird and can't find it along Main Street, you are welcome to take as long a look at our backyard as you want from north of our house. From there you can see all of our usual feeding areas, and our neighbor's, too, and I won't have to worry about finding people gazing hopefully up toward our bathroom windows and... Our house is 29756 Main Street, in Peoria. It's a little blue-gray job where Stark Street meets Main, beside the river. Peoria can be found in the Delorme Atlas, p. 47 A7. It's east of the Willamette River on Peoria Road, which runs between Corvallis and Harrisburg. Peoria is about 9 miles south of Hwy. 34 and 12 miles north of Harrisburg. An old church is at the south end of town, and Peoria Park (and boat ramp) is at the north end. Main Street runs between them, along the river. Birders are welcome to park in front of the white shop to the south of our house. Randy Peoria (of course) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/9482a444/attachment.html From uskestrel at yahoo.com Sat Jan 3 21:41:11 2009 From: uskestrel at yahoo.com (Carol Ledford) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 21:41:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] "On the Wing" Documentary on OPB Message-ID: <608955.73648.qm@web54203.mail.re2.yahoo.com> I hope this information hasn't already been posted.? On Wednesday, January 7, OPB will be broadcasting Dan Viens' documentary film about "Portland's favorite flock of birds, the Chapman Swifts, a flock of Vaux Swifts that has taken up residence in the chimney of Chapman Elementary School in Northwest Portland during the month of September. Each night during the Swifts' residency, thousands of them fill the sky above the school. Then, just before sunset, the birds form a dramatic vortex and dive into the chimney in an amazing aerial display."? Several Portland birders and volunteers are in the documentary.? If you're interested in reading more about the film, which debuted last October as a Portland Audubon Society benefit, check out http://www.audubonportland.org/about/events/on-the-wing.? OPB showings: HDTV 10.1 ?Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 PM TV ?Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 8:00 PM TV ?Friday, January 9, 2009 at 2:00 AM TV ?Sunday, January 11, 2009 at 1:00 PM? Carol Ledford -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/3c13595e/attachment.html From nelsoncheek at charter.net Sat Jan 3 22:13:39 2009 From: nelsoncheek at charter.net (WALTER NELSON) Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 22:13:39 -0800 Subject: [obol] Yaquina Bay CBC - Preliminary Results Message-ID: <20090104060530.LABT128.aarprv06.charter.net@D9FD2761> The Yaquina Bay CBC was held today (1/03/09) in miraculously calm and sunny weather, though it was a bit chilly until mid-day. Still, after Thursday's storm, none of the 21 field observers and 6 feeder counters were complaining about weather. Species total came to 136 (above average) with no rarities and no terrible misses - except nobody could re-find the count week BLACK PHOEBE that was seen at the South Jetty area yesterday. Overall numbers of waterfowl seemed low, but possibly birds were more spread out than usual in all the flooded lowlands. The recent storms have finally convinced the BROWN PELICANS to move south but 10 lingered still, along with 2 HEERMAN'S GULLS (new to count). Seawatchers spotted NORTHERN FULMAR, SOOTY/SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATER, BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE and all the expected alcids: COMMON MURRE, PIGEON GUILLEMOT, ANCIENT MURRELET, RHINOCEROUS AUKLET, and more than 30 MARBLED MURRELETS. Other good finds were 2 LONG-TAILED DUCKS in Sally's Bend, a single female BARROW'S GOLDENEYE at Seal Rock Stables, 1 WHITE-TAILED KITE, 2 BARN OWLS, 1 NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL, 12 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS reported from 3 different locations, and 2 SLATE-COLORED JUNCOS. Feeder watchers added 6 MOUNTAIN QUAIL, 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS plus a LESSER GOLDFINCH. Despite the recent sub-freezing weather the ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRD count continues an upward trend with 30 birds found. MOURNING DOVES were new to the count only 4 years ago; they have been annual since, with 8 reported today. Additional species from count week include GLAUCOUS GULL (1st winter bird seen yesterday at the South Jetty parking pullout), CLARK'S GREBE, and EVENING GROSBEAK. ______________________ Rebecca Cheek, Compiler nelsoncheek AT charter.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090103/a13e9172/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Sat Jan 3 23:12:10 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 07:12:10 +0000 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile lane Falcon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Rich, This bird is a Prairie Falcon. Nice find. They are a very uncommon but annual wintering bird in the southern half of the Willamette Valley. Lars Norgren (from Banks), Karl Fairchild (from Corvallis), Jessie Leach who spotted the bird (from Dallas) and I had a Prairie Falcon near the small community of Norway on the Coquille Valley CBC today. This was only the 8th or 9th record for Coos Co. We didn't get this close though. Dave Irons From: rfadney at hotmail.com To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 20:06:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile lane Falcon While out shooting raptor pics today, my wife and I ran onto a Falcon that I am having trouble identifying. Here is a link to view the pictures, and below that is a link to the location of the bird. Photo link: http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/fatrichie/Falcon/ Map link: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117899333720741961609.00045c600e8f1fbac421b&ll=44.433167,-123.022821&spn=0.004589,0.009656&t=h&z=17 We also were lucky enough to see three male harriers and seven female harriers all on Waggener Rd. in Linn County. As I was shooting pics of two of the females I got out of the van and nearly stepped on a male that was sitting like a statue near the ditch. He startled me so bad that I didn't even get one shot of him! Others we saw today were; 1000 plus Starlings in one field 5 Bald eagles (1 Juvenile 4 adults) 20 Kestrals 2 Rough Leg Hawks 8 Red Tail Hawks 2 Coopers Hawks Several unidentified hawks (probably Juvie Red Tails) A beautiful day for birding to be sure! Rich Adney Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills. Get your Hotmail? account. _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/19717076/attachment.html From winkg at hevanet.com Sun Jan 4 07:00:55 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 07:00:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] Portland CBC -- preliminary results Message-ID: <20090104150128.BE98EA8217@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> The Portland CBC was held yesterday, Jan 3. We lucked out on the weather, enjoying a cloudy but dry day. 137 field counters found 119 species, beating last year's record-smashing 118. Curiously, despite the tantalizing vagrants found in the past few weeks, the total was made up entirely of "regular Portland winter birds". The coveted "Eagle Eye Award" for best bird goes to Matt Crumbaker and friends, who spotted an AMERICAN DIPPER in Macleay Park. Matt's name will be inscribed forever in buckram on the trophy. Heroic owling by John Deshler, Jay Withgott, and Tim Shelmerdine contributed BARRED OWL (a first for count day), and NORTHERN PYGMY-OWL and NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL, which had not been recorded in many years. In total we found 7 species of owls--just about all any reasonable person could expect in Portland. Other highlights were 2 PACIFIC LOONS, a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, 2 CINNAMON TEAL, and 2 NORTHERN SHRIKES. TUNDRA SWANS must have been holding a fly-in. The total of 438 obliterated the previous record for the Portland CBC. My thanks to my area leaders: John Fitchen, Pat Muller, Lynn Herring, Lori Hennings, Char Corkran and Sam Pointer. The record- setting species count was the result of their hard work to put well-qualified teams in the right habitats. They did a great job! Wink Gross, compiler Portland Christmas Bird Count From dpvroman at budget.net Sun Jan 4 08:32:29 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 08:32:29 -0800 Subject: [obol] Nice Hawk Owl photo (in NY) Message-ID: <8704D907F3784D1E85952367895D2F18@Warbler> Great photo of a Hawk Owl that currently is in northern NY. Thought some of you out there would enjoy seeing it. Dennis http://www.jnphoto.net/northernhawkowl2.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/df253233/attachment.html From dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM Sun Jan 4 09:19:07 2009 From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM (Cheryl Whelchel) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 09:19:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Airlie CBC Possible hybrid duck and Vesper Sparrow Message-ID: Probably this will be one that got away, but for what its worth I have posted some poor pictures of what appears to possibly be a hybird of some sort. The pictures really don't help much. Perhaps my birding partner Phyllis will post a description as well. In addition to what I stated below, the tuft was visible with only binoculars, and was quite plain with the scope. If someone much more knowlegeable wants to chase this I can work on getting access to the pond. It was in the Bueana Vista area south on Independence. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: Cheryl Whelchel To: David Irons Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:57 AM Subject: Re: need help with 2 id's Thanks for the response. There were 2 other observers, one person had been birding for over 30 years. She is the one that first noticed the tuft and we studied it at 60 power for 20 minutes. So yes I think that it definitely had a tuft. Unfortuneatly it was on private property well away from the road, and access will be problematic. Again thanks for the great help. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: David Irons To: Cheryl Whelchel Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 11:05 PM Subject: RE: need help with 2 id's Hi Cheryl, Sorry for the late response. I just got back from doing the Coquille Valley CBC and I am scheduled to meet a couple people for pre-dawn owling at 5AM for tomorrow's Eugene CBC. If I got to bed this very instant I will get five hours of sleep. The sparrow is definitely a Vesper. The very neat complete eyering, relatively plain face (not as patterned as a Savannah) and the fine streaking on the breast and flanks make this a pretty straight forward ID. The duck is more of a challenge. I can't see what I would call a tuft in any of these images. Based on head shape along and the generally paleness in the face and your description, I would say the bird is likely a Ring-necked Duck. Though Tufteds resemble RNDU a bit, they have a very rounded crown and hindcrown. It is not squared off like a Ring-necked. There is the slight possibility of it being a hybrid Tufted X Lesser Scaup or even Tufted X Ring-necked, but with out a closer more clear image that would be tough to tell. If you have the opportunity, you might try to get out and see it again. If you are sure you saw even a little tuft, I would post this to OBOL and the Mid-Valley Birders site in hopes that someone can go out and refind it. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM To: llsdirons at msn.com Subject: need help with 2 id's Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 19:36:44 -0800 Hi Dave, I did the Airlie CBC today and found 2 unusual birds. The first is a sparrow and it is probably a Vesper Sparrow, but I wanted to run it by someone else. The second is a duck that is a bit more difficult, especially since it was a little too far away for decent pictures. It was a brown duck with a hint of white around its bill. The bill was a sort of gray with a black tip. The head had a rounded profile with what I would call a dark chocolate cap, and a tuft. It's back was a slightly darker brown than flanks. It held it's tail stiffly up sort of like a ruddy. It dove. I would love to call this a Tufted Duck, the problem is the eyes. It appeared to have a white eye ring and white line going postierior from the middle of the eye. To far away to really discern eye color, but seemed dark, not yellow. There were no other birds present so judging relative size was difficult. The amount of white around the bill on face was very slight. The remainder of face was chocolatly brown like the back. I can't rule out either Ring-necked or Tufted. The eyes are inconsistent with Tufted, and the shape of head and tuft are inconsistent with Ring-neck. I put pictures of both birds on my website. I will need to let Paul Adamus know asap, especially about the sparrow since the photo documentation is good. Thanks Cheryl Whelchel http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. Get your Hotmail? account now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/05639f7f/attachment.html From ensatina3 at hotmail.com Sun Jan 4 10:36:40 2009 From: ensatina3 at hotmail.com (Bobbett Pierce) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 13:36:40 -0500 Subject: [obol] evening grosbeaks Message-ID: Eight EVENING GROSBEAKS are at one of my feeders at the present time -- first time I've seen them here this winter. Among the regular feeder birds (27 species, including a Cooper's) I've been getting hundreds of SISKENS the last couple of days, and a WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW. A flicker often dumps all the seed out of my platform tube feeder, looking for hulled seeds. It can toss out a quart of seed in a short time. There are lots of ground birds that don't mind, even if I am not pleased. The lesser goldfinches have not been spotted again that were reported a week ago. Birdbath heavily used even on freezing or rainy days. I fill it daily -- sometimes with a milkjug full of hot water to melt the ice. Lona Pierce, Warren in Columbia County _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/e5b5d54b/attachment.html From mklittletree at comcast.net Sun Jan 4 11:25:48 2009 From: mklittletree at comcast.net (michel Kleinbaum) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:25:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Ankeny Kite Message-ID: I have sent this mail twice ( on Jan.2 and 3) but I don't think it was received on OBOL. ----- Original Message ----- From: "michel Kleinbaum" To: "OBOL" Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 10:28 AM Subject: Ankeny Kite >A pleasant surprise, yesterday, was the sighting of my first White-tailed Kite for Ankeny NWR. It was on Buena Vista Road; just west of the Mohoff Pond pullout and north of the RR tracks. > > Michel Kleinbaum S. Salem From dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM Sun Jan 4 11:29:58 2009 From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM (Cheryl Whelchel) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:29:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Vesper Sparrow location Message-ID: I don't know the name of the road it was on but if you are going north on Wells Landing RD and turn right where it dead ends into Hopville, then turn left on the unpaved road that has hops growing to the left of it. At the end of the hops the road turns right and there is a blackberry thicket in the corner. The bird responded quickly to pishing. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: Jamie S. To: Cheryl Whelchel Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 11:10 AM Subject: Re: [birding] Airlie CBC Possible hybrid duck and Vesper Sparrow Can you post a description of where you found the Vesper sparrow so anyone who would like to try and relocate it can do so? Thanks! Jamie Simmons Corvallis --- On Sun, 1/4/09, Cheryl Whelchel > wrote: From: Cheryl Whelchel > Subject: [birding] Airlie CBC Possible hybrid duck and Vesper Sparrow To: "obol" , "midvally birding" Date: Sunday, January 4, 2009, 9:19 AM Probably this will be one that got away, but for what its worth I have posted some poor pictures of what appears to possibly be a hybird of some sort. The pictures really don't help much. Perhaps my birding partner Phyllis will post a description as well. In addition to what I stated below, the tuft was visible with only binoculars, and was quite plain with the scope. If someone much more knowlegeable wants to chase this I can work on getting access to the pond. It was in the Bueana Vista area south on Independence. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: Cheryl Whelchel To: David Irons Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:57 AM Subject: Re: need help with 2 id's Thanks for the response. There were 2 other observers, one person had been birding for over 30 years. She is the one that first noticed the tuft and we studied it at 60 power for 20 minutes. So yes I think that it definitely had a tuft. Unfortuneatly it was on private property well away from the road, and access will be problematic. Again thanks for the great help. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: David Irons To: Cheryl Whelchel Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 11:05 PM Subject: RE: need help with 2 id's Hi Cheryl, Sorry for the late response. I just got back from doing the Coquille Valley CBC and I am scheduled to meet a couple people for pre-dawn owling at 5AM for tomorrow's Eugene CBC. If I got to bed this very instant I will get five hours of sleep. The sparrow is definitely a Vesper. The very neat complete eyering, relatively plain face (not as patterned as a Savannah) and the fine streaking on the breast and flanks make this a pretty straight forward ID. The duck is more of a challenge. I can't see what I would call a tuft in any of these images. Based on head shape along and the generally paleness in the face and your description, I would say the bird is likely a Ring-necked Duck. Though Tufteds resemble RNDU a bit, they have a very rounded crown and hindcrown. It is not squared off like a Ring-necked. There is the slight possibility of it being a hybrid Tufted X Lesser Scaup or even Tufted X Ring-necked, but with out a closer more clear image that would be tough to tell. If you have the opportunity, you might try to get out and see it again. If you are sure you saw even a little tuft, I would post this to OBOL and the Mid-Valley Birders site in hopes that someone can go out and refind it. Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM To: llsdirons at msn.com Subject: need help with 2 id's Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 19:36:44 -0800 Hi Dave, I did the Airlie CBC today and found 2 unusual birds. The first is a sparrow and it is probably a Vesper Sparrow, but I wanted to run it by someone else. The second is a duck that is a bit more difficult, especially since it was a little too far away for decent pictures. It was a brown duck with a hint of white around its bill. The bill was a sort of gray with a black tip. The head had a rounded profile with what I would call a dark chocolate cap, and a tuft. It's back was a slightly darker brown than flanks. It held it's tail stiffly up sort of like a ruddy. It dove. I would love to call this a Tufted Duck, the problem is the eyes. It appeared to have a white eye ring and white line going postierior from the middle of the eye. To far away to really discern eye color, but seemed dark, not yellow. There were no other birds present so judging relative size was difficult. The amount of white around the bill on face was very slight. The remainder of face was chocolatly brown like the back. I can't rule out either Ring-necked or Tufted. The eyes are inconsistent with Tufted, and the shape of head and tuft are inconsistent with Ring-neck. I put pictures of both birds on my website. I will need to let Paul Adamus know asap, especially about the sparrow since the photo documentation is good. Thanks Cheryl Whelchel http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. Get your Hotmail? account now. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/c1f5d160/attachment.html From greg at thebirdguide.com Sun Jan 4 11:30:42 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:30:42 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile lane Falcon Message-ID: While I agree now that Rich Adney's bird is a Prairie Falcon, that wasn't my first impression. It has been a while since I've seen very many Prairie Falcons at close range. This bird was so pale blue-gray and so white on the underparts, and so unmarked on the underwing that I couldn't imagine it was a Prairie Falcon. I thought I was looking at the pale prairie form of Merlin! But of course the face pattern is all wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong, but most Prairie Falcons that cross over into the Willamette Valley in winter are juveniles. They are darker brown, buffy underneath with heavy streaking and heavy underwing markings in the wing pits. This bird seems to be an adult at the extreme pale and unmarked end of the spectrum. Now that Steve Dowlan is living in the middle of the range, he can correct me and tell me that this bird seems a normal Prairie Falcon to him! Photo link: http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/fatrichie/Falcon/ Greg Gillson The Bird Guide, Inc. greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From greg at thebirdguide.com Sun Jan 4 11:36:10 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:36:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Texas Red-tail Message-ID: <7C2025B854EE460F8312D7576947FCDA@GREG> Hawk aficionados may enjoy puzzling over 4 photos of a pale Red-tailed Hawk taken by Kevin Smith in Del Rio, Texas back in October. Sometimes we get presumed Harlan's form here in Oregon. But Kevin's bird is quite pale and pretty. What is it? http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_from_others Greg Gillson The Bird Guide, Inc. greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From gnorgren at earthlink.net Sun Jan 4 11:38:35 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:38:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile lane Falcon In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: The Prairie Falcon I saw at Peoria about Nov 19 struck me as very pale in the underparts. Likewise the Prairie Falcon yesterday at Norway Bottoms (Coquille Valley CBC) that Jessie Leach first spotted was quite pale. I suppose I may have been influenced by the dazzling sunlight reflected from the hundreds of acres of floodwaters surrounding said falcon's various perches. Lars Norgren On Jan 4, 2009, at 11:30 AM, Greg Gillson wrote: > While I agree now that Rich Adney's bird is a Prairie Falcon, that > wasn't my > first impression. It has been a while since I've seen very many Prairie > Falcons at close range. This bird was so pale blue-gray and so white > on the > underparts, and so unmarked on the underwing that I couldn't imagine > it was > a Prairie Falcon. I thought I was looking at the pale prairie form of > Merlin! But of course the face pattern is all wrong. > > Correct me if I'm wrong, but most Prairie Falcons that cross over into > the > Willamette Valley in winter are juveniles. They are darker brown, buffy > underneath with heavy streaking and heavy underwing markings in the > wing > pits. > > This bird seems to be an adult at the extreme pale and unmarked end of > the > spectrum. Now that Steve Dowlan is living in the middle of the range, > he can > correct me and tell me that this bird seems a normal Prairie Falcon to > him! > > Photo link: > http://s26.photobucket.com/albums/c146/fatrichie/Falcon/ > > Greg Gillson > The Bird Guide, Inc. > greg at thebirdguide.com > http://thebirdguide.com > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From whoffman at peak.org Sun Jan 4 12:05:11 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 12:05:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] Texas Red-tail References: <7C2025B854EE460F8312D7576947FCDA@GREG> Message-ID: <8624A10AECA84D3CB48D847A230E15B8@D48XBZ51> Looks to me paler than average, but otherwise not atypical of juvenile Eastern Red-tailed Hawk Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Gillson" To: "OBOL" Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 11:36 AM Subject: [obol] Texas Red-tail > Hawk aficionados may enjoy puzzling over 4 photos of a pale Red-tailed > Hawk > taken by Kevin Smith in Del Rio, Texas back in October. Sometimes we get > presumed Harlan's form here in Oregon. But Kevin's bird is quite pale and > pretty. What is it? > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_from_others > > Greg Gillson > The Bird Guide, Inc. > greg at thebirdguide.com > http://thebirdguide.com > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From greenfant at hotmail.com Sun Jan 4 12:40:13 2009 From: greenfant at hotmail.com (Stefan Schlick) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:40:13 -0500 Subject: [obol] Prairie Falcon is back near Roy (Washington Co) Message-ID: At about 11am this morning I refound the PRAIRIE FALCON on Mountaindale Rd north of Roy just south of where 26 and 6 split. A Merlin was also in the area. Poor pictures are available on request. Stefan Schlick Hillsboro, OR _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/8f5e2314/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sun Jan 4 13:19:47 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 13:19:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia Estuary Report - 1/4/2009 Message-ID: <496127F3.1000001@pacifier.com> Columbia Estuary Report - 1/4/2009 Steve Warner found a BLACK PHOEBE on West Lake yesterday. I was able to relocate it today at the intersection of West Anderson Rd and Delmoor Loop Rd. The BARROW'S GOLDENEYE is still hanging out in front of the Dairy QUEEN. My day list, today: Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose Cackling Goose Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Canvasback Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Surf Scoter Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Barrow's Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon American Coot Killdeer Dunlin Mew Gull Ring-billed Gull Western Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Rock Dove Belted Kingfisher Northern Flicker Black Phoebe Steller's Jay Western Scrub-Jay American Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee Chestnut-backed Chickadee Red-breasted Nuthatch Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Varied Thrush European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Pine Siskin House Sparrow Total number of species seen: 57 -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From louisfredd at msn.com Sun Jan 4 13:45:15 2009 From: louisfredd at msn.com (LOUIS C FREDD) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 13:45:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] Evening Grosbeaks (Oregon City) Message-ID: Yesterday morning a pair of EVENING GROSBEAKS (M,F) briefly visited the yard, or more accurately, snow-free sections of our asphalted lane, where they seemed to be picking up grit or perhaps some birdseed. To the best of my knowledge they didn't go to the sunflower seed feeder. These are uncommon here, usually appear at any one time in very small numbers. and as above, just briefly. This is the first time I've ever seen them in January. I usually see them here the most often in late April and May, but I have now seen them in every month from September thru June inclusive, except November, and I suppose in the latter case it is merely a matter of time. These birds were in prime condition and beautiful plumage. I took them to be a good omen for the new year, which I share with you. Lou _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/024d7763/attachment.html From ninerharv2 at msn.com Sun Jan 4 14:25:19 2009 From: ninerharv2 at msn.com (HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE ) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 22:25:19 +0000 Subject: [obol] Fw: Emperor goose siteing Message-ID: Emporer Goose has joined the domestics. And Greater White Front Goose at Redmond pond on South Jetty. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Tim Rodenkirk Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 17:08:19 To: Subject: [obol] Fw: Emperor goose siteing Gary Schaffer just sent this to me.? Just in time for the Coquille Valley CBC!? The location Gary describes is in the Bandon Harbor area where there is a Coast Gurard station just west of the Harbor (south jetty area). Tim --- On Thu, 1/1/09, Gary Shaffer wrote: > From: Gary Shaffer > Subject: Emperor goose siteing > To: "Tim Rodenkirk" > Date: Thursday, January 1, 2009, 12:42 AM > Tim If you think it is worthwhile would you post the goose > on OBOL.? I can not access OBOL on my iPhone.? It was also > seen by Howard Sands? & Jeanine Felker of Medford.? It > was last seen today floating downriver by the old coast > guard station.?? I took an Id picture. > Thanks-Gary Shaffer > > Sent from my iPhone ????? _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us Sun Jan 4 14:58:58 2009 From: Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us (Kyle W Bratcher) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 14:58:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Wallowa Valley Message-ID: I went down to the river today to try some Steelhead fishing but it was way to cold for me so I went looking for some birds. I took the back roads headed home and saw two Ravens flying around erratically and found out that they were harassing a Great-horned owl. Also in Enterprise on Fish Hatchery road I've been seeing some finches on my way to and from work but haven't been able to get a good look till today and confirmed my hunch that they were White-wing crossbills. If anyone is out this way, they are a pretty easy find. They are there a lot but its a terrible spot to stop so its best to walk. I've also been seeing a few Hooded merganzers which haven't been to common around here from what I can tell. I was up at the lake a few days ago and saw five grebes, 3 horned and 2 eared. Just out and about I've been seeing lots of Bald eagles and Rough-legged hawks. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/f0b8a003/attachment.html From rfadney at hotmail.com Sun Jan 4 15:17:09 2009 From: rfadney at hotmail.com (R. Adney Jr.) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:17:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Texas Red-tail Message-ID: There is a similar bird shown on page 363 (plate 417) of Brian Wheeler's "Raptors of Western North America". Showing an "Eastern" juve Red Tail, I think I'll agree with Wayne. This one is just a bit paler than the one shown in Wheeler's book. Rich Adney Looks to me paler than average, but otherwise not atypical of juvenile Eastern Red-tailed Hawk Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Gillson" To: "OBOL" Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 11:36 AM Subject: [obol] Texas Red-tail > Hawk aficionados may enjoy puzzling over 4 photos of a pale Red-tailed > Hawk > taken by Kevin Smith in Del Rio, Texas back in October. Sometimes we get > presumed Harlan's form here in Oregon. But Kevin's bird is quite pale and > pretty. What is it? > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_from_others > > Greg Gillson _________________________________________________________________ Life on your PC is safer, easier, and more enjoyable with Windows Vista?. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032870/direct/01/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/bcb772cd/attachment.html From rfadney at hotmail.com Sun Jan 4 15:26:45 2009 From: rfadney at hotmail.com (R. Adney Jr.) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 15:26:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seven Mile Road Falcon Message-ID: Thanks everyone for the help, I was hesitant to call it a Prairie Falcon due to the lack of dark axillaries. I have not seen enough of this species in the field to be comfortable identifying it without OBOL's knowledgeable listers! Rich _________________________________________________________________ It?s the same Hotmail?. If by ?same? you mean up to 70% faster. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_broad1_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/87658c46/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sun Jan 4 14:33:17 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:33:17 -0800 Subject: [obol] Emperor update Message-ID: Harvey Schubothe from Bandon sent me a note just now saying that the Bandon Emperor has started hanging out with the mixed flock of geese at the s jetty pond area. Two kinds of domestics and a white-front. They often do this. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From pointers at pacifier.com Sun Jan 4 18:46:10 2009 From: pointers at pacifier.com (Lyn Topinka) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 18:46:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Brown Pigeon ... Message-ID: <20090105024610.393346A4ED@smtp2.pacifier.net> hi group ... today (Jan 4) I saw a brown and white pigeon (Rock Pigeon) today at the Shillapoo Wildlife Area, south of Vancouver Lake ... same place the Swainson's Hawk is residing ... ok, Sibley says this coloration is rare ... is that valid ???????????? he was rather pretty ... the bird: http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images09Jan/shillapoo_brown_pigeon_01-04-09.jpg his head: http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images09Jan/shillapoo_brown_pigeon_head_01-04-09.jpg the wingtips: http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images09Jan/shillapoo_brown_pigeon_wingtips_01-04-09.jpg enjoy, Lyn Lyn Topinka http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com http://RidgefieldBirds.com From winkg at hevanet.com Sun Jan 4 20:06:00 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:06:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pittock, NW Portland, week ending 12/31/08 (tardy report) Message-ID: <20090105040559.C418CA823E@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Here is the summary of my morning dogwalks from NW Seblar Terrace to the Pittock Mansion for the week 12/25 to 12/31/08. Species in ALL CAPS were neither seen nor heard the previous week. Additional information about my dogwalk, including an archive of weekly summaries and a checklist, may be found at http://www.hevanet.com/winkg/dogwalkpage.html We did the walk 7 days this week. Species # days found (peak #, date) SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 1 (1, 12/28) MOURNING DOVE 4 (3) Anna's Hummingbird 4 (3, 12/30) Red-breasted Sapsucker 1 (1, 12/31) Downy Woodpecker 2 (1, 12/29 & 31) Hairy Woodpecker 1 (1, 12/28) Northern Flicker 7 (2) GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET 2 (1+, 12/30) Bewick's Wren 1 (1, 12/28) Winter Wren 1 (1, 12/28) American Robin 4 (35, 12/28) Varied Thrush 6 (7) Black-capped Chickadee 7 (25, 12/30) Chestnut-backed Chickadee 7 (5) RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH 1 (2, 12/30) Brown Creeper 3 (2) Steller's Jay 6 (6) Western Scrub-Jay 6 (2) American Crow 4 (10, 12/28) EUROPEAN STARLING 2 (1, 12/28 & 30) House Finch 7 (11, 12/30) Pine Siskin 1 (2, 12/29) Spotted Towhee 7 (4) FOX SPARROW 1 (1, 12/29) Song Sparrow 7 (8) Dark-eyed Junco 7 (30, 12/28) In neighborhood but not found on dogwalk: RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET Wink Gross Portland From lgoodhew at surfin-g.com Sun Jan 4 20:39:33 2009 From: lgoodhew at surfin-g.com (Larry & Jacque Goodhew) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:39:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Late report Pine Warbler NO Message-ID: <49611E85.26545.551031D8@lgoodhew.surfin-g.com> Hi Arrived afternoon of Jan ! about 3:30 stayed in area till dark no bird . Spent next morning till about 1pm still no show. some wind and snow and clearing but cold. Lady who sees it at her house had not seen it at her feeder that day. Best bird there was a Evening Grosbeak. Larry and Jacque Goodhew Walla Walla WA From Oropendolas at aol.com Sun Jan 4 20:50:52 2009 From: Oropendolas at aol.com (Oropendolas at aol.com) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 23:50:52 EST Subject: [obol] Eugene CBC Gyrfalcon Message-ID: Hello All, Laura Johnson, Bill Castillo and I had an immature GYRFALCON during the Eugene CBC today. It was at the wastewater treatment facility at the intersection of Prairie and Beacon roads north of Eugene. We had the key to enter the facility and flushed the bird off the ground before we saw it, where it was eating a Cackling Goose, as we drove through the gate this morning. It then perched on the center pivot irrigation sprinklers where it was seen later in the afternoon from outside the facility by several other parties. The center pivots can be seen from both Prairie and Beacon roads. There are thousands of Cacklers in the area, hopefully it will stick around awhile. Prairie Road parallels Hwy 99 between River Road and Hwy 99. Beacon Road runs east from Prairie Road and is between Meadow View and Awbrey roads. John Sullivan Springfield, Oregon **************Stay up-to-date on the latest news - from fashion trends to celebrity break-ups and everything in between. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000024) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/f3861872/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sun Jan 4 21:11:51 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 21:11:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Winter Wrens Message-ID: I'll be posting details from the Coquille Valley CBC in a couple of days, but one of the strangest results is that we sent forty people into the field on a calm, pleasant day on which we set all sorts of records for various small birds, yet found only 22 Winter Wrens. This is a strange result and an all-time low; we average over 50. Have any other counts had such a result with Winter Wren this year? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From foglark at att.net Sun Jan 4 21:46:58 2009 From: foglark at att.net (David Fix & Jude Power) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 21:46:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Centerville (n. CA coast) CBC results Message-ID: <779847.95538.qm@web80005.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> The Centerville Beach To King Salmon CBC was conducted Sunday 1-4. Uh...where the heck is that? Well, it's in central-coastal Humboldt Co., CA, and takes in South Humboldt Bay and the Eel River delta, reaching north almost to the south end of Eureka (Eureka is in the Arcata circle). "Write-ins" (and therefore highlights) were Eur. Green-winged Teal, Long-tailed Duck, Brown Pelican (Duh Dept this year, of course), Am. White Pelican (very rare here--I saw one in 1992, and never again), Mountain Plover, Black-necked Stilt, Heermann's Gull, Glaucous Gull, Caspian Tern, Marbled Murrelet, Ancient Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Red-naped Sapsucker, Say's Phoebe, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Northern Shrike, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson's Warbler, Swamp Sparrow, and Hooded Oriole. The count got about 187 species, which is either a record for this count or very close to it. Someone also brought a weathered head of a frigatebird with a rather small and pale bill that was found during a local beached bird survey not long ago--speculation is that it could conceivably be the Lesser Frigatebird seen north of Arcata in 2007. It was strange to sit in the restaurant chowing down on my institutional Denver omelette with this bizarre, half-mummified frigatebird head gaping open on the table next to me. Diane Pettey came down, joined in the count, and actually spotted the Mountain Plover while birding with her team on the south Humboldt spit (although the bird was known present several days earlier). She got killer photos of an Ancient Murrelet from the south jetty. We are going to take a spin around the area again Monday morning to try to scrape up a few more Humdingers for her. Thanks, Diane, for your enthusiasm and contributions. David Fix Arcata, California -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/1e1aef8b/attachment.html From sbkornfeld at msn.com Sun Jan 4 21:50:39 2009 From: sbkornfeld at msn.com (STEVE KORNFELD) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 21:50:39 -0800 Subject: [obol] Little Blue Heron remains Message-ID: OBOL, I observed the Little Blue Heron today (Sunday) at 1600 inland from Siletz Bay. It was virtually in the same spot as previously described. It was feeding in the creek .7 miles east on Drift Creek Rd. It was about a half mile east of the red barn seen on the right just after your pass Gorton Road. Good Birding Steve Kornfeld Bend -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/f6887011/attachment.html From larmcqueen at msn.com Sun Jan 4 22:05:20 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 22:05:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Jack Snipe at Fern Ridge? Message-ID: I believe I had a Jack Snipe at Fern Ridge this morning. I saw it quickly while walking along the south base of Fisher Butte on the Eugene CBC Sunday, Jan 4. I was the only person who saw the bird. We parked in the parking lot at the entrance of the track which goes north to Fisher Butte, from Highway 126 (11th Ave). At the private gate at the north end of this track, Ellen Cantor and I walked the lane to the right, or eastward, along a hedgerow. This lane is pooled with water and it is mucky. After going most of the way to the end of the hedgerow, we turned back and walked instead, in the tussocky grass to avoid the mud. About what would be the half-way point of the hedgerow, the snipe flushed from the grass about 2 ft. in front of me and made an arc, back into the grass. I gave a search where it had landed, but didn't find it. This is what impressed me as being different from Wilson's Snipe: 1) The bird was notably smaller. 2) The long, yellowish stripes on the back were especially contrasting and stood out in a way I had never seen on Wilson's. 3) The wings were rounded (not pointed as in Wilson's), which made it appear to fly differently (more fluttery?). 4) It did not make a vocal sound, but the flapping wings at take-off sounded hollow. 5) It flew low, not darting in different directions as Wilson's, and it quickly dropped into the grass, short of 50 ft. away. 6) I only had a dorsal view and saw no white. When I saw the bird, I only knew a few of the identifying field-marks, such as short bill, split supercilium, and lack of median crown stripe. There was no time to see any of those features, as the bird was too fast and quick to take cover. I did know that the Jack Snipe is smaller than a Wilson's. When I returned home, I found that the field guides describe, as being characteristic, all the things I noticed (except the hollow, flapping sound as the bird took off). We flushed many Wilson's Snipes during the day, and not one showed the behavioral patterns above, nor the rounded wings, and many (if not all) made the typical vocal note on flushing. I think this bird was a Jack Snipe, even considering that I was unable to see all the field marks. The best chance to find this bird would be with several people walking abreast, through the grass in this area (east of the north end of the Fisher Butte track). Larry McQueen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/4db3869d/attachment.html From tc at empnet.com Sun Jan 4 22:11:43 2009 From: tc at empnet.com (Tom Crabtree) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 22:11:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene CBC References: Message-ID: <002d01c96efc$7b6acaa0$6500a8c0@1120639> I was at my daughter's apartment in Eugene today (Broadway & Lawrence) and we had an Anna's Hummingbird at her feeder all afternoon. I'm sure it's not the only one, but given the cold, I thought I should mention it. Tom Crabtree Bend, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/35ea2a39/attachment.html From steve at paradisebirding.com Sun Jan 4 23:32:50 2009 From: steve at paradisebirding.com (Stephen Shunk) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 23:32:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] Trumpeter Swans at Suttle Lake Message-ID: <9a341ea30901042332k6a60d7c5p8d6e5a11a529a15b@mail.gmail.com> Hello all, I will have a summary of the Santiam Pass CBC soon, but I realized today there may be some folks wanting this species for their Jefferson County lists. Saturday, we found two adult TRUMPETER SWANS at the unfrozen pool near the outlet of Suttle Lake, between the lodge and the dam at the head of Lake Creek. Parking is easy near the lodge, just off Hwy 20. We had a single Trumpeter twice on the Santiam CBC in 2006 and 2007, at Clear Lake, but never on the east side of the crest. We know of "captive" breeding adults in the region (Sisters and Bend) and we know that fledged young are freeflying and their dispersal patterns are unknown. I won't get into the details of countability, nor will I speculate further on the origin of these two individuals, but they were there as of Saturday for those who wish to look for these gorgeous birds. Steve Shunk -- Stephen Shunk Paradise Birding Sisters, OR USA www.paradisebirding.com 541-408-1753 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/16a3bdee/attachment.html From jplissner at yahoo.com Sun Jan 4 23:43:38 2009 From: jplissner at yahoo.com (Jonathan Plissner) Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 23:43:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Mockingbird (Bruce Rd, near Finley NWR) Message-ID: <435807.96535.qm@web45407.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Late Sunday morning, a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD was present along Bruce Rd., at the first house north of the intersection with Bellfountain Rd., SW of Finley NWR. The bird appeared as it flew (nice white wing flashes) west across the road into a row of shrubs (primarily Photinia, I believe) bordering the road, in which it perched for several minutes before flying over the fence near the house and out of sight. Also possibly noteworthy for the morning was the BURROWING OWL present at one of the traditional culvert locations along Llewelyn Rd. I assume it was present for the Corvallis CBC as well but has become such a regular that it no longer warrants mention in the count summary. :) Jon Plissner -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090104/72da8a6b/attachment.html From dpvroman at budget.net Mon Jan 5 05:57:05 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 05:57:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Winter Wrens References: Message-ID: <7A72C7DC2F7549BDB560880AFE4356BC@Warbler> No Winter Wrens were reported found on the Grants Pass CBC this year. This is the first time none were found. Count of 2005 found only one, which is the previous low. Dennis I'll be posting details from the Coquille Valley CBC in a couple of days, but one of the strangest results is that we sent forty people into the field on a calm, pleasant day on which we set all sorts of records for various small birds, yet found only 22 Winter Wrens. This is a strange result and an all-time low; we average over 50. Have any other counts had such a result with Winter Wren this year? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com From adamus7 at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 07:24:44 2009 From: adamus7 at comcast.net (Paul Adamus) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 07:24:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] Results: Airlie-Albany CBC Message-ID: <03DABBD40A1A4CA1B8A6C5052222AC5B@paulb8b133e5f2> On cold and mostly rainless Saturday (Jan. 3), 30 people in 15 parties conducted the Airlie-Albany CBC. The circle is centered at E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area north of Corvallis, and includes Ankeny NWR and McDonald-Dunn State Forest. The species total was 118, slightly below the maximum of 122. Best finds were VESPER SPARROW, GOLDEN EAGLE, SAY'S PHOEBE, BLACK PHOEBE, GREEN HERON, and REDHEAD. Notable misses were Ruffed Grouse, Mountain Quail, Greater Yellowlegs, and Mew Gull. Photos of what might be a Tufted Duck, taken from a considerable distance by Cheryl Whelchel (who also found and photographed the Vesper Sparrow), are at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/ I will be emailing the full list and tallies to all participants. If you'd like a copy, too, please email me. Paul Adamus (Compiler) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/7172a7e1/attachment.html From greg at thebirdguide.com Mon Jan 5 07:38:54 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 07:38:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Gyrfalcon photos Message-ID: <20090105073854.azdiuqnskkww8884@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Photos by John Sullivan: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/gallery/_from_others Greg From 5hats at peak.org Mon Jan 5 09:48:16 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 09:48:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] help with loon id Message-ID: <002601c96f5d$cccdf0a0$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obol, On the Yaquina Bay CBC January 3 I found a puzzling loon between the jetties. In some respects it had the field marks of an Arctic Loon, but seemed to me to have some features of Common Loon. It was at times side by side with a Common Loon, so I was able to make comparisons. The most notable feature of this bird was that it had an obvious long white flank patch, which in fact extended nearly the full length of the underparts, much as shown by Sibley for Arctic Loon in first summer plumage. The bird, however, was much darker, indicating it was an adult. The other feature which seemed to indicate Arctic was that it consistently held its head somewhat tilted upward. In fact, on a number of occasions I saw it deliberately lift its head to resume this posture. There are two difficulties associated with this bird. One was that the only views I had of it, while reasonably close, were from the side and rear. The two loons were steadily traveling west with the tide. I watched them for a time from the large pullout area along the south jetty road, then moved to the base of the jetty proper just in time to come out behind them again. During this time Laura and I were joined by Bob Olson and his group, so we were able to view the loons through the scope. But we never did get a good frontal view. The other difficulty is that in nearly every other respect, the bird matched the Common Loon. It was the same size, had a bill of equal thickness, seemed at least on a couple of occasions to show a slight indentation of white at midneck (although I am not certain of this point), a similarly bluish colored bill with dark upper ridge and tip, and same head shape. Both birds, when viewed from the rear through the scope had very dark crowns and napes which showed a slight purple gloss in certain lights. The bill, while equal in thickness to that of the Common, was about two thirds as long, which would seem to favor Arctic. I did not happen to notice an eye ring on either bird. I have never seen a Common Loon with this plumage, and although I have seen Arctic Loon a couple of times, am not familiar enough with that species to know how they compare to Commons. At the time of the sighting I did not feel confindent to call it an Arctic Loon, but a subsequent study of field guides makes me wonder if perhaps it was a mistake to write it off as an unusual Common. Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated. Darrel Faxon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/223377d8/attachment.html From h2of0wl at hotmail.com Sun Jan 4 20:04:51 2009 From: h2of0wl at hotmail.com (h2of0wl at hotmail.com) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:04:51 GMT Subject: [obol] Census Count: Beaverton, Washington County, Oregon on January 04, 2009 Message-ID: <200901050404.n0544p6m007658@host-231.colo.spiretech.com> This report was mailed for Michael Culver by http://birdnotes.net Date: January 4, 2009 Location: Beaverton, Washington County, Oregon Low temperature: 31 degrees fahrenheit High temperature: 45 degrees fahrenheit Wind direction: Variable Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h gusting to: < 1 km/h Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 100% Precipitation: snow Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Eurasian Wigeon 1 American Wigeon 233 Mallard 84 Canvasback 6 Ring-necked Duck 1 Lesser Scaup 4 Bufflehead 8 Hooded Merganser 6 Common Merganser 8 Pied-billed Grebe 2 Double-crested Cormorant 1 Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 1 American Coot 10 Herring Gull 2 Rock Dove 1 Belted Kingfisher 1 Western Scrub-Jay 1 American Crow 6 American Robin 12 European Starling 20 House Finch 4 House Sparrow 2 Total number of species seen: 23 From rkorpi at hotmail.com Mon Jan 5 10:18:47 2009 From: rkorpi at hotmail.com (Ray Korpi) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 10:18:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] First-Winter Glaucous Message-ID: All, A first-winter GLAUCOUS GULL was on the Clark campus this morning. Must have stopped by knowing I couldn't get out to any CBCs this year! Ray Korpi rkorpi at hotmail.com Vancouver WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/828c7e24/attachment.html From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Mon Jan 5 10:19:32 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 10:19:32 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] South Coast Overwintering Birds- from CBC results etc. Message-ID: <490031.67905.qm@web45308.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Based on CBC info and some other sightings it looks like there a couple new species (new within the last few years) overwintering on the south coast, species that were previously not known to overwinter here but routinely overwintered in the Willamette valley. One of these species, SAY'S PHOEBE, is overwintering in the Coquille Valley and on the north spit of Coos Bay. Several birds are also overwintering in Curry Co. including the Brookings area and near Cape Blanco. I don't know of any further overwintering records further north along the coast? A PRAIRIE FALCON was discovered on the Coquille valley CBC. As it turns out, there was one seen in the Coquille Valley in Feb. of 2008 and also several sightings during the winter of 2006/2007. Prior to this, in Coos Co., there was only one other winter record in Feb. of 1990. Looks like at least one bird has begun to regular overwinter in the Coquille Valley. Are there other overwintering records on the north coast also? Also, at least three C. YELLOWTHROATS overwintering this year in Coos Co. Pretty cool! Tim R Coos Bay From greg at thebirdguide.com Mon Jan 5 10:59:32 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 10:59:32 -0800 Subject: [obol] South Coast Overwintering Birds- from CBC results etc. Message-ID: <20090105105932.bcd1hgdc7scgow00@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Tim Rodenkirk's comments on an apparent increase in winter Prairie Falcons on the south coast in the last 3 years (since winter of 2006/2007) is interesting. It matches a similar phenomenon in Washington County. While Washington County is in the northern Willamette Valley, it is isolated all around by hills surrounding the Tualatin basin, and slightly higher than the adjacent Willamette Valley. This creates some minor but real differences in bird abundance from the rest of the Willamette Valley. Several "prairie" birds less common at various times of the year in the Tualatin basin than in the rest of the Willamette Valley include Western Kingbird, Rough-legged Hawk, Northern Shrike, Western Meadowlark, and Prairie Falcon. The first record of Prairie Falcon in Washington Co. was in 1982. There were 3 records in the 7 years between 2000-2006. The 8th record of Prairie Falcon occurred in the 2006/2007 and each winter since, as is the case down in Coos Co. Of course, it may be that there is a single bird here in WashCo that has wintered the past 3 years. This might be totally unrelated to the apparent increase seen in Coos Co. On the other hand, perhaps it is an indication of something going on with Prairie Falcons? Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From louisfredd at msn.com Mon Jan 5 11:14:56 2009 From: louisfredd at msn.com (LOUIS C FREDD) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 11:14:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] GYRFALCON (Oregon City) Message-ID: About an hour ago I saw a white GYRFALCON hunting the airport fields just north of the Oregon City Golf Course. I pulled over and watched it directly opposite me at 150 yards. It was flying back and forth low over the N-S grass runway (The runway parallel to Beavercreek Rd in the vicinity of Oregon City High School. It broke off its hunt and flew off to the north in the direction of other large grassy fields. I had clear views of its underside and topside while it was making turns over the airstrip. Those details and its body proportions agreed closely with Sibley's illustration of "White adult". This is the first Gyrfalcon I have ever seen! Lou _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail faster without improving your typing skills. http://windowslive.com/online/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_speed_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/29ec77a3/attachment.html From jdanielfarrar at gmail.com Mon Jan 5 11:52:05 2009 From: jdanielfarrar at gmail.com (Daniel Farrar) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 11:52:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Area Birds Message-ID: <2b1bbd260901051152p71272a39j63e84f27024082b4@mail.gmail.com> Obol, I looked for and did not see the Gyrfalcon reported by John Sullivan. There were still many Cacklers in the area and 4 Red-tails, one of which was a dark morph. I cruised over to the airport where I found a white morph Rough-legged Hawk just west of the grain silos. Probably the same bird I found there earlier this winter. Just south of Milliron Rd (near Hwy 99) was a flock of ~120 TUNDRA SWANS. There were also 20 G WHITE-FRONTED GEESE in the area. Four Bald Eagles where bothering the geese, but the swans didn't seem to mind. -- Daniel Farrar Eugene, Oregon jdanielfarrar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/303c7bc8/attachment.html From brrobb at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 14:51:34 2009 From: brrobb at comcast.net (Roger & Betty Robb) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 14:51:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Gyrfalcon, Lane County Message-ID: This afternoon at 2:00 I found the GYRFALCON perched on an irrigation pivot off Beacon Drive just east of Prairie Rd. The bird eventually flew to the south and out of sight. Thanks, John, Laura & Bill. Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/50ccf3ab/attachment.html From neiwert at verizon.net Mon Jan 5 15:43:23 2009 From: neiwert at verizon.net (Eric Neiwert) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:43:23 -0600 (CST) Subject: [obol] Harlequin duck Netarts bay Message-ID: <1440509393.33854151231199004020.JavaMail.javamailuser@localhost> I don't know how unusual it is but it was new to us. On January 3, my wife and I observed a harlequin duck on Netarts bay near the Netarts bay RV park. I have pictures at http://gallery.me.com/neiwert/100037/DSCN0268/web.jpg and http://gallery.me.com/neiwert/100037/DSCN0271/web.jpg Eric Neiwert Troutdale From dpvroman at budget.net Mon Jan 5 15:44:44 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 15:44:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] Golden-crowned Kinglet on CBCs Message-ID: <013C3F2BE47949D9A875265EE47A7C44@Warbler> Alan's message about the Winter Wrens reminded me about the Grants Pass CBC Golden-crowned Kinglet sum. It was none. After looking at past data for this species, this is what the numbers show. pre-2005, 50 or higher, a couple of years slightly less. 2005 - 13 birds 2006 - 13 2007 - 6 2008 - 0 Also, I don't recall a winter at our place (east the Merlin I-5 exit) I have not seen them, but none so far this winter. Any other counts with decreasing numbers for this species? Dennis (north of Grants Pass) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/7bddcf7e/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Mon Jan 5 15:48:56 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 15:48:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] Golden-crowned Kinglet on CBCs In-Reply-To: <013C3F2BE47949D9A875265EE47A7C44@Warbler> Message-ID: Coquille Valley averages over 300 GC Kinglets; this year we had an almost all-time low of 98; the only worse year had extremely bad weather. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > From: "Dennis P. Vroman" > Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 15:44:44 -0800 > To: > Subject: [obol] Golden-crowned Kinglet on CBCs > > Alan's message about the Winter Wrens reminded me about the Grants Pass CBC > Golden-crowned Kinglet sum. It was none. After looking at past data for this > species, this is what the numbers show. > > pre-2005, 50 or higher, a couple of years slightly less. > > 2005 - 13 birds > 2006 - 13 > 2007 - 6 > 2008 - 0 > > Also, I don't recall a winter at our place (east the Merlin I-5 exit) I have > not seen them, but none so far this winter. > > Any other counts with decreasing numbers for this species? > > Dennis (north of Grants Pass) > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From brrobb at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 16:12:05 2009 From: brrobb at comcast.net (Roger & Betty Robb) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 16:12:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Golden-crowned Kinglets Message-ID: <82266DF4A579409883AE82BE26A3BEBE@RROffice> The Florence Count had 174 Golden-crowned Kinglets compared to an average of 332. Our weather was fine, but perhaps the number of people birding the Coast Range was less than previous years. Or, there is a negative trend with kinglet populations. Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/c773e749/attachment.html From willclemons at yahoo.com Mon Jan 5 16:43:19 2009 From: willclemons at yahoo.com (Will Clemons) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 16:43:19 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Ridgefield NWR: COMMON GOLDENEYE, etc Message-ID: <897788.13105.qm@web55103.mail.re4.yahoo.com> In addition to participating in the weekly Goose Survey at Ridgefield NWR, Scott Carpenter and I birded the River "S" Unit at Ridgefield NWR (~4mi W of I-5 at Exit 14 in SW Washington; http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ ). Highlights: COMMON GOLDENEYE: Scott Carpenter found, and pointed out, two COMMON GOLDENEYE on South Quigley Lake. They were in the open when we first saw them, but were soon headed into the shelter of the Cattails. Keep an eye out as they could show up anywhere there. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK: This juvenile female, was first seen atop Teasel along the east side road, several hundred yards S of the Entrance Booth. I watched her perched a few times on Teasel, once on a sign post, once atop a nest box, and also on the long bramble line W & S of the Entrance Booth. I also watched her fly and miss a couple of rodents, after which she tried to run after rodents in the snow/grass. In six or eight attempts, I never saw her succeed. Will Clemons SW of Portland willclemons AT Yahoo dot com Birding: The best excuse for getting outdoors And avoiding chores Complete list of 43 species seen / heard: Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant AMERICAN BITTERN Great Blue Heron Cackling Goose Canada Goose Tundra Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Bufflehead COMMON GOLDENEYE Hooded Merganser (various locations, about 30 seen in all) COMMON MERGANSER (a dozen or more on Rest Lake) Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle Northern Harrier SHARP-SHINNED HAWK (east side toward the end of the loop) Red-tailed Hawk DARK MORPH RED-TAILED HAWK ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK American Kestrel American Coot SANDHILL CRANE Ring-billed Gull Great Horned Owl Belted Kingfisher Northern Flicker Western Scrub-Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Bushtit Winter Wren American Robin European Starling Spotted Towhee Song Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird From goosemiller at gmail.com Mon Jan 5 16:46:31 2009 From: goosemiller at gmail.com (Marilyn Miller) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 16:46:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Need Panama birding information In-Reply-To: <82266DF4A579409883AE82BE26A3BEBE@RROffice> Message-ID: <4962a9d6.0e538c0a.12ca.ffffaebd@mx.google.com> Craig and I are thinking about going to Panama in September. Has anyone been there? Birded there? Any suggestions? Thank you and Happy New Year! Marilyn Miller Bend, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/0c9fabc8/attachment.html From winkg at hevanet.com Mon Jan 5 17:07:48 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:07:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Golden-crowned Kinglets and Winter Wrens Message-ID: <20090106010746.CFB8FA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> The Golden-crowned Kinglets must be all up here. The Portland CBC had 915, not too far off the all-time high of 1051 recorded in 1941 and well above the past few years. On the other hand, Winter Wrens were down a bit: 97 as compared to 141 last year, but last year was unusually good. (All time high was 142 in 1942.) Wink Gross, compiler Portland CBC From jbw at oregoncoast.com Mon Jan 5 17:35:46 2009 From: jbw at oregoncoast.com (Barbara & John Woodhouse) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 17:35:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Harlequin duck Netarts bay In-Reply-To: <1440509393.33854151231199004020.JavaMail.javamailuser@localhost> References: <1440509393.33854151231199004020.JavaMail.javamailuser@localhost> Message-ID: This is the 5th year the Harlequin has shown up here, he came first as a first year bird and as been coming ever since we look out for him every year. Barbara & John Woodhouse Tillamook At 5:43 PM -0600 1/5/2009, Eric Neiwert wrote: >I don't know how unusual it is but it was new to us. On January 3, my >wife and I observed a harlequin duck on Netarts bay near the Netarts bay >RV park. I have pictures at >http://gallery.me.com/neiwert/100037/DSCN0268/web.jpg >and >http://gallery.me.com/neiwert/100037/DSCN0271/web.jpg > >Eric Neiwert >Troutdale >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From celata at pacifier.com Mon Jan 5 18:14:08 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:14:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] From the regional editor: stuff I don't need details for Message-ID: <4962BE70.6090209@pacifier.com> Given that today is the last day of the count period, I think I can safely send out a note on details. Things I do not need details for: BROWN PELICAN Heermann's Gull Eurasian Collared Dove Black Phoebe in Oregon and along the Columbia River I also already have photos of: Shillipoo Swainson's Hawk Eugene Gyrfalcon Grants Pass Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Airlie Vesper Sparrow Corvallis Pyrrhuloxia I also have photos of the Portland Swainson's Thrush, but no word on whether it was seen inside the count window. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From sandyleapt at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 18:16:36 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:16:36 +0000 Subject: [obol] Icy Birds Message-ID: <010620090216.13901.4962BF04000954F60000364D22068246939B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Tom, Sounds like quite a few people had icy birds through the cold spell. I wonder if this is part of the reason some of the CBCs were missing Golden-crowned Kinglets? Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Tom Shreve" > We have Flickers and Steller's Jays with ice on their backs and necks this > morning. > Tom Shreve > > -----Original Message----- > From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org > [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Craig Tumer > Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 10:52 AM > To: sandyleapt at comcast.net > Cc: OBOL > Subject: Re: [obol] Icy Birds > > The adult male Anna's hummingbird at my feeder this morning had quite a > significant icicle on his gorget, ice on his tail and a little ice hat. > He spent quite a bit of time sitting at the feeder feeding and flapping > his wings, presumably to generate heat and/or shake the ice off. A crow > at my feeder also had quite a bit of ice on his nape, making him look a > little like a jackdaw. > > There's been a shift in power at my hummingbird feeders. Earlier in the > week, an immature male Anna's was in charge, chasing away any other > hummer that got near, even the adult male. Since yesterday, the adult > male has taken over. He stays busy guarding both feeders. There was a > little civility first thing this morning, though. Three > female/immature-type Anna's fed on feeder, while the adult male filled > up at the second. Now that they're full and the male has defrosted, > he's busy patrolling the yard. > > Craig Tumer > SW Portland > > > -------- Original Message -------- > > Subject: [obol] Icy Birds > > From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > > Date: Sun, December 21, 2008 10:10 am > > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org (OBOL) > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > I just noticed that Starlings and Robins are icing up in my neighborhood, > not enough that they cannot fly. The other birds; sparrows, finches, > juncos, chickadees, flickers, hummingbirds etc... seem to be fine--meaning > no ice. Is anyone else seeing icy birds? How long can they survive like > that? Would putting water for baths help the birds? or make it worse? > > > > Thanks > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > NE Portland > > (a few miles east of PDX) > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From kaycarter at wbcable.net Mon Jan 5 18:17:31 2009 From: kaycarter at wbcable.net (kaycarter) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 18:17:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Need ID Input Message-ID: I saw a bird between Adel and Plush on June 20, 2008, that I was pretty sure I knew what was immediately. However, I then came to question my ID, and have been mulling it over in the back of my mind ever since. I took two photos, but unfortunately my camera was accidentally on the wrong setting, so they are not in focus. The bird flew immediately after I took the second photo and I was not able to relocate it. I'd like to know what you folks think about this bird. It was roughly the size of a Robin. See the photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/kaycarter13/OutOfFocus?authkey=AHEABxQv92Q#5287975346172160194 I have not processed the photos in any way - not even to crop them. Kay Carter Canby From john at bornagainbirdwatcher.com Mon Jan 5 18:45:53 2009 From: john at bornagainbirdwatcher.com (Born Again Bird Watcher) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:45:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] AOU or ABA checklist in Spanish? Message-ID: <00ff01c96fa8$e4af1c80$ae0d5580$@com> Good evening all, I'm in need of the "List of the 2,048 Bird Species known for the A.O.U. check-list area" or at least the ABA area checklist species in Spanish. Anyone have a suggestion where such a document might be located online? Many thanks in advance. Peace and good bird watching, John E. Riutta Born Again Bird Watcher LLC "Birds, Bugs, Books, and Business Consulting" Mobile: (503) 577-5383 E-mail: john at bornagainbirdwatcher.com Website: www.bornagainbirdwatcherllc.com Blog: www.bornagainbirdwatcher.com By Mail: P.O. Box A Scappoose, OR 97056 U.S.A. By Parcel Carrier: 32908 S.W. Keys Crest Drive Scappoose, OR 97056 U.S.A. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/584c5e01/attachment.html From whoffman at peak.org Mon Jan 5 18:58:32 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 18:58:32 -0800 Subject: [obol] South Coast Overwintering Birds- from CBC results etc. References: <490031.67905.qm@web45308.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <2BEA2CE581D0460F96D7842DE336AFD5@D48XBZ51> I observed a Prairie Falcon in January in Curry county in the mid-1970s. It flushed from a gravel bar in the lower Pistol River just east of Hwy 101. Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Rodenkirk" To: Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 10:19 AM Subject: [obol] South Coast Overwintering Birds- from CBC results etc. > Based on CBC info and some other sightings it looks like there a couple > new species (new within the last few years) overwintering on the south > coast, species that were previously not known to overwinter here but > routinely overwintered in the Willamette valley. > > One of these species, SAY'S PHOEBE, is overwintering in the Coquille > Valley and on the north spit of Coos Bay. Several birds are also > overwintering in Curry Co. including the Brookings area and near Cape > Blanco. I don't know of any further overwintering records further north > along the coast? > > A PRAIRIE FALCON was discovered on the Coquille valley CBC. As it turns > out, there was one seen in the Coquille Valley in Feb. of 2008 and also > several sightings during the winter of 2006/2007. Prior to this, in Coos > Co., there was only one other winter record in Feb. of 1990. Looks like > at least one bird has begun to regular overwinter in the Coquille Valley. > Are there other overwintering records on the north coast also? > > Also, at least three C. YELLOWTHROATS overwintering this year in Coos Co. > > Pretty cool! > > Tim R > Coos Bay > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From nepobirds at yahoo.com Mon Jan 5 19:10:34 2009 From: nepobirds at yahoo.com (Seth Reams) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:10:34 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Message-ID: <108782.76699.qm@web46010.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, that has been host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons changed. How common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on a feeder in the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? Thanks. Seth Reams and Michelle King NE Portland, OR - Gateway area portlandbirds.blogspot.com From tjanzen at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 19:21:45 2009 From: tjanzen at comcast.net (Tim Janzen) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 19:21:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Need ID Input In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20090106032215.42C02A8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Dear Kay, The bird appears to be a Rock Wren. Note the long, slightly decurved bill, the buffy flanks and the gray back. Sincerely, Tim Janzen Portland -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of kaycarter Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 6:18 PM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] Need ID Input I saw a bird between Adel and Plush on June 20, 2008, that I was pretty sure I knew what was immediately. However, I then came to question my ID, and have been mulling it over in the back of my mind ever since. I took two photos, but unfortunately my camera was accidentally on the wrong setting, so they are not in focus. The bird flew immediately after I took the second photo and I was not able to relocate it. I'd like to know what you folks think about this bird. It was roughly the size of a Robin. See the photos at: http://picasaweb.google.com/kaycarter13/OutOfFocus?authkey=AHEABxQv92Q#52879 75346172160194 I have not processed the photos in any way - not even to crop them. Kay Carter Canby _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 5 19:32:57 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 03:32:57 +0000 Subject: [obol] Updated owl and wintering finch PHOTOS and QUIZ Message-ID: Hi all, The wonderful Mike Marsh and I birded the Okanogan area over New Year's weekend and we had a fantastic trip. We saw 5 owl species, 4 Northern Goshawks, and saw many wintering finches. Mike got his lifer HOARY REDPOLL! Yipee!!! People are probably getting tired of my long-winded, over-the-top postings so thought I would do something different by not post my sightings here. Instead, I have included it in my pBase blog. A photo quiz of a raptor is also included. At least it is a clear photo so crack at it!! For complete trip report and photos see: http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/okanogan_winter_&page=all Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From marknikas at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 20:00:25 2009 From: marknikas at comcast.net (Mark Nikas) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:00:25 -0800 Subject: [obol] AOU or ABA checklist in Spanish? References: <00ff01c96fa8$e4af1c80$ae0d5580$@com> Message-ID: John, http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?lang=ES®ion=aou&list=clements This is an AOU list in Spanish as a web page but not a downloadable document. You could probably copy and paste the list into a spreadsheet without too much trouble. Mark Nikas From: Born Again Bird Watcher Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 6:45 PM To: OBOL Subject: [obol] AOU or ABA checklist in Spanish? Good evening all, I'm in need of the "List of the 2,048 Bird Species known for the A.O.U. check-list area" or at least the ABA area checklist species in Spanish. Anyone have a suggestion where such a document might be located online? Many thanks in advance. Peace and good bird watching, John E. Riutta Born Again Bird Watcher LLC "Birds, Bugs, Books, and Business Consulting" Mobile: (503) 577-5383 E-mail: john at bornagainbirdwatcher.com Website: www.bornagainbirdwatcherllc.com Blog: www.bornagainbirdwatcher.com By Mail: P.O. Box A Scappoose, OR 97056 U.S.A. By Parcel Carrier: 32908 S.W. Keys Crest Drive Scappoose, OR 97056 U.S.A. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/c8f80357/attachment.html From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Mon Jan 5 20:02:45 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 20:02:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] From the regional editor: stuff I don't need details for In-Reply-To: <4962BE70.6090209@pacifier.com> References: <4962BE70.6090209@pacifier.com> Message-ID: Hi Mike: I spent at least 1.5 hours looking for the thrush on count day with no luck. Shawneen Finnegan NW Portland On Mon, Jan 5, 2009 at 6:14 PM, Mike Patterson wrote: > Given that today is the last day of the count period, I think I > can safely send out a note on details. > > Things I do not need details for: > BROWN PELICAN > Heermann's Gull > Eurasian Collared Dove > Black Phoebe in Oregon and along the Columbia River > > I also already have photos of: > Shillipoo Swainson's Hawk > Eugene Gyrfalcon > Grants Pass Yellow-bellied Sapsucker > Airlie Vesper Sparrow > Corvallis Pyrrhuloxia > > I also have photos of the Portland Swainson's Thrush, but no word on > whether it was seen inside the count window. > > > -- > Mike Patterson > Astoria, OR > http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/4727f312/attachment.html From dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM Mon Jan 5 21:06:13 2009 From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM (Cheryl Whelchel) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:06:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fw: [birding] Re: Odd Duck on Airlie-Albany CBC Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Phyllis Bailey To: list at midvalleybirding.org Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 8:22 PM Subject: [birding] Re: Odd Duck on Airlie-Albany CBC Sorry this is so late. . .I had some computer problems earlier in the day that delayed my sending any messages anywhere. At any rate, I wanted to add my two cents to the discussion of the duck Cheryl Whelchel and I saw. The thing that made me really look at the bird hard was what I perceived as a tuft that came to an end halfway down the back of the duck's head. The head was roundish in shape, rather than sort of plumped up like a RNDU can look. She had a whitish patch on the side of her face near the base of the bill, not as prominent as on a scaup, but noticeable. The bill appeared to be mostly darkish, without the outstanding white marking of a ring-necked. But she did have a distinct eyering and a short line behind the eye. And the eye appeared to be dark. I would say that the most distinquishing features were the tuft and the head shape. I'm not going to be able to get back out to the site anytime soon, but perhaps someone with more experience could, and if the bird is still around, we could get an answer. Phyllis Bailey, Corvallis --- On Mon, 1/5/09, list-request at midvalleybirding.org wrote: From: list-request at midvalleybirding.org Subject: list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 3 To: list at midvalleybirding.org Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 12:32 PM Send list mailing list submissions to list at midvalleybirding.orgTo subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/listor, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to list-request at midvalleybirding.orgYou can reach the person managing the list at list-owner at midvalleybirding.orgWhen replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specificthan "Re: Contents of list digest..."Today's Topics: 1. Vesper Sparrow location (Cheryl Whelchel) 2. Re: Vesper Sparrow location, SE Polk Co. (Joel Geier) 3. In Kansas - albino red-tail pics (Steve Seibel) 4. Sharpy takes chicken! (bouchdon at peak.org)----------------------------------------------------------------------Message: 1Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 11:29:58 -0800From: "Cheryl Whelchel" Subject: [birding] Vesper Sparrow locationTo: "obol" , "midvallybirding" Message-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"I don't know the name of the road it was on but if you are going north onWells Landing RD and turn right where it dead ends into Hopville, then turn lefton the unpaved road that has hops growing to the left of it. At the end of thehops the road turns right and there is a blackberry thicket in the corner. Thebird responded quickly to pishing.Cheryl Whelchel----- Original Message ----- From: Jamie S. To: Cheryl Whelchel Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 11:10 AMSubject: Re: [birding] Airlie CBC Possible hybrid duck and Vesper Sparrow Can you post a description of where you found the Vesper sparrow soanyone who would like to try and relocate it can do so? Thanks! Jamie Simmons Corvallis --- On Sun, 1/4/09, Cheryl Whelchel> wrote: From: Cheryl Whelchel> Subject: [birding] Airlie CBC Possible hybrid duck and Vesper Sparrow To: "obol" , "midvallybirding" Date: Sunday, January 4, 2009, 9:19 AM Probably this will be one that got away, but for what its worth I haveposted some poor pictures of what appears to possibly be a hybird of some sort. The pictures really don't help much. Perhaps my birding partner Phylliswill post a description as well. In addition to what I stated below, the tuftwas visible with only binoculars, and was quite plain with the scope. If someone much more knowlegeable wants to chase this I can work ongetting access to the pond. It was in the Bueana Vista area south onIndependence. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: CherylWhelchel To: DavidIrons Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:57 AM Subject: Re: need help with 2 id's Thanks for the response. There were 2 other observers, one person hadbeen birding for over 30 years. She is the one that first noticed the tuft andwe studied it at 60 power for 20 minutes. So yes I think that it definitely hada tuft. Unfortuneatly it was on private property well away from the road, andaccess will be problematic. Again thanks for the great help. Cheryl Whelchel ----- Original Message ----- From: DavidIrons To: CherylWhelchel Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 11:05 PM Subject: RE: need help with 2 id's Hi Cheryl, Sorry for the late response. I just got back from doing the CoquilleValley CBC and I am scheduled to meet a couple people for pre-dawn owling at 5AMfor tomorrow's Eugene CBC. If I got to bed this very instant I will getfive hours of sleep. The sparrow is definitely a Vesper. The very neat complete eyering,relatively plain face (not as patterned as a Savannah) and the fine streaking onthe breast and flanks make this a pretty straight forward ID. The duck is more of a challenge. I can't see what I would call atuft in any of these images. Based on head shape along and the generallypaleness in the face and your description, I would say the bird is likely aRing-necked Duck. Though Tufteds resemble RNDU a bit, they have a very roundedcrown and hindcrown. It is not squared off like a Ring-necked. There is theslight possibility of it being a hybrid Tufted X Lesser Scaup or even Tufted XRing-necked, but with out a closer more clear image that would be tough to tell.If you have the opportunity, you might try to get out and see it again. If youare sure you saw even a little tuft, I would post this to OBOL and theMid-Valley Birders site in hopes that someone can go out and refind it. Dave ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM To: llsdirons at msn.com Subject: need help with 2 id's Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 19:36:44 -0800 Hi Dave, I did the Airlie CBC today and found 2 unusual birds. The first is asparrow and it is probably a Vesper Sparrow, but I wanted to run it by someoneelse. The second is a duck that is a bit more difficult, especially sinceit was a little too far away for decent pictures. It was a brown duck with ahint of white around its bill. The bill was a sort of gray with a black tip. The head had a rounded profile with what I would call a dark chocolate cap, anda tuft. It's back was a slightly darker brown than flanks. It heldit's tail stiffly up sort of like a ruddy. It dove. I would love to callthis a Tufted Duck, the problem is the eyes. It appeared to have a white eyering and white line going postierior from the middle of the eye. To far away toreally discern eye color, but seemed dark, not yellow. There were no otherbirds present so judging relative size was difficult. The amount of white around the bill on face was very slight. Theremainder of face was chocolatly brown like the back. I can't rule out either Ring-necked or Tufted. The eyes areinconsistent with Tufted, and the shape of head and tuft are inconsistent withRing-neck. I put pictures of both birds on my website. I will need to let PaulAdamus know asap, especially about the sparrow since the photo documentation isgood. Thanks Cheryl Whelchel http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/---------------------------------------------------------------------- Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. Get your Hotmail? accountnow. -----Inline Attachment Follows----- _______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL:http://midvalleybirding.org/pipermail/list/attachments/20090104/c1f5d160/attachment-0001.htm------------------------------Message: 2Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:05:01 -0800From: Joel Geier Subject: Re: [birding] Vesper Sparrow location, SE Polk Co.To: Cheryl Whelchel Cc: midvally birding , obol Message-ID: <1231110301.3627.18.camel at localhost.localdomain>Content-Type: text/plainHi folks,The right turn off Wells Landing Road which Cheryl describes is WigrichRd., see DeLorme p. 53, B7. I don't know the name of the smaller gravelroad that goes off to the left. There are a couple such roads but fromthe description and some dim recollections of having been out there indaylight years ago, I think it's the longer one labelled as Haener Rd.If you go too far on Wigrich Rd., you'll be testing the amphibiouscapabilities of whatever vehicle you're operating. As of 8 PM lastevening (when I was out there in the dark again, unsuccessfully tryingto reach a reliable spot for Western Screech-Owl), the east end ofWigrich Rd. was under flood waters.Happy birding,JoelP.S. The hazelnut orchards in this area have been a good spot forwintering Chipping Sparrows in years past. I've never found them myself,but according to Roy Gerig, Don Albright et al. they are normally foundwith junco flocks in the older orchards.On Sun, 2009-01-04 at 11:29 -0800, Cheryl Whelchel wrote:> I don't know the name of the road it was on but if you are going north> on Wells Landing RD and turn right where it dead ends into Hopville,> then turn left on the unpaved road that has hops growing to the left> of it. At the end of the hops the road turns right and there is a> blackberry thicket in the corner. The bird responded quickly to> pishing.> > Cheryl Whelchel--Joel GeierCamp Adair area north of Corvallis------------------------------Message: 3Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 11:34:09 -0800From: "Steve Seibel" Subject: [birding] In Kansas - albino red-tail picsTo: list at midvalleybirding.orgMessage-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"***http://www.aeroexperiments.org/AlbinoRedTailedHawk1*Hi all-- I'll be near Wichita KS for a few more days, thought some mightenjoy this link to some snapshots I took of a partial albino / leucisticRed-tailed hawk I spotted near here.Steve-------------- next part --------------An HTML attachment was scrubbed...URL:http://midvalleybirding.org/pipermail/list/attachments/20090105/9f6fb091/attachment-0001.htm------------------------------Message: 4Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 12:32:06 -0800 (PST)From: bouchdon at peak.orgSubject: [birding] Sharpy takes chicken!To: mid-valley-nature at googlegroups.comCc: list at midvalleybirding.orgMessage-ID: <35822.192.104.231.235.1231187526.squirrel at webmail.peak.org>Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1Hello Birders,My coworker, Scobel Wiggins, has had a Sharp-shinned Hawk attack herBantam Chickens recently. The other day, the little rooster was killed. Hewas probably bravely defending his hens, may he rest in peace :-(The description of the bird fits that of Sharp-shinned Hawk. Ambitious! Myguess is that it was a female hawk.Don Boucherwww.neighborhood-naturalist.com------------------------------_______________________________________________list mailing listlist at midvalleybirding.orghttp://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/listEnd of list Digest, Vol 34, Issue 3*********************************** _______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/c0d5cdd8/attachment.html From marciafcutler at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 21:25:05 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:25:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird In-Reply-To: <108782.76699.qm@web46010.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <108782.76699.qm@web46010.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <44990A73B11547CEA08EC32D7BC3E287@melvintrex4uoq> I can't answer Seth's question, but about a month ago I received some email from a person in the Corvallis area who claimed that they had an overwintering Rufous Hummingbird. All the pictures sent to me were taken this summer, but the person was insistent that they were still seeing the same hummingbird. I should probably follow up on this some more now that the CBC season is over (or nearly so for compilers). Marcia -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Seth Reams Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 7:11 PM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, that has been host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons changed. How common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on a feeder in the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? Thanks. Seth Reams and Michelle King NE Portland, OR - Gateway area portlandbirds.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Mon Jan 5 21:20:48 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:20:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question Message-ID: Today's debate question: Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining population anywhere in western Oregon? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From tc at empnet.com Mon Jan 5 21:31:37 2009 From: tc at empnet.com (Tom Crabtree) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:31:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: Message-ID: <148901c96fc0$0bbf9a40$6500a8c0@1120639> It certainly did for years and years prior to the current farming methods that no longer leave margins for fields and plant every square inch with crops. I certainly can't speak to the current state of the species in western Oregon, but it was doing fine in the 70s and 80s. Tom Crabtree, Bend ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Contreras" To: "obol" Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:20 PM Subject: [obol] Pheasant question Today's debate question: Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining population anywhere in western Oregon? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From marciafcutler at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 21:42:40 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:42:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] Winter Wrens and G-c Kinglets Message-ID: <967E498D4D9C4F7F963A526F3909C10B@melvintrex4uoq> For the period 2002-2008, the Corvallis CBC shows the following results: WIWR GCKI 2002 34 167 2003 39 325 2004 106 539 2005 52 386 2006 42 526 2007 27 247 2008 24 172 For both species, the best years were between 2003 and 2006. For Winter Wrens, there's been a steady downward trend since 2004, but only the last 2 years are below 2002's numbers. Golden-crowned Kinglets show more variation, but 2008 is actually a bit higher than 2002. Marcia F. Cutler Corvallis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/6e0878bd/attachment.html From marciafcutler at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 21:44:51 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 21:44:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Winter Wrens and G-c Kinglets Message-ID: <527A8ACD1FC5441CB64E92C5D415F89E@melvintrex4uoq> For the period 2002-2008, the Corvallis CBC shows the following results: WIWR GCKI 2002 34 167 2003 39 325 2004 106 539 2005 52 386 2006 42 526 2007 27 247 2008 24 172 For both species, the best years were between 2003 and 2006. For Winter Wrens, there's been a steady downward trend since 2004, but only the last 2 years are below 2002's numbers. Golden-crowned Kinglets show more variation, but 2008 is actually a bit higher than 2002. Marcia F. Cutler Corvallis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/90857afb/attachment.html From marknikas at comcast.net Mon Jan 5 22:24:24 2009 From: marknikas at comcast.net (Mark Nikas) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 22:24:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: <148901c96fc0$0bbf9a40$6500a8c0@1120639> Message-ID: <20206E4125714F6B85F3E0D9997775EF@LIBRARY> Outside of a handful of "fee hunts" each year ODFW has not supplemented the wild pheasant population for some time but they are still out there. Numbers are certainly much lower and it's no longer a sure thing on many Christmas counts. Prime habitat is dwindling so numbers will never approach what they were in the past but it seems for now they continue as a viable population in Western Oregon. Mark Nikas -------------------------------------------------- From: "Tom Crabtree" Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:31 PM To: "Alan Contreras" ; "obol" Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > It certainly did for years and years prior to the current farming > methods > that no longer leave margins for fields and plant every square inch > with > crops. I certainly can't speak to the current state of the species > in > western Oregon, but it was doing fine in the 70s and 80s. > > Tom Crabtree, > Bend > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Alan Contreras" > To: "obol" > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:20 PM > Subject: [obol] Pheasant question > > > Today's debate question: > > Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a > self-sustaining > population anywhere in western Oregon? > > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From 5hats at peak.org Mon Jan 5 23:16:11 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:16:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] loon Message-ID: <001e01c96fce$aa8c3030$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obol, As it turned out, while we were looking at the January 3 Yaquina Bay loon through the scope, Cindy Lippincott was filming it. She has sent me the video, which I will gladly forward to anyone who wants to see it. It looks to me like an Arctic Loon. Some of the supposed disturbing features don't seem to be so much of a problem according to the video. Darrel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/3d9177d6/attachment.html From 4cains at charter.net Mon Jan 5 23:35:52 2009 From: 4cains at charter.net (Lee and Lori Cain) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:35:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Need ID Input Message-ID: Rock Wren...yeah I agree. But what I am REALLY interested in is the apparent very recent lava flow the bird is standing on... any reports of reactivated vents or fissures in Eastern Oregon this year? Way cool!! Lee Cain Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090105/c58c99da/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Mon Jan 5 23:43:38 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:43:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants Message-ID: <30c8fb0e9f776f36c3971342d9f96456@earthlink.net> As I recall neither Corvallis nor Brownsville CBCs recorded a PHEASANT last year. Eugene recorded a record low number. What are the statistics for this year's counts? It struck me at the time that this was the most meaningful data to be gleaned from those respective counts. Both Corvallis and Brownsville count circles get very close to Peterson Butte, the site of the first successful pheasant introduction in North America. To be sure, some birds are to be seen here and there, but they are probably relicts, rather than parts of a truly self-sustaining population. On two occasions last winter I stopped on the abandoned section of Jacobsen Rd (where there is a large gate) near Croeni Ponds in Hillsboro and flushed 13 female Ring-necked Pheasants. Stocked birds are generally males so I took this to be a group of wild birds. In both cases it was at dusk and all the birds were together when they flushed. I took this to be a roost. This is a forty or more acre property that Intel suspended development on. Presumably they or someone else will proceed with so-called "development" when they find the time is right. In the meantime farming has ceased on said ground and blackberries and queen anne's lace is steadily covering it. I stopped there several times in May and June of 2008 at dawn and heard singing Meadowlarks. This would be the only indication of their breeding in Washington County in my personal experience in the last ten or more years. While people may feel ambivalence towards the passing of an exotic species, it may be some sort of indicator. Where the pheasant survives, so may certain native species. But I wonder if habitat degradation is an adequate explanation. When was the last time anyone detected a pheasant on Finley NWR? It is inside the Corvallis count circle and I would hope it was covered in last year's count. When I birded Finley regularly in the 70s it was probably impossible not to get pheasant on a day's list. One can certainly not claim Finley has suffered from the advances of modern, clean agribusiness. To the contrary, it is undergoing one of the most successful habitat restorations I have had the pleasure to witness. Yet I believe pheasants have declined there at a rate similar to the rest of the Willamette Valley. The boom and subsequent whimpering fade out of introduced species is quite common. A bird may be quite abundant for decades, across multiple human generations and hence collective memory, and then decline over decades until it completely disappears. I believe this is the case with the Chinese Spotted Dove to our south and the Crested Myna to the north. The Bobwhite did the same in Oregon on both sides of the State. Various informants of my parents' age portrayed the species as common in Benton and Polk Counties in the fifties, while it had become rare by the early 70s. It is certainly gone from those areas now. In eastern Oregon the Bobwhite has disappeared everywhere although in many areas agricultural land fronts extensive areas of sagebrush and other wild landscapes. This begs the question that has been near the front of my mind this CBC season--When is the ODF&W going to set seasons and bag limits on Eurasian Collared Doves? Or perhaps the agency would rather ignore them all together after spending millions on the unsuccessful attempts to introduce a host of exotic game birds over the last half century. Lars Norgren From marknikas at comcast.net Tue Jan 6 00:36:31 2009 From: marknikas at comcast.net (Mark Nikas) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 00:36:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants References: <30c8fb0e9f776f36c3971342d9f96456@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <401BE6087457468E888547D508213803@LIBRARY> I too remember when Finley was crawling with pheasants. It was also heavily stocked by ODFW. They used to raise many thousands at EE Wilson for release throughout western Oregon. It was a very expensive operation. I don't know exact dates but it seems it was 15 or 20 years ago when they stopped large scale pheasant rearing. They tried Sichuan Pheasants in the 90's hoping they would have a better survival rate but that apparently didn't work out as they had hoped. I'd guess the decline in pheasant numbers documented on the CBCs would mesh pretty good with the termination of ODFW stocking. The old numbers were artificially high due to released birds whose survival rate was documented as being quite low. I'm sure the end of releases isn't the only factor contributing to the decline but it must be a major one. Mark Nikas -------------------------------------------------- From: "Norgren Family" Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 11:43 PM To: Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants > As I recall neither Corvallis nor > Brownsville CBCs recorded a PHEASANT > last year. Eugene recorded a record > low number. What are the statistics > for this year's counts? It struck > me at the time that this was the most meaningful > data to be gleaned from those respective > counts. Both Corvallis and Brownsville > count circles get very close to > Peterson Butte, the site of the first > successful pheasant introduction in > North America. > To be sure, some birds are to > be seen here and there, but they > are probably relicts, rather than > parts of a truly self-sustaining > population. On two occasions last > winter I stopped on the abandoned > section of Jacobsen Rd (where there > is a large gate) near Croeni Ponds > in Hillsboro and flushed 13 female > Ring-necked Pheasants. Stocked birds > are generally males so I took this > to be a group of wild birds. In both > cases it was at dusk and all the > birds were together when they > flushed. I took this to be a roost. > This is a forty or more acre property > that Intel suspended development on. > Presumably they or someone else will > proceed with so-called "development" > when they find the time is right. > In the meantime farming has ceased > on said ground and blackberries and > queen anne's lace is steadily covering > it. > I stopped there several times > in May and June of 2008 at dawn and > heard singing Meadowlarks. This would > be the only indication of their > breeding in Washington County in my > personal experience in the last ten > or more years. While people may feel > ambivalence towards the passing of > an exotic species, it may be some sort > of indicator. Where the pheasant survives, > so may certain native species. > But I wonder if habitat degradation > is an adequate explanation. When was the > last time anyone detected a pheasant on > Finley NWR? It is inside the Corvallis > count circle and I would hope it was > covered in last year's count. When I > birded Finley regularly in the 70s it > was probably impossible not to get > pheasant on a day's list. One can > certainly not claim Finley has > suffered from the advances of modern, > clean agribusiness. To the contrary, > it is undergoing one of the most > successful habitat restorations > I have had the pleasure to witness. > Yet I believe pheasants have declined > there at a rate similar to the rest > of the Willamette Valley. > The boom and subsequent whimpering > fade out of introduced species is > quite common. A bird may be quite > abundant for decades, across multiple > human generations and hence collective > memory, and then decline over decades > until it completely disappears. I > believe this is the case with the > Chinese Spotted Dove to our south and > the Crested Myna to the north. The > Bobwhite did the same in Oregon on both > sides of the State. Various informants > of my parents' age portrayed the species > as common in Benton and Polk Counties > in the fifties, while it had become > rare by the early 70s. It is certainly > gone from those areas now. In eastern > Oregon the Bobwhite has disappeared > everywhere although in many areas > agricultural land fronts extensive > areas of sagebrush and other wild > landscapes. > This begs the question that has > been near the front of my mind this > CBC season--When is the ODF&W going > to set seasons and bag limits on > Eurasian Collared Doves? Or perhaps the agency > would rather ignore them all together > after spending millions on the unsuccessful > attempts to introduce a host of exotic > game birds over the last half century. > Lars Norgren > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From gorgebirds at juno.com Tue Jan 6 00:35:48 2009 From: gorgebirds at juno.com (Wilson Cady) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 08:35:48 GMT Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants Message-ID: <20090106.003548.6076.1@webmail07.vgs.untd.com> I believe that the original stocking of pheasants was done by Oregon Governor Denny on Sauvie Island. And those birds were of the Mongolian subspecies that inhabited open areas. With the loss of the Willamette Valley grasslands another subspecies from Sichuan was introduced about thirty years ago as they are a bird of brushier habitats and could survive in second growth forests along the edge of the valley. Now the question is what subspecies are people seeing? Wilson Cady Washougal, WA ____________________________________________________________ Click to begin your health care training online. Request info today. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/PnY6rw3fQe8f4e7AHjA6KUfWkzgfIscsZ180yKqMvVJAqS0QySXkF/ From gnorgren at earthlink.net Tue Jan 6 05:49:49 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 05:49:49 -0800 Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants In-Reply-To: <401BE6087457468E888547D508213803@LIBRARY> References: <30c8fb0e9f776f36c3971342d9f96456@earthlink.net> <401BE6087457468E888547D508213803@LIBRARY> Message-ID: <9e055552759d0541a92e83b2c0b9726e@earthlink.net> I hunted those pheasants and I can't imagine the survival rate was sufficient to affect the breeding population in spring. In 1973 it cost to ODF&W $5/bird from hatching to release. The put and take birds were easy to tell because they had no tails. There were a substantial number of wild birds at Finley then and they were very hard to get- they were smart, they were wary. The hatchery birds had all the sophistication of a white Leghorn or barred rock. At the time a hunting license cost $7.50, so the second bird of the season was profit in the eyes of my father, a perpetually starving graduate student. The situation was even more ludicrous because the pheasants were raised at E.E. Wilson in open topped pens. This attracted significant numbers of raptors. ODF&W could have covered the pens with chicken wire, but preferred to place leg-hold traps, the kind fur trappers use, on top of pole perches. Heavy anthropogenic raptor mortality was inevitable. Audubon Society of Corvallis got involved, initially by replacing the traps with a device that didn't break the legs of hawks and owls. Lars Norgren On Jan 6, 2009, at 12:36 AM, Mark Nikas wrote: > I too remember when Finley was crawling with pheasants. It was also > heavily stocked by ODFW. They used to raise many thousands at EE > Wilson for release throughout western Oregon. It was a very expensive > operation. I don't know exact dates but it seems it was 15 or 20 years > ago when they stopped large scale pheasant rearing. They tried Sichuan > Pheasants in the 90's hoping they would have a better survival rate > but that apparently didn't work out as they had hoped. I'd guess the > decline in pheasant numbers documented on the CBCs would mesh pretty > good with the termination of ODFW stocking. The old numbers were > artificially high due to released birds whose survival rate was > documented as being quite low. I'm sure the end of releases isn't the > only factor contributing to the decline but it must be a major one. > > Mark Nikas > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Norgren Family" > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 11:43 PM > To: > Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants > >> As I recall neither Corvallis nor >> Brownsville CBCs recorded a PHEASANT >> last year. Eugene recorded a record >> low number. What are the statistics >> for this year's counts? It struck >> me at the time that this was the most meaningful >> data to be gleaned from those respective >> counts. Both Corvallis and Brownsville >> count circles get very close to >> Peterson Butte, the site of the first >> successful pheasant introduction in >> North America. >> To be sure, some birds are to >> be seen here and there, but they >> are probably relicts, rather than >> parts of a truly self-sustaining >> population. On two occasions last >> winter I stopped on the abandoned >> section of Jacobsen Rd (where there >> is a large gate) near Croeni Ponds >> in Hillsboro and flushed 13 female >> Ring-necked Pheasants. Stocked birds >> are generally males so I took this >> to be a group of wild birds. In both >> cases it was at dusk and all the >> birds were together when they >> flushed. I took this to be a roost. >> This is a forty or more acre property >> that Intel suspended development on. >> Presumably they or someone else will >> proceed with so-called "development" >> when they find the time is right. >> In the meantime farming has ceased >> on said ground and blackberries and >> queen anne's lace is steadily covering >> it. >> I stopped there several times >> in May and June of 2008 at dawn and >> heard singing Meadowlarks. This would >> be the only indication of their >> breeding in Washington County in my >> personal experience in the last ten >> or more years. While people may feel >> ambivalence towards the passing of >> an exotic species, it may be some sort >> of indicator. Where the pheasant survives, >> so may certain native species. >> But I wonder if habitat degradation >> is an adequate explanation. When was the >> last time anyone detected a pheasant on >> Finley NWR? It is inside the Corvallis >> count circle and I would hope it was >> covered in last year's count. When I >> birded Finley regularly in the 70s it >> was probably impossible not to get >> pheasant on a day's list. One can >> certainly not claim Finley has >> suffered from the advances of modern, >> clean agribusiness. To the contrary, >> it is undergoing one of the most >> successful habitat restorations >> I have had the pleasure to witness. >> Yet I believe pheasants have declined >> there at a rate similar to the rest >> of the Willamette Valley. >> The boom and subsequent whimpering >> fade out of introduced species is >> quite common. A bird may be quite >> abundant for decades, across multiple >> human generations and hence collective >> memory, and then decline over decades >> until it completely disappears. I >> believe this is the case with the >> Chinese Spotted Dove to our south and >> the Crested Myna to the north. The >> Bobwhite did the same in Oregon on both >> sides of the State. Various informants >> of my parents' age portrayed the species >> as common in Benton and Polk Counties >> in the fifties, while it had become >> rare by the early 70s. It is certainly >> gone from those areas now. In eastern >> Oregon the Bobwhite has disappeared >> everywhere although in many areas >> agricultural land fronts extensive >> areas of sagebrush and other wild >> landscapes. >> This begs the question that has >> been near the front of my mind this >> CBC season--When is the ODF&W going >> to set seasons and bag limits on >> Eurasian Collared Doves? Or perhaps the agency >> would rather ignore them all together >> after spending millions on the unsuccessful >> attempts to introduce a host of exotic >> game birds over the last half century. >> Lars Norgren >> >> _______________________________________________ >> obol mailing list >> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Tue Jan 6 06:46:49 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 06:46:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Pheasant question In-Reply-To: <20206E4125714F6B85F3E0D9997775EF@LIBRARY> Message-ID: <60320.99166.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> On the north spit of Coos Bay breeding males can be heard crowing away in the spring through early June. I have noted this the past 10 years or so each spring. However, I have on one occasion actually seen a hunter release pheasant out there which his under 10 yr. old son went after with a shotgun a few minutes later so I imagine the population could be supplemented by others than ODFW. We have had singing Bobolinks out there also! Tim R Coos Bay --- On Mon, 1/5/09, Mark Nikas wrote: > From: Mark Nikas > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > To: "obol" > Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 10:24 PM > Outside of a handful of "fee hunts" each year ODFW > has not > supplemented the wild pheasant population > for some time but they are still out there. Numbers are > certainly much > lower and it's no longer a sure thing > on many Christmas counts. Prime habitat is dwindling so > numbers will > never approach what they were in > the past but it seems for now they continue as a viable > population in > Western Oregon. > > Mark Nikas > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Tom Crabtree" > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:31 PM > To: "Alan Contreras" > ; "obol" > > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > > > It certainly did for years and years prior to the > current farming > > methods > > that no longer leave margins for fields and plant > every square inch > > with > > crops. I certainly can't speak to the current > state of the species > > in > > western Oregon, but it was doing fine in the 70s and > 80s. > > > > Tom Crabtree, > > Bend > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Alan Contreras" > > > To: "obol" > > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:20 PM > > Subject: [obol] Pheasant question > > > > > > Today's debate question: > > > > Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have > a > > self-sustaining > > population anywhere in western Oregon? > > > > > > -- > > Alan Contreras > > EUGENE, OREGON > > acontrer at mindspring.com > > > > Information on Coquille Valley CBC: > http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ > > > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos > & News > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Tue Jan 6 06:49:40 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 06:49:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants In-Reply-To: <30c8fb0e9f776f36c3971342d9f96456@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <539308.24855.qm@web45305.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> ODFW opened up a hunting season on Eurasian Collared-Doves last year, I think bag limits are similar to Mourning Doves but I'm not sure. Tim R Coos Bay --- On Mon, 1/5/09, Norgren Family wrote: > From: Norgren Family > Subject: [obol] Westside pheasants > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 11:43 PM > As I recall neither Corvallis nor > Brownsville CBCs recorded a PHEASANT > last year. Eugene recorded a record > low number. What are the statistics > for this year's counts? It struck > me at the time that this was the most meaningful > data to be gleaned from those respective > counts. Both Corvallis and Brownsville > count circles get very close to > Peterson Butte, the site of the first > successful pheasant introduction in > North America. > To be sure, some birds are to > be seen here and there, but they > are probably relicts, rather than > parts of a truly self-sustaining > population. On two occasions last > winter I stopped on the abandoned > section of Jacobsen Rd (where there > is a large gate) near Croeni Ponds > in Hillsboro and flushed 13 female > Ring-necked Pheasants. Stocked birds > are generally males so I took this > to be a group of wild birds. In both > cases it was at dusk and all the > birds were together when they > flushed. I took this to be a roost. > This is a forty or more acre property > that Intel suspended development on. > Presumably they or someone else will > proceed with so-called "development" > when they find the time is right. > In the meantime farming has ceased > on said ground and blackberries and > queen anne's lace is steadily covering > it. > I stopped there several times > in May and June of 2008 at dawn and > heard singing Meadowlarks. This would > be the only indication of their > breeding in Washington County in my > personal experience in the last ten > or more years. While people may feel > ambivalence towards the passing of > an exotic species, it may be some sort > of indicator. Where the pheasant survives, > so may certain native species. > But I wonder if habitat degradation > is an adequate explanation. When was the > last time anyone detected a pheasant on > Finley NWR? It is inside the Corvallis > count circle and I would hope it was > covered in last year's count. When I > birded Finley regularly in the 70s it > was probably impossible not to get > pheasant on a day's list. One can > certainly not claim Finley has > suffered from the advances of modern, > clean agribusiness. To the contrary, > it is undergoing one of the most > successful habitat restorations > I have had the pleasure to witness. > Yet I believe pheasants have declined > there at a rate similar to the rest > of the Willamette Valley. > The boom and subsequent whimpering > fade out of introduced species is > quite common. A bird may be quite > abundant for decades, across multiple > human generations and hence collective > memory, and then decline over decades > until it completely disappears. I > believe this is the case with the > Chinese Spotted Dove to our south and > the Crested Myna to the north. The > Bobwhite did the same in Oregon on both > sides of the State. Various informants > of my parents' age portrayed the species > as common in Benton and Polk Counties > in the fifties, while it had become > rare by the early 70s. It is certainly > gone from those areas now. In eastern > Oregon the Bobwhite has disappeared > everywhere although in many areas > agricultural land fronts extensive > areas of sagebrush and other wild > landscapes. > This begs the question that has > been near the front of my mind this > CBC season--When is the ODF&W going > to set seasons and bag limits on > Eurasian Collared Doves? Or perhaps the agency > would rather ignore them all together > after spending millions on the unsuccessful > attempts to introduce a host of exotic > game birds over the last half century. > Lars Norgren > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From sandyleapt at comcast.net Tue Jan 6 06:56:24 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Message-ID: <010620091456.27109.49637118000DC410000069E522070208539B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Seth, I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a friend of hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend never had a chance to check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of mind until now. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Seth Reams > We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, that has been > host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons changed. How > common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on a feeder in > the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? Thanks. > > Seth Reams and Michelle King > NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > portlandbirds.blogspot.com > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 6 07:29:59 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:29:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Message-ID: <496378F7.1050607@pacifier.com> Rufous Hummingbirds do over-winter, though usually as first winter birds which makes it hard to be certain they are not some other _Selasphorus_ species (Allen's, Broad-tailed). Adult males are very unusual, but also the most unequivocal. That said, most of the Rufous Hummingbird reports I chase down turn out to be Anna's Hummingbirds. A substantial number of bird feeder folk are not particularly discerning when it comes to ID. They make assumptions. Many don't even own a field guide. A hummingbird is a hummingbird. A sparrow is a sparrow. I knew a lady who insisted she had a yard full of Harris's Sparrows. She knew that's what they were because she grew up with them back east. They were House Sparrows. Of course, I also knew a lady who insisted she had a Gray-crowned Rosy-finch coming to here feeder that turned out to be a Gray- crowned Rosy-finch, coming to her feeder. So it's important that we don't make assumptions, either. Knowing whether these really are _Selasphorus _ hummingbirds is useful information that may presage trends. Finding a nice way to tell someone they've got Anna's rather than Rufous Hummingbirds (or House Sparrows rather than Harris's Sparrows) is a useful people skill. And along the way you may find a Brambling or a Pyrrhuloxia. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From whoffman at peak.org Tue Jan 6 07:46:22 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:46:22 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: <60320.99166.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Over the years several subspecies of pheasants have been introduced in Oregon, nost recently "Sichuan" which I believe do not have neck rings. It is very possible that the genetic mongrels rersulting have lower survival than the original stock released in the 19th century. If so, we can expect an extended period of low numbers as selection weeds out deleterious gene combinations, then possibly a rebound, providing sufficient habitat remains. Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Rodenkirk" To: "obol" ; "Mark Nikas" Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 6:46 AM Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question On the north spit of Coos Bay breeding males can be heard crowing away in the spring through early June. I have noted this the past 10 years or so each spring. However, I have on one occasion actually seen a hunter release pheasant out there which his under 10 yr. old son went after with a shotgun a few minutes later so I imagine the population could be supplemented by others than ODFW. We have had singing Bobolinks out there also! Tim R Coos Bay --- On Mon, 1/5/09, Mark Nikas wrote: > From: Mark Nikas > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > To: "obol" > Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 10:24 PM > Outside of a handful of "fee hunts" each year ODFW > has not > supplemented the wild pheasant population > for some time but they are still out there. Numbers are > certainly much > lower and it's no longer a sure thing > on many Christmas counts. Prime habitat is dwindling so > numbers will > never approach what they were in > the past but it seems for now they continue as a viable > population in > Western Oregon. > > Mark Nikas > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Tom Crabtree" > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:31 PM > To: "Alan Contreras" > ; "obol" > > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > > > It certainly did for years and years prior to the > current farming > > methods > > that no longer leave margins for fields and plant > every square inch > > with > > crops. I certainly can't speak to the current > state of the species > > in > > western Oregon, but it was doing fine in the 70s and > 80s. > > > > Tom Crabtree, > > Bend > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Alan Contreras" > > > To: "obol" > > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:20 PM > > Subject: [obol] Pheasant question > > > > > > Today's debate question: > > > > Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have > a > > self-sustaining > > population anywhere in western Oregon? > > > > > > -- > > Alan Contreras > > EUGENE, OREGON > > acontrer at mindspring.com > > > > Information on Coquille Valley CBC: > http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ > > > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos > & News > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From 5hats at peak.org Tue Jan 6 07:53:39 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:53:39 -0800 Subject: [obol] loon video Message-ID: <000401c97019$93c87110$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obolites, The video Cindy Lippincott took of the Jan 3 Yaquina Bay Loon takes a few minutes to download once you get the post, but for all you dial up people (of which I am one), the post itself comes straight through. So I am going to post it to the main list. Darrel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/24e6db4a/attachment.html From 5hats at peak.org Tue Jan 6 07:54:05 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 07:54:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fw: Loon Message-ID: <000501c97019$9526efa0$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> ----- Original Message ----- From: Cindy Lippincott and Bob Berman To: 5hats at peak.org Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 12:50 PM Subject: Loon Darrel, I guess you had no idea that I was taking a movie of the loon in question. I have just posted it on YouTube. Here's the URL. I'll let you post the URL on OBOL rather than doing it myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Ln4Sj8uZU Cindy -- ==================================================== Cindy Lippincott and Bob Berman 180 NW 73rd Court, Newport, Oregon 97365 541-265-7736 home 719-649-4588 cell ==================================================== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/0cb3036f/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 6 08:33:29 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:33:29 -0800 Subject: [obol] Loon Message-ID: <496387D9.4090309@pacifier.com> This appears to be a white-sided COMMON LOON. It is very similar to the individual that had folks going along the Neawanna last year http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/temp/loon20080108.jpg The head-shape and strong contrast between the dark and light parts of the head are consistent with Common Loon. The bill seems very heavy. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cindy Lippincott and Bob Berman To: 5hats AT peak.org Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 12:50 PM Subject: Loon Darrel, I guess you had no idea that I was taking a movie of the loon in question. I have just posted it on YouTube. Here's the URL. I'll let you post the URL on OBOL rather than doing it myself. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6Ln4Sj8uZU Cindy -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From dpvroman at budget.net Tue Jan 6 08:42:53 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 08:42:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: Message-ID: <4A9066E4A85B4B548273ED614D9DE03D@Warbler> They are not doing all that well in the western part of the Rogue Valley (Grants Pass/Applegate areas). The very first Grants Pass CBC found 53 and it has gone down hill since. Your are lucky to see one in an entire year now-a-days. Last year's CBC there were none, this year 1 was found in the Murphy area. To my surprise, I spotted a pair on the IV CBC, a count 1st (recent releases maybe?, by who?). Perhaps the most influential factor with their decline in the western Rogue Valley is sub-divisions where there were fields. Dennis Today's debate question: Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining population anywhere in western Oregon? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com From llsdirons at msn.com Tue Jan 6 08:45:02 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:45:02 +0000 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird In-Reply-To: <010620091456.27109.49637118000DC410000069E522070208539B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <010620091456.27109.49637118000DC410000069E522070208539B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: Hi Sandy, To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds (plural) coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. Rufous Hummingbird is not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite one per season for the entire state) during winter in Oregon. The odds of one person having multiple birds through the winter are pretty long. I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in Forest Grove (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not that great, it is highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. Dave Irons Eugene, OR > From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 > CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com > Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > Hi Seth, > > I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a friend of hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend never had a chance to check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of mind until now. > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: Seth Reams > > We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, that has been > > host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons changed. How > > common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on a feeder in > > the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? Thanks. > > > > Seth Reams and Michelle King > > NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > > portlandbirds.blogspot.com > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _________________________________________________________________ Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_122008 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/41425109/attachment.html From pmcclosky at earthlink.net Tue Jan 6 08:49:03 2009 From: pmcclosky at earthlink.net (Peter J. McClosky) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 08:49:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Birders Night In-Reply-To: <4A9066E4A85B4B548273ED614D9DE03D@Warbler> References: <4A9066E4A85B4B548273ED614D9DE03D@Warbler> Message-ID: <8D2C7158-8E03-4A78-BA81-5D1A34215E3E@earthlink.net> Does anyone know when the next Eugene Birders Night is scheduled? Peter ---- Peter J. McClosky Eugene, Oregon pmcclosky at earthlink.net pmcclosky at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/4f3cda47/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 6 08:50:19 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:50:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question Message-ID: <49638BCB.7060102@pacifier.com> I blame the Turkeys... We all need to get Turkey Hunting licenses and take no prisoners... Subject: Re: Pheasant question From: "Dennis P. Vroman" Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 08:42:53 -0800 They are not doing all that well in the western part of the Rogue Valley (Grants Pass/Applegate areas). The very first Grants Pass CBC found 53 and it has gone down hill since. Your are lucky to see one in an entire year now-a-days. Last year's CBC there were none, this year 1 was found in the Murphy area. To my surprise, I spotted a pair on the IV CBC, a count 1st (recent releases maybe?, by who?). Perhaps the most influential factor with their decline in the western Rogue Valley is sub-divisions where there were fields. Dennis Today's debate question: Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining population anywhere in western Oregon? -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer AT mindspring.com _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol AT oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From greg at thebirdguide.com Tue Jan 6 09:23:31 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 09:23:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Ring-necked Pheasant references Message-ID: <20090106092331.ijk0polu9s04s848@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Eleven birds introduced in Linn County by Judge Denny in 1881; grew to over 1 million birds in Oregon by 1890; spread to California and Washington (Forest and Stream 34:493 (1890) fide Jobanek, 1997). From "Birds of Linn County, Oregon (1825-2000) http://thebirdguide.com/blc/blc.doc A history of the Ring-necked Pheasant in Oregon is here: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=pf_output.cfm&file_id=8444 The hunter harvest in western Oregon is illuminating and can be found on page 9 of this document: http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/upland_bird/harvest/2006_upland_harvest_figures.pdf From the mid 1960's to the mid 1970's the harvest was over 75,000 pheasants per year in western Oregon. It appears that substantial releases were stopped about 1986. That year the harvest was almost 50,000 pheasants. The next year only 25,000 pheasants. Since 1996 only one year had a harvest greater than 5,000 pheasants. The 2007 data shows about 3,000 hunters and 1,000 pheasants taken in western Oregon. Note that releases of hens began in 1978, according to page 1 of this document: http://www.jstor.org/pss/3782682 A Breeding Bird Survey trend from 1968 to 1994, showing steady downward trends, is here: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/bbs/grass/h3091ore.htm Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From jeffharding at centurytel.net Tue Jan 6 09:48:16 2009 From: jeffharding at centurytel.net (Jeff Harding) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 09:48:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question In-Reply-To: References: <60320.99166.qm@web45310.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <31D784F0ABF04E228026565ADDC36282@laptop> Our area, in Linn County between Lebanon and Scio is one of the places where "Sichuan" Pheasants were released, and our sense is that they died out quickly. For a while there were ringless birds, but they rapidly became fewer. We still see cocks that seem to have reduced rings. I had three handsome regular-type Ring-necked cocks visiting the feeder over the weekend, and the population of such birds seems to be stable in our area. I suspect that they will hold on in areas like this indefinitely, where there is a mix of grazing, small woodlots, and seed crops. Are we concerned that they should be removed from the official Oregon Field Ornithologists list of Birds of Oregon, perhaps anticipating their demise? For now they are a part of the Oregon avifauna, but who can predict the future? Good birding, Jeff -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Wayne Hoffman Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 7:46 AM To: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com; obol; Mark Nikas Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question Over the years several subspecies of pheasants have been introduced in Oregon, nost recently "Sichuan" which I believe do not have neck rings. It is very possible that the genetic mongrels rersulting have lower survival than the original stock released in the 19th century. If so, we can expect an extended period of low numbers as selection weeds out deleterious gene combinations, then possibly a rebound, providing sufficient habitat remains. Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Rodenkirk" To: "obol" ; "Mark Nikas" Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 6:46 AM Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question On the north spit of Coos Bay breeding males can be heard crowing away in the spring through early June. I have noted this the past 10 years or so each spring. However, I have on one occasion actually seen a hunter release pheasant out there which his under 10 yr. old son went after with a shotgun a few minutes later so I imagine the population could be supplemented by others than ODFW. We have had singing Bobolinks out there also! Tim R Coos Bay --- On Mon, 1/5/09, Mark Nikas wrote: > From: Mark Nikas > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > To: "obol" > Date: Monday, January 5, 2009, 10:24 PM > Outside of a handful of "fee hunts" each year ODFW > has not > supplemented the wild pheasant population > for some time but they are still out there. Numbers are > certainly much > lower and it's no longer a sure thing > on many Christmas counts. Prime habitat is dwindling so > numbers will > never approach what they were in > the past but it seems for now they continue as a viable > population in > Western Oregon. > > Mark Nikas > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Tom Crabtree" > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:31 PM > To: "Alan Contreras" > ; "obol" > > Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question > > > It certainly did for years and years prior to the > current farming > > methods > > that no longer leave margins for fields and plant > every square inch > > with > > crops. I certainly can't speak to the current > state of the species > > in > > western Oregon, but it was doing fine in the 70s and > 80s. > > > > Tom Crabtree, > > Bend > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Alan Contreras" > > > To: "obol" > > Sent: Monday, January 05, 2009 9:20 PM > > Subject: [obol] Pheasant question > > > > > > Today's debate question: > > > > Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have > a > > self-sustaining > > population anywhere in western Oregon? > > > > > > -- > > Alan Contreras > > EUGENE, OREGON > > acontrer at mindspring.com > > > > Information on Coquille Valley CBC: > http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ > > > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ - Commentary > > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ - Bird Photos > & News > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 6 09:50:38 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:50:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <496399EE.9030109@verizon.net> I'll second Tim's note that Pheasant is regularly singing on Coos Bay North Spit each spring, and sometimes we see broods, but not too often. I suspect they survive out there in small numbers, but I also suspect they are supplemented by the locals. I have seen N Bobwhite in the county on a rural road, I believe I or someone else have seen Chukar in the county on a rural road, and I have friends up Lamba Mtn way that have a neighbor that has or has had numerous game birds, some (many?) that have been released or escaped. So there is no doubt that there are folks who like to spread these things around and hunt them. At CBNS, the habitat for Pheasant is marginal, probably decreasing with time. However there is enough grass out there to still harbor some. One thing for certain, weather should not be a real issue. Pheasants do just fine in places like the Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc etc. So in terms of weather, they can survive a Coos Bay winter or most Oregon winters in general. It probably comes down to habitat in most places. Cheers Dave Lauten Alan Contreras wrote: > Today's debate question: > > Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining > population anywhere in western Oregon? > > > From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 6 11:11:02 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:11:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] releases, escapes and feral populations Message-ID: <4963ACC6.8030007@pacifier.com> As often as not, adding non-native species to the state leads us down this road of what counts and what doesn't. Should I count the Chukars I've seen in Clatsop Co. since they're on the Oregon list from established populations east of the Cascades? Does every Ring-necked Pheasant count equally even though there's a pretty good chance that a given individual is released bird in among the feral birds? We have pheasant "singing" out at Fort Stevens and along the Clatsop Plains. But we also have Guinea Fowl, California Quail, button quail and Bobwhites seen regularly, usually in the fall. Someone is almost certainly releasing game birds around here. There are those out there who advocate the removal of all introductions from "official" lists (not me, honest, I'm just the messenger). Crested Myna? Introduced and extirpated. Skylark? Introduced and nearly gone. House Sparrow (yes, House Sparrow), much reduced from it's peak in the early 20th century. The only real way to test the viability of these introduced species is to stop introducing them. Anybody see that happening anytime soon? -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From joel.geier at peak.org Tue Jan 6 11:24:44 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:24:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasants as self-sustaining species in Oregon? Message-ID: <1231269884.3633.22.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, Living next to E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area in Benton County, most of the pheasants that I see each year are clueless, pen-raised "refugees" from the annual fee hunt. These tend to disappear within a few weeks after hunting season, no doubt due to a near-complete lack of survival skills. Over the past decade at least, ODFW has released only roosters at this site, so these wouldn't form a sustaining population even if they had better a sense of how to use cover. I do occasionally run across hens which must come from some other provenance. 3 or 4 years ago I ran across a hen with about ten fledged young at Luckiamute Landing, so apparently there is still some breeding going on locally, in the wild. Occasionally I've seen Sichuan-type pheasants which ODFW no longer releases, so that also points to some persistence of wild-breeding birds. However, it would seem to be very difficult to ascertain to what degree these birds are part of a "self-sustaining" population, given that private hunting organizations and individuals could be releasing pen- raised pheasant hens. Perhaps ODFW has some data, if anyone is interested enough to ask them. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From 5hats at peak.org Tue Jan 6 12:16:38 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:16:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Yaquina Bay loon Message-ID: <009a01c9703b$b1725010$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obolites, Time to roll up our educational sleeves. In the past OBOL has proved useful in regard to sorting out the fine points in cases of difficult identification. I hope it will prove to be so in respect to the loon which we saw, and Cindy Lippincott videotaped, on January 3. As per my original post regarding the bird, at the time of the sighting, in spite of the fact that the bird showed an obvious white flank patch and posture consistent with Arctic Loon, I passed it off as an unusually plumaged Common Loon. After later reviewing the field guides I thought perhaps I had been mistaken, and I frankly thought Cindy's videotapes made a better case for Arctic Loon than did my impressions at the time of the sighting. Now that Mike Patterson has come out with a comment which agrees with my original assessment, I hope to initiate some discussion of the details of the plumage of this particular bird. If, as Mike suggests, this is a white sided Common Loon, just how "common" is it? I have been birding along the coast for about thirty five years, have seen thousands of loons,and this is the first time I have ever seen a Common Loon in this plumage. It must a very irregular thing for one to show it. At the time of the sighting one of my cautionary impressions was the bulk of the bill. It certainly looked larger than the bill is shown to be on Arctic Loon in the field guides. It was, as noted, somewhat shorter, but not necessarily slimmer than that of the accompanying Common. Just how significant is this mark on Arctic Loon? In the photos the bill appears to me to be slim enough to be within the expected range for the species, as compared with the drawings in the field guides, but how much overlap is there (if any) between bill thickness in Arctic and Common Loons? What about size? Standard difference between the two species is said to be five inches, but I have seen small Common Loons, and the Yaquina Bay bird from a few years back which received a consensus identification as an Arctic was a massive bird. I never saw that one in company with a Common, but it seemed to me to be every bit as large as most of them. The video was not as crisp as it might have been, but I cannot detect on it any signficant difference between the light and dark portions of the head that Mike suggests. Nor do I see in Sibley anything that would suggest such a difference, except perhaps for a slight amount of lighter feathering in the fore part of the neck on Common Loon. It looks to me that the video shows a dark border to the neck from top to bottom. Head shape: While looking at the bird, I noted that it had a flat crown, distinctly peaked in front, and somewhat less so in rear, and seemingly indistinguishable from that of the Common next to it. I see in Sibley no distinction in head shape between Arctic and Common, other than the fact that the former species appears somewhat finer and more delicate. The bird we saw appeared equal in bulk of head, which may be a factor, but what is the real distinction between head shape of the two species? As the views we had of the bird were nearly all from the rear, there may be some discrepancies between how the foreparts of the bird appeared to us and how they really were, but from what is visible in the video it appears that the entire foreneck of the bird is whiter and more distinctly delineated from the dark markings than would be expected on Common Loon. I will now have to spend more time looking at this feature on known Common Loons, but it seemed to me, both at the time of the sigting ( and in direct comparison with the Common) and while looking at the video that this was a distinctive feature between the two birds in question. The white flank patch on the videotaped bird looks to me to be shaped somewhat differently than that pictured in Sibley and other guides. Most of them show the high point of the patch to be at the rear, whereas the high point on the videotaped bird was more toward the center. I assume there may be some variation in this plumage feature on Arctic Loon, but is my assumption correct? Do we have photos, or enough of them, to support the importance ( or lack of it) of this particular feature? Another comparison seems worth mentioning. The Common Loon photos supplied by Mike Patterson show a bird with a white flank patch and some white intermixed with dark feathering along the sides. This is about what I would expect from a "white sided Common Loon". I would not necessarily expect that a similarly described bird would show immaculately white flank and sides as the Yaquina Bay bird showed, and as is depicted for Arctic Loon in the guides. With Arctic Loon, how much dark feathering, if any, is ever mixed in with the white sides and flanks? At this point I am much inclined to lean toward my original assessment, and that of Mike, that the bird at Yaquina Bay was an oddly plumaged Common Loon. But I think these field marks are worth discussing, and it would be interesting to hear from people who have more knowledge of them than I do. Of course, I suppose such a discussion might involve the use of the dreaded "H" word, so I just as well bring it up now. As Arctic Loon and Common Loon do in some places share breeding range, it seems the possibility of a hybrid between the two species does exist. Are there any such records in existence? Or even any suspicious ones? Just a thought. Darrel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/64757fe2/attachment.html From 5hats at peak.org Tue Jan 6 12:26:24 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:26:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasants as self-sustaining species in Oregon? References: <1231269884.3633.22.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <00a601c9703d$133f47c0$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Joel, et al, From a different perspective: The two strongholds of what might be termed "self sustaining" populations of Ring-necked Pheasant in Oregon seem to be in the Columbia corridor between, say, Arlington and Pendleton (and north and south of those locations), and near Ontario. I have not been in the latter location enough in recent years to make any comment about the frequency of sighting birds there, or of any population increases or decreases. However, I bird Gilliam County rather regularly, and found it interesting that in the fall of 2008 I spent two days in the Condon-Arlington area without detecting a single pheasant. It was the first time I had ever birded in the county without listing this species. Also, last spring Laura and I were in Fossil, and just north of town noted a large pen holding perhaps five hundred of the birds. This location is just over one pass, and about forty miles, from Condon, so even birds sighted in southern Gilliam County might not in fact really be from self-sustaining populations. And I suspect the same thing is true around Pendleton and other Umatilla and Morrow County locations. Darrel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Joel Geier" To: "Oregon Birders OnLine" Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 11:24 AM Subject: [obol] Pheasants as self-sustaining species in Oregon? > Hello folks, > > Living next to E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area in Benton County, most of the > pheasants that I see each year are clueless, pen-raised "refugees" from > the annual fee hunt. These tend to disappear within a few weeks after > hunting season, no doubt due to a near-complete lack of survival skills. > Over the past decade at least, ODFW has released only roosters at this > site, so these wouldn't form a sustaining population even if they had > better a sense of how to use cover. > > I do occasionally run across hens which must come from some other > provenance. 3 or 4 years ago I ran across a hen with about ten fledged > young at Luckiamute Landing, so apparently there is still some breeding > going on locally, in the wild. Occasionally I've seen Sichuan-type > pheasants which ODFW no longer releases, so that also points to some > persistence of wild-breeding birds. > > However, it would seem to be very difficult to ascertain to what degree > these birds are part of a "self-sustaining" population, given that > private hunting organizations and individuals could be releasing pen- > raised pheasant hens. Perhaps ODFW has some data, if anyone is > interested enough to ask them. > > Happy birding, > Joel > > -- > Joel Geier > Camp Adair area north of Corvallis > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From greg at thebirdguide.com Tue Jan 6 12:54:15 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:54:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] February 21 pelagic trip: Laysan Albatross Message-ID: <20090106125415.tqn2zg7o944og4sg@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Friends, Is LAYSAN ALBATROSS on your "most wanted" list? There are only 6 weeks until our first Perpetua Bank pelagic trip of 2009! Laysan Albatross is the primary target bird! Saturday, February 21, 2009 Perpetua Bank pelagic trip 11 hours from Newport, Oregon $160 per person ($145 early signup discount this week only!) The target birds are: Laysan Albatross (6 of 7 trips in February/March) Short-tailed Shearwater (6 of 7 trips in February/March) Ancient Murrelet (4 of 7 trips in February/March) Expect good numbers of Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Rhinoceros Auklets. Regulars include: Black-footed Albatross, Northern Fulmar, Sooty Shearwater, Herring Gull, Thayer's Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Western Gull, Black-legged Kittiwake, Common Murre, Cassin's Auklet, Marbled Murrelet, Rhinoceros Auklet. Birds on or near the jetties as we go out the bay include: Black Turnstone, Surfbird, Rock Sandpiper, Surf Scoter, Black Scoter, White-winged Scoter, Harlequin Duck, Red-necked Grebe, Red-throated Loon, Pacific Loon, and others. Marine mammals have included Gray Whale, Harbor Porpoise, Dall's Porpoise, Pacific White-sided Dolphin, California Sea Lion, Steller's Sea Lion, Northern Fur Seal, Harbor Seal. The archive of previous Perpetua Bank trip reports are here: http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/archive_perpetua.htm You'll at least want to see last year's report with photos and narrative, when we saw a record 8 LAYSAN ALBATROSSES! http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/archive/03012008.htm Please check the full details and register at: http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/ Greg Gillson The Bird Guide, Inc. Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 6 13:37:30 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:37:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bandon birds Message-ID: <4963CF1A.1070706@verizon.net> 1/6/09 Bandon Coos Cty There are now 2 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS at our feeder north of Bandon. I checked the feeder this morning that had the WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH, but did not see it. I did see RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH there amongst other things. I saw the EMPEROR GOOSE, it was with the GREATER WHITE FRONTED GOOSE and the local domestics near the pond near the jetty. Also checked last evening for the mystery bird on Bandon Dunes but again could not find it. Cheers Dave Lauten Bandon OR deweysage at verizon.net From dinpdx at yahoo.com Tue Jan 6 14:04:11 2009 From: dinpdx at yahoo.com (Dwight) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:04:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] another loon at Yaquina Head Message-ID: <933397.84529.qm@web31602.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I saw the thread on OBOL regarding the loon in Yaquina Bay and so I thought I would share a recent loon sighting. I saw a loon on 12/30/08 while watching wales from the Yaquina Head Lighthouse north of Newport. The white flanks made me wonder if it was an Arctic Loon. One of the volunteers said it was a Common Loon, I didn't press her too much about it because she was counting whales. I don't think I even asked her about the white flanks. I took some digiscoped photos, the quality is poor but if anyone is interested they can be viewed here: http://birdshots.blogspot.com/ Good Birding, Dwight Porter Portland, OR From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 6 14:23:07 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:23:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] White-sided Common Loons... Message-ID: <4963D9CB.7000606@pacifier.com> http://www.flickr.com/photos/rick_leche/82188631/ http://www.mainebirding.net/birds/img/common-loon1.jpg http://www.geocities.com/tgrey41/Pages/CommonLoonp.html http://content.ornith.cornell.edu/UEWebApp/images/KTK_111902_100001_L.jpg http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/89152189 -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Tue Jan 6 15:45:45 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:45:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Heron Message-ID: The Little Blue was in its usual spot just past the red barn .6 miles up Drift Creek Rd about 10:30 this morning, mixed into a loose flock of gulls and crows. It had a little discussion with a crow that tried to get into the feeding area - the longer bill won. Weather on the coast was medium-vile, 30-mile winds and a drenching mist. Other birds were very hard to find. Florence was slightly better, with a small flock of Herring and Thayer's Gulls. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From birdmandon at clearwire.net Tue Jan 6 15:44:42 2009 From: birdmandon at clearwire.net (Don Schrouder) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 15:44:42 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tis the season Message-ID: While out front washing the car in these summer temperatures (55 degrees in Eugene), one of my male Anna's Hummingbirds climbed straight up to the sky, dove down just over the Magnolia, and pulled up giving its distinctive pop sound. These hardy hummers sure like to start early in the new year! Don Schrouder birdmandon at clearwire.net From kirkpat at charter.net Tue Jan 6 16:22:37 2009 From: kirkpat at charter.net (Douglas Kirkpatrick) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:22:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tis the season In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <02A746CC28B24C54BE27A835BCC5EA42@D7CDFN81> "Hope springs eternal in the male ........ heart?" Doug Kirkpatrick Medford ========================== -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Don Schrouder Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 3:45 PM To: obol send Subject: [obol] Tis the season While out front washing the car in these summer temperatures (55 degrees in Eugene), one of my male Anna's Hummingbirds climbed straight up to the sky, dove down just over the Magnolia, and pulled up giving its distinctive pop sound. These hardy hummers sure like to start early in the new year! Don Schrouder birdmandon at clearwire.net _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From bcombs232 at gmail.com Tue Jan 6 16:40:24 2009 From: bcombs232 at gmail.com (Barbara Combs) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:40:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tis the season In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8ce3a6520901061640s78efcc30h3602249e7b8c7641@mail.gmail.com> There was a male Anna's hummer singing his heart out from my holly tree this morning. Spring is busting out all over. On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Don Schrouder wrote: > While out front washing the car in these summer temperatures (55 > degrees in Eugene), one of my male Anna's Hummingbirds climbed > straight up to the sky, dove down just over the Magnolia, and pulled > up giving its distinctive pop sound. These hardy hummers sure like to > start early in the new year! > > Don > Schrouder > > birdmandon at clearwire.net > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -- Barbara Combs obie '70 Eugene OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/289de7f0/attachment.html From rflores_2 at msn.com Tue Jan 6 17:11:21 2009 From: rflores_2 at msn.com (Bob Flores) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:11:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] golden eagle, Ridgefield NWR, Clark Co, WA Message-ID: I was at Post Office Lake this afternoon and observed an adult golden eagle soaring over the lake. It was at the Northend but viewable from the parkinglot at the end of Lower River Road. Bob Flores -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/7fb83c50/attachment.html From rflores_2 at msn.com Tue Jan 6 17:13:12 2009 From: rflores_2 at msn.com (Bob Flores) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:13:12 -0800 Subject: [obol] cinnamon teal at River S Unit, Ridgefield NWR, WA Message-ID: Had 5 teal along the tour loop just past the contact station on the left. Bob Flores Ridgefield, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/92b4e07e/attachment.html From rflores_2 at msn.com Tue Jan 6 17:15:47 2009 From: rflores_2 at msn.com (Bob Flores) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 17:15:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] red-shouldered hawk, Ridgfield NWR, Clark Co, WA Message-ID: Had an individual sitting in a tree just past the Hunter Gate on River S Unit tour loop. Bob Flores Ridgefield, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/ecfdd94e/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Tue Jan 6 18:32:16 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:32:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Airlie CBC Rough-legged Hawks, Winter Wrens, G-c Kinglets, and bluebirds Message-ID: <1231295536.3515.15.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi folks, I'm looking at the preliminary data from Paul Adamus' compilation of the Airlie-Albany CBC here, and thought these numbers might be of interest based on recent comments: 18 Rough-legged Hawks 51 Winter Wrens 293 Golden-crowned Kinglets The Rough-legged Hawk tally is a very healthy number for this area. At one point in the day, my daughter Martha and I had three in our sights simultaneously, just half a mile up the road from where we had just left a fourth hovering over a grass field. The Winter Wren and Golden-crowned Kinglet totals do seem a bit low for this count circle, though access to habitat was limited by snow (state forest lands) and flooding (bottomland forests). 176 Western Bluebirds was an encouraging tally. 13 of the 15 sectors reported at least one bluebird. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From ninerharv2 at msn.com Tue Jan 6 19:11:16 2009 From: ninerharv2 at msn.com (HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE ) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 03:11:16 +0000 Subject: [obol] Pelicans misbehaving Message-ID: Tonight, national network news did report on brown pelican crisis in California. Many dying! Don't have strength to go on. Is our abundance in Oregon that seemed so unique and neat part of a bigger problem and are these birds really in jeopardy. Word is they are not coming off endangered list after all. Harv m Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Mike Patterson Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:32:34 To: ; Subject: [obol] Pelicans misbehaving I spent the morning in Seaside.? There were 62 BROWN PELICANS on the cobble beach at the Cove.? That alone is just wrong, given that Brown Pelicans are supposed to be in Baja by now, especially after all the snow and stuff.? But there were pelicans flying around downtown Seaside with the gulls and 40 or so more pelicans on the Necanicum across from the High School. But the topper was a swirling flock of 60+ in a thermal over Seaside Heights, 2 miles inland, that proceeded to head north after rising to a satisfactory elevation. This is just too many pelicans: http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From krallfamily at comcast.net Tue Jan 6 19:37:04 2009 From: krallfamily at comcast.net (Kathy) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:37:04 -0800 Subject: [obol] Harlequin duck at Netarts Bay Message-ID: <51CB9C98B922489180050BCADE32577E@D04KrallStudy> We saw one harlequin duck on Netarts Bay Dec. 25. On Dec. 26 we saw either two or three, also on Netarts bay (I don't have access to my written notes at the moment), and on Dec. 27 we saw several in Tillamook bay (we had walked about 2 miles north on the Bayocean spit road). Kathy and Mike Krall -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/92cffab8/attachment.html From alderspr at peak.org Tue Jan 6 19:45:25 2009 From: alderspr at peak.org (Karan & Jim Fairchild) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:45:25 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: <49638BCB.7060102@pacifier.com> Message-ID: And I would blame the loss of hedgerows/fencerows. Farmers may benefit from pavement-to pavement agriculture, but wildlife doesn't. I'd also contend that some canada/cackling geese prefer these larger fields for safer grazing--much to the chagrin of pavement-to pavement grass seed farmers. There's room and a welcome mat to turkey hunters at my place! Jim Fairchild 5 miles SW of Philomath ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Patterson" To: "OBOL" Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 8:50 AM Subject: Re: [obol] Pheasant question |I blame the Turkeys... | | We all need to get Turkey Hunting licenses and take no prisoners... | | | Subject: Re: Pheasant question | From: "Dennis P. Vroman" | Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 08:42:53 -0800 | | They are not doing all that well in the western part of the Rogue Valley | (Grants Pass/Applegate areas). The very first Grants Pass CBC found 53 and | it has gone down hill since. Your are lucky to see one in an entire year | now-a-days. Last year's CBC there were none, this year 1 was found in the | Murphy area. To my surprise, I spotted a pair on the IV CBC, a count 1st | (recent releases maybe?, by who?). | | Perhaps the most influential factor with their decline in the western Rogue | Valley is sub-divisions where there were fields. | | Dennis | | | Today's debate question: | | Should the Ring-necked Pheasant be considered to have a self-sustaining | population anywhere in western Oregon? | | | -- | Alan Contreras | EUGENE, OREGON | acontrer AT mindspring.com | | | _______________________________________________ | obol mailing list | obol AT oregonbirdwatch.org | http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol | | -- | Mike Patterson | Astoria, OR | http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ | | _______________________________________________ | obol mailing list | obol at oregonbirdwatch.org | http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol | From mlafaive at msn.com Tue Jan 6 20:20:02 2009 From: mlafaive at msn.com (Margaret LaFaive) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:20:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Northeast Oregon Birds Message-ID: Eric and I just spent Saturday to Tuesday (1/3/09-1/6/09) birding in NE Oregon. The weather started out cold (it got down to 2 degrees in Enterprise Saturday night), but had warmed up considerably by the time we left Tuesday (it was about 30 degrees in the Wallowa Valley). There was about a foot of snow on the valley floor. They had a lot of snow over the weekend in the Union Valley, but it was really warming up as we drove through today. Here are the birding highlights: WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS Thanks to Kyle Bratcher, on our way out of Enterprise this morning, we found a flock of about 25 WW Crossbills along Fish Hatchery Road. They are frequenting spruce trees about a half mile east of the fish hatchery. Kyle has been seeing them regularly. GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCH and SNOW BUNTING On Sunday and Monday we saw a flock of about 350 birds made up of 85% Rosy-Finches, 10% Snow Bunting and 5% HORNED LARKS. Both times we saw this flock it was along Golf Course Road about half way between Enterprise and the Junction with Leap Lane. Today we saw a pure flock of 250 SNOW BUNTING in the same vicinity. WAXWINGS There was a large flock of 300 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS in Elgin. On Sunday we found a flock of at least 300 Waxwings in Enterprise. These were mostly CEDARS with a few Bohemians mixed in. In Joseph there was a similar flock, but it was entirely Bohemians. There were also large numbers of AMERICAN ROBINS. All of these birds were feasting on trees with abundant red berries. (I'm not good with my tree ID, but these trees are all over in both Enterprise and Joseph and are really laden with fruit.) TREE SPARROWS We managed to see two small groups of TREE SPARROWS. One was along School Flat Road not far from the junction with Parsnip Creek Road. The other was near the junction of Crow Creek and Elk Mountain Roads. WILD TURKEY About dusk on Saturday there were 40 Wild Turkeys roosting in Cottonwoods along Highway 82 between Wallowa and Lostine. RAPTORS There were very good numbers of the expected raptors in the Wallowa Valley--with the exception of Golden Eagles (we didn't see any). Along Eggelson Road south of Enterprise there was a beautiful FERRUGINOUS HAWK with a HARLAN'S HAWK was nearby. We found a MERLIN in Joseph and another flying around Lostine. There was a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL along the Wallowa Lake road. EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES I know Eurasian Collared Doves are really not noteworthy anymore, but in January 2008 we saw about 10 in Imbler and last Saturday the same yard harbored at least 30. On the way home we birded at the wildlife area below McNary Dam. The combination of wind, a MERLIN and a SHARP-SHINNED HAWK kept the passerines pretty much under cover, with the exception of a small flock of Cedar Waxwings and a few WHITE-CROWNED and SONG SPARROWS. We did see 30 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS roosting in the brushy vegetation around the ponds, and there were at least 5 AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS at the base of the dam. Good Birding, Margaret LaFaive Portland, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/cd2050c2/attachment.html From pamelaj at spiritone.com Tue Jan 6 20:59:10 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:59:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pheasant question References: <49638BCB.7060102@pacifier.com> Message-ID: Having enjoyed pheasants in the midst of the suburban west side of Portland as a kid and the densely settled slopes of Mt Tabor as an adult, I have to throw in one more thought about Ring-necked Pheasants. They are vulnerable to dogs. Ring-necked Pheasants nested Mt Tabor Pk, and males wandered into the neighborhood and displayed from the roof of my house. I could count on seeing young and females, too. But that was before all of Mt Tabor Pk became an off-leash area, and by the time it had been shrunk down to a smaller area, the pheasants were all gone. Pamela Johnston From dlrobbo at comcast.net Tue Jan 6 21:14:35 2009 From: dlrobbo at comcast.net (Doug Robberson) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:14:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bar-tailed Godwit Migration Message-ID: Forward by Doug Robberson Tigard, OR Dear all, A paper on the migration of Bar-tailed Godwits from Alaska to New Zealand has just been published in Proc Roy Soc B - it is available for free download, open access at http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/224x500552515823/ Happy reading David Melville (posted on behalf of the authors) >>>> Rgds -- Dominic Mitchell Managing Editor, Birdwatch Solo Publishing Ltd The Chocolate Factory, 5 Clarendon Road London N22 6XJ, UK Tel: 020 8881 0550 / Web: www.birdwatch.co.uk Save the Azores Bullfinch! Visit www.justgiving.com/priolo From jimnorton at jimnorton.org Tue Jan 6 21:34:53 2009 From: jimnorton at jimnorton.org (Jim Norton) Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:34:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: Duck in a Truck Message-ID: <20090106213453.zq42mmxpw8owo4c4@webmail2.jimnorton.org> http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/Trucking_Duck_All__National_.html ----- Forwarded message from md at teleport.com ----- Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:48:09 -0800 From: Sumner Sharpe Reply-To: Sumner Sharpe Subject: FW: Duck in a Truck To: obol-owner at oregonbirdwatch.org Only in Minnesota : Duck in a Truck Gotta' watch this one................ Duck in a Truck CLICK HERE _____ Get a free MP3 every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get it Now. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3742 (20090106) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com _____ My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: 1/6/2009 7:56 AM This message contains information that is confidential and may be privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. ----- End forwarded message ----- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Jim Norton "The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." - Napoleon Hill ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- Only in Minnesota : Duck in a Truck Gotta' watch this one................ Duck in a Truck CLICK HERE _____ Get a free MP3 every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get it Now. __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 3742 (20090106) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com _____ My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: 1/6/2009 7:56 AM This message contains information that is confidential and may be privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/d48292be/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: LittleYellowDuck2.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 9289 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/d48292be/attachment.jpg From valleybirder at gmail.com Tue Jan 6 21:47:17 2009 From: valleybirder at gmail.com (Mike) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:47:17 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tis the season In-Reply-To: <8ce3a6520901061640s78efcc30h3602249e7b8c7641@mail.gmail.com> References: <8ce3a6520901061640s78efcc30h3602249e7b8c7641@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: I think I've heard/seen display dives at my house during all months of the year, including the past three months. Mike Higgins Near Springfield High School On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 4:40 PM, Barbara Combs wrote: > There was a male Anna's hummer singing his heart out from my holly tree > this morning. Spring is busting out all over. > > On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Don Schrouder wrote: > >> While out front washing the car in these summer temperatures (55 >> degrees in Eugene), one of my male Anna's Hummingbirds climbed >> straight up to the sky, dove down just over the Magnolia, and pulled >> up giving its distinctive pop sound. These hardy hummers sure like to >> start early in the new year! >> >> Don >> Schrouder >> >> birdmandon at clearwire.net >> _______________________________________________ >> obol mailing list >> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >> > > > > -- > Barbara Combs obie '70 > Eugene OR > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/281c16fd/attachment.html From sandyleapt at comcast.net Wed Jan 7 06:51:51 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:51:51 +0000 Subject: [obol] Tis the season Message-ID: <010720091451.20785.4964C187000C032D0000513122070208539B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> I guess hope does springs eternal in the male heart. I never would have thought of washing my car this weekend. Sandy Leapptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Douglas Kirkpatrick" > "Hope springs eternal in the male ........ heart?" > > Doug Kirkpatrick > Medford > > ========================== > > -----Original Message----- > From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org > [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Don Schrouder > Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 3:45 PM > To: obol send > Subject: [obol] Tis the season > > While out front washing the car in these summer temperatures (55 > degrees in Eugene), one of my male Anna's Hummingbirds climbed straight up > to the sky, dove down just over the Magnolia, and pulled up giving its > distinctive pop sound. These hardy hummers sure like to start early in the > new year! > > Don > Schrouder > > birdmandon at clearwire.net > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From sandyleapt at comcast.net Wed Jan 7 07:07:55 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 15:07:55 +0000 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Message-ID: <010720091507.17260.4964C54B0004C5460000436C22007340769B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Dave, Thanks. I didn't look at the pictures Seth posted, I should have. The post reminded me that my friend and I had a conversation about a friend of hers who lives in the western Portland Metro Area who thought they had a Rufous Hummingbirds through the winter. Both of us thought "Nah" and I never followed up. One purely hypothetical question I have, is "if" a Rufous Humming bird did not migrate would that indicate the bird is more likely an Allen's? since Allen's, according to the books, don't migrate. Thanks again, Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: David Irons > > Hi Sandy, > > To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds (plural) > coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. Rufous Hummingbird is > not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite one per season for the entire > state) during winter in Oregon. The odds of one person having multiple birds > through the winter are pretty long. > > I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in Forest Grove > (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not that great, it is > highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. > > Dave Irons > Eugene, OR > > > From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > > To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 > > CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com > > Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > > > Hi Seth, > > > > I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a friend of > hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend never had a chance to > check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of mind until now. > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > NE Portland > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > > From: Seth Reams > > > We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, that has > been > > > host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons changed. > How > > > common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on a feeder > in > > > the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? Thanks. > > > > > > Seth Reams and Michelle King > > > NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > > > portlandbirds.blogspot.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > obol mailing list > > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _________________________________________________________________ > Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. > http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_12 > 2008 -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: David Irons Subject: RE: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 16:45:04 +0000 Size: 3324 Url: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/175151f0/attachment.mht From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Wed Jan 7 07:26:30 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:26:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Say's Phoebe In-Reply-To: <9C7378ED-BF66-479A-963C-5510445DE11C@comcast.net> Message-ID: See below, from Steve Gordon. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com Information on Coquille Valley CBC: http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/ http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News Cary Kerst and our team spotted > a Say's Phoebe at a pond in Cherokee Hills off Gimpl Hill Rd. on the > CBC. That seems like an unusual winter record for Eugene. Steve > From gnorgren at earthlink.net Wed Jan 7 07:35:02 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 07:35:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird In-Reply-To: <010720091507.17260.4964C54B0004C5460000436C22007340769B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <010720091507.17260.4964C54B0004C5460000436C22007340769B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: <7c9d9386636c86d18c435df515ee1284@earthlink.net> The Oregon subspecies used to be called the "Migratory Allen's Hummingbird". The non- migratory subspecies was native to the Channel Islands and has colonized the mainland (LA and so forth) in the course of the 20th Century. Lars Norgren On Jan 7, 2009, at 7:07 AM, sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > Hi Dave, > > Thanks. I didn't look at the pictures Seth posted, I should have. > The post reminded me that my friend and I had a conversation about a > friend of hers who lives in the western Portland Metro Area who > thought they had a Rufous Hummingbirds through the winter. Both of us > thought "Nah" and I never followed up. > > One purely hypothetical question I have, is "if" a Rufous Humming bird > did not migrate would that indicate the bird is more likely an > Allen's? since Allen's, according to the books, don't migrate. > > Thanks again, > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: David Irons >> >> Hi Sandy, >> >> To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds >> (plural) >> coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. Rufous >> Hummingbird is >> not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite one per season for >> the entire >> state) during winter in Oregon. The odds of one person having >> multiple birds >> through the winter are pretty long. >> >> I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in >> Forest Grove >> (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not that >> great, it is >> highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. >> >> Dave Irons >> Eugene, OR >> >>> From: sandyleapt at comcast.net >>> To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >>> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 >>> CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com >>> Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird >>> >>> Hi Seth, >>> >>> I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a >>> friend of >> hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend never had a >> chance to >> check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of mind until now. >>> >>> Sandy Leaptrott >>> NE Portland >>> -------------- Original message ---------------------- >>> From: Seth Reams >>>> We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, >>>> that has >> been >>>> host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons >>>> changed. >> How >>>> common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on >>>> a feeder >> in >>>> the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? >>>> Thanks. >>>> >>>> Seth Reams and Michelle King >>>> NE Portland, OR - Gateway area >>>> portlandbirds.blogspot.com >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> obol mailing list >>>> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >>>> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> obol mailing list >>> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >>> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. >> http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail? >> ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_12 >> 2008 > > > > From: David Irons > Date: January 6, 2009 8:45:04 AM PST > To: , post OBOL > Subject: RE: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > > Hi Sandy, > > To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds > (plural) coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. > Rufous Hummingbird is not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite > one per season for the entire state) during winter in Oregon. The odds > of one person having multiple birds through the winter are pretty > long. > > I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in Forest > Grove (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not > that great, it is highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. > > Dave Irons > Eugene, OR > > > From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > > To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 > > CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com > > Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > > > Hi Seth, > > > > I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a > friend of hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend > never had a chance to check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of > mind until now. > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > NE Portland > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > > From: Seth Reams > > > We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, > that has been > > > host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons > changed. How > > > common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting > on a feeder in > > > the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? > Thanks. > > > > > > Seth Reams and Michelle King > > > NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > > > portlandbirds.blogspot.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > obol mailing list > > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. Get your Hotmail? account > now. _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 11730 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/cb37e2c8/attachment.bin From gnorgren at earthlink.net Wed Jan 7 07:37:05 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 07:37:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Say's Phoebe Message-ID: <7c14d78ebb7e7db7d60fd6ef623b665c@earthlink.net> As I recall last year's Eugene Count had two Say's in two different areas. One was at the huge dairy where Coyote Creek enters the circle. Lars Norgren From joel.geier at peak.org Wed Jan 7 08:01:32 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:01:32 -0800 Subject: [obol] Airlie CBC Rough-legged Hawks, Winter Wrens, G-c Kinglets, and bluebirds In-Reply-To: <1231295536.3515.15.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1231295536.3515.15.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <1231344092.3627.16.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi again, To add some context to the raw numbers that I posted yesterday, here are some statistics based on the preceding 10 years of the Airlie CBC: Golden- Winter crowned Western Wren Kinglet Bluebird Mean 112 846 98 Std. dev. 64 534 56 Minimum 18 158 25 Maximum 203 1854 163 THIS YEAR 51 293 126 So this year's count is below average, by about one standard deviation, for both Winter Wrens and Golden-crowned Kinglets, but well above the minimum in both cases. Bluebird numbers were above average, but well within the normal range of variation. I didn't work up the statistics for Rough-legged Hawk, but this year's total of 18 compares with previous high counts of 13 (found in two different years). We might make it 17, since I suspect that one of the Rough-legged Hawks that Martha and I counted might have also been counted for an adjoining sector (Adair Village). Happy birding, Joel From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Wed Jan 7 08:32:35 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 08:32:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] owl behavior video link Message-ID: I had to share the following because it is so amazing to watch how the White-faced Scops-Owl changes its appearance. As for the handlers of the owls eliciting the behavior, that is another issue. It is educational so see what birds can do to themselves. The video is from Japan, but you needn't speak Japanese to enjoy this African owl's method of dealing with perceived enemies. The tape shows its response to two different enemies; one, a smallish barn owl, and then a humongous eagle-owl. Totally amazing the two behaviors the little BIG EYED owl displays. Shawneen Finnegan Portland, OR http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/10-incredible-animal-vide_n _153948.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/18ec9d36/attachment.html From craig at greatskua.com Wed Jan 7 09:00:25 2009 From: craig at greatskua.com (Craig Tumer) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:00:25 -0700 Subject: [obol] owl behavior video link Message-ID: <20090107100025.3bd901d66b2d769bd36646c62e7e74c3.f6daef1ae5.wbe@email.secureserver.net> I find it really interesting that as the eagle-owl's position relative to the scops-owl changes, the scops-owl turns and changes his position to conceal his white belly so that he looks more like a tree limb and remains as inconspicuous as possible. Great video! Thanks for sharing. Craig Tumer Portland, OR > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [obol] owl behavior video link > From: "Shawneen Finnegan" > Date: Wed, January 07, 2009 8:32 am > To: OBOL > > > I had to share the following because it is so amazing to watch how the > White-faced Scops-Owl changes its appearance. As for the handlers of the > owls eliciting the behavior, that is another issue. It is educational so > see what birds can do to themselves. > > The video is from Japan, but you needn't speak Japanese to enjoy this > African owl's method of dealing with perceived enemies. The tape shows its > response to two different enemies; one, a smallish barn owl, and then a > humongous eagle-owl. Totally amazing the two behaviors the little BIG EYED > owl displays. > > Shawneen Finnegan > Portland, OR > > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/10-incredible-animal-vide_n > _153948.html
_______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Wed Jan 7 09:23:20 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:23:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Slate-colored Message-ID: Craig Tumer and I saw two Slate-colored Juncos in Bandon on the CBC. I don't usually see them on the south coast and was surprised to find two. Are they particularly common in SW Oregon/NW Cal this year? I had seen none in Eugene. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From karma1123 at yahoo.com Tue Jan 6 22:05:20 2009 From: karma1123 at yahoo.com (Karin Juern) Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 22:05:20 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Gyrfalcon Message-ID: <470901.28464.qm@web65602.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> Good evening Mike: ? I have included a copy the email?that I sent to the Forest Service and the response that I received back, showing that Ms Reinhart?forwarded it to a couple of groups that she felt would be interested in my sighting;?of course I don't mind sharing the location of the sighting.? We live @ NW Peak Road and NW View Terrace in Scappose.? From 1st Street, you would take EJ Smith Road up the hill; EJ Smith continues to the right, while straight ahead puts you onto Peak Road.? I hope this helps.? We have been watching as often as we can, mostly on the weekend, but have not seen the Gyrfalcon again. ? Wishing you luck on spotting it.? According to the FS website, it shows only between 2,000 to 3,000 birds left in the wild.? It is important to help those numbers improve.? Please keep me updated on your venture.? I am interested, as I have always enjoyed bird watching.? Best of Luck! ? Respectfully, Karin Juern "When God takes something from your hands, He's not punishing you, but merely opening your hands to receive something better." ? ? "Hi all! We were forwarded this email from our Forest Service website today. ?I haven't seen any other info on this sighting so thought I would share. ?I'm also sending this to the Karin, who turned in the sighting. ?I don't know if she's seen the gyrfalcon since the 27th, but perhaps if you are interested you could email her if you plan to go "get a visual" yourself. Karin, I'm a birder and Forest Service employee and was forwarded your email because of my interest. The email addresses above are for Central Oregon birders and for Oregon birders, respectively. ?We use these two email addresses for sharing unusual sightings like yours. ?Thanks for sharing your info with the Forest Service, and for including such great detail! ? Denise Denise Reinhart G&A Specialist 3160 NE 3rd St. Prineville, OR ?97754 (Duty station: ?Ochoco National Forest) Phone: ?(541) 416-6549 ? ?FAX: ?416-6661 e-mail: ?dmreinhart at fs.fed.us ----- Forwarded by Denise M Reinhart/R6/USDAFS on 12/30/2008 12:36 PM ----- Mailroom R6 Central Oregon Sent by: Laura Jones 12/30/2008 11:06 AM To Dede Steele/R6/USDAFS at FSNOTES, Denise M Reinhart/R6/USDAFS at FSNOTES cc Subject Re: [WebEmail] Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) ? ? karma1123 at yahoo.com 12/27/2008 10:02 AM ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? To: ? ? ? ?Mailroom_R6_Central_Oregon at fs.fed.us ? ? ? ? cc: ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Subject: ? ? ? ?[WebEmail] Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) ## ?Begin Transmission ?## USDA Forest Service - National Web Site Email Response Form. ==================================================================================== Posted on Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 13:02 Hours (Server time). From: Karin Juern Email: karma1123 at yahoo.com Message Subject: ? Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) Good Morning! This morning, my Mother and I were watching the birds that are around our house here in Scappoose. We have several bird feeders and an apple tree for them to feed off throughout the year, winter especially. ?While we were observing many varieties, including a woodpecker, the most beautiful bird flew past the window and settled into the tree. All the other birds took off so quickly, with the exception of the woodpecker, which stopped moving and was so still while this bird was sitting there. ?We were very close and were able to get a really good look at it. ?The whole time it was there, the woodpecker didn't move an inch, which we thought fascinating, until I realized that what we were looking at was indeed a bird of prey, only because I couldn't identify it just yet. Once the bird took off, the woodpecker high tailed it out of there. This prompted me to google "birds of prey found in Oregon" and your website came up. ?After looking through the ones that could be found in Oregon, I recognized the Gyrfalcon. ?Beautiful bird. ?It was amazing watching it watch us through the window. I don't know if your organization keeps track of sightings or not, but we wanted someone to know what we observed. ?If there is a better organization that could use this information, could you please send us in the right direction? ?Thank you so much. In addition, your website it awesome. Spent some time looking through and found it to be interesting, informative, and vast. ?Great site! Respectfully Karin Juern Scappoose Oregon ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? --- On Tue, 1/6/09, Michael Marsh wrote: From: Michael Marsh Subject: Gyrfalcon location? To: karma1123 at yahoo.com Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 9:37 PM Hi Karin: ???? I was wondering if you've had any additional sightings of the Gyrfalcon?? A friend and I are going over to the Scappoose Bottoms tomorrow morning and have a try at seeing it, knowing that it will be a long shot.? Could you pls give me a rough idea of where you saw the bird.? I fully understand and respect that you do not want to reveal the exact location to a complete stranger, but if there is any way at all you could help us narrow down our search it would be greatly appreciated. ? ???? Congratulations on sighting this marvelous bird! ? ???? Best, Mike Marsh -- Mike Marsh Portland, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090106/30af8067/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Wed Jan 7 09:32:24 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:32:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Slate-colored In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <9908e71d58ddd7f0d4d1f004dc3ff7a5@earthlink.net> The Pony Slough area got two on the Coos BAy CBC last year and the year before. None this year. I believe the birds on the Coos CBC two years ago were my first ever in Oregon. Here at my house in the frozen north there has been one or more present for two months now. I previously got them only during the northward migration spike in March. One at E.E. Wilson back in November was a Benton County first for me. Lars On Jan 7, 2009, at 9:23 AM, Alan Contreras wrote: > Craig Tumer and I saw two Slate-colored Juncos in Bandon on the CBC. I > don't usually see them on the south coast and was surprised to find > two. > Are they particularly common in SW Oregon/NW Cal this year? I had > seen none > in Eugene. > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From brazzzle at gmail.com Wed Jan 7 09:49:15 2009 From: brazzzle at gmail.com (Braz) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 09:49:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] Slate-colored In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <7ad948330901070949y66edf3f0qa6b54603219f0cc7@mail.gmail.com> Yes. Slate-Colored Juncos here almost daily for the last several weeks, on the Valley Floor in Medford, Oregon. Highest count at any one time has been 4. Other sightings have been reported on the Rogue Valley Audubon website. Previously I have only seen them here 2 out of the past 14 winters, and then only 1 or 2 individuals for a few days at a time. - Mark Brazelton Medford, Oregon On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 9:23 AM, Alan Contreras wrote: > Craig Tumer and I saw two Slate-colored Juncos in Bandon on the CBC. I > don't usually see them on the south coast and was surprised to find two. > Are they particularly common in SW Oregon/NW Cal this year? I had seen > none > in Eugene. > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/979e6600/attachment.html From deweysage at verizon.net Wed Jan 7 10:51:57 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:51:57 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: Duck in a Truck In-Reply-To: <20090106213453.zq42mmxpw8owo4c4@webmail2.jimnorton.org> References: <20090106213453.zq42mmxpw8owo4c4@webmail2.jimnorton.org> Message-ID: <4964F9CD.2000909@verizon.net> Good and funny. My favorite quote: "Maybe if everyone owned a duck, we wouldn't be so angry with each other." Maybe if all the Leaders in the World had a duck...... Cheers Dave Lauten Jim Norton wrote: > http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/Trucking_Duck_All__National_.html > > ----- Forwarded message from md at teleport.com ----- > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:48:09 -0800 > From: Sumner Sharpe > Reply-To: Sumner Sharpe > Subject: FW: Duck in a Truck > To: obol-owner at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > > > > > > Only in Minnesota > > > > > > > > > > : Duck in a Truck > > > > > > > > Gotta' watch this one................ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Duck in a Truck > > > > CLICK HERE > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _____ > > Get a free MP3 every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get > > it > Now. > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature > database 3742 (20090106) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > _____ > > My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: 1/6/2009 > 7:56 AM > > > This message contains information that is confidential and may be > privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for > the > addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or > any > information contained in the message. If you have received the message in > error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. > > > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jim Norton > > "The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this > constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as > a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." - Napoleon Hill > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > > > > Only in Minnesota > > > > > > > > > > : Duck in a Truck > > > > > > > > *Gotta' watch this one................* > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > *Duck in a Truck* > > > > *CLICK HERE > * > > > > > > > > * * > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Get a *free MP3* every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get it Now > . > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 3742 (20090106) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: > 1/6/2009 7:56 AM > > > This message contains information that is confidential and may be > privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for > the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the > message or any information contained in the message. If you have > received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply > e-mail and delete the message. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From nepobirds at yahoo.com Wed Jan 7 11:00:54 2009 From: nepobirds at yahoo.com (Seth Reams) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:00:54 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Black-Throated Gray Warbler Message-ID: <49147.3614.qm@web46002.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> I have made a few misidentifications in the past. But just a few minutes ago, I saw a Black-Throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica nigrescens) come into the yard with a huge flock (75-100) of Bushtits. There was no mistaking this guy. Gray back, white belly/chest and those tell-tale yellow dots (squares) in front of the eyes. Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo, but it was definitely him. I say "him" because the bird was very crisp in colors, had the white wing bars and had a black throat. Exciting stuff! Seth Reams and Michelle King NE Portland, OR - Gateway area portlandbirds.blogspot.com From goosemiller at gmail.com Wed Jan 7 11:05:16 2009 From: goosemiller at gmail.com (Marilyn Miller) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:05:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: Duck in a Truck In-Reply-To: <4964F9CD.2000909@verizon.net> Message-ID: <4964fcdb.14b48c0a.1f42.765c@mx.google.com> Hi Everyone: I have been saying for years that if everyone petted a goose everyday there would be no more wars! It is good to know that there are other people out there that believe in the power of animals! Happy New Year Marilyn Miller -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of DJ Lauten and KACastelein Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 10:52 AM To: Jim Norton Cc: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: Re: [obol] FW: Duck in a Truck Good and funny. My favorite quote: "Maybe if everyone owned a duck, we wouldn't be so angry with each other." Maybe if all the Leaders in the World had a duck...... Cheers Dave Lauten Jim Norton wrote: > http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/weird/Trucking_Duck_All__National_.html > > ----- Forwarded message from md at teleport.com ----- > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 20:48:09 -0800 > From: Sumner Sharpe > Reply-To: Sumner Sharpe > Subject: FW: Duck in a Truck > To: obol-owner at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > > > > > > Only in Minnesota > > > > > > > > > > : Duck in a Truck > > > > > > > > Gotta' watch this one................ > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Duck in a Truck > > > > CLICK HERE > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _____ > > Get a free MP3 every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get > > it > Now. > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature > database 3742 (20090106) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > _____ > > My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: 1/6/2009 > 7:56 AM > > > This message contains information that is confidential and may be > privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for > the > addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or > any > information contained in the message. If you have received the message in > error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. > > > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jim Norton > > "The starting point of all achievement is desire. Keep this > constantly in mind. Weak desires bring weak results, just as > a small amount of fire makes a small amount of heat." - Napoleon Hill > ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > > > > > > Only in Minnesota > > > > > > > > > > : Duck in a Truck > > > > > > > > *Gotta' watch this one................* > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > *Duck in a Truck* > > > > *CLICK HERE > * > > > > > > > > * * > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Get a *free MP3* every day with the Spinner.com Toolbar. Get it Now > . > > > > __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus > signature database 3742 (20090106) __________ > > The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. > > http://www.eset.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > My Outgoing Emails and Attachments Are Certified VIRUS FREE!!! > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1878 - Release Date: > 1/6/2009 7:56 AM > > > This message contains information that is confidential and may be > privileged. Unless you are the addressee (or authorized to receive for > the addressee), you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the > message or any information contained in the message. If you have > received the message in error, please advise the sender by reply > e-mail and delete the message. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From mklittletree at comcast.net Wed Jan 7 11:38:30 2009 From: mklittletree at comcast.net (michel Kleinbaum) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:38:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Slate-colored References: Message-ID: <7AA0C14780FE435E91538CB5CC8D2E4D@michel1927> Yesterday, at Minto Brown Park, the lone Junco in a mixed sparrow flock turned out to be a Slate-colored. One White-throated Sparrow also there. Michel Kleinbaum S. Salem ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Contreras" To: "obol" Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 9:23 AM Subject: [obol] Slate-colored Craig Tumer and I saw two Slate-colored Juncos in Bandon on the CBC. I don't usually see them on the south coast and was surprised to find two. Are they particularly common in SW Oregon/NW Cal this year? I had seen none in Eugene. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From celata at pacifier.com Wed Jan 7 12:08:48 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:08:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia Estuary Report - 1/7/2008 Message-ID: <49650BD0.2010505@pacifier.com> Columbia Estuary Report - 1/7/2008 The weather has been sub-optimal for the past couple days, but at least it's not snowing... I met goose watcher (and sometimes hunter) along Wireless Rd this morning who reports a ROSS'S GOOSE in among CACKLING GEESE on Youngs Bay between Binder Slough and Capp Rd. I found no white geese this morning, but as stated above, the conditions are sub-optimal. He also reports a flock of 30+ SNOW GEESE in the area. A single SNOW GOOSE is hanging out with CACKLING GEESE at Circle Creek south of Seaside (you may want to wait for the flood waters to recede bef ore chasing it, however) http://www.tripcheck.com/popups/Cam.asp?camera=652&curRegion=1 The 3 TUNDRA SWAN I reported last week were just north of where they were last week in the Lewis and Clark basin. A BRANT was with the Astoria Airport flock of Cacklers. No BROWN PELICANS have been seen on the North Coast since 12/31. I've looked. Steve's looked. David's looked. Neal's looked. They've all gone to Southern California to be on television... -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From joel.geier at peak.org Wed Jan 7 12:21:35 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:21:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Slate-colored Juncos In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1231359695.4815.55.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi folks, In contrast to other observations, not a single Slate-colored Junco was recorded among the 2043 juncos recorded on the Airlie CBC, or among the 169 juncos counted at Antone, for that matter. At Hart Mountain, it was hard enough to find Oregon Juncos in the wind, let alone anything more exotic. On the Antone CBC, I looked pretty closely though a couple of the bigger flocks to make sure that I wasn't overlooking a Slate-colored female, but I couldn't find a one. Normally we get one or two Slate-colored Juncos per hundred Oregon Juncos, so 0 for 169 is a low number. There were at least two Slate-colored Juncos (one male and one female) around E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area earlier in the winter, but they seem to have gone into hiding for last Saturday's Airlie count. Or, perhaps they kept moving through, on their way to places further south. My very subjective impression is that Slate-colored Juncos tend to arrive in the Willamette Valley as part of the later wave of wintering sparrows, and then are often associated with other sparrows from the north-central part of the continent. The places where they're showing up now could be productive to search for other goodies. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From sheilach at nwtec.com Wed Jan 7 13:26:10 2009 From: sheilach at nwtec.com (Sheila) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 13:26:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Busy feeders Message-ID: First off I wish to thank Shawneen Finnegan for that link to the amazing changing owl, the link had changed but I was still able to find the video on the Huffington post site. Back home, the Rose-breasted grosbeak had the smarts to fuel up here and then head south to where it's warmer and dryer. I miss him. The "usual suspects" are stuffing their crops here and going nowhere. Mobs of EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES and PINE SISKINS fill the trays along with lesser numbers of BREWERS BLACKBIRDS, WHITE-CROWN, GOLD-CROWN, FOX and SONG SPARROW, SPOTTED TOWHEE, DOWNEY WOODPECKER, STELLERS & SCRUB JAY, fighting as allways, ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS, A AFRICAN-RINGED DOVE, HOUSE FINCHES, PURPLE FINCH, BLACK CAPPED, CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEES, ROBINS, CALIFORNIA QUAIL,OREGON (DARK EYED) JUNCO, NORTHERN FLICKER, SHARP-SHINNED HAWK, STARLINGS house hunting in my NEST-BOX TRAP and even a early HOUSE SPARROW tried to pick a spot in my NEST-BOX TRAP. Yes, those alien pests are already house hunting so it's time to get out the nest-box traps to greet them for the new nesting season. I've noticed fewer JUNCOS this year and a rapidly growing number of EURASIAN COLLARED DOVES. Sheila from soggy, foggy Harbor OR. Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse or protection and everything you type may be used against you to detain you in a secret prison. From APBrockway at aol.com Wed Jan 7 14:12:57 2009 From: APBrockway at aol.com (APBrockway at aol.com) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 17:12:57 EST Subject: [obol] Check out California brown pelicans found frail and far from home - Los Angel Message-ID: For those with slow video downloads, here is a newspaper article on the brown pelicans. _Click here: California brown pelicans found frail and far from home - Los Angeles Times_ (http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-pelicans6-2009jan06,0,6873436.story?track=rss) Al & Dottie Rapid City, SD **************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines. (http://www.aol.com/?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000026) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/931c3eba/attachment.html From john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org Wed Jan 7 15:43:40 2009 From: john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org (John Gatchet) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 15:43:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] Red-Shouldered Hawk in Cottage Grove Message-ID: <41450F4C98633F449B0D441BFA16956F01CF84AE@npuceb.NPU.NA.SDA> Yesterday evening I exited I-5 to purchase fuel in Cottage Grove. I drove around and spotted a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK sitting on a utility line next to the Chevron Station along Row River Road. It was looking for something to show up in the field next to the station. This spot is at Exit 162. I got some pictures after walking up to the bird as it perched on the utility line. I was able to stand under the bird as it was very tame. John F. Gatchet Gresham, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/d0061996/attachment.html From larmcqueen at msn.com Wed Jan 7 17:51:40 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 17:51:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] Search for the Jack Snipe Message-ID: The Wed morning group searched the grassland south of Fisher Butte for the Jack Snipe that was flushed by me and Ellen Cantor on the Eugene CBC. A group of 12 of us formed a line and walked through the grass around an expanded area where the bird was found. We were not successful in finding the bird, but there is huge area that didn't get searched. The Jack Snipe might in time, be discovered as a regular wintering species in the Pacific states but in low numbers. Their habits of feeding by night and skulking beneath grass by day, make them practically undetectable, and the few individuals reported in California and Oregon were surprised by flushing or shot by hunters. In response to my first OBOL message about seeing this bird, I received a call from an interested birder living in the Bay area in California, who reported that her husband and a British birder friend, had flushed a Jack Snipe in the Klamath area about 20 yrs ago, but never reported it, likely because he perceived that no one would believe it. The bird was identified by the British birder. The snipe that I saw on count day was very different from Wilson's Snipe, and these differences are corroborated by field-guide descriptions. It flushed nearly at our feet, flying low or at an upward angle, revealing its upper side. It looked very dark, except for the buff streaking on the back, which is more pronounced and richer-colored than the Wilson's back streaking, each stripe being straighter and wider. The bird was immediately discerned as being smaller than a snipe should be. Its wings were rounded at the tips; not pointed. The flight path was unswerving, not zig-zag as a Wilson's, and the bird quickly dropped back into the grass; not flying up and away, or landing some distance from us, as Wilson's are inclined to do. Wilson's Snipe typically give a raspy call whenever they flush. Jack Snipe are typically silent when flushed, as was my bird. I was mistaken when I reported being the only observer. Ellen Cantor observed the same features that I did. The bird actually flushed between us, passed my legs, then it curved to land into the grass behind us. The area where the bird was seen is on the Fern Ridge visitor's and hunting schedule, which is only open on Sat, Sun, and Wednesdays. I hope this report will encourage others to look for this bird by walking in the grass where appropriate. Larry McQueen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/dc10f1f2/attachment.html From sandyleapt at comcast.net Wed Jan 7 18:13:58 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:13:58 +0000 Subject: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Message-ID: <010820090213.9822.49656166000C5C650000265E22007456729B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Thanks Lars, I appreciate the information OBOL subscribers are willing to share with me. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Norgren Family > The Oregon subspecies used to be called the > "Migratory Allen's Hummingbird". The non- > migratory subspecies was native to the > Channel Islands and has colonized the mainland > (LA and so forth) in the course of the 20th Century. > Lars Norgren > On Jan 7, 2009, at 7:07 AM, sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > > > Hi Dave, > > > > Thanks. I didn't look at the pictures Seth posted, I should have. > > The post reminded me that my friend and I had a conversation about a > > friend of hers who lives in the western Portland Metro Area who > > thought they had a Rufous Hummingbirds through the winter. Both of us > > thought "Nah" and I never followed up. > > > > One purely hypothetical question I have, is "if" a Rufous Humming bird > > did not migrate would that indicate the bird is more likely an > > Allen's? since Allen's, according to the books, don't migrate. > > > > Thanks again, > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > NE Portland > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > > From: David Irons > >> > >> Hi Sandy, > >> > >> To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds > >> (plural) > >> coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. Rufous > >> Hummingbird is > >> not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite one per season for > >> the entire > >> state) during winter in Oregon. The odds of one person having > >> multiple birds > >> through the winter are pretty long. > >> > >> I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in > >> Forest Grove > >> (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not that > >> great, it is > >> highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. > >> > >> Dave Irons > >> Eugene, OR > >> > >>> From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > >>> To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > >>> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 > >>> CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com > >>> Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > >>> > >>> Hi Seth, > >>> > >>> I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a > >>> friend of > >> hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend never had a > >> chance to > >> check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of mind until now. > >>> > >>> Sandy Leaptrott > >>> NE Portland > >>> -------------- Original message ---------------------- > >>> From: Seth Reams > >>>> We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, > >>>> that has > >> been > >>>> host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons > >>>> changed. > >> How > >>>> common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting on > >>>> a feeder > >> in > >>>> the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? > >>>> Thanks. > >>>> > >>>> Seth Reams and Michelle King > >>>> NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > >>>> portlandbirds.blogspot.com > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> obol mailing list > >>>> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > >>>> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> obol mailing list > >>> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > >>> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > >> > >> _________________________________________________________________ > >> Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. > >> http://windowslive.com/oneline/hotmail? > >> ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_hotmail_acq_anywhere_12 > >> 2008 > > > > > > > > From: David Irons > > Date: January 6, 2009 8:45:04 AM PST > > To: , post OBOL > > Subject: RE: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > > > > > Hi Sandy, > > > > To be a bit blunt, if someone thinks they have Rufous Hummingbirds > > (plural) coming to their feeders all year round, they are mistaken. > > Rufous Hummingbird is not quite annual (meaning we don't average quite > > one per season for the entire state) during winter in Oregon. The odds > > of one person having multiple birds through the winter are pretty > > long. > > > > I looked at the image that Seth Reams received from a person in Forest > > Grove (referred to in the post below), and though the image is not > > that great, it is highly suggestive of Anna's and not a Rufous Hummer. > > > > Dave Irons > > Eugene, OR > > > > > From: sandyleapt at comcast.net > > > To: nepobirds at yahoo.com; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:56:24 +0000 > > > CC: nepobirds at yahoo.com > > > Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird > > > > > > Hi Seth, > > > > > > I've heard through a friend (guess that makes it a rumor) that a > > friend of hers has Rufous Hummingbirds year round. Since my friend > > never had a chance to check it out I filled that tidbit in the back of > > mind until now. > > > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > > NE Portland > > > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > > > From: Seth Reams > > > > We just received an email from a birder in the Forest Grove area, > > that has been > > > > host to a male Rufous Hummingbird. He never left after the seasons > > changed. How > > > > common is this for the area? She sent me a photo of him, sitting > > on a feeder in > > > > the snow. Quite an odd sight (at least for me). Any thoughts? > > Thanks. > > > > > > > > Seth Reams and Michelle King > > > > NE Portland, OR - Gateway area > > > > portlandbirds.blogspot.com > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > obol mailing list > > > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > obol mailing list > > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > > Send e-mail anywhere. No map, no compass. Get your Hotmail? account > > now. _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Norgren Family Subject: Re: [obol] Rufous Hummingbird Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 15:35:17 +0000 Size: 12401 Url: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/28926a58/attachment.mht From bigfishyman at gmail.com Wed Jan 7 18:37:54 2009 From: bigfishyman at gmail.com (Bob Fish) Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 18:37:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Gyrfalcon Message-ID: I have spent about a half hour after work the past couple days looking for the Gyrr, but no luck. I did see a female NORTHERN HARRIER, and a REDTAIL HAWK as well as several KESTRELS. "frustrated" in Creswell Bob Fish -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/0c184c31/attachment.html From winkg at hevanet.com Wed Jan 7 19:46:41 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 19:46:41 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pittock, NW Portland, week ending 01/07/09 Message-ID: <20090108034643.3DEC1A8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Here is the summary of my morning dogwalks from NW Seblar Terrace to the Pittock Mansion for the week 01/01 to 01/07/09. Species in ALL CAPS were neither seen nor heard the previous week. Additional information about my dogwalk, including an archive of weekly summaries and a checklist, may be found at http://www.hevanet.com/winkg/dogwalkpage.html We did the walk 6 days this week. Species # days found (peak #, date) GLAUCOUS-WINGED GULL 1 (12, 1/2) Gull sp. 1 (2, 1/2) Mourning Dove 3 (2) Anna's Hummingbird 5 (3) Red-breasted Sapsucker 2 (1, 1/2 & 5) Downy Woodpecker 1 (2, 1/4) Northern Flicker 5 (3, 1/4) Steller's Jay 6 (5) Western Scrub-Jay 4 (2) American Crow 3 (4) Black-capped Chickadee 6 (12) Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3 (2) BUSHTIT 1 (?[heard only], 1/7) Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 (1, 1/4 & 5) Brown Creeper 4 (2) Winter Wren 1 (1, 1/7) Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 (2) American Robin 2 (3, 1/5) Varied Thrush 6 (3) European Starling 2 (3, 1/2) Spotted Towhee 6 (4) Fox Sparrow 1 (1, 1/2) Song Sparrow 6 (10) Dark-eyed Junco 6 (30, 1/2) House Finch 6 (20, 1/2) Pine Siskin 2 (1, 1/5 & 7) Wink Gross Portland From Oropendolas at aol.com Wed Jan 7 21:51:29 2009 From: Oropendolas at aol.com (Oropendolas at aol.com) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 00:51:29 EST Subject: [obol] Lane Co. Raptor Route #2 Message-ID: Hello All, I ran the Lane Co. Route #2 yesterday hoping to add Gyrfalcon to the count, but that didn't happen. The 80 mile route took 4.5 hours and covers the West Eugene Wetlands area and north between Greenhill Road and River Road to Hwy 36 near Junction City then between Hwy 99W and Washburn Road to the Lane County line. Numbers were very similar to 3 weeks ago with the exception of an additional 10 Harriers. Red-tailed Hawk - 33 American Kestrel - 45 Northern Harrier - 17 White-tailed Kite - 4 Bald Eagle - 3 Adults Rough-legged Hawk - 3 (2 were on Territorial Hwy just north of Cheshire, 1 was west of Junction City on Washburn north of Ferguson Rd.) Merlin - 1 John Sullivan Springfield, Oregon **************A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See yours in just 2 easy steps! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215047751x1200957972/aol?redir=http://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=De cemailfooterNO62) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/56d2e44d/attachment.html From hnehls6 at comcast.net Wed Jan 7 23:23:23 2009 From: hnehls6 at comcast.net (Harry Nehls) Date: Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:23:23 -0800 Subject: [obol] RBA: Portland, OR 1-8-09 Message-ID: - RBA * Oregon * Portland * January 8, 2009 * ORPO0901.08 - birds mentioned Emperor Goose Brown Pelican LITTLE BLUE HERON Swainson?s Hawk Golden Eagle Gyrfalcon Sandhill Crane JACK SNIPE Heermann?s Gull Glaucous Gull Say?s Phoebe Cassin?s Vireo Clark?s Nutcracker Northern Mockingbird BROWN THRASHER Black-throated Gray Warbler PINE WARBLER Common Yellowthroat Wilson?s Warbler PYRRHULOXIA Black-headed Grosbeak - transcript hotline: Portland Oregon Audubon RBA (weekly) number: 503-292-6855 To report: Harry Nehls 503-233-3976 I was a little suprised to see two turtles sunning them selves on logs in Eugene on a little pond nexed to Riverpark Nursing Home on the west side of Goodpaster Island Road. The far one from me might have been a Slider type but the closer one was a Western Pond turtle. Yester day I saw my first for this winter as well as F.O.Y. for me Green Heron fly in and land on a low Willow limb inches above the water at this same pond, but I didn't see it today. The pair of Bald Eagles in the area is a?about a every day sight for many. As is several types of ducks. Only the Western Canada Geese seem to hang out here. I have a humming bird feeder hanging outside my wife's window at the nursing home that is visited by three?Anna's several times a day.. One adult male that was the most regular I havn't seenfor the last three days but a young male and a female still showing. ? Dave Brown Alvadore -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090107/0fbcc841/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Thu Jan 8 06:22:38 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 06:22:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Falcon detections in western Oregon Message-ID: <568e0f2ac9bc0e469c9c0bd045e18b9f@earthlink.net> There has been a spate of falcon sightings this Christmas Count season with attendant speculation on what sort of trend this might signify for Prairie Falcons. The sample is really quite small and probably reflects changes in observer effort/experience level. When I made extensive, dedicated efforts to find large falcons between Washington County and Fern Ridge Reservoir three winters ago I was very conscious of viewing conditions. I abruptly changed plans to take advantage of dry, fog free days. It struck me that that winter was blessed with a great deal of fair weather. As I recall Mike Patterson saw Prairie Falcons at both Cottage Grove and the lower Columbia that year. These are both well removed from the time hallowed stomping grounds in Linn County. When the weather is fair more people spend more time in open, exposed landscapes. And when the weather is fair, time spent in the right place is vastly more effective. With visibility at 100m an observer can scan .03 square km. from a single stop. With visibility at 1 km (slightly more than 6 football field lengths) the potential area scanned from a single point goes up to 3 square km.. On the other hand, of the four Washington County sightings I have made of Prairie Falcons only one was the result of a dedicated search. The others were strictly incidental to my being in transit through appropriate habitat. Perhaps there is an art to analyzing anecdotal evidence. Lars Norgren From mlafaive at msn.com Thu Jan 8 06:36:46 2009 From: mlafaive at msn.com (Margaret LaFaive) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 06:36:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Heppner Raptor Route (plus Rosy-Finches and Blackbirds) Message-ID: Eric and I conducted the Heppner Raptor Route on Wednesday, 1/7. This route runs along Highway 74 from I84 to Heppner, then loops south past Willow Creek Reservoir and west to Rhea Creek road which it follows back to Highway 74. Here are the raptor totals: Red-tailed Hawk 23 American Kestrel 12 Northern Harrier 5 Golden Eagle 6 Rough-legged Hawk 6 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 Cooper's Hawk 1 Buteo sp. 1 Total 56 Miles Driven: 85.3 Time: 6.5 hours We had a few other interesting sightings along the route: There was a flock of 15 GRAY-CROWNED ROSY-FINCHES foraging on a cliff face a half mile north of Ruggs along Rhea Creek Road. This is the third time we have found Rosy-Finches along Rhea Creek while doing the raptor survey. We saw 5 NORTHERN SHRIKES scattered along the route. And in Cecil there was a huge flock of blackbirds that we estimated contained 2000 birds, but we could easily be off by several hundred. The flock was primarily made up of BREWER's and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS, but we counted at least 10 YELLOW-HEADS and 30 TRI-COLORED. There were also a few BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS in the mix. Good Birding, Margaret LaFaive Portland, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/a5d15fcb/attachment.html From dpvroman at budget.net Thu Jan 8 09:07:06 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 09:07:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] How about this Cardinal in OR Message-ID: Here's a Cardinal for you. See the "Minnesota Birdnerd" web page below. Don't believe I have seen a bird of any species like this one. Would be a tough one for a bander to determine it's sex! Dennis http://minnesotabirdnerd.blogspot.com:80/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/ffa5468f/attachment.html From larmcqueen at msn.com Thu Jan 8 10:53:00 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 10:53:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] Correction: Fern Ridge access (Jack Snipe report) Message-ID: I received this notice from ODFW: "Access regulations changed a few years ago for the Fisher Butte Unit or across Royal in the Royal Amazon unit. During the duck season the area is open daily until 1:00pm for hunting and closes at 2:00pm to all access, except the old bed of royal avenue and the short section of dike to the viewing platform." In my last report about the Jack Snipe search at Fisher Butte I gave the wrong impression about access schedule. Larry McQueen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/62b5ff64/attachment.html From 5hats at peak.org Thu Jan 8 11:51:18 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 11:51:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Warm Weather Surprise References: <388723.17617.qm@web59903.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <002f01c971ca$7beb4b00$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Dave, And here last night the Pacific Tree Frogs were singing. Darrel ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Brown To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 8:22 PM Subject: [obol] Warm Weather Surprise I was a little suprised to see two turtles sunning them selves on logs in Eugene on a little pond nexed to Riverpark Nursing Home on the west side of Goodpaster Island Road. The far one from me might have been a Slider type but the closer one was a Western Pond turtle. Yester day I saw my first for this winter as well as F.O.Y. for me Green Heron fly in and land on a low Willow limb inches above the water at this same pond, but I didn't see it today. The pair of Bald Eagles in the area is a about a every day sight for many. As is several types of ducks. Only the Western Canada Geese seem to hang out here. I have a humming bird feeder hanging outside my wife's window at the nursing home that is visited by three Anna's several times a day. One adult male that was the most regular I havn't seenfor the last three days but a young male and a female still showing. Dave Brown Alvadore ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/3ab65a81/attachment.html From namitzr at hotmail.com Thu Jan 8 13:12:06 2009 From: namitzr at hotmail.com (Russ Namitz) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 13:12:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] Coos birds 1/8 Message-ID: I refound the PRAIRIE FALCON at Myrtle Point. For locals, it was along CR 136 accessed from Lower Norway Rd. The EMPEROR & GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE were still on the freshwater pond at the south jetty of Bandon. In the Bandon harbor, there was 1 ROCK SANDPIPER with scores of BLACK TURNSTONES & SURFBIRDS on the floating docks. Good birding, Russ Namitz Coos Bay -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/d439fd30/attachment.html From msligocki at earthlink.net Thu Jan 8 14:02:45 2009 From: msligocki at earthlink.net (Marti Ligocki) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 14:02:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Warm Weather Surprise References: <388723.17617.qm@web59903.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> <002f01c971ca$7beb4b00$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Message-ID: <9CBF8707CC884FCCAD2605FA71802672@MartiPC> They were singing here in South Salem also. Marti Ligocki ----- Original Message ----- From: Darrel Faxon To: davebrownbirder at yahoo.com ; obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 11:51 AM Subject: Re: [obol] Warm Weather Surprise Dave, And here last night the Pacific Tree Frogs were singing. Darrel ----- Original Message ----- From: Dave Brown To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 8:22 PM Subject: [obol] Warm Weather Surprise I was a little suprised to see two turtles sunning them selves on logs in Eugene on a little pond nexed to Riverpark Nursing Home on the west side of Goodpaster Island Road. The far one from me might have been a Slider type but the closer one was a Western Pond turtle. Yester day I saw my first for this winter as well as F.O.Y. for me Green Heron fly in and land on a low Willow limb inches above the water at this same pond, but I didn't see it today. The pair of Bald Eagles in the area is a about a every day sight for many. As is several types of ducks. Only the Western Canada Geese seem to hang out here. I have a humming bird feeder hanging outside my wife's window at the nursing home that is visited by three Anna's several times a day. One adult male that was the most regular I havn't seenfor the last three days but a young male and a female still showing. Dave Brown Alvadore ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.5/1882 - Release Date: 1/8/2009 8:13 AM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/ac40031e/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 8 15:10:15 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:10:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] water, water, everywhere Message-ID: <496687D7.6070909@pacifier.com> According to the weather folks, more than 4 inches of rain fell in 24 hours here in Clatsop County. http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From cgates326 at gmail.com Thu Jan 8 16:07:27 2009 From: cgates326 at gmail.com (Charles Gates) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 16:07:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] How about this Cardinal in OR In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I would be really interested in hearing thoughts about the genetics that might have produced this bird. Anyone have ideas? -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org]On Behalf Of Dennis P. Vroman Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:07 AM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] How about this Cardinal in OR Here's a Cardinal for you. See the "Minnesota Birdnerd" web page below. Don't believe I have seen a bird of any species like this one. Would be a tough one for a bander to determine it's sex! Dennis http://minnesotabirdnerd.blogspot.com:80/ No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.3/1879 - Release Date: 1/6/2009 5:16 PM -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/d21d03ae/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 8 16:58:18 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:58:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Birding circles and Google Earth Message-ID: <4966A12A.6070701@pacifier.com> I was chatting with Steve Warner about end of year list maintenance and he described to me his "birding circle" (Those wondering what a birding circle is may want to check _Oregon Birds_ 33:2 for the full skinny). He's been taking the concept very seriously, but because he's using a county map and a ruler, his description wasn't translating all that well over the phone. Until I fired up Google Earth... Using the measuring tool, one can define a 15 mile diameter between two points. Then import a circle using the overlay function, size a it to 15 miles, then scoot it around to optimize territory. Steve's circle covers Haystack Rock AND Saddle Mt, plus the Necanicum Estuary. I defined a circle that includes my house, Wireless Rd and most of Brownsmead (last night). Theoretically, I can do most of my circle by bus and bicycle. I can save that place and send the kmz file to anyone interested and they can upload it to their Google places. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From darhawk500 at msn.com Thu Jan 8 16:59:54 2009 From: darhawk500 at msn.com (D Scott) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 16:59:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bald Eagle - Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge Message-ID: Hello All I was spending some time today at the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge in Sherwood, Oregon and was able to spot a Bald Eagle. Thanks to Marilyn for letting me grab a peak at him. Also saw the largest flocks of Canada Geese I have ever encountered, I'm talking huge numbers. With many up in th eair all at once. Very fun to watch, just don't be underneath as they fly overhead. Several Northern Pintails were observed and the common Mallard duck. http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottstudiophotography/ Derek Scott Sherwood, Or _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/97f13da5/attachment.html From sheran at bendbroadband.com Thu Jan 8 17:08:58 2009 From: sheran at bendbroadband.com (Sheran Wright) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 17:08:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler Message-ID: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> Hi, Birders: In his 1/8/09 RBA report Harry states that the Pine Warbler "is being seen". Is it? There have been no OBOL posts about the bird since the Goodhews said they looked for it on Jan. 1 and didn't locate it. Is there a more recent sighting? If so, I'd like to try for it before the next storm blows in. Any new information would be appreciated. Sheran Wright Bend From goosemiller at gmail.com Thu Jan 8 17:12:43 2009 From: goosemiller at gmail.com (Marilyn Miller) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 17:12:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler In-Reply-To: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> Message-ID: <4966a478.14b48c0a.18d8.ffffe945@mx.google.com> Hi Sheran and Obol: Craig and I spent almost four hours looking for it on Sunday 1-4-09 and did not find it. But it was seen at 7:15 a.m. at a woman's feeder. We looked and walked and looked and walked! Dress Warmly! We had to leave at noon to drive back to Bend. Marilyn Miller -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Sheran Wright Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 5:09 PM To: OBOL Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler Hi, Birders: In his 1/8/09 RBA report Harry states that the Pine Warbler "is being seen". Is it? There have been no OBOL posts about the bird since the Goodhews said they looked for it on Jan. 1 and didn't locate it. Is there a more recent sighting? If so, I'd like to try for it before the next storm blows in. Any new information would be appreciated. Sheran Wright Bend _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From dinpdx at yahoo.com Thu Jan 8 17:21:58 2009 From: dinpdx at yahoo.com (Dwight) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 17:21:58 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] GREEN HERON-Fanno Creek Trail SW Portland Message-ID: <79726.78485.qm@web31605.mail.mud.yahoo.com> At 4:30 this afternoon I saw a GREEN HERON flying over the Portland Golf Club next to the Fanno Creek Trail in SW Portland (species #72 for the birdwalk). Birding the Local Patch, Dwight Porter Portland OR From calliope at theriver.com Thu Jan 8 17:36:54 2009 From: calliope at theriver.com (Rich Hoyer) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:36:54 -0700 Subject: [obol] Birding circles and Google Earth In-Reply-To: <4966A12A.6070701@pacifier.com> References: <4966A12A.6070701@pacifier.com> Message-ID: Hi All, Alternatively, if one already knows the center of a circle and wants to draw it on Google Earth, the website http://dev.bt23.org/keyhole/circlegen/ is handy. Just enter the coordinates in decimal degrees (negative sign needed for longitude west), and the radius in meters (7.5 miles is 12070.08 m). It creates a kml file that you download and open with Google Earth. It's a very useful tool for CBC compilers. Good Birding, Rich --- Rich Hoyer Tucson, Arizona Senior Leader for WINGS http://wingsbirds.com --- On Jan 8, 2009, at 5:58 PM, Mike Patterson wrote: > I was chatting with Steve Warner about end of year list maintenance > and he described to me his "birding circle" (Those wondering what > a birding circle is may want to check _Oregon Birds_ 33:2 for the > full skinny). He's been taking the concept very seriously, but > because he's using a county map and a ruler, his description wasn't > translating all that well over the phone. Until I fired up Google > Earth... > > Using the measuring tool, one can define a 15 mile diameter between > two points. Then import a circle using the overlay function, size > a it to 15 miles, then scoot it around to optimize territory. > > Steve's circle covers Haystack Rock AND Saddle Mt, plus the Necanicum > Estuary. I defined a circle that includes my house, Wireless Rd and > most of Brownsmead (last night). Theoretically, I can do most of my > circle by bus and bicycle. > > I can save that place and send the kmz file to anyone interested and > they can upload it to their Google places. > > > -- > Mike Patterson > Astoria, OR > http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From gnorgren at earthlink.net Thu Jan 8 18:24:53 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:24:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Prairie Falcon continues at Vadis(Washington County) Message-ID: <8a6445ae83b17099c4b06484372c0721@earthlink.net> An adult PRAIRIE FALCON was along Harrington Road between Kerkman and Milne Roads from 9am to 9:40 and again at 1:30 and 3pm. It is quite tame and at three allowed me to park directly below the half-dead cedar it was perched in. This is presumably the same bird Stefan Schlick saw twice last week or so. More details later tonight. Lars Norgren From hhactitis at yahoo.com Thu Jan 8 18:44:04 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:44:04 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] For Larophiles only - European Gull ID question Message-ID: <713210.65335.qm@web37005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello all Larophiles, there is currently a gull in Hungary that some local birders believe to be a Ring-billed Gull. Without telling you what I think, I'd like to get your input on this bird (just scroll down on the page until you get to the first pictures): http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery28 Just curious what the Orgeon gull lovers think .... with your prmission, I will pass your opinions on to the folks in Hungary. Happy Gulling Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/43be1a50/attachment.html From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Thu Jan 8 18:57:46 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:57:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] How about this Cardinal in OR In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks for asking the question. It sent me on a hunt for more information as I had seen one of these oddities back in 1987. I was fortunate to be in Death Valley, California, where a bunch of us were all birding the same area. We were able to see and photograph a "probable" bilateral gynandromorph Black-throated Blue Warbler. It essentially looked female on one side and had the plumage of a hatch-year male on the other. Needless to say it wasn't collected as we were in a National Park. And I add the "probable" after reading a 1996 article in The Wilson's Bulletin reviewing Patten's 1993 article in Continental Birdlife. It was a very cool bird and had lead to an initial argument between finders Michael Patten and his friend Patty, who had spotted the bird about the same time, but had seen it from opposite sides. It brought new meaning to the "two-bird theory." A bilateral gynandromorph bird is pretty darned rare, but has been reported in domestic groups like chickens and pheasants (see excerpt below for more info). The best explanation I found was in a PDF about two House Sparrows captured in Spain which talks about the causes, being that it is known as an "endocrine abnormality in sexual genic expression". Per the link below "This phenomenon has been reported in small mammals, humans,birds and other animals such as invertebrates, especially butterflies (Benoit 1959, Hannah-Alava 1960). http://www.ornitologia.org/publicacions/19_25_29.pdf I did find an abstract on-line from a White-ruffed Manakin that was quite interesting, though I am not a member and can't access the whole article: The Wilson Journal of Ornithology Article: pp. 289?291 | Abstract | PDF (536K) Bilateral Gynandromorphy in a White-ruffed Manakin (*Corapipo altera* ) Jeffrey M. DaCosta, Garth M. Spellman, and John Klicka We report bilateral gynandromorphy in a White-ruffed Manakin (*Corapipo altera*) collected near Santa F?, Panam? in 2004. The specimen had an oviduct and ovary on the left side and a single testis on the right. The plumage was phenotypically female on the right side and male on the left. The weight and genetic affinity of the specimen were characteristically female. Both Z and W chromosomes were detected in genetic samples from multiple tissue types and toe pads from both feet. This report is a novel record of gynandromorphy in a suboscine passerine. This link talks more about Patten's bird: http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Wilson/v108n01/p0178-p0180.html Shawneen Finnegan, Portland On Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 4:07 PM, Charles Gates wrote: > I would be really interested in hearing thoughts about the genetics that > might have produced this bird. Anyone have ideas? > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto: > obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org]*On Behalf Of *Dennis P. Vroman > *Sent:* Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:07 AM > *To:* obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > *Subject:* [obol] How about this Cardinal in OR > > Here's a Cardinal for you. See the "Minnesota Birdnerd" web page below. > > Don't believe I have seen a bird of any species like this one. Would be a > tough one for a bander to determine it's sex! > > Dennis > > http://minnesotabirdnerd.blogspot.com:80/ > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/f064f68e/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Thu Jan 8 19:02:22 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:02:22 -0800 Subject: [obol] For Larophiles only - European Gull ID question In-Reply-To: <713210.65335.qm@web37005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: To my eye there are at least two reasons why this is not a Ring-billed. The bill is a little small and has a mewish pattern, and the brownish wing pattern is way more like a Mew (Common) than like a first-winter Ringbill. Given the size and appearance, I will stick my neck much too far out and suggest that this is a Kamchatka Mew. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > From: Hendrik Herlyn > Reply-To: > Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 18:44:04 -0800 (PST) > To: OBOL > Subject: [obol] For Larophiles only - European Gull ID question > > Hello all Larophiles, > > there is currently a gull in Hungary that some local birders believe to be a > Ring-billed Gull. Without telling you what I think, I'd like to get your input > on this bird (just scroll down on the page until you get to the first > pictures): > > http://www.surfbirds.com/cgi-bin/gallery/display.cgi?gallery=gallery28 > > Just curious what the Orgeon gull lovers think .... with your prmission, I > will pass your opinions on to the folks in Hungary. > > Happy Gulling > > Hendrik > _________________________________ > > Hendrik G. Herlyn > > 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 > > Corvallis, OR 97333 > > USA > > E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From chlaparl at wildblue.net Thu Jan 8 19:06:16 2009 From: chlaparl at wildblue.net (Jim Rogers) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 19:06:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Jay making like crow Message-ID: <6a6570ae0901081906x3bf1f3eal74c002bda55c9aaa@mail.gmail.com> Today in Port Orford I observed a Steller's Jay immitating a crow. The crow was about 200 feet away and about every 20 seconds would sound the typical three-note call ... AH-AH-AH. A few seconds later from about 30 feet away I'd hear the identical call - same pitch, same cadence, virtually identical, but not as loud and forceful...ah-ah-ah. I slipped around the brush and there near the top of a waxmyrtle was a jay, head tipped back, beak wide open, carefully copying the crow. I enjoyed the performance for about 10 minutes and moved on. I don't recall seeing this behavior before. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/4fac9d95/attachment.html From kcoe at orednet.org Thu Jan 8 19:20:07 2009 From: kcoe at orednet.org (kcoe at orednet.org) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 19:20:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler In-Reply-To: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> References: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> Message-ID: <50656.71.111.63.146.1231471207.squirrel@shemp.dialoregon.net> Birders, About a week ago I saw the PINE WARBLER in La Grande, Eastern Oregon. A friend said she saw it as recently as Tuesday, 6 Jan 09 at a feeder in the backyard of a house on Oak Street. The bird seems to be frequenting an area south of the hospital, along Walnut Street and south of B Avenue between Walnut and Oak Streets. It seems to be more visible, and frequents suet feeders during what we might consider bad weather, while during nicer weather it seems to not be as visible at the feeders. The few times I've seen it was early and late--7:30 am and 3:30 to 4:00 pm. Here's three pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33826412 at N07/?saved=1 The warbler was first noticed on 20 Dec 08, so it may be around for the winter, if it can survive. Good luck. Kent 541 962-7049 (h) > Hi, Birders: > > In his 1/8/09 RBA report Harry states that the Pine Warbler "is being > seen". > Is it? There have been no OBOL posts about the bird since the Goodhews > said > they looked for it on Jan. 1 and didn't locate it. Is there a more recent > sighting? If so, I'd like to try for it before the next storm blows in. > Any new information would be appreciated. > > Sheran Wright > Bend > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From kcoe at orednet.org Thu Jan 8 19:22:27 2009 From: kcoe at orednet.org (kcoe at orednet.org) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 19:22:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler In-Reply-To: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> References: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> Message-ID: <50659.71.111.63.146.1231471347.squirrel@shemp.dialoregon.net> Birders, About a week ago I saw the PINE WARBLER in La Grande, Eastern Oregon. A friend said she saw it as recently as Tuesday, 6 Jan 09 at a feeder in the backyard of a house on Oak Street. The bird seems to be frequenting an area south of the hospital, along Walnut Street and south of B Avenue between Walnut and Oak Streets. It seems to be more visible, and frequents suet feeders during what we might consider bad weather, while during nicer weather it seems to not be as visible at the feeders. The few times I've seen it was early and late--7:30 am and 3:30 to 4:00 pm. Here's three pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33826412 at N07/?saved=1 The warbler was first noticed on 20 Dec 08, so it may be around for the winter, if it can survive. Good luck. Kent 541 962-7049 (h) > Hi, Birders: > > In his 1/8/09 RBA report Harry states that the Pine Warbler "is being > seen". > Is it? There have been no OBOL posts about the bird since the Goodhews > said > they looked for it on Jan. 1 and didn't locate it. Is there a more recent > sighting? If so, I'd like to try for it before the next storm blows in. > Any new information would be appreciated. > > Sheran Wright > Bend > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 8 19:27:59 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:27:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] For Larophiles only - European Gull ID question Message-ID: <4966C43F.80305@pacifier.com> Looks mewish to me. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From rlowe at casco.net Thu Jan 8 20:20:08 2009 From: rlowe at casco.net (Roy Lowe) Date: Thu, 8 Jan 2009 20:20:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Little Blue Message-ID: The Little Blue Heron was present again today in the pasture near the red barn on Drift Creek Road at Siletz Bay, however, most of the pasture was submerged due to flooding. A juv red-shouldered hawk was present on nearby Gorton Road. Salishan Spit resident Michael Mefford observed 7 brown pelicans flying south past Siletz Bay so small numbers continue to trickle by. At Nestucca Bay NWR 6 snow geese were mixed in with the Canada and cackling geese. This is the most I have seen here on the ground. Roy From davehelzer at mac.com Thu Jan 8 20:51:58 2009 From: davehelzer at mac.com (David Helzer) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:51:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Portland Sandhills and Slate-Colored Message-ID: This afternoon there was a flock of 30-40 Sandhill Cranes high over Kelly Point in North Portland (Confluence of Willamette and Columbia Rivers). They went north. Last week on New Years Day there was a Slate-colored Junco in my yard in NE Portland. Dave Helzer Portland, Oregon From gnorgren at earthlink.net Fri Jan 9 07:30:08 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 07:30:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Roy, Oregon Copious raptors and waterfowl Jan8 Message-ID: Reports of frog choruses to the south reminds me that outside after the Coquille Valley CBC countdown there were a great many frogs audible, the first I have heard this year. In contrast the sky was cloudless and icy clear, Orion and cohorts blazing away as they seldom do in the misty moisty heavens of the beach. It all seems a dream, as I stand surrounded by two foot deep drifts of dirty snow. They were three and four feet high before yesterday's rain. Two birds caught my eye in the first flooded field north of Banks this morning along Hwy 47. They were at the water's edge but didn't look like duck. I turned the car around and discovered they were both Red-tailed Hawks, taking baths. After yesterday's deluge why would they be so inclined? But then for close to three weeks a bath was out of the question, with all the water frozen on the valley floor and usually under a foot of snow. I thought of Gyrfalcons in the far north that must pass seven or eight months without fresh liquid water. Did they take special delight in the first puddle in June? Vadis is a few miles east of Banks, or northeast of Roy. The last freeway exit after North Plains as one heads west on the Sunset Highway . What may be the only glider port in Oregon occupies the northeast corner of the exit complex. If you follow a few county roads back along the south side of the freeway towards North Plains you will come to a sub-division where every house has direct runway access to a private airstrip. All houses are the identical split-level ranch style, with a hangar where the garage would usually be. It is not by any means the only such development. Another similar airport/ subdivision lies a few miles further south and east. Half a century after the Eisenhower administration that spawned such curiosities, few of the hangars through the kitchen door still function as such. They have become over-sized garages or vaulted family rooms. Johnny and Susie still go to school in a car or bus and Mom and Dad don't fly Cessnas to work every day. None-the-less Metropolitain Portland's urban growth boundary interfaces with falconland in particulary variegated fashion here-abouts. The unpaved eastern end of Harrington Road ends at Milne Road, also unpaved and connecting Vadis with Cornelius-Schefflin Road. A half mile west on Harrington stands a lone red-cedar. The top half is dead while the bottom remains fairly bushy. It's an anomalous place for a red-cedar. Someone must have had a house here when Vadis and Schefflin had school houses. Today there's a raptor in the snag top, and a quick glance through the binocular proves it to be the hoped-for Prairie Falcon. While I'm extending the legs on my tripod it disappears. It reappears flying east over the perenial grassfield, something seemingly in its talons. Two things have occupied my thoughts in the half-hour before finding this bird. I believe Prairie Falcons on their breeding grounds in the Great Basin eat mostly ground squirrels. What do they eat in winter in the Willamette Basin? Greydiggers start hibernating in late summer and don't come out until February. Do these Prairie Falcons establish winter territories and hang around for a full season? In Washington County at least, it's rare for anyone to find one of these Prairie Falcons a second time. Not unheard of, but rare. This bird lands on a utility pole cross arm, a small burden quite evident. It is now about three poles to my east, nearly silhouetted against the morning sun. It shows no immediate interest in its prize, its crop already visibly bulging. After several minutes it does commence to eat and the silhouetted prey is clearly a large vole. When I crossed the median strip of the freeway a mile north of here last Sunday to look at swans there were roughly three vole tracks per square foot. The endemic Grey-tailed Vole is probably experiencing one of its population spikes. One study of penned voles produced a density of 2,280/ha.. In a few bites the vole is gone and the falcon wipes its beak repeatedly on the cross arm. A farm truck drives under the pole without eliciting any response, so I begin to back up towards the distant utility pole. The falcon leaves as I draw up beside it and flies in completely leisurely fashion westward to a pole almost even with the half-dead red-cedar. This puts the sun at my back and I try to see the color of the bird' cere-- that waxy looking skin at the base of the upper mandible. Juvenile falcons always have a gray or blue cere, adults a yellow one. At this point a female Kestrel begins to mob the Prairie Falcon with accompanying "klee,klee,klee"notes. When the bigger falcon ignores this the Kestrel lands at the bottom of the utility line's arc midway between the Prairie Falcon's pole and the next one east. That's how I left them at 9:40 when I went to work. About 1pm the skies were sunnier than ever and I had an errand at the nearest mall. I turned south at Mountaindale Road and picked up Harrington at its west end in Roy, where the chapel is dedicated to St Francis of Assissi, the patron saint of birds I've been told. At Kevin Duyck's rhubarb farm a half mile east(37955 Harrington Rd) there are up to 400 swans in the flood waters spilling out of the East Fork of Dairy Creek. This is by far the largest number I have seen anywhere in the Tualatin Basin in 25 years. It is too far for my optical equipment to reveal any Trumpeters, but I stop to scan for a more accurate count. At this point the several hundred Canada Geese in front of the swans start to pretend they are Dunlin. I'm not talking about Cacklers. These are full-sized Canada Geese, Duskies almost certainly, and they are rising from the ground in a tight flock, only to wheel back down when they get a few meters off the ground, then rise again with equally abnormal alacrity. Eight pound birds don't do a good Dunlin imitation, but the effort is still impressive even at a half mile remove. Such anserine histrionics can only be inspired by some doughty raptor, and alas it is no Gyrfalcon. A large adult Peregrine soon becomes evident, flying towards me on a tangent, only to disappear behind one of Kevin's barns. I drive east over Dairy Creek and quickly locate a Peregrine in the top of a broken fir to the south of the road. There is a large flood pool here full of Pintail and Green-winged Teal. The first Peregrine I ever saw in Washington County was over this same pond twelve years ago, in hot pursuit of teal. Today they seem absurdly blase compared to the geese. The Peregrine looks rather ruffled, as if it had just taken an overly thorough bath. On the north side of Harrington Road an all black buteo is hovering. It is really stunning. Very crisply marked. White and black bands across the undersides of the flight feathers, but the rest of the bird from lores to tail appears black. Luckily it breaks the hover and banks to reveal a red tail. It's the sort of bird that could generate a host of fantasy IDs. A pair of typical red-tails, likely a resident couple, appear right behind the black hawk and neither party recognizes the other's presence. I don't believe I'd seen such truly black Red-tailed Hawks before this year. One was along Highway 47 where the South Fork of Dairy Creek crosses back in November. As I recall, Wayne Hoffman saw one a day or two before or after out at the Coast. Back on the gravel stretch of Harrington there is a familiar lump on a pole up ahead. Sure enough the Prairie Falcon is still there. The light in the morning was good by winter standards, but now it's even better and I almost convince myself this is a different bird. After changing poles in its usual leisurely fashion it lands on the ground due north of me. The darkest feathers of all are the flanks and side coverts which are almost solid brown, so dark they approach black. The lightest feathers are on the tail. This morning they looked reddish, but in this brighter light they are a yellow-brown. The entire mantel has a pebbly appearance, each feather pale at the edges and dark in the center, the feathers of the upper back red enough to suggest a Kestrel. After standing on the ground quite awhile it flies low towards the north. At no time during these brief flights was it high enough to be visible from any distance. Returning from the mall an hour and a half later I make a brief detour from the Sunset Highway and to my surprise find that the cedar is visible from a vantage point over a mile to the east. A lump is in the dead top, and of course when I drive up it proves to be the Prairie Falcon. If the mouse population is as dense as I think, it has no incentive to move. And while it is ostensibly in direct competition with Kestrels, there must be more than enough to go around. Lars Norgren From jeffharding at centurytel.net Fri Jan 9 09:38:41 2009 From: jeffharding at centurytel.net (Jeff Harding) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 09:38:41 -0800 Subject: [obol] Oregon Birds Requests Circle Birding Notes Message-ID: <85BC5536662B4C5B937DF896F4E38FF9@laptop> We would like to include a series of short notes on birding in circles in the next Oregon Birds. A number of you have indicated in OBOL that you kept track of the birds you found in your own circle. We would like to know about your experience. Please send me a short account, on the order of 300 words, and we'll see what we can put together. In fact, accounts of any limited range birding would be interesting, for example, from dog-walks to farm-based listing. Any comments or questions are welcome. Good birding, Jeff Harding Editor, Oregon Birds >From Oregon Birds 33:2: Announcement: Circle Birding Added as a Category for Reporting Beginning on January 1, 2008, birders in Oregon are invited to take a new approach to the listing of bird species, and, at the end of the year, to report their results for publication in an issue of Oregon Birds. We are adding a new category to our traditional "state" and "county" year and life lists: "circle" birding. Each interested birder will select a limited area, a circle with a diameter of up to approximately 15 miles. Each birder may list all bird species he or she observes within that circle, following the usual ABA listing rules. The smaller scale of the listing "territory" will make it possible to bird the area without the need for as much car driving as is generally done with the other two categories of listing. At the same time, the allowed diameter of 15 miles ensures that the circles will be large enough to provide some diversity of habitats. With this approach, feeder watching, driving to the supermarket, walking the dog, jogging or biking for exercise, riding public transportation, etc., all have potential to become also occasions for birding so long as one is in the circle. (Note: We assume that the "life list" for each circle will be defined as the total of the birder's first year of birding that circle plus all species seen in subsequent years which were missed the first year. For that reason, "life list" totals will not be published until after the second year of circle listing.) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/88e96a23/attachment.html From parouzer at yahoo.com Fri Jan 9 09:52:09 2009 From: parouzer at yahoo.com (Pati Rouzer) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 09:52:09 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Remove from list Message-ID: <296787.9687.qm@web36603.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Obol; Please remove me from the list. Thank you. Pati -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/54fbe898/attachment.html From sheran at bendbroadband.com Fri Jan 9 11:26:12 2009 From: sheran at bendbroadband.com (Sheran Wright) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:26:12 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler References: <5DB3449C17F84E5580400D7A4A23E79A@notebook> Message-ID: <4B96A3C4C8CA4700A5BE8E797648D525@notebook> Thanks to the folks who provided information and advice on this warbler. Tim Rodenkirk's suggestion to just "go bird La Grande for a few days" sound like sage advice since birding NE Oregon in winters is always fun---rare bird or no. Sheran ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sheran Wright" To: "OBOL" Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 5:08 PM Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler > Hi, Birders: > > In his 1/8/09 RBA report Harry states that the Pine Warbler "is being > seen". > Is it? There have been no OBOL posts about the bird since the Goodhews > said > they looked for it on Jan. 1 and didn't locate it. Is there a more recent > sighting? If so, I'd like to try for it before the next storm blows in. > Any new information would be appreciated. > > Sheran Wright > Bend > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.5/1883 - Release Date: 1/8/2009 6:05 PM From dan at heyerly.com Fri Jan 9 11:55:22 2009 From: dan at heyerly.com (Dan Heyerly) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:55:22 -0800 Subject: [obol] larophile comment Message-ID: <66DE8031D5D14E2CACD752C1DC7ADE84@Dan> I wouldn't call myself a Larophile by any means, nor would I go so far as to be seen with an outrageous bumper sticker such as "Lump Larids", but to me this bird's bill looks awfully thick for a Mew. Dan Heyerly, Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/aa85b62e/attachment.html From foglark at att.net Fri Jan 9 12:30:11 2009 From: foglark at att.net (David Fix & Jude Power) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 12:30:11 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] gull in Hungary Message-ID: <505452.98499.qm@web80016.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Regarding the gull alluded to by Hendrik Herlyn @ OBOL, the heavy and well-marked bill is a teaser, but to my eye this gull seems "off" for Ring-billed. It has indistinctly marked tertials and coverts, unlike the rather strong pattern of angular dark centers and pale edges shown by Ring-billed. It has seems to have a more Mew- than Ring-billed- like pattern in the spread primaries. The wings at rest look a bit too long for Ring-billed. I don't know the other ssp. of Mew, though. Perhaps, as Alan C. suggests, it is a Kamchatka Gull, which I seem to recall has a somewhat heavier bill than North American-breeding Mew Gulls. A quick non sequiter: I was asked by Dave Irons to offer a guest blog for BirdFellow while he's in Baja, and I did. It can be found at that site. I hope you all enjoy it. David Fix Arcata, California 40 51 N 124 04 W -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/211934e6/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Fri Jan 9 14:00:07 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:00:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Oregon Birds Requests Circle Birding Notes In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1231538407.3526.30.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi Jeff & All, I like the idea of "birding in circles" as this makes listing more of a neighborhood-scale game, and builds awareness of the bird habitat around us. However, I have a question regarding the "rules of the game" as laid out in Oregon Birds. Due to the coincidence of having our residence nearly at the center of the Airlie-Albany CBC circle, for some years after that circle was established, I used to keep track of the birds that I saw inside the circle. Similarly, for a while I kept track of birds that I (and others) had seen inside the Antone CBC circle. My lists for these circles from 2008 onward would not be nearly as much fun as the ones that started in 1999 or 2000. I'm guessing that other Oregon birders might be in the same boat, or even more so. E.g. I would love to see Larry McQueen's life list for the Eugene CBC circle, even if he's not counting that Jack Snipe yet. However, the way I read the rules for Oregon Birds, we're only supposed to count our "circle life lists" starting from January 1, 2008 -- even if we may have kept track long before that. Is that a correct interpretation? Or might the editors tolerate CBC-based circle lists that were started before 2008? Thanks & happy birding, Joel Jeff Harding wrote: > > (Note: We assume that the "life list" for each circle will be defined > as the total of the birder's first year of birding that circle plus > all species seen in subsequent years which were missed the first year. > For that reason, "life list" totals will not be published until after > the second year of circle listing.) -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From smithdwd at hotmail.com Fri Jan 9 14:38:41 2009 From: smithdwd at hotmail.com (david smith) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 22:38:41 +0000 Subject: [obol] Wash Cty Grey Jays Message-ID: This am, end of Dairy Creek Rd, a pair of Grey Jays were just beyond the concrete turnaround. Dairy Creek, as well as Killin "Wetland" was very high; Killin within a foot of the road at the culvert. David Smith _________________________________________________________________ More than messages?check out the rest of the Windows Live?. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/06fa2966/attachment.html From barrymckenzie at comcast.net Fri Jan 9 15:32:02 2009 From: barrymckenzie at comcast.net (Barry McKenzie) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 15:32:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Birder's Night <<>> Message-ID: OBOL- Eugene Birder's Night will be Jan 12 (second Monday of each Month) at 7pm. LOCATION IS NEW: Sacred Heart Hospital (downtown), 1255 Hilyard St; Conference Room A (across the hall from the Auditorium). Directions to Conference Room A: -enter main Lobby from Hilyard St -turn Left and walk down hall (past the cafeteria) to end of hall -turn Right and walk down hall (past Dining Room) to end of hall -turn Right and walk a few steps, then Left down the hall toward the Auditorium -Conference Room A (labelled simply Conference Room) is on the Right (across from a bank of telephones on the Left side of the hall) Parking: Parking lot structure (across Hilyard from the Lobby) charges $1/hour (I think). Street parking is not available on Hilyard per se, but is found on 13th, 12th (West of Patterson), and Patterson streets (street parking free after 6pm). Map is at this link: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=sacred+heart+hospital+eugene,+or&fb=1&split=1&cid=0,0,17378354515337851834&sa=X&oi=local_result&resnum=1&ct=image Agenda: usual reporting format, then a slideshow on Birds of Madagascar Note: we will have reliable access to audio/video support from this point on, so those wishing to bring a disc or laptop to show interesting images, etc should feel free to do so. For a lengthly presentation, please give me a heads-up so we can avoid conflicts. Barry McKenzie Eugene From kevinsmithnaturephotos at gmail.com Fri Jan 9 16:51:46 2009 From: kevinsmithnaturephotos at gmail.com (Kevin Smith) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:51:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Culver Raptor Route Message-ID: <4967F122.8040303@gmail.com> Kei and I and Kim Kathol did our Raptor Route for Culver today under sunny skies. 24 Red-tailed Hawks 3 American Kestrels 2 Northern Harriers 1 Bald Eagle (3rd yr) 8 Rough-legged Hawks 1 Ferruginous Hawk 1 Prairie Falcon 1 Great Horned Owl Kevin Smith -- Kevin Smith Crooked River Ranch, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: kevinsmithnaturephotos.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 107 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/09a71ab0/attachment.vcf From johndeshler at yahoo.com Fri Jan 9 16:56:10 2009 From: johndeshler at yahoo.com (John Deshler) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 16:56:10 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] "I don't know what I'll see today, but it'll be better than a cubicle." Message-ID: <335192.68123.qm@web34204.mail.mud.yahoo.com> A great line, for anyone familiar with the office confines, from a story about a rare find in Texas...a Pine Flycatcher. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090109/ap_on_re_us/rare_bird From pamelaj at spiritone.com Fri Jan 9 17:30:16 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 17:30:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Jay making like crow References: <6a6570ae0901081906x3bf1f3eal74c002bda55c9aaa@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <337389AFE00E439CB99FE9E7CE57064F@yourw5st28y9a3> I heard a Jay do this once, and the Jay sounded like a distant Crow. I looked up and saw it moving its head with the calls, or would have been completely taken in. Pamela Johnston ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Rogers To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 7:06 PM Subject: [obol] Jay making like crow Today in Port Orford I observed a Steller's Jay immitating a crow. The crow was about 200 feet away and about every 20 seconds would sound the typical three-note call ... AH-AH-AH. A few seconds later from about 30 feet away I'd hear the identical call - same pitch, same cadence, virtually identical, but not as loud and forceful...ah-ah-ah. I slipped around the brush and there near the top of a waxmyrtle was a jay, head tipped back, beak wide open, carefully copying the crow. I enjoyed the performance for about 10 minutes and moved on. I don't recall seeing this behavior before. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From brrobb at comcast.net Fri Jan 9 17:31:08 2009 From: brrobb at comcast.net (Roger & Betty Robb) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 17:31:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lincoln and Lane Coast Birds Message-ID: <50CB32926EDA43CC9E58A18A00A936D3@RROffice> The LITTLE BLUE HERON continues near Siletz Bay 0.7 miles east of Rt 101 on Drift Creek Rd past the red barn. Other birds of note today included a flock of 27 BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS at the mouth of the D River in Depoe Bay, 2 ROCK SANDPIPERS on the north jetty at Newport and an ANCIENT MURRELET on the water at the mouth of Bob Creek in Lane County. Roger Robb Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/faff2506/attachment.html From masohlstrom at msn.com Fri Jan 9 18:14:51 2009 From: masohlstrom at msn.com (M A SOHLSTROM) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:14:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] larophile comment In-Reply-To: <66DE8031D5D14E2CACD752C1DC7ADE84@Dan> References: <66DE8031D5D14E2CACD752C1DC7ADE84@Dan> Message-ID: I just can't imagine who would be silly enough to do such a thing as display a "Lump Larids" bumper sticker! Shocking! Actually, it gets me some really weird looks from the teenagers who carry my groceries out.... (For the faithful...I'm still trying to find a way to produce this famous bumper sticker for distribution - let me know if you know a source for small quantity bumper sticker printing!) Cheers, Mary Anne Sohlstrom ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Heyerly To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 11:55 AM Subject: [obol] larophile comment I wouldn't call myself a Larophile by any means, nor would I go so far as to be seen with an outrageous bumper sticker such as "Lump Larids", but to me this bird's bill looks awfully thick for a Mew. Dan Heyerly, Eugene _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/827fb5be/attachment.html From richarmstrong at comcast.net Fri Jan 9 18:27:30 2009 From: richarmstrong at comcast.net (rich armstrong) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:27:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] glaucous gull References: <50CB32926EDA43CC9E58A18A00A936D3@RROffice> Message-ID: 1. a carload of us from corvallis went to the coast this morning to hopefully see the LITTLE BLUE HERON - we got there at 10 and roger robb had it in his scope - a wonderful way to begin. and the weather all day was also wonderful!! 2. at siletz bay there is a sort of path through the forest/marsh. besides a mixed flock of both kinglets, both chickadees, etc, we had a flock of RED CROSSBILLS that we got in a scope. in the bay there were red-breasted mergansers 3. boiler bay was slow but we did see RED-NECKED GREBE. 4. depoe bay had lots of oystercatchers and black turnstones, but no surfbirds 5. north of newport just across from 89th court i saw a group of gulls so we stopped. in the group was a 1st winter GLAUCOUS GULL. this is where a stream was emptying. 6. newport jetties had cooperative PACIFIC LOON with all the commons, posing harlequin duck, another red-necked grebe. we did not see rock sandpiper - probably too late as tide was low by then. we did see a red-breasted merganser "walking" on shore - mergansers walk funny! we also think we saw a STELLER'S SEA LION along with all the harbor seals. 7. behind the science center had many HORNED GREBES and 2 EARED GREBES that at 1 point were next to each other for comparison. we even saw a horned grebe take off and fly a ways! also a RED-THROATED LOON that was feeding right next to shore acting like it was snorkeling. there were 2 COMMON GOLDENEYE (females) among the 100's of buffleheads and surf scoters. there were also a flock of BRANT and 1 MARBLED GODWIT. there were a dozen black turnstones, again with no surfbirds at all. 8. and a few bald eagles and normal birds - all in all an excellent day at the oregon coast! Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/36dbf312/attachment.html From pamelaj at spiritone.com Fri Jan 9 18:39:16 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 18:39:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Polk Co swans & dux Message-ID: Early this afternoon as I drove north on 99W I saw 5 Tundra Swans on a flooded area near south of Schmidt nursery, and closer to Helmick St Pk, a flock of ~50 Northern Pintail. The ducks sensibly swam away as I pulled over to look. Pamela Johnston From campbell at peak.org Fri Jan 9 19:04:28 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 19:04:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Peoria Pyrrhuloxia, Palm Warbler Message-ID: <9BF5DFFD6DBE4F289ED6979D390DE090@maryPC> Now that the weather's moderated, the PYRRHULOXIA has been popping into our backyard regularly. (You're welcome to search for it from north of our house--29756 Main Street.) At lunchtime today, I found the PALM WARBLER in the fir where it used to be seen regularly--just above the pump house, south of the greenhouse. As far as I know, it hadn't been seen since December 22nd, despite a lot of searching. (Seems like this should count for the CBC, doesn't it?--since it had to have been here the whole time.) A group of four TRUMPETER SWANS flew over, trumpeting. Randy Peoria -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/482172d7/attachment.html From sylviam at clearwire.net Fri Jan 9 20:05:18 2009 From: sylviam at clearwire.net (Sylvia Maulding) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 20:05:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Finley NWR Message-ID: <5f916ae60901092005w7800a95cqe915db9b605ab77@mail.gmail.com> This morning Paul, Don and I had two adult SNOW GEESE in with Canada/Cacklers along Bruce Rd. We could not relocate the N. Mockingbird. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/0fb9009e/attachment.html From bcombs232 at gmail.com Fri Jan 9 22:33:11 2009 From: bcombs232 at gmail.com (Barbara Combs) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 22:33:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] Linn County birds Message-ID: <8ce3a6520901092233m3ed67b49u1c0b2d0e752c0deb@mail.gmail.com> I visited the Brownsville area today. There was a BELTED KINGFISHER at the rice ponds on Gap Road. Further south on Gap Road (and I do mean ON the road), there was a male RING-NECKED PHEASANT with a group of 8 females. If he can manage to stay out of traffic, he could provide the means to increase the population in the area significantly. Only one pheasant had been found in this portion of the circle on the CBC. I found a flock of about 40 WILD TURKEYS not far south of the pheasants, and another group of 6 or 7 along Northern Drive, east of town. A MERLIN was on a wire along Belts Drive where it parallels I-5. -- Barbara Combs obie '70 Eugene OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/4ece0002/attachment.html From winkg at hevanet.com Fri Jan 9 22:46:09 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:46:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Trumpeter Swans, Purple Finches, Sauvie Island Message-ID: <20090110064540.26085A8217@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> I spent a few hours out at Sauvie Island today (Jan 9). At the end of Oak Island Road there were about 30 PURPLE FINCHES (all immature or female). Nice to see a big flock of them. While walking around Wapato Access Trail, 7 TRUMPETER SWANS flew overhead, tooting their (toy) trumpets. A male EURASIAN WIGEON was in the pond (aka "Virginia Lake"). Wapato also had a RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER and two PILEATED WOODPECKERS. Three more PURPLE FINCHES (including the only adult male I saw today) were along the east shore of the pond. Wink Gross Portland From jeffgill at teleport.com Fri Jan 9 23:11:14 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 23:11:14 -0800 Subject: [obol] Central Point No. Cardinal - no. Message-ID: Since I was driving through the sunny and verdant Rogue Valley today, I stopped at the site that had occasionally hosted the female cardinal in December. No luck. That said, there are other feeders in the neighborhood. There have been at least four reports of cardinals in Oregon in the past 12 months - but none have stayed long. It occurred to me recently on a trip to Arizona that I was typically seeing mated pairs of cardinals, even in winter. Perhaps these Oregon birds just keep wandering in search of a mate, rather than settle in for the winter at a particular location. Jeff Gilligan From gnorgren at earthlink.net Fri Jan 9 23:56:38 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 23:56:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Willamette Basin transect-155 miles Dairy Creek to Coast Fork Message-ID: <3c266ecefeac2efe49af8ffd7b8ba6de@earthlink.net> I attended a wrestling meet in Cottage Grove today and as a result made as long a transect as I can recall in my natal watershed. Just as Hwy 26 merges with Hwy 6 (Tillamook Jct., between Banks and North Plains) a heavily laden Merlin crossed the road northbound as fast as it could. I pulled over and watched it go up to the top of the nearest hill, never getting more than three or four feet off the ground, never slowing down. At this point I saw that it was being pursued by a harrier. I drove up someone's driveway to the hilltop but couldn't relocate the Merlin. As I returned downhill I saw the Harrier again. I'll never know if it ate the Merlin's lunch. Multiple American Kestrels were visible throughout the mini- drama. The Prairie Falcon of the day before was not far away so I decided to try for the falcon slam as Eugene was almost in my trajectory. A detour east on Harrington Road found the PRAIRIE FALCON still in her half-dead red-cedar. I drove slowly under with the sunroof open. Not a feather ruffled. Only the first four miles of the trip had snow beside the road, but much of the rest of the journey was fog-shrouded. My main response to Diamond Hill Prairie is" too many raptors, not enough falcons". I got tired of checking them. THe majority were scruffy young BALD EAGLES, at least half a dozen. Two HArriers, four or five REd-tails, one Rough-legged HAwk sitting on the ground. THere were probably 15 raptors visible from a single vantage point. The sewage plant at Prairie and Beacon Rds did not reward me with a Gyrfalcon, although an adult Bald EAgle was present. Continuing south to the Weyerhauser mill on the south side of Cottage Grove nothing of note appeared. Lars Norgren From borealowl at comcast.net Thu Jan 8 20:45:07 2009 From: borealowl at comcast.net (borealowl at comcast.net) Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 04:45:07 GMT Subject: [obol] Gyr Not Found at Scappoose Message-ID: <200901090445.n094j7Su031393@host-231.colo.spiretech.com> This report was mailed for Mike Marsh by http://birdnotes.net Date: January 7, 2009 Location: Scappoose Bottoms, Columbia County, Oregon On Wednesday Don Moore and I drove the back roads of Scappoose in search of the previously reported Gyrfalcon, but had no luck. Here's what we did see. Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose Cackling Goose Tundra Swan 23 Green-Winged Teal Common Merganser Great Blue Heron 13 Great Egret 18 Northern Harrier 1 Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 4 Black-bellied Plover 1 [1] Greater Yellowlegs 27 [2] Dunlin 33 [3] Long-billed Dowitcher 9 [4] Mew Gull 26 Glaucous-winged Gull 47 Rock Dove 11 Belted Kingfisher 1 Pileated Woodpecker 1 Steller's Jay 4 American Robin European Starling Song Sparrow White-throated Sparrow 2 [5] White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird Pine Siskin 30 Footnotes: [1] All shorebirds were observed in the field (known by some as the "Short-eared Owl" field) which is on the property that has the mustard-yellow house on it. [2] Same locale. [3] Same locale. [4] Same locale. [5] One white-stripe and one tan stripe at the 90 degree right turn about 1/4 mi. past the yellow house. Total number of species seen: 30 From JohnSullivan at bowtecharchery.com Fri Jan 9 15:01:41 2009 From: JohnSullivan at bowtecharchery.com (John Sullivan) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 15:01:41 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Gyrfalcon - Yes Message-ID: <000001c972ae$3c423e20$b4c6ba60$@com> Hello All, I was able to sneak over to the Prairie and Beacon road wastewater treatment facility during lunch today and found the GYRFALCON perched on the northernmost center pivot irrigation tower. There was a goose kill on the ground below the falcon that 3 adult bald eagles were fighting over. I suspect that the goose was first taken by the falcon and then taken over by the eagles. Still lots of cacklers in the area, hopefully making it an attractive place for the Gyr to hang out for awhile. John Sullivan Springfield, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/18433a34/attachment.html From oregonbirds at gmail.com Fri Jan 9 19:53:30 2009 From: oregonbirds at gmail.com (Becky Clark) Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 19:53:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Jay making like crow Message-ID: <47B689E977414566A87A1B460CB6886A@MainPC> sorry Pamela I thought I sent this to the group when I hit reply! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Becky Clark" To: "pamela johnston" Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 7:39 PM Subject: Re: [obol] Jay making like crow >I usually just read the messages and enjoy them but want to add that I had >a Stellars on my Patio a couple weeks ago who would fly in, land and then >caw, caw, caw At first I thought it was a crow off in the trees coming in >for a peanut but then I saw the head and beak of the Stellar moving. It was >an excellent imitation! > > Back to lurking, > > becky > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "pamela johnston" > To: "obol" > Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 5:30 PM > Subject: Re: [obol] Jay making like crow > > >>I heard a Jay do this once, and the Jay sounded like a distant Crow. I >> looked up and saw it moving its head with the calls, or would have been >> completely taken in. >> >> Pamela Johnston >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Jim Rogers >> To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 7:06 PM >> Subject: [obol] Jay making like crow >> >> >> Today in Port Orford I observed a Steller's Jay immitating a crow. The >> crow was about 200 feet away and about every 20 seconds would sound the >> typical three-note call ... AH-AH-AH. A few seconds later from about 30 >> feet >> away I'd hear the identical call - same pitch, same cadence, virtually >> identical, but not as loud and forceful...ah-ah-ah. I slipped around the >> brush and there near the top of a waxmyrtle was a jay, head tipped back, >> beak wide open, carefully copying the crow. I enjoyed the performance for >> about 10 minutes and moved on. I don't recall seeing this behavior >> before. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> obol mailing list >> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >> >> _______________________________________________ >> obol mailing list >> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090109/9f9b38cd/attachment.html From slebel at thprd.org Thu Jan 8 14:09:01 2009 From: slebel at thprd.org (Shelley Lebel) Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:09:01 -0800 Subject: [obol] Volunteers Needed for Breeding Bird Monitoring Program Message-ID: <496608FD.BEA5.00B8.0@thprd.org> PRESS RELEASE January 8, 2009 Contact: Tualatin Hills Nature Park Interpretive Center 15655 SW Millikan Way Beaverton, Oregon 97006 Kelly Perry, Park Ranger Phone: 503/629-6350 ext. 2521 Email: kperry at thprd.org For Immediate Release Volunteers Needed for Breeding Bird Monitoring Program (Master bird watchers only.) Looking for volunteers proficient in identifying birds by sight and sound for Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District?s Breeding Bird Monitoring Program. The Breeding Bird Monitoring Program focuses on tracking bird populations in selected Beaverton parks and are conducted during the peak of the breeding season, mid-May through the end of June. An initial volunteer training will occur March 22nd, 2009 from 9:00 am to noon at Tualatin Hills Nature Park. This training covers the District?s expectations for volunteers participating, the protocols for collecting data in parks, use of the datasheets and a determination of birding skill level. After orientation, sign up to monitor one of these parks: Tualatin Hills Nature Park, Greenway Park, Summercrest, Hyland Forest & Jenkins Estate. Individual orientation of site will be scheduled in April. Each volunteer will conduct three breeding bird surveys at their adopted park, per season, beginning May 15th and finishing by June 30th. Master bird watchers only. For more information contact Ranger Kelly Perry at 503/629-6350 x 2521 or kperry at thprd.org # # # -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090108/89ced09e/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Sat Jan 10 06:27:03 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 06:27:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Collared-doves but no French hens in Christmas Valley Message-ID: <1231597623.3525.22.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi folks, I picked up the Dec 24th issue of the Lake County Examiner while Wil and I were on way to the Hart Mtn CBC, and just got around to reading it. There on page 13 is a photo of two "ringed turtle doves." Yep, you can guess what species of dove they are. The photo is credited to Melany Tupper of Christmas Valley, who has spotted "as many as 12 amongst the pine trees in her yard." No partridges in pear trees were noted. However, during the Hart Mtn count on Dec 28th, Wil and I did find a bunch of chukars among bare trees at the mouth of Degarmo Canyon, and Craig Miller and Gene Dershewitz found one (Tundra) swan a-swimming. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From Oropendolas at aol.com Sat Jan 10 07:34:02 2009 From: Oropendolas at aol.com (Oropendolas at aol.com) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:34:02 EST Subject: [obol] Eugene Gyrfalcon - No Message-ID: Hello All, The Gyrfalcon was last seen on Monday 01-05, when I posted this message from work. I have no idea how it could take 5 days to reach obol. I did not re-post because Roger Robb had posted his report that the bird was there, so I didn't think it was necessary. I went out to the Prairie and Beacon road wastewater treatment facility every day last week either during lunch or after work, with no luck relocating the Gyr. John Sullivan Springfield, OR In a message dated 1/10/2009 2:06:39 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, JohnSullivan at bowtecharchery.com writes: Hello All, I was able to sneak over to the Prairie and Beacon road wastewater treatment facility during lunch today and found the GYRFALCON perched on the northernmost center pivot irrigation tower. There was a goose kill on the ground below the falcon that 3 adult bald eagles were fighting over. I suspect that the goose was first taken by the falcon and then taken over by the eagles. Still lots of cacklers in the area, hopefully making it an attractive place for the Gyr to hang out for awhile. John Sullivan Springfield, OR _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol **************New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines. (http://news.aol.com?ncid=emlcntusnews00000002) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/030d06bd/attachment.html From TASGENL at COMCAST.NET Sat Jan 10 13:04:13 2009 From: TASGENL at COMCAST.NET (Tom Shreve) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:04:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Odd Flicker Message-ID: <005601c97366$fe2e5ec0$fa8b1c40$@NET> I was looking through my old photos of Flickers and came across some taken at Baskett Slough a year ago of a FLICKER that appears to have half black, half red malars. I initially thought it must be a shadow but it appears on both malars. I have posted the photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_pix/ so you can judge for yourself. Has anyone else seen this on a Flicker? Tom Shreve -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/ebe0a1cb/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sat Jan 10 13:36:18 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 13:36:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Coquille Valley CBC results Message-ID: I have placed the final Coquille Valley CBC results on the count web site at http://cvcbc.blogspot.com/. The format leaves something to be desired. Anyone who wants the more detailed breakouts can ask me for the excel file. Good weather and an excellent observer turnout produced a total of over 73,000 birds, nearly twice our previous record high. A lot of that was ducks. We found 148 species, which is our average species variety. In the 1991-2000 count era, we averaged 29 observers in the field; this count had 43. Emperor Goose, Barred Owl, Prairie Falcon, Say?s Phoebe and White-breasted Nuthatch were unusual new birds for the count, in addition to Eurasian Collared-Dove (aka Plump ?n? Tasty or P&T) and Cackling Goose. Other noteworthy species seen on fewer than half of previous counts included Common Yellowthroat (2nd record), Sandhill Crane (2nd record), White-fronted Goose, Brown Pelican (including some tired or injured birds), Northern Shrike, Lesser Goldfinch, Western Bluebird (seems to be increasing). The presence of 5 Western Scrub-Jays around Norway suggests that they may be expanding. There was also one in Bandon. We had Lesser Yellowlegs, Snow Goose and BL Kittiwake during the count week. Our worst misses were Green Heron, Glaucous Gull, Black Scoter and Sora, all of which we expected to find but which are present in very small numbers. The heron and gull may well not be in the count area now, though a Glaucous Gull was in the Bandon area in late November. The scoter has been increasingly hard to find in recent years. The Sora is undoubtedly in the circle ? next year we?ll need to find out which marshes they are in ahead of time. The count had never previously missed Ruddy Turnstone, but that species has also become hard to find in Oregon in winter. Other birds that are undoubtedly in the circle include Ruffed Grouse and Mountain Quail; we need to think about ways to get them next year. The big news is the exceptional number of high counts. We set records for an amazing 35 species, not counting the new birds. We also tied two previous records and came close to breaking a few more. The huge numbers were the waterfowl, where 14,000 wigeon and 11,000 pintail in particular obliterated previous highs. 25 Eurasian Wigeon were found. A few highs are worth special comment. 25 White-tailed Kites is nearly twice the average, and their presence in such numbers may explain in part why they are somewhat hard to come by farther north on the coast this year. The fact that 29 Northern Harriers is also double the usual number suggests that perhaps the valley has an unusually good supply of voles and other prey items this year. The fact that 62 Red-shouldered (!) and 52 Red-tailed hawks are both record high counts may add some weight to that theory, though Red-shouldered has a somewhat different prey base. Barn Owl is always in the valley, but the 8 we found this year is twice the average and was generated by only two owling teams and a drive-by, not including the Norway area, which is known to have some. I wonder if the recent severe flooding will disarrange the food supply sufficiently to affect these raptors. Three species, Killdeer, Wilson?s Snipe and American Robin, all set exceptional record highs probably related to the recent freeze and snow inland. There were a few odd low counts that I think are worth mentioning. The strikingly empty ocean (except for rock-circling murres), which probably cut our count by three or four species, produced only 3 White-winged Scoters, which is quite strange. The fact that a large observer turnout on a nice day found only three Sharp-shinned Hawks on a day that many sparrow species had record highs seems a little odd. The sizable numbers of Herring and Thayer?s Gulls that had been in the estuary for two days before the count simply went away. Three teams looked in vain and found only a handful; just one Thayer?s. Mew and Ring-billed were also down, but I saw many Ring-billed outside the circle near Myrtle Point on January 1, suggesting that the low was a flood-related event. Western Gulls seemed to be everywhere in numbers. Toward the end of the day, huge numbers of gulls were flying down the river. Some of these undoubtedly came from the pastures around Myrtle Point, just outside the circle. Next year we might station someone at a convenient choke-point, perhaps Rocky Point, to count this gull-stream. I was astonished that only five Hutton?s Vireos were reported on a nice day with so many observers in the field. I don?t know quite what to make of the remarkably low count of 22 Winter Wrens (five teams had none at all!), by far the lowest we have ever found. This seems likely to relate to a genuine lack of birds, for whatever reason. Golden-crowned Kinglets were also low, for a bird that should have been fairly obvious to active field teams. We had 100 Black Phoebes, which oddly enough is NOT a record high. They crossed the divide into the Coos Bay area not long ago and have become quite common there now. In another ten years they will be common as far north as Florence, where a couple of pairs now breed. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From ellencantor at gmail.com Sat Jan 10 14:45:03 2009 From: ellencantor at gmail.com (Ellen Cantor) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:45:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fern Ridge Pipits Message-ID: <7058c4c60901101445q1bafa729if17b8026733dccc0@mail.gmail.com> I did a lot of walking at Fern Ridge this morning, but didn't come up with the self-reported Oropendula or the sought after elusive Jack Snipe. But I did see 2 large flocks of AMERICAN PIPITS (about 50 in each flock) way out the old Royal Ave roadbed, about even with Gibson Island. Also saw several small peeps feeding with some Killdeer out on the mudflats between the roadbed and Gibson. I didn't have my scope but I'm pretty sure they were LEAST SANDPIPERS from their plumage..... A gorgeous day--warmed up considerably, feeling downright balmy by mid-day. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/128fba88/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sat Jan 10 14:46:27 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:46:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? Message-ID: There is a rumor from a local fisherman that ten Emperor Geese were seen at Bandon at low tide very recently. Harv Schubothe is going to check at low tide today (Saturday). -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From rakestraw.john at yahoo.com Sat Jan 10 15:06:01 2009 From: rakestraw.john at yahoo.com (John Rakestraw) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:06:01 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] portland gulls friday, fernhill wetlands saturday Message-ID: <266759.1298.qm@web59411.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> An hour at Portland's Westmoreland Park on January 9 produced six gull species and lots of "Olympic" hybrids. Pictures of each can be seen at http://johnrakestraw.net. (lump larids? Blasphemy!) Other notables were Eurasian Wigeon (females) and lots of Cackling Geese. On Saturday morning, most of Fernhill Wetlands (Washington County) was inaccessible due to high water. The southern pool can be reached from Geiger Road. You might be able to get into the northern sections from the bike path. Several large flocks of Tundra Swans flew over. A mixed flock of both kinglets, Brown Creeper, BC Chickadees, Bushtits, and Yellow-rumped Warblers was working the treeline along the east edge of Eagle's Perch Pond. Cheers, John Rakestraw Portland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/ff2e4b85/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Sat Jan 10 15:31:47 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:31:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] PRAIRIE FALCON and swans continue at Roy/Vadis Message-ID: <60c7d7c9d33d71ffa1852430817839b8@earthlink.net> For the third day in a row the Prairie Falcon was perched near the east end of Harrington Road in Vadis. The large swan flock near the west end of Harrington Rd in Roy was again on Kevin Duyck's rhubarb farm. THey were closer to the road and more spread out than Thursday. Dairy Creek continues to rise and flood more fields. Lars Norgren From celata at pacifier.com Sat Jan 10 15:54:03 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 15:54:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lower Columbia Birderstrip - 1/10/2009 Message-ID: <4969351B.20103@pacifier.com> We did a make-up trip today, because I was out of town last weekend (even though Steve and several folks went out last weekend, also). Overcast and on the chilly side, but no rain until the last half- hour or so. Ducks were surprisingly hard to find given all the extra water. Two male CINNAMON TEAL at Turlay Ln off 101. Good numbers of TOWNSEND'S WARBLERS at several locations. Got to watch a MERLIN take a starling at Crosel Creek. Date: January 10, 2009 Location: Clatsop County, Oregon Lower Columbia Birders trip- Youngs Bay, Lewis and Clark River and Clatsop Plains Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose Cackling Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Cinnamon Teal [1] Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-Winged Teal Canvasback Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Barrow's Goldeneye Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Western Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Merlin [2] Peregrine Falcon American Coot Greater Yellowlegs Mew Gull Ring-billed Gull Western Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Anna's Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Steller's Jay Western Scrub-Jay American Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee Chestnut-backed Chickadee Bushtit Red-breasted Nuthatch Bewick's Wren Winter Wren Marsh Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Varied Thrush Wrentit European Starling Townsend's Warbler Spotted Towhee Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird House Finch Red Crossbill House Sparrow Footnotes: [1] At least 2 at Turlay Ln [2] Watched it take a starling at Crosel Crk Total number of species seen: 69 -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ From bcombs232 at gmail.com Sat Jan 10 16:59:20 2009 From: bcombs232 at gmail.com (Barbara Combs) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:59:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tundra Swan with neck collar; White-tailed Kite NW of Eugene Message-ID: <8ce3a6520901101659t733e5aecp299b8e9496740075@mail.gmail.com> Today I found an adult TUNDRA SWAN with a blue neck collar. It was at one of the usual places for them - the corner of Vogt Road and Highway 36, southwest of Junction City. I had trouble reading the characters on the collar, as the bird was preening in a way that usually obscured the collar and finally took a nap with the collar no longer visible. My best guess is that the characters were K185. I am pretty sure of the K and the 5, but not so sure about the second and third characters. Has anyone else seen this bird and gotten a better look at the collar? I also found a WHITE-TAILED KITE along Washburn Lane. The bird was perched on the west side along the road where the roadside cover of bushes and small trees begins to be fairly dense when approached from the south. -- Barbara Combs obie '70 Eugene OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/b0a35c88/attachment.html From Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us Sat Jan 10 17:28:51 2009 From: Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us (Kyle W Bratcher) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:28:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Wallowa Count 1/10/09 Message-ID: I got out for a good part of the day today. I went out to the lake for and saw a flock of about 300 mallards and one juvenile Bald Eagle. Went out East of Joseph and saw about 20 Rough-legged Hawks and a few Red-tails. Afterwards I went out to golf course rd. to see if I could find the Snow Buntings but had no luck. I did however two flocks of Grey-Crowned Rosy-Finches that converged to form a flock of well over 400 birds. I was sure there would be a Bunting mixed in but after watching for quite some time the flock landed and was not visible in the field. I also went to the pond to see what was there and found the usual suspects: Tundra Swan, Mallards, Pin-tails, Coots, Common Goldeneye, Buffleheads, and one Pie-billed Grebe that I only see about once a month around here. I went down Egglson (sp?) road and found a new group of about 30 WW Crossbills. I have seen them there twice now and haven?t seen the ones on Fish Hatcher road for a few days. And the last bird of the day was a new one for me. A Merlin in Joseph that Eric and Mary found early this week. Good birding all. Joseph Kyle Bratcher -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/0f2a2de3/attachment.html From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Sat Jan 10 17:37:48 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:37:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey Results - Linn Co. Message-ID: <649352.83987.qm@web50907.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Obolers, Today I spent 7.5 hours covering the southern portion of Linn County as part of the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey held in January each winter. A total of 183.4 miles were driven. Most of the roads south of Hwy 228 south to Bowers Dr and between the Willamette River and the foothills around Brownsville make up the bulk of the route. The route also extends north of Brownsville and covers the major roads east of I-5 to the foothills north to Hwy 34. A small portion of the route continues north of Hwy 34 north to Spicer Rd. Weather was ideal for this count, with a high ceiling of clouds, no precipitation, and virtually no wind to speak of. Periodic spells of sun were available throughout the day making for an enjoyable effort. I started the count at 8:30 and finished the portion south of Hwy 228 by 2:00 PM. I finished the whole count at 4:05 PM. A total of 128 BALD EAGLES were counted on the route with 51 being full adult birds and 77 dark subadult birds. Virtually all of the birds found today were associated with sheep flocks and/or sheep carcasses. Several carcasses had 4 or 5 birds feeding on them. 49 birds were in the Diamond Hill DR/Gap Rd/Priceboro Rd/I-5 square. 110 birds were found south of Hwy 228. I would say that only about 10-15 birds were actually counted while flying, with the remainder entrenched around a food source. Jeff Fleischer Albany From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Sat Jan 10 17:53:26 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 17:53:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Linn County notable birds Message-ID: <671671.75217.qm@web50903.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Obolers, While conducting the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey as reported in my other posting, I also had some really nice (at least to me :) ) finds during the survey. Following is what I saw: Snow Goose - found 4 adults in amongst a flock of approximately 4-5000 Canada Geese located along Diamond Hill Dr. The flock was feeding in grass south of the road and east of the big powerline running north/south through this area. Emperor Goose - found 1 adult bird in the same flock of Canada Geese along Diamond Hill Dr. Canvasback - found at least 10 birds in the treatment ponds at the Diamond Hill Dr RV Park adjacent to I-5. White-tailed Kite - found one bird along Gap Rd south of Diamond Hill Rd Northern Shrike - found one adult bird on Belts Dr about half a mile east of Bond Butte Dr. Prairie Falcon - found two birds, one on Seefeld Dr east of I-5 and the other on Glacer Dr a few miles south of Hwy 34. White-fronted Goose - Found a small flock of 11 on Lake Creek Dr east of I-5 just west of Kirk Rd. Great Egret - Found 3 birds amongst a flock of Tundra Swans on Powerline Rd just south of Sub Station Dr along Powerline Rd. Western Meadowlark - a nice flock of 17 birds on Crook Dr east of Peoria Dr. These birds were associating with a field of annual grass planted this fall. Tundra Swan flocks were noted in several areas that are known areas of use in past winters south of Hwy 228/American Dr. All in all a pretty exhilerating day of good birding along with the 128 Bald Eagles that I also saw and previously posted. Jeff Fleischer Albany From dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM Sat Jan 10 18:31:23 2009 From: dirtgirl16cr125 at MSN.COM (Cheryl Whelchel) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:31:23 -0800 Subject: [obol] [birding] Corv audubon field trip/weird goose pics In-Reply-To: <1ED95C5C7355409891DDA7C3BC327CBA@armstrong> References: <1ED95C5C7355409891DDA7C3BC327CBA@armstrong> Message-ID: I posted some pictures of the 2 weird geese we saw today at the following link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/ Cheryl Whelchel Tangent ----- Original Message ----- From: rich armstrong To: corvbird Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 5:57 PM Subject: [birding] corvallis audubon field trip 1. 15 birders went on the corvallis audubon 1/2 day trip this morning. no rain at all, but quite cold. 2. we began at mcfaddin marsh where there were about 500 TUNDRA SWANS. everyone got good looks at pintails, american wigeon, green-winged teal, gadwall, coots, ring-necked ducks, and shovelers. there was 1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 3. we heard a VIRGINIA RAIL (maybe 2) and cheryl welchel went back to car and got her tape and she called the bird into view for everyone. also a MARSH WREN was fairly cooperative 4. at the bridge still at mcfaddin we had pied-billed grebe and 2 weird canada geese - twice as much white on head and they were together. then we had a mixed flock of PURPLE FINCH (got them in scope), GOLDEN-CROWNED & RUBY CROWNED KINGLETS, yellow-rumped warblers, and chickadees. 5. at the cheadle marsh overlook we had scope looks at ROUGH-LEGGED & RED-TAILED HAWKS, NORTHERN HARRIER, and distant looks at blad eagle. there was 1 SNOW GOOSE among all the cacklers and canada geese - all saw it well. 6. at the 1st house we had scope views of ACORN WOODPECKER and WESTERN BLUEBIRD. VARIED THRUSH & WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH were seen but less cooperative. 7. at 25401 bruce road we looked for the mockingbird. cheryl saw the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD for an instant but we could not refind it at all. there were many killdeer in the field and scrub jay, mourning dove, house finches, and northern flicker in trees. 8. we stopped at philomath sewage ponds. everyone saw ruddy duck, 1 female bufflehead, and lesser scaup as well as ducks seen earlier. 9. we were back by noon and i think all enjoyed the morning. Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978 _______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/3057a29d/attachment.html From ninerharv2 at msn.com Sat Jan 10 18:36:55 2009 From: ninerharv2 at msn.com (HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE ) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:36:55 +0000 Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? Message-ID: I think we may have heard a whopper. Or maybe the big one got away. I went to the reported site provided by the fisherman at low tide and found no emporers or any other goose. I did find two glaucous gulls missed in last weeks Coquille CBC. Many more birds on the water this week. Also found one young brown pelican on the South Jetty. Very thin looking. There may be question on earlier emporer report. The one spotted last week remains with the domestics on Redmond Pond for a week now. If it came from the flock, would it not have returned? Alson the flock supposedly has been here a month. Yet no team spotted them in last week's Coquille CBC. Will check it out again tommorow. Harv Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Alan Contreras Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:46:27 To: Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? There is a rumor from a local fisherman that ten Emperor Geese were seen at Bandon at low tide very recently.? Harv Schubothe is going to check at low tide today (Saturday). -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From hhactitis at yahoo.com Sat Jan 10 18:47:23 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:47:23 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] [birding] Corv audubon field trip/weird goose pics In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <754620.71368.qm@web37006.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello Cheryl, from what I can see on the pictures, those geese appear to have orange-ish legs ... they may be Canada X White-front hybrids, I've seen some before that looked very similar. Interesting find Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com --- On Sat, 1/10/09, Cheryl Whelchel wrote: From: Cheryl Whelchel Subject: Re: [birding] Corv audubon field trip/weird goose pics To: "corvbird" , "rich armstrong" Cc: "obol" Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 6:31 PM I posted some pictures of the 2 weird geese we saw today at the following link. ? http://www.flickr.com/photos/vgswallow16/ ? Cheryl Whelchel Tangent ----- Original Message ----- From: rich armstrong To: corvbird Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 5:57 PM Subject: [birding] corvallis audubon field trip 1. 15 birders went on the corvallis audubon 1/2 day trip this morning. no rain at all, but quite cold. 2. we began at mcfaddin marsh where there were about 500 TUNDRA SWANS. everyone got good looks at pintails, american wigeon, green-winged teal, gadwall, coots, ring-necked? ducks, and shovelers. there was 1 GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE. 3. we heard a VIRGINIA RAIL (maybe 2) and cheryl welchel went back to car and got her tape and she called the bird into view for everyone. also a MARSH WREN was fairly cooperative 4. at the bridge still at mcfaddin we had pied-billed grebe and 2 weird canada geese - twice as much white on head and they were together. then we had a mixed flock of PURPLE FINCH (got them in scope), GOLDEN-CROWNED & RUBY CROWNED KINGLETS, yellow-rumped warblers, and chickadees. 5. at the cheadle marsh overlook we had scope looks at ROUGH-LEGGED & RED-TAILED HAWKS, NORTHERN HARRIER, and distant looks at blad eagle. there was 1 SNOW GOOSE among all the cacklers and canada geese - all saw it well. 6. at the 1st house we had scope views of ACORN WOODPECKER and WESTERN BLUEBIRD. VARIED THRUSH & WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH were seen but less cooperative. 7. at 25401 bruce road we looked for the mockingbird. cheryl saw the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD for an instant but we could not refind it at all. there were many killdeer in the field and scrub jay, mourning dove, house finches, and northern flicker in trees. 8. we stopped at philomath sewage ponds. everyone saw ruddy duck, 1 female bufflehead,?and lesser scaup as well as ducks seen earlier. 9. we were back by noon and i think all enjoyed the morning. Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978_______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/_______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/96603cea/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sat Jan 10 18:47:13 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:47:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I suspect that the "flock" was beer-induced. Solitary Emperors, however, often arrive mid-winter and latch onto local flocks, becoming remarkably unwary. Thanks for checking. Frustrating to have Glaucous Gull and Rock Sandpiper wander off for count week and promptly return -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > From: HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE > Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:36:55 +0000 > To: Alan Contreras , "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" > > Subject: Re: [obol] Emperor flock? > > I think we may have heard a whopper. Or maybe the big one got away. > > I went to the reported site provided by the fisherman at low tide and found no > emporers or any other goose. > > I did find two glaucous gulls missed in last weeks Coquille CBC. Many more > birds on the water this week. > > Also found one young brown pelican on the South Jetty. Very thin looking. > > There may be question on earlier emporer report. The one spotted last week > remains with the domestics on Redmond Pond for a week now. If it came from the > flock, would it not have returned? > > Alson the flock supposedly has been here a month. Yet no team spotted them in > last week's Coquille CBC. > > Will check it out again tommorow. > > Harv > > Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alan Contreras > > Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:46:27 > To: > Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? > > > There is a rumor from a local fisherman that ten Emperor Geese were seen at > Bandon at low tide very recently.? Harv Schubothe is going to check at low > tide today (Saturday). > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? > Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? > Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From carolk at viclink.com Sat Jan 10 20:34:43 2009 From: carolk at viclink.com (Carol Karlen) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:34:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lincoln county ANCIENT MURRELET & LITTLE BLUE HERON Message-ID: <000b01c973a6$1685c280$8c76fea9@home> OBOL: We set off this morning to look for the good birds reported in Lincoln county. We found: About 50 each of Surf & Black Scoters off the mouth of D River. A male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE and 7 Common Goldeneye at the mouth of Schooner Creek in Taft. At the wet pasture 0.7 mile east of Hwy 101, behind the red barn, we ran into Jim, Karen, & Karl Fairchild. We spotted a Great Egret that had us fooled for awhile. The Fairchilds found the LITTLE BLUE HERON about noon, as well as the RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. Unfortunately, we were not there at the time, and only got back in time to see the hawk. At Boiler Bay we found White-winged Scoters and an adult Bald Eagle. At Depoe Bay we saw Surfbirds, Black Turnstone, Black Oystercatcher, black Crows, and black Brewer's birds. At Yaquina Bay south jetty we again met the Fairchilds, who told us about ANCIENT MURRELETS in the cove at Boiler Bay. We hurried back there and found 3 nice birds actively diving next to the kelp beds right below the parking lot. We continued back to the Drift Creek site and found the LITTLE BLUE HERON (finally) at 4 PM, feeding on nice big worms in the wet pasture. An immature Bald Eagle watched from a snag. Good birding, everyone, Paul Sullivan & Carol Karlen From philliplc at charter.net Sat Jan 10 20:41:33 2009 From: philliplc at charter.net (Phil Pickering) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:41:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] portland gulls friday, fernhill wetlands saturday References: Message-ID: <5D44190B786B425D8A8CF9EC48BC379E@Phil> At least based on the one photo the "Olympic" gull here looks a little too Herringy for comfort to me. I don't think the bill appears all that obnoxiously thick for Herring, and in my experience it can potentially be misleading to try to judge primary extension on swimming birds. Also there's an outside chance the primaries may not quite be fully grown. I think the nature of the hood markings - high contrast regular brownish blotches is more typical of Herring. Also the sort of boxy head shape and forward eye placement suggest Herring over Western/G-w. At least in the photo the mantle/primary contrast seems a bit high for Olympic. In my experience Olympic with medium-ish or paler mantle shades typically (always?) have primary tips that are obviously paler than black, which doesn't seem to be the case here. If I had to guess I would say this is a Herring (or possibly Herring x Glaucous-winged). If the mantle shade was appreciably darker than G-w and not just slatier (which is very hard to judge in photos) I would at least consider the longshot possibility of Vega. Just a thought. Cheers, Phil philliplc at charter.net > An hour at Portland's Westmoreland Park on January 9 produced six gull > species and lots of "Olympic" hybrids. Pictures of each can be seen at > http://johnrakestraw.net. (lump larids? Blasphemy!) From kskiivv at comcast.net Sat Jan 10 20:59:34 2009 From: kskiivv at comcast.net (kskiivv at comcast.net) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 04:59:34 +0000 Subject: [obol] Flicker question Message-ID: <011120090459.29091.49697CB5000ED444000071A3220702157390900707059C05@comcast.net> OBOLers, I live in South Salem and have Northern Flickers visiting my suet feeders regularly. Today I had what appears to be a hybrid Flicker. There was no visible red on the nape, which suggests it's not a Yellow-shafted. Wings had distinct yellow undersides, as did shaft. Head seemed more brown/beige--no grey or moustache markings visible. Other markings consistent with a female Red-shafted Flicker. Ideas? Regardless, it was a fun sighting for my family and I. Other backyard visitors today: Junco, Black-Capped and Chestnut Backed Chickadee, Towhee, Am. Robin, Varied Thrush, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White and Red Breasted Nuthatch, Bewick's Wren, House Wren, Scrub Jay, Starling, Pine Siskin, Anna's H-bird (male and female we've named Herbert and Hillary), Downy Woodpecker, Bushtit. Good Birding! Kevin Kompolt Salem, OR From hhactitis at yahoo.com Sat Jan 10 21:37:49 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:37:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Flicker question In-Reply-To: <011120090459.29091.49697CB5000ED444000071A3220702157390900707059C05@comcast.net> Message-ID: <547821.79337.qm@web37003.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Kevin, what you saw was probably a Red-shafted X Yellow-shafted intergrade .... these are actually quite common in Oregon, much more so than sightings of pure Yellow-shafted Flickers. On a different note: You mentioned a House Wren in your back yard. At this time of year, that would be a very unusual visitor .... they migrate south and usually don't return to Oregon until mid- to late April. It would be great if you could document this bird through photographs. Happy backyard birding Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com --- On Sat, 1/10/09, kskiivv at comcast.net wrote: From: kskiivv at comcast.net Subject: [obol] Flicker question To: "OBOL na" Date: Saturday, January 10, 2009, 8:59 PM OBOLers, I live in South Salem and have Northern Flickers visiting my suet feeders regularly. Today I had what appears to be a hybrid Flicker. There was no visible red on the nape, which suggests it's not a Yellow-shafted. Wings had distinct yellow undersides, as did shaft. Head seemed more brown/beige--no grey or moustache markings visible. Other markings consistent with a female Red-shafted Flicker. Ideas? Regardless, it was a fun sighting for my family and I. Other backyard visitors today: Junco, Black-Capped and Chestnut Backed Chickadee, Towhee, Am. Robin, Varied Thrush, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Townsend's Warbler, Lesser Goldfinch, House Finch, Song Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, White and Red Breasted Nuthatch, Bewick's Wren, House Wren, Scrub Jay, Starling, Pine Siskin, Anna's H-bird (male and female we've named Herbert and Hillary), Downy Woodpecker, Bushtit. Good Birding! Kevin Kompolt Salem, OR _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090110/289c546a/attachment.html From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 09:10:08 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 09:10:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Eagle Count- Coos Bay 1/10/2009 Message-ID: <546953.16690.qm@web45311.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Well our numbers are always lower than the valley, but it was astounding to see Jeff F's 150+ eagles- oh my gosh! I think we may have had a record day for eagles on the Coos Bay mid-winter eagle count though, see if you notice any differences between our (Jim Heaney and Yo) numbers and some of those valley counts: Sunny all day, 35-52F, light wind, absolutely stunning weather, 6 hrs., 67.1 miles: 8- BALD EAGLES 2- OSPREY 6- PEREGRINE FALCONS 4- NORTHERN HARRIERS 1- SNOWY EGRET 3- WHITE-TAILED KITES 13- RED-TAILED HAWKS 4- RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS 1- SHARP-SHINNED HAWK ENJOY! Tim R Coos Bay From whoffman at peak.org Sun Jan 11 11:10:59 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:10:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Brant Message-ID: <079219D700EB48938FF7C1BE45F11290@D48XBZ51> I spent some time looking at the (Black) Brant in Yaquina Bay from the HMSC nature trail this morning. I counted 105 Adults, 13 young of the year, and an additional 29 birds too far away to age. This is not as bad as my ageing attempt several weeks ago, but still indicated a very poor nesting season in 2008, at least for the Brant that come to Yaquina Bay. The total, 147, is about 35 less than recent counts in Yaquina Bay, so I suspect the remainder were up in Sally's Bend. Wayne -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/d0c80711/attachment.html From marciafcutler at comcast.net Sun Jan 11 11:33:37 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:33:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Ditto, the Peoria Palm Warbler, Marcia F. Cutler Corvallis -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Alan Contreras Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 6:47 PM To: HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE Cc: obol Subject: Re: [obol] Emperor flock? [cut] Frustrating to have Glaucous Gull and Rock Sandpiper wander off for count week and promptly return -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ - Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ - Bird Photos & News > From: HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE > Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:36:55 +0000 > To: Alan Contreras , "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" > > Subject: Re: [obol] Emperor flock? > > I think we may have heard a whopper. Or maybe the big one got away. > > I went to the reported site provided by the fisherman at low tide and found no > emporers or any other goose. > > I did find two glaucous gulls missed in last weeks Coquille CBC. Many more > birds on the water this week. > > Also found one young brown pelican on the South Jetty. Very thin looking. > > There may be question on earlier emporer report. The one spotted last week > remains with the domestics on Redmond Pond for a week now. If it came from the > flock, would it not have returned? > > Alson the flock supposedly has been here a month. Yet no team spotted them in > last week's Coquille CBC. > > Will check it out again tommorow. > > Harv > > Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T > > -----Original Message----- > From: Alan Contreras > > Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:46:27 > To: > Subject: [obol] Emperor flock? > > > There is a rumor from a local fisherman that ten Emperor Geese were seen at > Bandon at low tide very recently.? Harv Schubothe is going to check at low > tide today (Saturday). > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ - > Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ - > Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From nelsoncheek at charter.net Sun Jan 11 11:50:07 2009 From: nelsoncheek at charter.net (WALTER NELSON) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:50:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Raptor Route - Lincoln Co. Coast Message-ID: <20090111194143.SNCU128.aarprv06.charter.net@D9FD2761> Wayne Hoffman, Walt Nelson, and I completed the coastal section of the Lincoln Co. Raptor Route yesterday morning. Weather was overcast with gradual clearing by mid-day, winds calm. Birding was slow, particularly around Alsea Bay, but at Yaquina Head we witnessed a drama that made up for the low numbers. A very large, very dark (Peale's) Peregrine was attempting to catch a Pigeon Guillemot on the water's surface. The guillemot had an injured wing and could not dive further than a quick duck below the surface. The Peregrine would swoop down and the guillemot would dunk under for an instant to elude the grab, Peregrine would miss, circle around and gain altitude for the next pass. This went on for about a dozen attempts before the Peregrine managed to snag the guillemot, then lugged it over to a nearby rock. We watched for a while as the Peregrine plucked feathers and tore off and ate hunks. Wow! Never know what you'll see when you're out birding. Nothing else we saw was nearly as exciting, but we also found: Red-Tailed Hawk 9 Northern Harrier 1 Bald Eagle 11 (10 adults, 1 subadult) White-tailed Kite 3 (north end of Newport Airport) Peregrine Falcon 4 Also - Red-shouldered Hawk 1 (not seen by us but reported yesterday by C. Karlen and K. Fairchild, in the pasture frequented by the Little Blue Heron, which is on our regular route.) ______________________ Rebecca Cheek South Beach, OR 97366 nelsoncheek AT charter.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/a46791f0/attachment.html From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 12:51:03 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 12:51:03 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Coos Birds 1/11/2009 Message-ID: <917175.88495.qm@web45305.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> The PRAIRIE FALCON and the SANDHILL CRANE were still around today in the Coquille Valley, both near Norway. That's all for now, Tim R Coos Bay From peterpatricelli at comcast.net Sun Jan 11 13:04:56 2009 From: peterpatricelli at comcast.net (peterpatricelli) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:04:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] Weird goose - probable WF x WHite cheeked hybrid Message-ID: <93914E41E07E4B2C9E56C0488101F3F7@PeterGateway> The weird goose pics posted yesterday can be compared to 2 pics on my website of a WF x Cackler family unit. http://www.flyfishingfotography.com/whitefront_snows_010.htm Those pics show a normal WF, a normal Cackler, and then 5 hybrids in an apparent family unit. Whether the ones reported yesterday are from a Cackler or actual Canada subspecies? cross is uncertain. Peter Patricelli www.flyfishingfotography.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/d0a67d45/attachment.html From larmcqueen at msn.com Sun Jan 11 13:28:39 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:28:39 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fern Ridge Pipits In-Reply-To: <7058c4c60901101445q1bafa729if17b8026733dccc0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Ellen, I would like to know more about that Oropendula! Another hunt on Wed? Larry _____ From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Ellen Cantor Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 2:45 PM To: OBOL Subject: [obol] Fern Ridge Pipits I did a lot of walking at Fern Ridge this morning, but didn't come up with the self-reported Oropendula or the sought after elusive Jack Snipe. But I did see 2 large flocks of AMERICAN PIPITS (about 50 in each flock) way out the old Royal Ave roadbed, about even with Gibson Island. Also saw several small peeps feeding with some Killdeer out on the mudflats between the roadbed and Gibson. I didn't have my scope but I'm pretty sure they were LEAST SANDPIPERS from their plumage..... A gorgeous day--warmed up considerably, feeling downright balmy by mid-day. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/9597c943/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sun Jan 11 13:48:02 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 13:48:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Studies in ambiguity: a new set of quiz birds Message-ID: <496A6912.8090600@pacifier.com> http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sun Jan 11 17:17:51 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:17:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lane Coast and Waldport birds Message-ID: I spent the day birding coastal Lane Co and north as far as Waldport with KC Childs and Sean Vierra. Pretty slow day, with morning filled with blowing mist. Afternoon was nice. Nothing really exotic. Male Eurasian Wigeon at Eckman Lk, Waldport. Plenty of Am Wigeon and Gadwall there (maybe 75 wigeon and 35 Gadwall, all scattered around the edge of the lake). Small numbers of gulls at all sites, with Yachats the best variety. Little on the ocean. Adult Peregrine at Lily Lake. 5-7 Townsend's warbs at the parking area under the bridge at Heceta Head. Lincoln's Sparrow at the crabdock cove, Florence, which is an uncommon place for one. The recent CBC missed it. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Sun Jan 11 17:36:07 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:36:07 +0000 Subject: [obol] Wallowas Winter Bird Report (Wallowa County) Message-ID: Hi all, My whirlwind trip to the Wonderful Wallowas with Dave S. went well. We found most of the wintering target species in the Lostine, Enterprise, and Joseph areas. We had a great time and Dave netted 7 lifers on the trip. Yipee!!! Surprisingly, much of the warm rains earlier in the week melted a lot of snow as some of the rural roads were bare or muddy. As usual McCully Creek near Joseph is hammered with snow so we had to snowshoe in the last mile or so where the junction splits. Cone crop and berries are at their fullest I have seen it but interestingly, we found no PINE GROSBEAKS in town but instead, observed several flocks of WHITE WINGED CROSSBILLS in the residental areas. The mischievous alpine parrot-like birds were feeding and ripping down cones while emitting their chet-chet-chet calls as they constantly flew to and from various cone-laden tree tops. To me they have a different flight pattern than the red crossbills and their calls are more electric in quality compared to their red cousins. Very cool birds to watch indeed! We also noted that both species were not mingling together when observed at various locations during the trip. If you need these elusive, erratic visitors as a lifer, this is the time to GO! It doesn't get any easier than this. No snowshoes or cross-country skis required to the proper habitat. You can see the birds right out of your car! I think the birds will stay around with this abundant cone crop. Melody Phillips and I first noticed the invasion mid-November at McCully Creek while Russ Namitz saw a few more weeks later. Thanks to Kyle Bratcher and Margaret LaFavie for their sightings as well! Here are the highlights and species seen: GREAT GRAY OWL: One magnificent bird along Hwy 3 about 20 miles north of Enterprise. SHORT EARED OWL: One hunting bird before dusk on School Flat Rd. LONG EARED OWL: One bird along Philberg Rd at dusk near Elgin. NORTHERN PYGMY OWL; Two birds one in Lostine and another at Wallowa Lake Rd. GREAT HORNED OWL: Three birds in Lostine, Joseph, and Enterprise. SPRUCE GROUSE; One beautiful male in spruce trees at McCully Creek. (Must snowshoe in) DUSKY GROUSE; Two birds in conifer trees at McCully Creek. RUFFED GROUSE; One bird at Hurricane Creek Rd SHARP TAILED GROUSE; Flushed two birds along Leap Lane GRAY PATRIDGE; A flock of five on Leap Lane. Eight birds along Praire Creek Rd. NORTHERN GOSHAWK: One adult bird along road leading to Lostine Campground. FERRGINOUS HAWK; One beautiful adult on Alder Slope Rd (same bird reported by LaFaive?) ROUGH LEGGED HAWK; Up to 6 birds mostly in Joseph. MERLIN; One bird in town of Enterprise near Courthouse. WHITE HEADED WOODPECKER; One flying bird at Wallowa Lake SP. NORTHERN SHRIKE; Up to 3 birds near Enterprise and Joseph. BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS; A flock of 200 birds in Enterprise. 60 birds near Fish Hatchery Rd CEDAR WAXWINGS; A flock of 100 birds mixed with some Bohemians near Golf Course Rd. AMERICAN THREE SPARROWS; A flock of 5 birds near Leap Lane. WHITE THROATED SPARROW; One bird on Golf Course Rd. SNOW BUNTINGS; A pure flock of 150 plus birds along Ant Flat Hill Rd. GRAY CROWNED ROSYFINCHES; A flock of 350 plus birds along School Flat Rd and a few stranglers near Ant Flat Hill Rd. Some roosting at dusk near eaves of barns. PINE GROSBEAKS: A small flock of 15 birds along Hwy 3 about 22 miles north of Enterprise. A flock of 5 birds along Cascade Auto Route about 14 miles north of Enterprise. Three birds in McCully Creek. None were found in towns of Lostine, Enterprise or Joseph despite hordes of fruiting ornamental trees and hundreds of feasting robins! RED CROSSBILLS; A flock of 20 birds in Cascade Auto Route and 10 birds in town of Enterprise. WHITE WINGED CROSSBILLS; A large flock of 40 birds near City Center intersection and Fish Hatchery Rd, a dozen in Enterprise on Garfield and 1st St. A small flock of 5 birds at McCully Creek. A flock of 20 plus birds in Cascade Auto Route. COMMON REDPOLLS; A flock of 25 birds on Prairie Creek Rd not far from cemetery. Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From vireogirl at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 18:22:33 2009 From: vireogirl at yahoo.com (Vjera Thompson) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:22:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Lane & Linn weekend birds Message-ID: <13906.15548.qm@web56305.mail.re3.yahoo.com> OBOLers, Eddie and I made a quick stop at Peoria on the way home from Portland yesterday (1/10/09) and saw the PALM WARBLER. Today (1/11/09) we drove around the Gyr area (Prairie Rd, Meadowview Rd, Alvadore Rd, and other roads near the Eugene airport), and saw lots of other raptors but no Gyr. Other raptors seen include a N SHRIKE at milepost two on Meadowview Road, 2 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, several RED-TAILS, and 4+ BALD EAGLES. We found the flock of TUNDRA SWANS (off Vogt) and I counted ~340. Then we headed to Alton Baker for a walk. Highlights included a nice look at a LINCOLN'S SPARROW, a RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, a male EURASION WIGEON, and a HUTTON'S VIREO. Total species list for Alton Baker was 37--not far behind Area 10's total count for the whole day on the CBC last week (the sun does help!). Vjera & Eddie Thompson Eugene, OR vireogirl at yahoo.com From barrymckenzie at comcast.net Sun Jan 11 18:51:54 2009 From: barrymckenzie at comcast.net (Barry McKenzie) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:51:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene Birder's Night -- NEW LOCATION - 2nd posting Message-ID: <87BAF43F-F1F2-4367-B956-C3669CB1FCBF@comcast.net> OBOL- Eugene Birder's Night will be Jan 12 (second Monday of each Month) at 7pm. LOCATION IS NEW: Sacred Heart Hospital (downtown), 1255 Hilyard St; Conference Room A (across the hall from the Auditorium). Directions to Conference Room A: -enter main Lobby from Hilyard St -turn Left and walk down hall (past the cafeteria) to end of hall -turn Right and walk down hall (past Dining Room) to end of hall -turn Right and walk a few steps, then Left down the hall toward the Auditorium -Conference Room A (labelled simply Conference Room) is on the Right (across from a bank of telephones on the Left side of the hall) Parking: Parking lot structure (across Hilyard from the Lobby) charges $1/hour (I think). Street parking is not available on Hilyard per se, but is found on 13th, 12th (West of Patterson), and Patterson streets (street parking free after 6pm). Map is at this link: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en-us&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=sacred+heart+hospital+eugene,+or&fb=1&split=1&cid=0,0,17378354515337851834&sa=X&oi=local_result&resnum=1&ct=image Agenda: usual reporting format, then a slideshow on Birds of Madagascar Note: we will have reliable access to audio/video support from this point on, so those wishing to bring a disc or laptop to show interesting images, etc should feel free to do so. For a lengthly presentation, please give me a heads-up so we can avoid conflicts. Barry McKenzie Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/6d548458/attachment.html From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Sun Jan 11 18:58:44 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:58:44 +0000 Subject: [obol] Pine grosbeak and White winged crossbill invasion in OR and WA?? Message-ID: Hi all, To add to the discussion generated on INLAND NW of a good flight year for Pine Grosbeaks this winter, I would have to agree. Many birds have been seen and reported in the areas of North Central and North Eastern WA and now North Eastern Oregon near the Wallowas. Of course, my assessment is based on my limited experience and bird reports of the last few years. I have combed the archives pretty extensive the last ten years and I realize some birders don't report on these online birding forums of their sightings. Even then, there are only a handful of White winged crossbill reports. The last three summers and winters in the Wallowas did not produced any significant number of both species as I usually bird there several times a year. This last November, reports showed good numbers in early fall especially November in the higher elevations of the Wallowas and the Okanogan areas. There is a lot of ground to cover. If I recall correctly, the winter of 2006/2007 had good numbers as more pine grosbeaks were found at much lower elevations including Discovery Park in Seattle, several at the Skagit Game Range near Conner, WA, and one bird at Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon. White winged crossbills is a different story. These erratic birds are much more tougher to pin down since they feed on a much more varied diet and tend to move more from place to place when one food source is depleted. According to the the Davis, Clement and and Harris, the birds feed on extracting seeds of larches, cedars, spruces, and hemlock. They also take a variety of berries, spiders, and insects from their larvae. This probably explains why I have seen a few birds pick out protein matter from horse dung along some of the alpine trails that allow horse. In addition, their ideal habitat requires much more effort to reach or inaccessible in winter. So I really don't have a basis to compare as reports are so far and few. These birds probably breed in these high alpine areas of WA and Oregon where few birders hike and venture into. >From my research, I don't think there are any confirmed records of breeding in Oregon and Washington. I did hear several males burst into songs starting in late summer to early winter the last two years. Also, if these birds are not flying around, they tend to blend in quite well and are much quieter than the incessantly calling pine grosbeaks. As a result, birds are tougher to detect and numbers are more difficult to assess. Last winter, good numbers of XX bills trickled in the Okanogan Highlands and Salmo Pass areas and a reliable number remained at Stevens Pass. However, if you want an easy place to see white winged crossbills right now, the town of Enterprise, Oregon is the place to be. Several flocks have been seen in the cone-laden conifers in town the last several weeks. You can almost seem them out of your car without snowshoes and cross-country skis. For more details, see my recent weekend trip report below of birding the Wallowas in NE Oregon. It is a wonderful area to bird and the scenery is beautiful. You can never have a bad time in the WOWallowas! Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From tanager at nu-world.com Sun Jan 11 19:26:52 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:26:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Counting Crows - Sunday afternoon in Eugene Message-ID: <001301c97465$9d192700$d74b7500$@com> No, this is not a celebrity sighting. Anne and I birded Skinner Butte this afternoon (3pm or thereabouts). It was pretty quiet up there except for a calling BROWN CREEPER, GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS, B-C CHICKADEES, and continuous freeway noise. There was a flock of 8 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS and one BEWICK'S WREN feeding near the west end of the grassy meadow up on top. Passersby told us about displaying ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS below the parking lot as well. One interesting and new development up there is that a major effort is underway to remove English Ivy. It looks rough right now, but I can see the positive potential because whomever/whatever group is doing this is leaving the native plants in place. There are huge piles of just-removed English Ivy piled up near the parking lot, and more piles are visible on the ground all through the north slope of the butte from top to bottom. It looks like most of the Himalayan Blackberries also have been removed. We headed over to Delta Ponds just west and north of Valley River Center and found a good group of WOOD DUCKS, LESSER SCAUP, two adult BALD EAGLES, AND PROBABLY 200 DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS coming in to roost in the cottonwood trees along the river's edge. There was a large adult Beaver also working the edge of the pond and under the elevated walkway. The most interesting, to me anyway, spectacle this afternoon was the evening flight of AMERICAN CROWS. When we first got there, around 330pm I would guess, we noticed a large group of birds flying in a loose formation all headed SSE more or less directly over the mall buildings. The group stretched from horizon to horizon (south to north). I immediately started a count, because in recent days when looking out my office window downtown (just south of Skinner Butte) and usually between 4 and 5pm, a swirling group of crows would mill around in that area a few minutes before dissipating. I had estimated 200 birds more-or-less. Today I started at the southern horizon and worked my way north counting the flock. Anne counted also. It was pretty straightforward since the flock was strung out and moving relatively slowly, as compared to a blackbird or starling flock might be. After reaching 400+ Anne decided she'd watch some birds closer to us (not crows). I continued counting and eventually reached 950 and stopped, sort of. The stream of birds was nearly continuous, but as it slowed to a trickle I didn't watch continuously. It continued until dark. I would estimate the overall number exceeded 1,000 birds. This was not a continuous count, because we ran into Holly Reinhard and her friend (sorry, terrible with names) and watched the beaver and Wood Ducks for awhile and visited a bit, mixed in with more crow counting. As it was nearly dark, we were talking to a passing bicyclist acquaintance and a PEREGRINE FALCON ripped through and attacked (feigned) one of the crows as it was passing by. It was a tease. It continued north. It was a great afternoon to be out in the dry southern Willamette Valley. Good birding, Dan Heyerly Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/a910f53a/attachment.html From m.denny at charter.net Sun Jan 11 22:42:50 2009 From: m.denny at charter.net (Mike and MerryLynn) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:42:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler search, Union Co. Message-ID: Hello All, MerryLynn and I went on a chase to LaGrande, Union Co. looking for the Pine Warbler. We missed the Warbler, but did see the following birds of interest. Eurasian Collared Dove....60 birds in Imbler at a feeder located at the north end of Newport Ave., Located 4 in Elgin, 13 in LaGrande along C Street. The Imbler concentration of this dove species is the largest I have observed in Oregon or the Pacific Northwest to date. I learned today that this dove species gives an almost alcid type squeal call reminisant of calls I have heard in the Rhino Auklet colonies when the adults return after sunset. Rough-legged Hawk....Black morph birds outside of Elgin and Cove. 12+ light morph birds between Cove and LaGrande. Bohemian Waxwing....150 birds in Cove along Water Street. Bald Eagle.....7 birds between LaGrande and Ladd Marsh feeding on voles in flooded fields along with many ravens. Black-backed Woodpecker-one ad. male between Oak and Cedar Streets in LaGrande (ML only). We missed the Pine Warbler, but greatly enjoyed our visit with several local Police Officers who had been called by suspicious residents wanting to know why people were in their neighborhood with binoculars on.. The officers were very polite and professional when they heard we were looking for the Pine Warbler. Later Mike .................................................................................. Mike and MerryLynn Denny Birding the beautiful Walla Walla Valley If you have not birded, you have not lived From hhactitis at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 23:04:06 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:04:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Drift Creek Little Blue Heron etc. Message-ID: <222081.78073.qm@web37007.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello OBOL, Jamie Simmons and I birded the Lincoln County coast today. Highlights included: LITTLE BLUE HERON:? We found the bird around noon in the previously described spot near the red barn along Drift Creek road, in the company of several Glaucous-winged Gulls and one adult Thayer's Gull. EURASIAN (COMMON) TEAL: one picture-perfect drake along with 4 male Green-winged Teal and several females on a small pond along Hwy 20 between Toledo and Newport (just east of McNary Road). WHIMBREL: one at the South Jetty at Yaquina Bay GREATER YELLOWLEGS: one at the north end of Bayview pasture along Beaver Creek Road HARLEQUIN DUCK: 4-5 drakes at the South Jetty, Yaquina Bay Happy Birding Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090111/64298463/attachment.html From bcombs232 at gmail.com Mon Jan 12 02:06:38 2009 From: bcombs232 at gmail.com (Barbara Combs) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:06:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Harrisburg Coburg Raptor Route Sunday January 11 Message-ID: <8ce3a6520901120206u25fc4a4ev70f3ab892d922b01@mail.gmail.com> Robin Gage and I did the Harrisburg-Coburg raptor route on Sunday, January 11. By the time we started the route, the morning mist had dissipated and the day began to turn into a sunny one. The temperature was above 50 degrees Fahrenheit by the time we finished. We drove 69.1 miles in 4 hours 45 minutes. Raptors found on the route: 19 Red-tailed Hawk 24 American Kestrel 8 Northern Harrier 15 Bald Eagle 8 adults 7 immatures 1 Buteo sp. 2 Merlin Red-tailed Hawk numbers were down from last month, and Rough-legged Hawks were nowhere to be seen. The Northern Harrier number is higher than most counts for the route in any month. We had seen only one Merlin on the route before, and this time it was the first raptor species of the day. Other species of note: We spent some of our time admiring flocks of AMERICAN PIPITS. Early in the day along Bowers Drive between Powerline Road and North Coburg Road we found a flock of about 460 American Pipits foraging in a field. There was no way we could examine each bird and complete the route, but we did spend some time looking over the flock and did not find any other species in it. Later in the day, along Bowers Drive west of North Coburg Road, we found a flock of about 120 American Pipits. We do not know whether this was a different flock or a splinter group from the flock we saw earlier in the day. These birds were flying around. Some were landing in a tree along the roadside, where we were, again, able to obtain some beautiful views of this species. -- Barbara Combs obie '70 Eugene OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090112/c6e07951/attachment.html From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 12 07:23:55 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:23:55 +0000 Subject: [obol] White winged crossbills (photo) Message-ID: Hi all, Here is one photo of some White winged Crossbills taken this weekend in Wallowa County in NE Oregon. They are really invading the town of Enterprise, Oregon and surrounding areas! Low light and the birds are up high so I apologize for the poor quality but you can see the gloriously colored males. http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/image/108040346 Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From carolk at viclink.com Mon Jan 12 07:58:31 2009 From: carolk at viclink.com (Carol Karlen) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 07:58:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Benton county Mockingbird, owls Message-ID: <000701c974ce$a167f700$8c76fea9@home> OBOL: We paid a visit to Benton County on Sunday. At Toketee Marsh by the Coffin Butte landfill we saw 4 Cinnamon Teal, 3 bright drakes. On Llewellyn Rd. we saw the BURROWING OWL. On Bellfountain Rd. I called up a Wrentit. On the SW end of Bruce Rd. Carol spotted the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD in a thick bush south of the white mailbox # 25401. It flew across the road and disappeared in the thick hedge by the house. Across the road from McFadden Marsh we found the GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE and the SNOW GOOSE. We puzzled over this bird awhile, since it had a rather small bill with a gray base and without any noticeable grin patch. However, it was a large goose, with a sloped forehead and a bill too big for a Ross's Goose. I think it fits Sibley's portrayal of a Lesser Snow Goose. At the prairie overlook on Finley Rd. we saw 2-3 White-tailed Kites and 7 W. Bluebirds. At Cabell Marsh we saw the legions of Tundra Swans & American Wigeons -- plus 2 Eurasian Wigeons-- and a Peregrine Falcon. We also heard 3 Great Horned Owls at dusk. After dark we visited the first 1.3 miles of Soap Creek Rd. west of Tampico Rd. We played a Saw-whet Owl tape and got responses from 2 BARN OWLS, 1 WESTERN SCREECH OWL, 3 GREAT HORNED OWLS, and finally a SAW-WHET OWL. It was a beautiful, warm, quiet evening. Good birding, everyone, Paul Sullivan & Carol Karlen From msgellerman at gmail.com Mon Jan 12 13:16:47 2009 From: msgellerman at gmail.com (Michael Gellerman) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 13:16:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] Overwintering Birds, Bethany Pond, Washington Co. Message-ID: <1d0c413a0901121316h7b2a9580vf068b6c759dced0@mail.gmail.com> I was thinking about the weather, more extreme than our 15 years here at Bethany Pond (Washington Co.) and thought I would make a list of the birds that were we saw during the snow, ice, sleet and hail - most of which were regular visitors to the pond, feeders, or the yard. Overwintering Birds at Bethany Pond Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret* Pied-billed Grebe Canada Goose Cackling Goose Mallard American Wigeon Lesser Scaup Ring-necked Duck Common Merganser Hooded Merganser Bufflehead Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Bald Eagle American Kestrel Killdeer Ring-billed Gull California Gull Herring Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Rock Dove Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher* Anna's Hummingbird Northern Flicker Downy Woodpecker Steller's Jay Western Scrub Jay American Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee Bewick's Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Varied Thrush European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler Spotted Towhee Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Brewer's Blackbird Red-winged Blackbird Lesser Goldfinch American Goldfinch Pine Siskin House Finch House Sparrow *Unusual in 15+ years to be here in the winter -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090112/d970c926/attachment.html From andy.frank at kp.org Mon Jan 12 14:48:20 2009 From: andy.frank at kp.org (Andy Frank) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:48:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia River, Mult County Message-ID: <3833C7717E6B4D51AD60B889787A046E@familyroom> I made several stops along the Columbia River in Multnomah County today. At NE Bridgeton and 5th, off Marine Drive East in Portland, there were 3 BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERONS in the eastern most tree. At Broughton Beach, there was 1 PACIFIC LOON and multiple WESTERN GREBES. Further east, but still west of the I-205 bridge, there was a male REDHEAD. At Eagle Creek, there were multiple male and female BARROW'S GOLDENEYES and only female COMMON GOLDENEYES. There also was an AMERICAN DIPPER. Andy Frank From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 12 15:04:52 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:04:52 +0000 Subject: [obol] Photo Quiz of Mystery Raptor Message-ID: Hi all, I got almost 300 'lookers' for this photo quiz but less than 10 birders who venture guesses so far. I don't mean to stump anyone as I was originally off in my guess. These less seen color morphs make it difficult for most since often we do not get an opportunity to see or extensively study them. For better or worse, photos allow you extended looks of certain features. We all become better birders with more field experience. I still have A LOT to learn which makes this hobby so much fun and rewarding. I am going to wait a bit more before I reveal the correct ID but MANY THANKS to David Sibley and Jerry Liguori for confirming. http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/photo_quiz_ Bird on and learn, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From birdmandon at clearwire.net Mon Jan 12 15:04:07 2009 From: birdmandon at clearwire.net (Don Schrouder) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:04:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Birding Southern Valley Message-ID: <8BF17CCD-0EFF-47A1-9A88-68230557F3DD@clearwire.net> Three of us did some birding around the southern Willamette Valley today with good results. We started out at Randy's place in Peoria where we finally found the PYRRHULOXIA on the second try. In between we walked on down the street and located the PALM WARBLER near its previous location. A drive down towards Finley gave us a BURROWING OWL on Llewellyn Rd. at its previous location at the end of the private runway. The NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD gave us a great look on Bruce Rd where we also had a very cooperative ROUGH-LEG HAWK as well as a hunting PEREGRINE FALCON diving down on the Cacklers in the field and causing them to flush and circle. Also saw many other good birds during a great day in the sunshine. Don Schrouder with Paul Sherrell and Sylvia Maulding. Birdmandon at clearwire.net From celata at pacifier.com Mon Jan 12 16:28:40 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:28:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia Estuary Report - 1/12/2009 Message-ID: <496BE038.1030404@pacifier.com> Columbia Estuary Report - 1/12/2009 There are now at least 3 GLAUCOUS GULLS in pastures around Youngs Bay: a beautiful 2nd winter between Binder Slough and Tucker Creek, and two 1st winter birds at Wireless Rd. There may also be a 4th 1st winter on the Lewis and Clark (though it could be one of the Wireless birds). There's also at least one NELSON'S GULL and a pretty obvious GLAUCOUS x GLAUCOUS-WINGED hybrid. HERRING GULLS have become more scarce than they were before all the snow and rain, but there are a few around as well as scattered THAYER'S GULLS. There were 8 SNOW GEESE with CACKLING GEESE at Capp Rd. The Lewis and Clark TUNDRA SWANS have not been seen since the waters receded. There is a SWAMP SPARROW hanging out in a truck garden next to the wetland along DeLaura Beach Rd. It's easier to hear than to see... The BLACK PHOEBE reported from DelMoor Loop has not been seen since early last week. The spot is very birdy however and worth checking for other stuff. Steve Warner had CEDAR WAXWINGS in the holly trees across from his house yesterday (rare around here in the winter). It's been a really good winter for RED-BREASTED NUTHATCHES. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us Mon Jan 12 16:37:54 2009 From: Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us (Kyle W Bratcher) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:37:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] Joseph Jar Message-ID: On my way home from work I stopped at a spot just out of Joseph and found a jar of Pygmy Nuthatches. A first for me and a cool bird indeed. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090112/769b4125/attachment.html From 4cains at charter.net Mon Jan 12 19:00:34 2009 From: 4cains at charter.net (Lee and Lori Cain) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 19:00:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia Estuary Report Message-ID: <43F6CD14F981493594B120D024567713@HAL> To add to Mike's update, the WHITE-THROATED SPARROW seen on the 5th Lane roadside kack in the Jeffers Gardens area during the CBC was still there a couple of days ago. And yesterday Evan photographed a few SURFBIRDS and BLACK TURNSTONES at the surf boulders in the Cove at Seaside. Lee Cain Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090112/79d607f9/attachment.html From davect at bendnet.com Tue Jan 13 09:04:50 2009 From: davect at bendnet.com (david tracy) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 09:04:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] Peregrine Falcon flies 954 miles in one day Message-ID: <93BD7A2E-0FD3-4A6E-968A-9A79FA78358D@bendnet.com> The folks working with Bud Anderson at the Falcon Research Group have recorded the longest one-day flight by a falcon using satellite telemetry. Here's the info from their most recent newsletter: http://frgnews.frg.org/ Begin forwarded message: Elizabetha Sets a New World Record Elizabetha, an adult female peregrine that we tagged in Chile on 21 January 2008 as part of the Southern Cross Peregrine Project, migrated north to Baffin Island, Canada, to breed last summer. After raising her family, she began to migrate south again on 22 September, generally following the classic US east coast route. On 19 October, she was flying off the coast of New Jersey when she apparently caught the counter-clockwise storm system of Hurricane Omar. With solid tail winds, she flew south all the way to Palm Beach, Florida in a day, a distance of at least 954 miles and a knock-out world record. None of us had even dreamed that a peregrine could fly that far in a single day. This is yet another example of how satellite transmitters are revolutionizing our understanding of so many organisms worldwide. As I write this bulletin (28 December), she is still migrating slowly south, having just arrived in Chile once again. She is demonstrating that some adult females perform an unanticipated ?slow migration? south, long suspected but now confirmed for the species." End forward --- I wonder how this stacks up against the recent satellite data recording the trans-Pacific migration of Bar-tailed Godwits and Bristle-thighed Curlews. david tracy davect at bendnet.com From jeffgill at teleport.com Tue Jan 13 12:20:45 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:20:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] RBA: Yellow-throated Warbler ( Message-ID: I received a call from Terry Wahl regarding a Yellow-throated Warbler that he was watching as we spoke. Its near and on the three big blue silos... (just kidding - kind of like saying go to Little Beach...) Take the northern end of the FLORAS LAKE LOOP off Hwy. 101 and drive to the three big blue silos. They are about 200 feet off the loop road. The bird is feeding on and near the silos. The silo owner's telephone number is 541-921-7595. (That may be Dave Pitkin's number.) I can't recall if this is Coos or Curry Co. Its somewhere not far from the county line - I think. The property owner is OK with birders visiting. Call first if you want to enter the poperty. All of the birder civility norms are in order. Thankfully, I have seen the species in Oregon and an go to La Grande. What a state! Jeff Gilligan Portland From jeffgill at teleport.com Tue Jan 13 12:40:03 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:40:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Free money for bird conservation Message-ID: Delete now if you are looking for a post specific to birds in Oregon - though there is a connection - sort of. I know this is an unusual post. If you go to google and enter "unclaimed property Oregon" or "Oregon unclaimed property" you get to the State of Oregon site on which you can search for property being held by the state that belongs to you or friends or family. I was surprised to find that I likely have a bank account that I somehow forgot about that of which the state took custody. They have soemthing of mine. I was further surprised to find over 40 other accounts of some sort for various friends, family members, former class mates, neighbors, etc. About 35% of the people for whom I checked are due money. The state receives about $39,000,000 per year and gives the rightful owners about $9,000,000 per year back. Ass I recall, the state is holding about $265,000,000 of people's money. Print out the instruction sheet and the form if you show up on the list. Note the traps on the website. I suggest using the "Starts With" function rather than the "Spelled Exactly" function". If for no other reason, there were entry errors made by the state that can result in the name not showing up. My sister found over $35,000 due her company. Maybe the company you work for is due something and would give some to the birds. SO...if you find money that you wouldn't have otherwise found, why not give some to the American bird Conservancy, Audubon, or the The Nature Conservancy, or OFO. (That is how this segues to OBOL.) All the best. Jeff Gilligan From gnorgren at earthlink.net Tue Jan 13 14:45:06 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:45:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] Prairie Falcon continues at Vadis Message-ID: The adult Prairie Falcon was on the second utility pole east of the snag top cedar on HArrington Rd at 8:30 1/13. Not detected 1/12. Large numbers of Cackling Geese were south of Hwy 26 on the east bank of Dairy Creek 1/12. 5000 or more, by far the most I have seen at this spot in 15 years. Various people commented on their exodus from the Portland area during the snowy weather, which continued at this spot through 1/4. 100s of swans continue to use the flooded bottoms visible from HArrington Rd.. Lars Norgren From greg at thebirdguide.com Tue Jan 13 15:49:09 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:49:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Prairie Falcon continues at Vadis Message-ID: <20090113154909.np1vytnlesgokww8@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Photos of the Prairie Falcon on Harrington Road near Roy, Washington Co., Oregon Map: http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=&ll=45.586714,-123.037133&spn=0.018651,0.02665&t=h&z=15 Photo by Stefan Schlick on January 1: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_from_others Two photos from January 11: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/recent_photos Two additional photos from January 11: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/hawks Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Tue Jan 13 17:14:40 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:14:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] YT Warbler- Curry Co. 1/13/2009 Message-ID: <317714.59264.qm@web45304.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> The YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER was still present between 3;30 and 4PM at Rick McKenzie's ranch off Floras Lake Road. I talked to Terry Wahl and he said visitors would be OK tomorrow. Directions as follows: Take Hwy 101 just south of the small town of Langlois and turn right (west) onto the north entrance to Floras Lake. Follow this until you see the blue silos and park outside the compound just where the road takes a 90 degree turn to the south. The bird was flycatching about 30 feet off the ground on the south side of the eastern most silo when I was there. Terry said it was quite active earlier and was in several locations around the compound. It was calling when I was there and fairly easy to find. There were no other warblers around (usually there are a few Palm Warblers overwintering here) and the only other bird was a Black Phoebe. Dave Pitkin found the bird earlier in the day- nice find Dave!! I believe this is a first Curry record but am not totally sure. It's been quite warm on the south coast the past few days with temps in the 60's and 70's. The forecast is for much of the same the next couple of days. I went down to Floras Lake with the dogs after seeing the warbler and we kicked up 10 LAPLAND LONGSPURS in the short grass north of Floras Lake (right along where the trail goes out to the beach). Cool bird and another totally gorgeous day- hard to believe it's mid-January! Tim R Coos Bay From kevinsmithnaturephotos at gmail.com Tue Jan 13 18:51:56 2009 From: kevinsmithnaturephotos at gmail.com (Kevin Smith) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:51:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] Madras Raptor Route Message-ID: <496D534C.3000207@gmail.com> Kei and I did the Madras route today under high clouds and warm temps (60 degrees) with the following results: 31 Red-tail Hawks- TWO pairs were nest building! We saw both pairs putting the VERY FIRST branch in place! REALLY COOL! 22 American Kestrels 7 Northern Harriers 5 Rough-legged Hawks 1 Merlin 3 Prairie Falcons Kevin & Kei Smith -- Kevin Smith Crooked River Ranch, Oregon -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: kevinsmithnaturephotos.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 107 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/e6374cdd/attachment.vcf From jbw at oregoncoast.com Tue Jan 13 19:27:24 2009 From: jbw at oregoncoast.com (Barbara & John Woodhouse) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:27:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tillamook East raptor run. Message-ID: We decided to get our run in before it rained again. We had a mixture of fog and sun. Numbers were down from Dec. but up from Nov. From Yellow Fir Rd in the South to Fred Meyer in the north. REHA 23 AMKE 14 NOHA 2 Total 39 The fields have been flooded again so this may be why numbers were down. No Kites or eagles From bcombs232 at gmail.com Tue Jan 13 20:11:21 2009 From: bcombs232 at gmail.com (Barbara Combs) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:11:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] Harrisburg-Coburg Raptor Run Addendum - Black Phoebe Message-ID: <8ce3a6520901132011l14af4165h2fe733f7ea073336@mail.gmail.com> A conversation I had last night reminded me that Robin Gage and I found a BLACK PHOEBE in Coburg on Sunday, January 11 while we were doing our raptor route. The bird was perched on a wire in front of a barn just south of the corner of Coburg Bottom Loop and Funke Road, along the east side of Funke Road. This Black Phoebe was perched inches away - at most - from the where a Black Phoebe we found in this same location was perched on November 17, 2006. -- Barbara Combs obie '70 Eugene OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/de62233c/attachment.html From bigfishyman at gmail.com Tue Jan 13 20:17:42 2009 From: bigfishyman at gmail.com (Bob Fish) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:17:42 -0800 Subject: [obol] Gyrfalcon Message-ID: Just wondering if anyone has seen the Gyrfalcon? Bob in Creswell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/25953b78/attachment.html From kingbird68 at comcast.net Tue Jan 13 21:49:01 2009 From: kingbird68 at comcast.net (Laura Whittemore) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:49:01 -0800 Subject: [obol] Nehalem Sewage Ponds, Tillamook County, Oregon on January 11, 2009 References: <200901130530.n0D5UEMS010037@host-231.colo.spiretech.com> Message-ID: Date: January 11-12, 2009 Location: Nehalem Sewage Ponds, Tillamook County, Oregon Prevailing wind speed: < 1 km/h Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 100% Precipitation: none Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii) Gadwall (Anas strepera) Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata) [1] Green-Winged Teal (Anas crecca) Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis) Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) Common Goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) [2] Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) [3] Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) Red-necked Grebe (Podiceps grisegena) [4] Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) White-tailed Kite (Elanus leucurus) [5] Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) [6] Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) [7] Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) [8] Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) Mew Gull (Larus canus) Ring-billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) California Gull (Larus californicus) Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) [9] Steller's Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) Common Raven (Corvus corax) [10] European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) Footnotes: [1] Abundant. [2] Three females. [3] Five females flying upriver. [4] One individual in nearby channel through fields on south side of road. [5] Classic hovering hunting style then dropped to ground, took off with prey and disappeared south into the mist. We were lucky. [6] Five individuals seen at once. [7] Bird on ground with prey surrounded by three crows who pulled its tail. Bird eventually abandoned prey. [8] Made a speedy pass low over two hedgerows for a possible ambush on the other side. It was out of view by then. [9] Individual flying very high (150 feet +) circling near three Ravens. Eventually got so high it disappeared into cloud cover overhead. [10] Abundant. Mixed with crows and gulls actively feeding on ground in nearby fields. A treat to see for us Portlanders who miss Ravens. Total number of species seen: 38 From withgott at comcast.net Tue Jan 13 22:14:46 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:14:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Linn Ross's Goose; Emperor; Peoria P&P; Finley/Benton birds Message-ID: I spent a productive day birding the Willamette Valley in Linn and Benton Cos. today. I located a number of "target birds" seen previously by others, and found a new ROSS'S GOOSE in Linn Co. PEORIA: I arrived at the Moore's yard at dawn and watched the first birds leave their roosts and begin feeding in the twilight. At this time I counted an astounding 8 (!) WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS feeding together beside the bushes to the NW of the Moore's house. I have never before seen this many in one spot (literally within a 3-m diameter) anywhere in the West. The PYRRHULOXIA had apparently roosted elsewhere, likely in the blackberry kack across the street and just NE of the Moore's home. I observed it perched there at 7:55. I then headed up the street and was fortunate to quickly find the PALM WARBLER, loosely cavorting with Yellow-rumps, across the street from the pumphouse/greenhouse/conifers south of the town park. A fast start to the day; I bid adieu to the Pyrrhuloxia, still perched in the blackberries, just 45 minutes after I had arrived. DIAMOND HILL ROAD: I found the gynormous flock of Cackling Geese just where Dave Irons had left them, on the north side of Diamond Hill Road (Linn Co.) 2.0 miles east of I-5. The 4 SNOW GEESE were with them, and after a couple of scans I located the EMPEROR GOOSE, just a tad shy of adult plumage. However, it wasn't until the flock took to the air that I saw that there was also a single adult ROSS'S GOOSE. It stayed on its own among the Cacklers, did not associate with the Snows, and was easily hidden behind the undulating 5,000-headed Cackler-Superorganism when the flock was on the ground. The wetlands immediately to the west had various ducks, and at least 350 AMERICAN PIPITS were between the geese and the ponds, along with a few HORNED LARKS. I then drove Belts Road, Gap Rd., Priceboro Rd., etc., but could not find Jeff Fleischer's Northern Shrike or WT Kite. FINLEY NWR and VIC.: In early afternoon I located the NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD SW of Finley, in exactly the spot reported by others: in the hedgerow and on the lawn of the first house on Bruce Rd. N of Bellfountain Rd., #25401. Finley NWR had countless hundreds of wigeon, pintail, teal, and other ducks, as well as a few hundred TUNDRA SWANS on Cabell Marsh. I saw 2 drake EURASIAN WIGEON and one clear hybrid EURASIAN x AMERICAN WIGEON. A flock of 400-500 DUNLIN also fed in Cabell Marsh, hard to see from the overlook (the trail is closed) until they take flight. A RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was at the bridge across McFadden Marsh. A GREAT HORNED OWL hooted in the distance from Finley Rd. I saw no Short-eared Owls or WT Kites at the Prairie Overlook, but at dusk saw one BURROWING OWL along Llewellyn Road (after having missed it in the daylight earlier). 11 GREAT EGRETS, 5 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWKS, TUNDRA SWANS in several locations, 5 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS, 1 PURPLE FINCH, and 1 PINE SISKIN (scarce this winter, at least in my neck of the woods) were other highlights of the day. Jay Withgott Portland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/449c487a/attachment.html From LCain at astoria.k12.or.us Tue Jan 13 22:24:43 2009 From: LCain at astoria.k12.or.us (Lee Cain) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 22:24:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Humans as Superpredators - slightly off topic Message-ID: <515DDA9BF1AC1E42829D6CD2AA9FC40117B4EDB9@asdxcng.intra.astoria.k12.or.us> The following article I found very interesting -- it is nice to see a study supporting what many of us have long suspected. It is mostly about our accelerated selective effects on fish species through harvest methods and regulations, but I think there are some obvious connections to be made with bird harvest methods, habitat change, etc. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090112201123.htm Lee Cain Astoria High School 1001 W Marine Drive Astoria OR 97103 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/6aae6a11/attachment.html From jeffgill at teleport.com Tue Jan 13 23:09:44 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:09:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ------ Forwarded Message From: "TimBickler at aol.com" Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 14:26:18 EST To: "jeffgill at teleport.com" Subject: OBOL Pheasant Thread Lauten's is the correct view. Releases do not have anything to do with pheasant populations. Pheasant in the Valley were abundant in the 50's and 60's. I shot lots of them. None were anywhere close to a wildlife refuge or private hunting preserve--there weren't any of those back then. The hawks and great Horned Owls eat the released birds like popcorn. It's 2 things in the Valley--road side to roadside cultivation and grain isn't grown in the Valley anymore. as far as being a threatened species in Oregon. They are abundant in some years--dependent on spring weather--in good habitat in the Columbia Basin and the grain and alfalfa areas near Baker and Ontario. They are rarely anything other than difficult to bag, especially in the rough canyon-wheat field-CRP areas of the Basin, which are commonly acknowledged as being very difficult to hunt, with the advantages posed by physical features going solely to the birds. New year...new news. Be the first to know what is making headlines . ------ End of Forwarded Message -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090113/7e6fa6d6/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Wed Jan 14 05:25:37 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:25:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Nehalem Sewage Ponds Message-ID: The Rough-legged Hawk strikes me as the most noteworthy species on Laura Whittemore's very successful visit. I have only seen this species twice on the Oregon coast. Since I began monitoring Obol I have noticed most reports from the coast come in mid-October, when this species first arrives statewide. Evidently almost none of them linger despite plenty of good looking habitat. Lars Norgren From ra15136 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 14 07:09:55 2009 From: ra15136 at yahoo.com (Rebecca) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:09:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Wildlife Biologists Present Research at the Mazama Mountaineering Center - March 3 Message-ID: <330385.49591.qm@web84008.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Wildlife Biologists Present Research at the Mazama Mountaineering Center ? March 3, 2009 at 7pm ?? Where:????????? Mazama Mountaineering Center, 527 SE 43rd Avenue, ?????????????????????? Portland, OR 97215 (corner of SE Stark and SE 43rd Avenue) When:??? ???????Tuesday, March 3, 2009 at 7-9pm Cost:? ????????????Donations Welcome More Info:??? Mazamas Office:? 503-227-2345 ? Each year, the Mazamas awards competitive grants to researchers who wish to study conservation of the environment, exploration of the natural world and enhancing the enjoyment and safety of outdoor recreation.? In what we hope will be an annual event, the Research Committee is showcasing fascinating research that we are funding.? Join us at the MMC on Tuesday, March 3, 2009, at 7pm for the opportunity to listen to three speakers present their research on the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest, complete with beautiful slides.? ? John Deshler, graduate student in the Department of Biology at Portland State University has explored nest-site habitat selection and breeding behaviors of the Northern Pygmy owls in the Tualatin Mountains in Oregon for the past two years.? Fifteen pygmy-owl nests were found and habitat variables quantified.? During this presentation, video, sound and pictures will be used to explore the fascinating and rarely seen habits of Northern Pygmy-owls. ? Northern Pygmy-owls (Glaucidium gnoma) are tough, mysterious little birds of western North America.? Individual adults weigh-in at a mighty 2 to 3 ounces.? These diurnal owls are detected primarily in sloped, forest and woodland habitats up to the treeline.? Pygmy-owls have been on Oregon?s Sensitive Species List since 1997 and much remains unknown about this bird.? However, this has not prevented some from claiming that pygmy-owls would benefit from logging, and that they never occur in dense contiguous forests.? ? For the past seven years, Dr. Suzanne C. Griffin, from the University of Montana, has led a comprehensive study of the Olympic marmot, a species unique to the upper slopes of the Olympic Mountains. The Olympic marmot thrived for millennia in an environment in which few animals can survive, but in recent years this hardy creature has disappeared from many areas. Dr. Griffin will begin with a discussion of the ecology of alpine-dwelling marmots, followed by a synopsis of her research into the extent and causes of the Olympic marmot decline. Finally, she will attempt to look into the future of this high-country sentinel. ? Andrew Shirk, graduate student at Western Washington University, will give a talk about his research on the decline of mountain goats in the Cascades, how his study helps understand the dynamics of this decline, and ways we can use this knowledge to reverse the decline. ? ? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/129f081d/attachment.html From jeffgill at teleport.com Wed Jan 14 07:12:36 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:12:36 -0800 Subject: [obol] Nehalem Sewage Ponds In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I have birded Tillamook County in winter many times through the decades. The islands in Tillamook Bay near the mouth of the Wilson River often have a wintering Rough-legged Hawk. I have also often seen wintering Rough-legs in the Nehalem Meadows near the subject sewage ponds. While the species is generally scarce along the coast, it isn't unexpected. Numbers vary greatly from year to year, and it is absent or almost so some years in the limited coastal areas suitable for the species. Jeff Gilligan. On 1/14/09 5:25 AM, "Norgren Family" wrote: > The Rough-legged Hawk strikes > me as the most noteworthy species > on Laura Whittemore's very successful > visit. I have only seen this species > twice on the Oregon coast. Since I > began monitoring Obol I have noticed > most reports from the coast come in > mid-October, when this species first > arrives statewide. Evidently almost > none of them linger despite plenty > of good looking habitat. Lars Norgren > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From dcoggswell at hotmail.com Wed Jan 14 08:29:04 2009 From: dcoggswell at hotmail.com (Donald Coggswell) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 08:29:04 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tufted Duck Message-ID: I birded Columbia County yesterday, Tues. Jan. 13. Found nice male Tufted Duck with flock of Greater Scaup on Columbia R. in Woodson area about one mile upriver from Jones Beach. Rafts of diver ducks also include a few Lesser Scaup and a couple of Ring-necked Ducks. Four male Common Goldeneye were on the lower Clatskanie R. Also in the area a Rough-legged Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. Don _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/09ecea6f/attachment.html From jbw at oregoncoast.com Wed Jan 14 12:20:45 2009 From: jbw at oregoncoast.com (Barbara & John Woodhouse) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 12:20:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Rough legged Hawks and Bluebirds Message-ID: When we first moved to the Oregon coast in the '90s we used to see Rough Legged Haeks most winters. Goodspeed Rd used to be a good spot for them, in recent years they have been scarce. An addition to our raptors on yesterdays run, we were surprised to see 5 Western Bluebirds on Munson Creek Rd and 8 of them on Eckloff Rd. Eckloff Rd used to be a surefire place to find them but not in the last few years hopefully they have come back to stay. Another unusual find was a Black Phoebe at the Air Museum. We saw one there once before, this time we could here it clearly but could not spot it. Barbara & John Woodhouse Tillamook From chlaparl at wildblue.net Wed Jan 14 14:24:13 2009 From: chlaparl at wildblue.net (Jim Rogers) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:24:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Yellow-throated Warbler Message-ID: <6a6570ae0901141424x2985081ar40aca30ba626defa@mail.gmail.com> The Langlois YTWA was still flycatching this morning from the 3 blue silos on Floras Lake road. Russ Namitz and I first saw the bird when the landowner, Rick McKenzie pointed it out to us at 11:15. There were also several Palm Warblers on the scene. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/ffa0a030/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Wed Jan 14 15:12:55 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:12:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, A few comments on the remarks that were forwarded from Tim Bickler: > Releases do not have anything to do with pheasant populations. > Pheasant in the Valley were abundant in the 50's and > 60's. I shot lots of them. None were anywhere close to a wildlife > refuge or private hunting preserve .... I would agree that few released pheasants live long enough to breed, but the implied premise of this logic is doubtful: that private pheasant releases occurred only at refuges or private hunting reserves. Organizations such as 4-H clubs and Pheasants Forever have been releasing pheasants in ordinary farmland at least since the mid-1970s when I was involved raising and releasing them by the hundreds myself; I would guess they were doing this well before I got into the game. You can still buy Ring-necked Pheasant chicks in lots of 100, by mail order from hatcheries in the midwest ... not to mention bobwhites, Gambel's Quail, and even Scaled Quail! > grain isn't grown in the Valley anymore. This simply isn't true, if one looks around a bit. The past five years have seen a swing back to soft winter wheat, to the point where this accounts for (I'd estimate) about 1/5th of the acreage in southern Polk County. There is also a fair amount of sweet corn (plus a bit of silage corn), and some of the Christmas tree farms and dairies are planting sudan grass as a cover crop (more of a grain than a grass). I'm also seeing a few fields of oats locally, including some of the roads that I walked for ODFW's grassland birds survey last summer, where we mapped out the crops as we walked. The impression that one gets while driving through on major highways is not the same as you get when you actually map the crops on the ground -- or if you talk to farmers. Grass is still king in much of Linn Co. and the flatter parts of Lane, but even in those areas you see a swing to soft wheat, meadowfoam, and other non-seed-grass crops if you pay attention. The other big change going on (besides vineyards sprouting up everywhere you look) is a shift from grass-seed farming to large-scale nurseries. The latter type of agriculture is correlated with the most significant pesticide levels in streams -- that might be something else to think about. As for "fencerow-free" agriculture, that explanation may fit the southern part of the valley. However, anywhere north of Corvallis it's hard to find a quarter-section without a substantial fraction of brushrows and other permanent cover. You still don't see many pheasants. Despite surveying in some of the best remaining Western Meadowlark habitat on farmland in the valley, and finding other rare valley nesting species like Short-eared Owl and Northern Harrier, I didn't find any Ring-necked Pheasants. That makes me rather dubious about the argument that it's all about fencerows and crop type. Those things certainly play a role, but there are other factors. Something that no one has talked about is the current levels of raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and other meso-predators, which are pretty hard on fencerow-dependent, ground-nesting birds like pheasants. Again, ODFW's upland game folks will probably have the most useful data on pheasant populations and the impact of releases, if anyone cares to ask. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From larmcqueen at msn.com Wed Jan 14 15:40:10 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:40:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Wed morning, Eugene Message-ID: We birded LCC ponds (C. Goldeneye and Bufflehead), Stewart Pond and slough, and the very end of west 7th off Bertelsen Rd. Then a few of us checked the pond in the Lane Memorial Gardens (I think that's the name) on West 11th (Eurasian Wigeon). Canada/Cackling Goose - 200+ Mallard - 15 N. Shoveler - 45 Green-winged Teal - 100 American Wigeon - 30 Eurasian Wigeon - 1 Gadwall - 2 Ring-necked Duck - 1 Common Goldeneye - 1 at LCC Bufflehead - 2 at LCC Hooded Merganser - 5 D-c. Cormorant - 1 Redtailed Hawk - 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 (near the site of fresh Robin pluckings) G-w Gull - 3 Ring-billed Gull - 10 Herring Gull - 1 Ring-necked Pheasant - 1 Wilson's Snipe - 1 N. Flicker - 5 Belted Kingfisher - 1 Mourning Dove - 1 Robin - 8 Scrub Jay - 6 Am. Crow - 1 Bewick's Wren - 1 Starling - 20 Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1 Golden-crowed Sparrow - 3 Roger Robb, Sylvia Maulding, Dennis Arendt, Sarah Vasconcellos, Kit Larsen, Diane Horgan, Don Schrouder, Paul Sherrell, Tom Mickel, Fred Chancey, and Larry McQueen -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/b9acf679/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Wed Jan 14 16:02:51 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 16:02:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] sorry, Randy! Message-ID: My humblest apologies to Randy CAMPBELL, our community's much-valued Pyrrhuloxia Host and Peoria's Birder of the Century. In my Obol posting yesterday I inexplicably transformed his last name to "Moore," as in our Randy Moore of Horned Lark and Panama fame. My apologies to both Randys for the slip-up. I wish I could say that I also goofed and meant to type "Palm Tanager" instead of "Palm Warbler," but alas, I think the Campbell/Moore mixup was the only one. Thanks to Jamie Simmons for pointing this out. Jay Wxthrqyzgt, Portsmouth, OK > >Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 09:43:04 -0800 (PST) >From: "Jamie S." >Subject: Campbell not Moore >To: withgott at comcast.net > >Hi Jay, > >Thanks for posting your detialed trip report to our area. > >You noted the wrong Randy: Randy Campbell lives in Peoria; Randy >Moore lives in Corvallis and studies horned larks, etc. > >Jamie Simmons From WeberHome at att.net Wed Jan 14 17:13:36 2009 From: WeberHome at att.net (Cliff & Joanne Weber) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:13:36 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lunch With The Birds Message-ID: <20090115011409.AFACDA8239@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> OBOL, hello; Lunch with the birds was more like lunch by the sea as Jackson Bottom Wetlands is practically one huge lake in every direction. Not a large variety at noon: Canada Geese, Pied bill Grebe, Red Tail Hawks, a Northern Harrier, the two adult Bald Eagles, a huge number of Ring neck Ducks, Common Merganser, and some Great Blue Herons. One of the Herons caught a catfish; and took its sweet time swallowing the poor thing. While mouthing the fish, a Red Tail Hawk swooped the Heron; apparently trying to make it drop its prey but had no success. Eventually the Heron did swallow the catfish and it made a huge bulge in its neck like an anaconda swallowing a pig. Where? . .City of Hillsboro, at the intersection of SW Wood Street and Hwy 219. Thomas Bros Portland street guide page 593, square B6. Wild In The City, pages 159-160. Exploring The Tualatin River Basin, pages 19-20. Google satellite image: http://tinyurl.com/ypd665 ADA friendly? . .Yes; really easy wheeler and walker access to a roofed and hand-railed deck. Some bench-style seating inside the shelter, and more outside along a sidewalk. Off-street parking? . . Yes Restrooms? . .Good ones available a mile south at Jackson's spiffy education center. McDonald's is closer, at the corner of Baseline and 1st Ave. Gourmet Coffee? . .Nearest Starbucks is at the corner of Main and 1st Ave. Convenient parking is competitive. McDonald's is closer, and the parking is plentiful. Information about Lunch With The Birds-- and additional Jackson Bottom Wetlands resources --is available online at www.jacksonbottom.org Cliff & Joanne Weber Beaverton (Bethany area) From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 14 21:15:55 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:15:55 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Fw: Raptor Route - Lincoln Co. Yaquina-Siletz Message-ID: <339441.24155.qm@web50912.mail.re2.yahoo.com> --- On Mon, 1/12/09, lamberson.janet at epa.gov wrote: > From: lamberson.janet at epa.gov > Subject: Fw: Raptor Route - Lincoln Co. Yaquina-Siletz > To: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com > Date: Monday, January 12, 2009, 12:59 PM > Jeff - could you post this to OBOL for me? I can't send > to OBOL from > this computer. Thanks! > ____________________________________________________________________________ > > Chuck Philo and I completed the Yaquina-Siletz section of > the Lincoln > Co. Raptor Route on Saturday morning (Hwy 101 at Kernville, > up the > Siletz River to Toledo and Newport via Yaquina Bay road). > Weather was > cloudy in the morning with some foggy patches and partly > cloudy in the > afternoon. Wind was light from the southeast, and > temperatures ranged > from 33 to 44 F. Birding was slow in the morning along the > northern > part of the Siletz River, but picked up somewhat around the > towns of > Siletz and Toledo. We added a new section to the route > consisting of > 3.5 road miles into Hidden Valley, accessing wet pasture > lands southwest > of Toledo. In this new section (3.5 of our total of 72.6 > miles), we > found 4 of our 10 Red-tailed Hawks and 1 of our 4 American > Kestrels, so > we will be including this section in future counts. > > We found a total of : > > Red-Tailed Hawk 10 (1 was an intermediate to dark rufous > morph, ala > Sibley) > Bald Eagle 1 (adult) > White-tailed Kite 2 (north of Siletz) > American Kestrel 4 (3 north of Siletz and 1 in Hidden > Valley) > > ______________________ > > > Janet Lamberson > Siletz, OR From winkg at hevanet.com Wed Jan 14 22:04:35 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:04:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pittock, NW Portland, week ending 01/14/09 Message-ID: <20090115060437.158F9A8218@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Here is the summary of my morning dogwalks from NW Seblar Terrace to the Pittock Mansion for the week 01/08 to 01/14/09. Species in ALL CAPS were neither seen nor heard the previous week. Additional information about my dogwalk, including an archive of weekly summaries and a checklist, may be found at http://www.hevanet.com/winkg/dogwalkpage.html We did the walk 6 days this week. Species # days found (peak #, date) CACKLING GOOSE 2 (130, 1/9) CANADA GOOSE 1 (3, 1/13) SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 1 (1, 1/10) BAND-TAILED PIGEON 4 (3, 1/10) Mourning Dove 3 (4) Anna's Hummingbird 3 (4, 1/9) Red-breasted Sapsucker 1 (1, 1/9) Downy Woodpecker 3 (3, 1/13) Northern Flicker 3 (4, 1/9) PILEATED WOODPECKER 1 (1, 1/9) HUTTON'S VIREO 2 (1, 1/8 & 9) Steller's Jay 6 (5) Western Scrub-Jay 5 (1) American Crow 4 (10, 1/13) Black-capped Chickadee 6 (25, 1/13) Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3 (5) BUSHTIT 1 (5, 1/11) Red-breasted Nuthatch 5 (5, 1/9) Brown Creeper 4 (2) BEWICK'S WREN 1 (1, 1/13) Winter Wren 2 (3, 1/9) Golden-crowned Kinglet 4 (8, 1/9) RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET 1 (1, 1/11) American Robin 3 (6) Varied Thrush 3 (3, 1/11) European Starling 2 (1, 1/9 & 13) Spotted Towhee 5 (6) Fox Sparrow 1 (1, 1/12) Song Sparrow 6 (10) Dark-eyed Junco 6 (30) House Finch 6 (20, 1/9) Pine Siskin 2 (1, 1/11 & 12) In the neighborhood but not found on dogwalk: EVENING GROSBEAK Wink Gross Portland From hnehls6 at comcast.net Wed Jan 14 23:24:59 2009 From: hnehls6 at comcast.net (Harry Nehls) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:24:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] RBA: Portland, OR 1-15-09 Message-ID: - RBA * Oregon * Portland * January 15, 2009 * ORPO0901.15 - birds mentioned Emperor Goose Snow Goose Ross?s Goose Trumpeter Swan TUFTED DUCK LITTLE BLUE HERON YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER PINE WARBLER Palm Warbler PYRRHULOXIA Purple Finch - transcript hotline: Portland Oregon Audubon RBA (weekly) number: 503-292-6855 To report: Harry Nehls 503-233-3976 compiler: Harry Nehls coverage: entire state Hello, this is the Audubon Society of Portland Rare Bird Report. This report was made Thursday January 15. If you have anything to add call Harry Nehls at 503-233-3976. A PINE WARBLER is now being seen in LaGrande. It is being seen south of the hospital, south of B Avenue between Walnut and Oak Streets. On January 13 a YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER was seen along Flores Lake Loop Road near Langlois. Turn off Hwy 101 onto Flores Lake Loop and drive to three blue silos. The bird is being seen about the silos. On January 13 a TUFTED DUCK was on the Columbia River near Jones Beach west of Clatskanie. The Peoria PYRRHULOXIA is still being seen. A PALM WARBLER can be seen at the nearby boat ramp. The Siletz Bay LITTLE BLUE HERON continues to be seen. On January 10 an EMPEROR GOOSE, a ROSS?S GOOSE, and four SNOW GEESE were found among a large flock of geese east of Harrisburg. Thirty PURPLE FINCHES and seven TRUMPETER SWANS were seen January 9 on Sauvie Island. That?s it for this week. - end transcript -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/6da78c16/attachment.html From rdbayer at charter.net Wed Jan 14 23:25:57 2009 From: rdbayer at charter.net (Range Bayer) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:25:57 -0800 Subject: [obol] Newport: 8 Tundra Swans at Hatfield Marine Science Center Message-ID: <20090115022557.0YGM0.3105888.root@mp20> Hi, Near dusk on Jan. 14, Janet Lamberson noted that "a total of eight Tundra Swans, including one still in grey juvenal plumage, glided in and settled just off the HMSC Nature Trail in the darkening post-sunset evening. ... Before it was too dark to see, I was able to see with the scope that they had some yellow in the lores, and the eye was sort of nearly separate from the black area (base of the bill) on the face, ala Tundra, not Trumpeter. It was nice to see them! Maybe they will stay for the night." Range Bayer, Newport From campbell at peak.org Wed Jan 14 23:39:14 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 23:39:14 -0800 Subject: [obol] sorry, Randy! Message-ID: <1BB6E1BC3D5C4AF891B17B4FF0E3FC42@maryPC> No harm done, Jay. Randy Moore is widely described as intelligent, successful, handsome, and rich, and yet he's still more remarkable for his personal modesty. It's not surprising that someone might confuse the two of us. The one notable difference between us is that Randy Moore actually knows something about birds, while my success is due entirely to dumb luck and wild guessing. Randy Campbell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090114/ec01fbbe/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 07:58:11 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 07:58:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] sorry, Randy! In-Reply-To: <1BB6E1BC3D5C4AF891B17B4FF0E3FC42@maryPC> References: <1BB6E1BC3D5C4AF891B17B4FF0E3FC42@maryPC> Message-ID: I'll take luck over knowledge anytime! : ) Thanks, Randy. At 11:39 PM -0800 1/14/09, M & R Campbell wrote: >No harm done, Jay. Randy Moore is widely described as intelligent, >successful, handsome, and rich, and yet he's still more remarkable >for his personal modesty. It's not surprising that someone might >confuse the two of us. The one notable difference between us is >that Randy Moore actually knows something about birds, while my >success is due entirely to dumb luck and wild guessing. > > >Randy Campbell > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/0258e3d6/attachment.html From gneavoll at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 08:32:27 2009 From: gneavoll at comcast.net (gneavoll at comcast.net) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:32:27 +0000 Subject: [obol] Birds of Ridgefield NWR Message-ID: <011520091632.8351.496F651B0000E59F0000209F2216554886040401900E0A0209@comcast.net> GREAT BLUE HERONS (2) engaged in nuptial display at Ridgefield Wednesday a.m. (1/14/09). Two birds, viewed from Rest Lake blind, would face each other with bills pointed skyward, long neck plumes shaking, their wings spread wide and taking long, measured steps. This slow-motion vignette continued for some minutes . A gorgeous, well-marked HARLAN'S HAWK allowed close views along road by Marker #13, and a beautiful ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK shortly after, near Marker #14. Pair of AMERICAN KESTRELS displaying mating behavior near entrance station. One group of TUNDRA SWANS near n. end of Rest Lake numbered 80 birds; other large groups throughout refuge. Dense flocks of CACKLING GEESE (minima race) in several places, one such flock extending across road in vicinity of Schwartz Lake. NORTHERN PINTAILS predominated among scattered numbers of MALLARD, GADWALL, AMERICAN WIGEON, NORTHERN SHOVELER, CINNAMON TEAL (pair), RING-NECKED DUCK, BUFFLEHEAD, COMMON MERGANSER (1 m., 4 f.), HOODED MERGANSER, AMERICAN COOT. Highlight of morning (besides heron activity) a MINK swimming in channel along road through Oregon Ash woodland w. of blind, sometimes only its head appearing. Other times it would run along half-submerged branches, then poke its head in low-lying depressions and gnarled trunks along way. George Neavoll S.W. Portland From kiss at cot.net Thu Jan 15 08:47:57 2009 From: kiss at cot.net (Charlotte Ann Kisling) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:47:57 -0800 Subject: [obol] Please add Message-ID: <496F68BD.2030502@cot.net> Hi, Please add me to the OBOL mailing list. Thank you. Charlotte Ann Kisling From SJJag at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 09:23:10 2009 From: SJJag at comcast.net (SJJag at comcast.net) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:23:10 +0000 Subject: [obol] Obolites in the News (local boy makes good) Message-ID: <011520091723.14307.496F70FE000D5183000037E32215586394090EB6B6AC@comcast.net> Noah Strycker is featured on the front page of the section "How We Live" in todays Oregonian. There is a nice article with pics of his Antartica adventure, brief history of Noah the birder and quotes from other Oregon Birders Dan Heyerly and Doug Robinson. Noah's blog of these Antartic experiences has been mentioned by Alan C. and perhaps others. The front of the Metro section today talks about this year's Brown Pelican die off. That is a lot of bird news in one day in the state's largest newspaper! Steve Jaggers Milwaukie, Or. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/5aea384e/attachment.html From jeffgill at teleport.com Thu Jan 15 09:36:26 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:36:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pine Warbler - La Grande - yes. Message-ID: After having not seen it late yesterday, today it was in the pines near the intersection of Meadow and Sunset at about 9:00 AM. I first detected it by calls that it was making in a non-native pine near that intersection. It eventually flew up hill a bit into a dense Ponderosa in a back yard. There is remained for about five minutes, occasionally making itself visible, but usually it was difficult to see. It eventually flew toward the northeast - in the general direction of the school, but I didn't see where it landed. Beautiful weather here. Dress warmly for the morning though. Yesterday afternoon there was dense fog from about Blalock Canyon to east of Pendleton. Once I got up the mountains I was soon out of the fog, and the temperature raised from 32 to as high as 48. The hilly area of town where the Pine Warbler is was above any fog - even at dawn. Jeff Gilligan (posting from La Grande) From gnorgren at earthlink.net Thu Jan 15 10:10:00 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:10:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] more on Pheasants Message-ID: <8c5e82bd37b91cad14d8250c1ef8598b@earthlink.net> Joel Geier points out that areas with good fencerows have no more pheasants than large, sterile grass seed farms. This has been my observation as well. How many pheasants does one encounter at Finley or Baskett Slough nowadays? There's plenty of good habitat but precious few pheasants. The meso-predator theory was popular in newspaper columns in the early seventies. Possums, house cats facilitated by suburban sprawl...none of them help the pheasants, but the biggest concentration I have seen of pheasants in the past year was near Croeni Ponds where I would expect above average numbers of possums, coons, and cats given its location on the edge of Hillsboro. California Quail are another introduced galliforme (not native north of Rogue Valley) that seems to be doing OK in western Washington County. They may well have decreased from past numbers, but I see them often and without dedicated effort around here. I would think they too would be vulnerable to meso-predators and habitat loss. Joel's comment on pesticide runoff from nurseries is very significant. When a fencerow disappears many people notice, while chemicals in the ditch are invisible. My only formal contact with the subject was a 400 level course at PSU in 1984 "Enviromental Toxicology". There I learned that many insecticides used to replace DDT, Aldrin, Dieldrin, etc had the virtue of not bio-accumulating, but they were acutely toxic to vertebrates. I have often wondered what impact these might be having on Meadowlark nestlings. Likewise, pheasant chicks are presumably eating insects and other invertebrates rather than seeds. I'm not sure how much insecticide is typically used in grass seed and grain fields. Not a whole lot I would guess. There is also the question of nitrates accumulating in the enviroment. Very few chemical fertilizers were used in the Willamette Valley prior to 1950, while the amount since has been enormous. This is something the small grain industry relies on very heavily. This Sunday I was discussing bacon with a chef. My oldest son had expressed misgivings about the nitrates in cured bacon. The chef told me that the typical baked potato puts more nitrates in the diner's body than a serving of bacon, as a result of agricultural residues. I would expect the impact of a relatively little amount of such chemicals on pheasant or meadowlark nestlings to be much greater than on an adult human. Lars Norgren From danpvdb at yahoo.com Thu Jan 15 10:57:48 2009 From: danpvdb at yahoo.com (Dan van den Broek) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:57:48 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] RFI Portland Bird Phenology Message-ID: <803650.27017.qm@web55306.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Hi All I am searching for a phenology of Portland area birds. There is a great one for the Corvallis area. That one is available here http://www.audubon.corvallis.or.us/migrants.shtml Somewhere I saw a more recent update in 2006. I thought I've seen phenologies for Washington Co. and Multnomah Co. Anybody have those? Thanks Dan van den Broek -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/3dd63161/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Thu Jan 15 11:03:06 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:03:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] RFI Portland Bird Phenology In-Reply-To: <803650.27017.qm@web55306.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Adrian and Christopher Hinkle did one recently for the Handbook of Oregon Birds that Hendrik and I are working on. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > From: Dan van den Broek > Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:57:48 -0800 (PST) > To: > Subject: [obol] RFI Portland Bird Phenology > > Hi All > > I am searching for a phenology of Portland area birds. There is a great one > for the Corvallis area. That one is available here > http://www.audubon.corvallis.or.us/migrants.shtml Somewhere I saw a more > recent update in 2006. > > I thought I've seen phenologies for Washington Co. and Multnomah Co. Anybody > have those? > > Thanks > Dan van den Broek > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu Thu Jan 15 11:55:03 2009 From: douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu (Douglas Robinson) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:55:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan Message-ID: I found a Henslow's Sparrow this morning in the field now famous for its Sedge Wren at EE Wilson, north of Corvallis, Benton County. The bird was in a small patch of broad-leaved grasses in the center of the field. To find the location, cut and paste the link below, which should be centered on the location. Park at one of the public parking areas along Camp Adair Road and walk north to a shed about 1.5 miles from Camp Adair Road. About 225-250 yards east of the shed, I tied a red and white flagging tape to a thistle. The bird was first flushed from a grassy patch 40-50 yards south of the flag. It flew north into a small briar patch just east of the flagging tape. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camp+Adair+Road, +oregon&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715697,-123.210297&spn=0.03507,0.062313&z=14 The bird was very secretive. It flushed under foot and flew about 4 feet to a patch of grass, then sat partly in view as close as 8 feet from me. I really only got clear looks at the back, nape, and upper edges of wings when it was perched there. As I maneuvered to get looks at the rest of the bird, it flew to the briar patch. It had the typical jerky flight pattern of Henslow's Sparrow. The habitat is reasonable for this bird, but not great. The grass cover is not high like it often is in other places (Southeast USA) where these birds winter. The best patches, like the one the bird was in, are small and spread out in this field. To read more about the winter habitat in the Southeast, check this paper out: http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003. pdf W. Douglas Robinson -- From dhaupt at tulelake.k12.ca.us Thu Jan 15 12:30:52 2009 From: dhaupt at tulelake.k12.ca.us (Dave Haupt) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:30:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <496F2C7C0200006700008FE0@mail.tulelake.k12.ca.us> Henslow's Sparrow would be phenomenal in the West as a migrant or wintering species. Are there existing records for this bird in Oregon? I don't even think coastal California (which gets many fantastic records) has many or any records of this bird. Did you get an overall structural view including the flattened head shape like Grasshopper Sparrow, and the short spiky tail? The reason I ask this is one late Fall in Monterey, CA I called in a "Henslow's Sparrow" based on mainly plumage coloration and general pattern. It later turned out when I refound it with others to be a tricky little Savannah Sparrow, which can lead to false IDs, especially in poor light. Just a word a caution. Dave Haupt Klamath Falls >>> Douglas Robinson 01/15/09 11:55 AM >>> I found a Henslow's Sparrow this morning in the field now famous for its Sedge Wren at EE Wilson, north of Corvallis, Benton County. The bird was in a small patch of broad-leaved grasses in the center of the field. To find the location, cut and paste the link below, which should be centered on the location. Park at one of the public parking areas along Camp Adair Road and walk north to a shed about 1.5 miles from Camp Adair Road. About 225-250 yards east of the shed, I tied a red and white flagging tape to a thistle. The bird was first flushed from a grassy patch 40-50 yards south of the flag. It flew north into a small briar patch just east of the flagging tape. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camp+Adair+Road, +oregon&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715697,-123.210297&spn=0.03507,0.062313&z=14 The bird was very secretive. It flushed under foot and flew about 4 feet to a patch of grass, then sat partly in view as close as 8 feet from me. I really only got clear looks at the back, nape, and upper edges of wings when it was perched there. As I maneuvered to get looks at the rest of the bird, it flew to the briar patch. It had the typical jerky flight pattern of Henslow's Sparrow. The habitat is reasonable for this bird, but not great. The grass cover is not high like it often is in other places (Southeast USA) where these birds winter. The best patches, like the one the bird was in, are small and spread out in this field. To read more about the winter habitat in the Southeast, check this paper out: http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003. pdf W. Douglas Robinson -- _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From joellevin at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 12:52:10 2009 From: joellevin at comcast.net (Joel Levin) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:52:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] West coast Brown Pelican die-off Message-ID: <496FA1FA.4000004@comcast.net> From today's NY Times: More than 400 endangered California brown pelicans have been found dead or dying since late December, with disoriented and starving birds turning up on highways, in backyards, and even in the Arizona desert. Now, though, after an investigation with all manner of sinister theories ? from bird flu to poisoning by lingering fire retardant used to fight the region?s wildfires ? California fish and game officials say they are closing in on a more usual suspect: Mother Nature. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/16/us/16pelicans.html From hhactitis at yahoo.com Thu Jan 15 13:50:40 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 13:50:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] [birding] Henslow's Sparrow - ride needed! In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <139457.9451.qm@web37003.mail.mud.yahoo.com> WOW - that would be an Oregon first and an awesome bird for Benton County! It would be great to get a detailed description of the bird (I assume no pictures were taken?). If anyone is going to chase this mega-rarity, I'd appreciate a ride! Email or call me at 541-738-2688. Thanks Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com --- On Thu, 1/15/09, Douglas Robinson wrote: From: Douglas Robinson Subject: [birding] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan To: "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" , "Midvalley Birding" Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009, 11:55 AM I found a Henslow's Sparrow this morning in the field now famous for its Sedge Wren at EE Wilson, north of Corvallis, Benton County. The bird was in a small patch of broad-leaved grasses in the center of the field. To find the location, cut and paste the link below, which should be centered on the location. Park at one of the public parking areas along Camp Adair Road and walk north to a shed about 1.5 miles from Camp Adair Road. About 225-250 yards east of the shed, I tied a red and white flagging tape to a thistle. The bird was first flushed from a grassy patch 40-50 yards south of the flag. It flew north into a small briar patch just east of the flagging tape. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camp+Adair+Road, +oregon&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715697,-123.210297&spn=0.03507,0.062313&z=14 The bird was very secretive. It flushed under foot and flew about 4 feet to a patch of grass, then sat partly in view as close as 8 feet from me. I really only got clear looks at the back, nape, and upper edges of wings when it was perched there. As I maneuvered to get looks at the rest of the bird, it flew to the briar patch. It had the typical jerky flight pattern of Henslow's Sparrow. The habitat is reasonable for this bird, but not great. The grass cover is not high like it often is in other places (Southeast USA) where these birds winter. The best patches, like the one the bird was in, are small and spread out in this field. To read more about the winter habitat in the Southeast, check this paper out: http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003. pdf W. Douglas Robinson -- _______________________________________________ list mailing list list at midvalleybirding.org http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/481e08a7/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 15 14:01:35 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:01:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] PHOTOS: Marshland Tufted Duck Message-ID: <496FB23F.5040804@pacifier.com> I went out to Marshland today to get photos of the TUFTED DUCK reported from there yesterday. I was reported by Donald Coggswell as being in the Woodson area, but it's actually along River Front Rd in Marshland. I saw it 1.25 miles east of the junction with Midland District Rd. http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ Also among the interesting things in the area were a single a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (no photo), a TRUMPETER SWAN and a possible CLARK'S GREBE... -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From acontrer at mindspring.com Thu Jan 15 14:17:18 2009 From: acontrer at mindspring.com (Alan Contreras) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:17:18 -0500 (EST) Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan Message-ID: <28349204.1232057838465.JavaMail.root@elwamui-little.atl.sa.earthlink.net> I think this is a first record west of the Rockies, not sure. -----Original Message----- >From: Dave Haupt >Sent: Jan 15, 2009 3:30 PM >To: Douglas Robinson >Cc: OBOL >Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan > >Henslow's Sparrow would be phenomenal in the West as a migrant or >wintering species. Are there existing records for this bird in Oregon? >I don't even think coastal California (which gets many fantastic >records) has many or any records of this bird. Did you get an overall >structural view including the flattened head shape like Grasshopper >Sparrow, and the short spiky tail? The reason I ask this is one late >Fall in Monterey, CA I called in a "Henslow's Sparrow" based on mainly >plumage coloration and general pattern. It later turned out when I >refound it with others to be a tricky little Savannah Sparrow, which can >lead to false IDs, especially in poor light. Just a word a caution. > >Dave Haupt >Klamath Falls > >>>> Douglas Robinson 01/15/09 11:55 >AM >>> >I found a Henslow's Sparrow this morning in the field now famous for >its >Sedge Wren at EE Wilson, north of Corvallis, Benton County. The bird >was in >a small patch of broad-leaved grasses in the center of the field. > >To find the location, cut and paste the link below, which should be >centered >on the location. Park at one of the public parking areas along Camp >Adair >Road and walk north to a shed about 1.5 miles from Camp Adair Road. >About >225-250 yards east of the shed, I tied a red and white flagging tape to >a >thistle. The bird was first flushed from a grassy patch 40-50 yards >south of >the flag. It flew north into a small briar patch just east of the >flagging >tape. > >http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camp+Adair+Road, >+oregon&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715697,-123.210297&spn=0.03507,0.062313&z=14 > >The bird was very secretive. It flushed under foot and flew about 4 >feet to >a patch of grass, then sat partly in view as close as 8 feet from me. >I >really only got clear looks at the back, nape, and upper edges of wings >when >it was perched there. As I maneuvered to get looks at the rest of the >bird, >it flew to the briar patch. It had the typical jerky flight pattern of >Henslow's Sparrow. > >The habitat is reasonable for this bird, but not great. The grass cover >is >not high like it often is in other places (Southeast USA) where these >birds >winter. The best patches, like the one the bird was in, are small and >spread >out in this field. > >To read more about the winter habitat in the Southeast, check this >paper >out: > >http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003. >pdf > > >W. Douglas Robinson > > >-- > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon From dpvroman at budget.net Thu Jan 15 14:43:40 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 14:43:40 -0800 Subject: [obol] 2nd N. Grants Pass raptor survey Message-ID: <75563A53E53F4D6EB8266841B1411B60@Warbler> Today (01-15-09) the 2nd North Grants Pass Raptor count was accomplished. Time: 3.25 hrs; miles driven: 38.2; weather: mid-level fog/clouds to partly cloudy Species observed: Red-tailed Hawk - 20 American Kestrel - 4 Red-shouldered Hawk - 4 White-tailed Kite - 3 Merlin - 1 Peregrine Falcon - 1 Cooper's Hawk - 2 Seen were 2 different pairs of Red-tails perched next to each others. One interesting observation was a Red-tail that dove on a Great Blue Heron standing in a field. Not sure what the Hawk had in mind; Heron ducked. Flock of around 50 AMERICAN PIPITS in a field along the route (Gunnell Rd). One male EURASIAN WIGEON in a large flock of Americans along Lower River Rd. One Great Blue Heron inching its way up river in the direction of a fellow fishing along the Rogue...think I heard it say, "Do you want that Sucker fellow?" Dennis (north of Grants Pass) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/d90bae37/attachment.html From mklittletree at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 16:27:03 2009 From: mklittletree at comcast.net (michel Kleinbaum) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:27:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fw: Ankeny swallows Message-ID: <61420B05F04A48028BF294C0377874B5@michel1927> ----- Original Message ----- From: "michel Kleinbaum" To: "OBOL" Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:20 PM Subject: Ankeny swallows > Mid-day today 4 Tree Swallows were hawking over Eagle Marsh but were not > seen again one and a half hour later. > > Michel Kleinbaum S. Salem > From celata at pacifier.com Thu Jan 15 16:37:24 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:37:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tufted Duck Google map Message-ID: <496FD6C4.8040304@pacifier.com> He's a Google Map to the spot where I found the TUFTED DUCK today http://tinyurl.com/86qlet And a link to more photos from the set I took of the bird http://www.flickr.com/photos/24226259 at N06/sets/72157612570111253/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From richarmstrong at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 17:31:54 2009 From: richarmstrong at comcast.net (rich armstrong) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:31:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] no Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: 1.nanette & i could not make it out to e e wilson until 3, but we walked doug's field up & back, round & round, over & through for 100 minutes, on all sides of his red& white tape. we tromped through every patch of reasonable grass as best we could. 2. we flushed 3 snipe, 3 mourning doves, 2 garter snakes, and 1 sparrow. 3. the sparrow was on south side of the area (near where there is a tree with 4 trunks) and it was near the edge and darted into the brambles and we never saw it again. we did cover that area a few more times on all sides. 4. all i can tell you is it was a small sparrow, not a golden-crowned or fox or song. it could have been savanah's or lincoln's or the rare one - no clue. 5. anyway, it is a nice walk and there are red-tails, cooper's, & sharp-shinned hawks as well as all the big sparrows & towhees in the brambles. 6. we hope someone has better luck than we did - i don't think we can go tomorrow. Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Douglas Robinson" To: ; "Midvalley Birding" Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 11:55 AM Subject: [birding] Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson, Benton County, 15 Jan >I found a Henslow's Sparrow this morning in the field now famous for its > Sedge Wren at EE Wilson, north of Corvallis, Benton County. The bird was > in > a small patch of broad-leaved grasses in the center of the field. > > To find the location, cut and paste the link below, which should be > centered > on the location. Park at one of the public parking areas along Camp Adair > Road and walk north to a shed about 1.5 miles from Camp Adair Road. About > 225-250 yards east of the shed, I tied a red and white flagging tape to a > thistle. The bird was first flushed from a grassy patch 40-50 yards south > of > the flag. It flew north into a small briar patch just east of the flagging > tape. > > http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Camp+Adair+Road, > +oregon&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715697,-123.210297&spn=0.03507,0.062313&z=14 > > The bird was very secretive. It flushed under foot and flew about 4 feet > to > a patch of grass, then sat partly in view as close as 8 feet from me. I > really only got clear looks at the back, nape, and upper edges of wings > when > it was perched there. As I maneuvered to get looks at the rest of the > bird, > it flew to the briar patch. It had the typical jerky flight pattern of > Henslow's Sparrow. > > The habitat is reasonable for this bird, but not great. The grass cover is > not high like it often is in other places (Southeast USA) where these > birds > winter. The best patches, like the one the bird was in, are small and > spread > out in this field. > > To read more about the winter habitat in the Southeast, check this paper > out: > > http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003. > pdf > > > W. Douglas Robinson > > > -- > > > _______________________________________________ > list mailing list > list at midvalleybirding.org > http://midvalleybirding.org/mailman/listinfo/list > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/ From deweysage at verizon.net Thu Jan 15 18:11:18 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:11:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> Joel Geier wrote: > Something that no one has talked about is the current levels of > raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and other meso-predators, which are pretty > hard on fencerow-dependent, ground-nesting birds like pheasants. > > I'm not sure I can agree with this comment. Coons, coyotes, opossums, cats, etc etc etc are common in Wisconsin, and other Great Plains states that have gobs and gobs of pheasants. I find it hard to believe that these predators are really increasing that much that they would be the cause of pheasants being unable to survive well in Oregon. Furthermore, are raccoon and opossum numbers really that much higher than in the 70's or 80's? Be interesting to see this data. I'm not sure what is the cause of poor pheasant numbers, and I'm sure none of us have a real answer (only some study would potentially get at that). I just have my doubts that these predators, none of which are really big bird predators, would have that much of an impact. All the predators mentions (except cats) are very opportunistic predators, and there is way more food resources out there than pheasants. Yes, they may prey fairly heavily on eggs and even chicks, but the number of nests and chicks on the landscape compared to say voles and mice is probably pretty low. Another point, while sweet corn and a few other grains may be grown in the Valley, if you compare the actual number of acres of these crops to the number of acres of these crops in say South Dakota, or Wisconsin, for instance, I bet the number of acres is way less than those Great Plains states, which have gobs of pheasants. So, it may be simply that in the Great Plains, the pheasants just have that much more resources, high quality resources, to exploit, thus resulting in better (particularly overwinter) survival rates. And while habitat lose may be a factor, maybe there never was much good habitat to begin with........ Cheers Dave Lauten From deweysage at verizon.net Thu Jan 15 18:22:13 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:22:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: <496FEF55.9060603@verizon.net> Hopefully this bird can be refound and photo'd. Just wanted to comment that Henslow's is a fairly short distance migrant, as I recall. They do not tend to breed very far north, and they do not winter very far south. If this bird can be confirmed, that would be an incredible dispersal/migrant movement for this species! And over tall mountains, something this species probably has never experienced before. Thanks to Doug for posting this bird! This is the kind of bird that could have gone unreported cause it seems so outlandish, yet without Doug's post, no one would know to go try and have a look. Cheers Dave Lauten From dbarendt at comcast.net Thu Jan 15 18:25:07 2009 From: dbarendt at comcast.net (Dennis Arendt) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:25:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Old Murrelets yes, Little Blue no Message-ID: <51A7EE5358664CAEB0717189270149F6@DennisArendt> George Grier and I went to the coast today. We searched for the Little Blue Heron near Driftcreek without finding it. We did find some nice seabirds on a beautiful day at the coast, calm waters, bright sun, no wind. We found four ANCIENT MURRELETS at Boiler Bay, with a MARBLED MURRELET and a few juvenile PIGEON GIUILLEMOTS. Three HARLEQUIN DUCKS were with Scoters off Tokatee-Skoochmann lookout. Also several RED-THROATED LOONS and a few alcids that were probably Ancient Murrelets, but the light was getting bad. We also had a EURASIAN WIGEON in a flooded farm pond north of highway 34, west of Toledo, between mileposts 3 and 4. It was a great day to be birding at the coast. Dennis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090115/6cd69d3a/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Thu Jan 15 18:42:46 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:42:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> References: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> Message-ID: <1232073766.3628.60.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hey Dave & All, Well, to start off with, I'm not overly concerned about the putative impending disappearance of Ring-necked Pheasants from our state list. Easy come, easy go. On the scale of conservation priorities from 1 to 10, I would rate this a minus 20. ODFW can always raise hatchery birds for people to shoot, if that's what they want to pay money for (the money does arguably produce some benefits for native species). If the pheasants die off between shooting seasons, it can't hurt native flora/fauna and might even be a plus. I base my sense of the raccoon population on the number that show up flattened on Hwy 99W, and the number that I've come face-to-face with while they're trolling along hedgerows among the fields. I definitely have seen far more in this part of Oregon than I ever ran across in my first 18 years, wandering the wheat, corn & soybean country of Minnesota. Personally I'd like to see a few more wolves & cougars to keep their numbers down, but that's just a personal preference. Virginia opossums, according to my understanding, only showed up in Oregon with the advent of the interstate highways system in the 1950s, so it's a fair presumption that they've been increasing since the 1950s and 1960s. As for grain growing, according to Oregon Department of Agriculture estimates, the amount of wheat planted in the Willamette Valley last year was 120,000 acres. That's nearly 200 square miles of wheat, in a valley with an agricultural area that's only about 150 miles long and only a few tens of miles wide in most places, especially if you take out the urban/suburban areas. In Minnesota when I was growing up & releasing pheasants by the score, the common wisdom was that the maximum sustained snow depth during winter was the main control on pheasant survival rates (and the main reason why restocked bobwhites almost never made it through the winter). That isn't much of a factor here, but I can guarantee that western Oregon has more hedgerows per square mile than anything that you'll find in the grain belt states (not to diss Wisconsin, but that's the dairy belt, and considerably more wooded than most of Minnesota or the Dakotas, let alone Iowa, Nebraska, etc.). So I think we have to look for some other factors. I'm not claiming any particular factor, just arguing against a rush to embrace any single explanation. Cheers & happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area, home of freaky grassland birds On Thu, 2009-01-15 at 18:11 -0800, DJ Lauten and KACastelein wrote: > Joel Geier wrote: > > Something that no one has talked about is the current levels of > > raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and other meso-predators, which are pretty > > hard on fencerow-dependent, ground-nesting birds like pheasants. > > > > > I'm not sure I can agree with this comment. Coons, coyotes, opossums, > cats, etc etc etc are common in Wisconsin, and other Great Plains states > that have gobs and gobs of pheasants. I find it hard to believe that > these predators are really increasing that much that they would be the > cause of pheasants being unable to survive well in Oregon. Furthermore, > are raccoon and opossum numbers really that much higher than in the 70's > or 80's? Be interesting to see this data. I'm not sure what is the > cause of poor pheasant numbers, and I'm sure none of us have a real > answer (only some study would potentially get at that). I just have my > doubts that these predators, none of which are really big bird > predators, would have that much of an impact. All the predators > mentions (except cats) are very opportunistic predators, and there is > way more food resources out there than pheasants. Yes, they may prey > fairly heavily on eggs and even chicks, but the number of nests and > chicks on the landscape compared to say voles and mice is probably > pretty low. Another point, while sweet corn and a few other grains may > be grown in the Valley, if you compare the actual number of acres of > these crops to the number of acres of these crops in say South Dakota, > or Wisconsin, for instance, I bet the number of acres is way less than > those Great Plains states, which have gobs of pheasants. So, it may be > simply that in the Great Plains, the pheasants just have that much more > resources, high quality resources, to exploit, thus resulting in better > (particularly overwinter) survival rates. > > And while habitat lose may be a factor, maybe there never was much good > habitat to begin with........ > > Cheers > Dave Lauten > From heinjv at dcwisp.net Thu Jan 15 19:54:10 2009 From: heinjv at dcwisp.net (Jim & Vikki Hein) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:54:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Yellow-throated Warbler Message-ID: <5686BE80290B4D538BD2DE4946BF89AE@MAIN> Obol, My wife and I decided to escape the fog this morning from Roseburg. We looked for sun and lunch in Bandon and found both along with the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER that was reported on the Floras Lake road at Langlois. It was exactly where reported on the east silo. The EMPEROR GOOSE was also in Bandon across the road from the small lake at the south jetty. A wonderful day on the Oregon coast. Jim Hein From joel.geier at peak.org Thu Jan 15 21:37:55 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:37:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> References: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> Message-ID: <1232084275.3525.19.camel@localhost.localdomain> P.S. I'm not sure if I made my point clearly in the foregoing posting. Let's try again. When you have a high population of mesopredators, *and* you have certain species that are reliant on field borders for nesting, *and* those mesopredators have developed strategies of searching for nests along field borders, then it will be very hard for those nests to succeed. In the years that I've spent walking grass/mint/corn stubble fields in the mid-Willamette Valley, one very clear pattern is that mesopredator tracks -- raccoons and coyotes in particular, and foxes where they're around -- are concentrated along field borders, as veritable highways. It's so obvious that it's honestly never occurred to me to comment on it. But check it out sometime. You may see coyotes mousing in the middle of the fields, but they use field borders as regular trails -- and woe to any ground-nesting bird that tries to nest there, even if the border is 25 ft wide. One difference between Oregon and the upper Midwest is that, in the latter, most farmsteads have extensive shelter belts with grassy medians -- the kind that the Gurney's catalog used to recommend. Those are the places where I found the most nesting gamebirds (pheasants and Hungarian/gray partridges) in my youth, not in the fencerows or in the fields. If anyone in western Oregon were to plant a similar shelterbelt, it would soon be overtaken by thickets of Armenian blackberries, which provide some amazing denning habitat for the mesopredators we're speaking of. The wild black raspberries in the Midwest just don't compare with Oregon blackberries, in that regard, though I would still rather have wild raspberries to pick. Anyway, I hear rumor that there's a possible Henslow's Sparrow to look for in my neighborhood, so I plan to devote any spare time to that tomorrow, rather than this thread. Not to be confused with the Slow Hen's Sparrow in our back yard (the one that forages next to our slower hen, not the fast hen's sparrow). Cheers, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From deweysage at verizon.net Thu Jan 15 23:51:36 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:51:36 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: <1232073766.3628.60.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> <1232073766.3628.60.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <49703C88.5010007@verizon.net> Joel Geier wrote: > Hey Dave & All, > > Well, to start off with, I'm not overly concerned about the putative > impending disappearance of Ring-necked Pheasants from our state list. > Easy come, easy go. On the scale of conservation priorities from 1 to > 10, I would rate this a minus 20. ODFW can always raise hatchery birds > for people to shoot, if that's what they want to pay money for (the > money does arguably produce some benefits for native species). If the > pheasants die off between shooting seasons, it can't hurt native > flora/fauna and might even be a plus. > Amen! Joel wrote: "One difference between Oregon and the upper Midwest is that, in the latter, most farmsteads have extensive shelter belts with grassy medians -- the kind that the Gurney's catalog used to recommend. Those are the places where I found the most nesting gamebirds (pheasants and Hungarian/gray partridges) in my youth, not in the fencerows or in the fields. If anyone in western Oregon were to plant a similar shelterbelt, it would soon be overtaken by thickets of Armenian blackberries, which provide some amazing denning habitat for the mesopredators we're speaking of. The wild black raspberries in the Midwest just don't compare with Oregon blackberries, in that regard, though I would still rather have wild raspberries to pick." I wrote: "And while habitat lose may be a factor, maybe there never was much good > habitat to begin with........" Uh, same thing, no? Just my point. Different habitat. Darrel wrote: "One, it doesn't seem reasonable that if there never was good habitat that pheasants would have done better decades ago than they are doing now. And the same thing holds true for Bobwhite, which were abundant in the valley at the same time the pheasants were at their peak." Were they really doing better decades ago? I'm not a pheasant expert, but just because they might have been more numerous decades ago doesn't mean that they were doing better. It could mean more were released. It could mean that it took a while for the predators to adjust to a new prey source. Darrel wrote: "Two, the removal of hedgerows and similar habitats would consolidate nesting attempts of gallinaceous birds into smaller areas, thus making them more vulnerable to predators. It would be the same principle as that which has been documented among nesting ducks in the prairie provinces of Canada." But Joel wrote: "That isn't much of a factor here, but I can guarantee that western Oregon has more hedgerows per square mile than anything that you'll find in the grain belt states" So which is true? Do we or don't we have "more" hedgerow? Darrel wrote: "Three, it might be possible that a higher number of acres of grain and (especially) corn grown in the midwest would provide predators (especially raccoons) with a lot of food which would make predation on gamebirds less of a necessity or temptation. Since these predators are, as you say, opportunistic, this would seem a valid assumption. " There is some confusion here, I meant more grain meant better feed for the pheasants thus possibly resulting in higher survival rates of pheasants, I didn't mean to imply that the grain was good feed for the predators. I agree that it is likely that some of these predators have increased. But whether you can actually attribute that to pheasant's decline is questionable. But I agree with Joel, and I know Darrel well enough that I am sure he agrees, that it is somewhat a mute point, cause most of us probably don't miss pheasant too much to get too hung up on this issue. Thanks for the fun gentlemen, Cheers Dave From joel.geier at peak.org Fri Jan 16 06:25:37 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:25:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] OBOL Pheasant Thread In-Reply-To: <49703C88.5010007@verizon.net> References: <1231974775.3522.46.camel@localhost.localdomain> <496FECC6.6020401@verizon.net> <1232073766.3628.60.camel@localhost.localdomain> <49703C88.5010007@verizon.net> Message-ID: <1232115937.3523.29.camel@localhost.localdomain> > So which is true? Do we or don't we have "more" hedgerow? > My answer to this is, "Yes!" That is, in western Oregon we have more hedgerow than anything close to the state that chose Ring-necked Pheasants as their state bird (what a goofy idea that was!). Local lore is that Camp Adair was chosen as a training base in WWII, because of the resemblance to the hedgerow country of Belgium. On the other hand, the amount of hedgerow seems to have decreased since the mid-1900s. At least, that's what I've heard from people who've been around longer than me! But I suspect that the linear nature of hedgerows is the key thing: Nest predators who figure it out can hunt them very efficiently. Just to throw out a couple other ideas: Another agricultural trend to think about (though it happened before my time here) was the near disappearance of the Willamette Valley hops industry due to disease problems. Independence still has its Hops Festival, and there are a few hops farms here and there. But according to a friend who grew up on a hops farm near Mt. Angel, it's nothing like it was. The acreage of caneberries in cultivation in the WV has supposedly also declined significantly, if you read the Capital Press. I'd think that both hops and caneberry farming practices would have been favorable to bobwhites and pheasants, due to the combination of cover and grassy foraging areas, and relatively little disturbance by machinery during the main nesting season. The one local place where I've seen a pheasant hen with fledglings, in recent years, was in a similar situation: very young tree plantings at Luckiamute Landing, with grassy/weedy medians. Well, enough on that. Now time for me to let our slow hens out and see if they can lure in a hen's-slow sparrow. Cheers, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From fsprucegrouse at yahoo.com Sun Jan 11 18:54:45 2009 From: fsprucegrouse at yahoo.com (Khanh Tran) Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:54:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Pine grosbeak and White winged crossbill invasion in OR and WA?? Message-ID: <70286.70011.qm@web57310.mail.re1.yahoo.com> Hi all, To add to the discussion generated on INLAND NW of a good flight year for Pine Grosbeaks this winter, I would have to agree. Many birds have been seen and reported in the areas of North Central and North Eastern WA and now North Eastern Oregon near the Wallowas. Of course, my assessment is based on my limited experience and bird reports of the last few years. I have combed the archives pretty extensive the last ten years and I realize some birders don't report on these online birding forums of their sightings. Even then, there are only a handful of White winged crossbill reports. The last three summers and winters in the Wallowas did not produced any significant number of both species as I usually bird there several times a year. This last November, reports showed good numbers in early fall especially November in the higher elevations of the Wallowas and the Okanogan areas. There is a lot of ground to cover. If I recall correctly, the winter of 2006/2007 had good numbers as more pine grosbeaks were found at much lower elevations including Discovery Park in Seattle, several at the Skagit Game Range near Conner, WA, and one bird at Pittock Mansion in Portland, Oregon. White winged crossbills is a different story. These erratic birds are much more tougher to pin down since they feed on a much more varied diet and tend to move more from place to place when one food source is depleted. According to the the Davis, Clement and and Harris, the birds feed on extracting seeds of larches, cedars, spruces, and hemlock. They also take a variety of berries, spiders, and insects from their larvae. This probably explains why I have seen a few birds pick out protein matter from horse dung along some of the alpine trails that allow horse. In addition, their ideal habitat requires much more effort to reach or inaccessible in winter. So I really don't have a basis to compare as reports are so far and few. These birds probably breed in these high alpine areas of WA and Oregon where few birders hike and venture into. From my research, I don't think there are any confirmed records of breeding in Oregon and Washington. I did hear several males burst into songs starting in late summer to early winter the last two years. Also, if these birds are not flying around, they tend to blend in quite well and are much quieter than the incessantly calling pine grosbeaks. As a result, birds are tougher to detect and numbers are more difficult to assess. Last winter, good numbers of XX bills trickled in the Okanogan Highlands and Salmo Pass areas and a reliable number remained at Stevens Pass. However, if you want an easy place to see white winged crossbills right now, the town of Enterprise, Oregon is the place to be. Several flocks have been seen in the cone-laden conifers in town the last several weeks. You can almost seem them out of your car without snowshoes and cross-country skis. For more details, see my recent weekend trip report below of birding the Wallowas in NE Oregon. It is a wonderful area to bird and the scenery is beautiful. You can never have a bad time in the WOWallowas! Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From dbrin13 at yahoo.com Mon Jan 12 10:54:13 2009 From: dbrin13 at yahoo.com (Diana Brin) Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 10:54:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Corvallis - birding with Fred Ramsey Message-ID: <524110.32582.qm@web110312.mail.gq1.yahoo.com> I tried to post this on the mid-valley list, but apparently there's a server problem, so to err on the better part of spreading the word, here is a great event: The Audubon Society of Corvallis will feature Fred Ramsey on field identification tips. Date: Thursday 15 January at First Presbyterian Church, 114 SW Eighth Street (corner of Monroe). Doors open at 7 pm, program begins about 8:15 pm. Everyone is welcome to share in this special event which will be both entertaining and informative. Diana Brin -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090112/b897f943/attachment.html From pmathios at comcast.net Fri Jan 16 09:04:52 2009 From: pmathios at comcast.net (pmathios at comcast.net) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:04:52 +0000 Subject: [obol] wood duck question Message-ID: <011620091704.27804.4970BE340005921300006C9C22147564029C0107089B0E039F@comcast.net> Can anybody tell me where I could find some relatively tame wood ducks to get close to for sketching and photography? Is there a local Willamette Valley park where they could be found? Thanks, Peter -- Mathios Studios Website - www.mathiosstudios.net Blog - www.mathios.blogspot.com Daily Paintings - www.petermathios.blogspot.com 541.812.0358 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/fa2df8bd/attachment.html From lcottrell at fmtcblue.com Fri Jan 16 09:32:06 2009 From: lcottrell at fmtcblue.com (Larry Cottrell) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:32:06 -0700 Subject: [obol] Burns Jct. to Princeton and Burns Jct to Mcdermitt raptor runs Message-ID: <4F58EB0C1F804B9D8131DE6013974D45@larryPC> On Fri 9 Jan. we did the Burns Jct to Princeton run. We saw no raptors. We did see 1 Mtn. Bluebird and 1 Raven. Yesterday we were in McDermitt, on the way there we saw 1 Golden Eagle, 3 Rough leg Hawks. On the way home there was another Golden sitting on a power pole. The first one had not moved. The weather was warm in the afternoon, mid 50's, variable light wind. There had been fog in the area until Thurs. While in McDermitt their Doves were cooing and cuddling. I watched one pair for about 25 minutes. Karen Cottrell in true SE Or south of Burns Jct. in Malheur Co. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/227150ee/attachment.html From craig at greatskua.com Fri Jan 16 10:06:02 2009 From: craig at greatskua.com (Craig Tumer) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:06:02 -0700 Subject: [obol] wood duck question Message-ID: <20090116110602.3bd901d66b2d769bd36646c62e7e74c3.a30a7cd9cb.wbe@email.secureserver.net> Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland is a great place to get great up-close looks at several species of waterfowl. There are usually many wood ducks at the garden. People go to the gardens to feed waterfowl so the birds are relatively approachable. Craig Tumer SW Portland > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [obol] wood duck question > From: pmathios at comcast.net > Date: Fri, January 16, 2009 9:04 am > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > > Can anybody tell me where I could find some relatively tame wood ducks to get close to for sketching and photography? Is there a local Willamette Valley park where they could be found? > Thanks, > Peter > > -- > Mathios Studios > Website - www.mathiosstudios.net > Blog - www.mathios.blogspot.com > Daily Paintings - www.petermathios.blogspot.com > 541.812.0358
_______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From joel.geier at peak.org Fri Jan 16 11:38:47 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 11:38:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] E.E. Wilson sparrow search (early report, sort of a maybe) Message-ID: <1232134727.3525.61.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, A half-dozen birders converged on the north end of E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area this morning, to search for the reported Henslow's Sparrow. I had to get back home so this is the early report. Between us we had five or six views of solitary, small, dark, furtive sparrows that might have worked for Henslow's (possibly all the same bird), though no views good enough to be anything close to confident. Here is the play-by-play from my recollection (just to get it down, I will try to sum up my impressions at the end with additional directions to follow by a second posting): On my way to the location that Doug Robinson flagged, around 7:45 AM, our border collie/aussie shepherd mix Heidi and I came in from across the field to the south, rather than from direction of the old shed. As we approached a circular, ~30 ft diameter clump of reed canary-grass (which turned out to be about 50 yards SW of Doug's flagging), a small, dark-backed, short-tailed and proportionally rather broad-winged sparrow flushed from a patch of weedy, lower grass about 10-15 ft ahead of us, and made a low (1 or 2 ft off the ground), direct flight of about 20-25 ft into the edge of the reed-canary grass, disappearing as it landed about a foot inside. It didn't vocalize during this flight. After waiting and trying some quiet pishing (little "tseeps" which tend to work for bringing Savannah Sparrows and Lincoln's Sparrows into view), without producing any vocalization from the bird, Heidi and I worked clockwise around the edge of the canary-grass clump. We flushed the bird once again, on the NW side of the clump, where it made a short flight of maybe 10 ft, parallel to the edge of clump and dropping back down inside it. So the bird must have moved ahead of us, staying on the ground, probably a distance of 30 to 50 feet before it took flight (my impression was that the bird was sticking to just inside the perimeter of the clump). After a bit more waiting, I saw two birders materialize out of the fog, who turned out to be Jay Withgott and Hendrik Herlyn. After pacing around the outside of the canary-grass clump a few times, we tried searching the area around the clump for a distance of about 50-75 yards in every direction, without flushing any sparrows (it was surprising how few sparrows that area had this morning). Eventually as we were all drifting back toward the clump, and I saw a dark, roundish sparrow very similar to the first one flush and make a similarly low, direct flight about 10-15 ft from a patch of weedy grass back into the NW corner of the canary-grass clump. Again, the bird landed just inside the outermost clump of canary-grass. Jay and Hendrik moved in from the NE side of the clump as I stayed put, until Jay was standing practically on top of where I'd seen the bird land. Then Jay moved through the clump while Hendrik and I followed on the flanks, but we didn't see any sign of the bird. It was amazing how it just disappeared. At this point, Rich Armstrong, Paula Vanderheul and Marcia Cutler from Corvallis showed up. We tried forming a broad skirmish line and walking through a couple of swaths of the habitat, but didn't see any small sparrows. After another period of milling about, Jay wandered over near Doug's flagged location and spotted another (or the same?) small dark-backed, low-flying sparrow. Well, I should let him describe it when he gets back in. I think he said that it made a couple of right-angled bends in its flight. After Jay informed us of this, we all converged on that place. I had one more brief look at a small, dark-backed sparrow making a low flight into and landing just inside the edge of patch of low, relatively open blackberries (maybe woodland trailing blackberries?), just a few paces east of Doug's flagging. This time I had an impression of a little more "float" (bird tipping its tail up) as it landed, maybe a little longer tail, and I thought I saw a bit of white under the tail. I was straight behind the bird this time, rather than at a rake or broadside angle as in previous views, so that might have made a difference in my impressions of the tail. Again, the bird seemed to completely disappear even with six of us all around the small thicket. At this point I had to head home, but the rest were going to keep searching the area until 11:30 or so. To sum up my overall impressions: 1. The small sparrow(s) that we saw were solitary in a patch with very few other sparrows. All sightings were within 50 yards or less of the places that Doug described. 2. Nothing about the general look, coloration, proportions, and behavior of the bird that I saw in the first three views would rule out Henslow's Sparrow, to my knowledge (though I have never seen a Henslow's Sparrow in my life, so I'm just going on book descriptions). The general shape in flight was consistent with the Ammodramus sparrows that I have some field experience with (Grasshopper and LeConte's). However: 3. I could not rule out a relatively dark, reddish Savannah Sparrow based on the few views I had. I've had them fool me before. The bird didn't look, fly or act like a Lincoln's Sparrow or Swamp Sparrow, which are the only other small sparrows that I'd expect in that area (the latter have a proportionally more long-tailed look, and normally I would recognize either as "Lincoln's-type" in such views). 4. If the bird was a dark/reddish Savannah Sparrow, it's surprising that it hasn't hooked up with the flock of Savannah Sparrows which has been around about 300 yards south of this location. Its behavior was in other ways not what I'd expect for a Savannah Sparrow (more furtive, unwilling to perch in response to light "tseeps," etc). 5. On the other hand, sometimes Savannah Sparrows don't act like Savannah Sparrows. So I'm not prepared to call the bird I saw anything more than a furtive and rather suspicious Savannah Sparrow which just might be a Henslow's Sparrow. Hopefully we'll hear more from the others after they return from the field. I gave Jay my phone number so at this point, no news is not good news. Better directions to follow .... Happy birding, Joel P.S. We didn't see any pheasants! I did find a fresh owl pellet which looked like it was probably from a Short-eared Owl, so that might be another bird to watch for out there. -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From joel.geier at peak.org Fri Jan 16 12:03:10 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:03:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Directions to the "Sedge Wren" patch at E.E. Wilson Message-ID: <1232136190.3525.85.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi again folks, Although Doug Robinson's directions were quite precise and should get you to his red & white flagging on the teasel once you find the shed that he spoke of, it might help those who haven't visited the so-called "Sedge Wren" patch before, to have better directions to the famous shed. As Doug mentioned, you can walk in from any of the turnouts along the Camp Adair Rd., but from there you want to make sure to walk north on the right "street" within the wildlife area, or you might not see the shed. First, to get there: Camp Adair Rd. crosses Hwy 99W midway between Monmouth and Corvallis, at the Coffin Butte Regional Landfill which is very conspicuous on the west side of the highway, about a mile and a half south of the Polk/Benton County line. Turn east on Camp Adair Rd. and proceed past the headquarter to the next left turn, which is a small parking lot next to the WW II memorial park, and the gamebird display pens which host an array of exotic gamebirds. If that lot's full, there's a larger gravel parking lot just east of the memorial park, or else you can backtrack to one of the parking areas west of the HQ. Regardless of where you park, head for the north side of the E.E. Wilson headquarters (from the WW II memorial park, this is reached by walking north one block, then west one block). You want to be walking on the wide, paved road that proceeds (nominally) north from the headquarters. Go about 1-1/4 miles on this to find the shed. Along the way you'll cross a canal which opens into the Canal Pond on your right (a good Swamp Sparrow spot). Then you'll pass a restricted area with an oak grove on your right, with signs stating that it's closed to public access area. About 1/4 to 1/3 mile past the end of the restricted area, you should see a dilapidated old shed with chicken wire rather than walls on the sides, off to the right of the road. From there follow Doug's directions by walking about 225 yards east of the shed, and you'll be in the right area. Good luck & happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From lbviman at blackfoot.net Fri Jan 16 13:12:45 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 14:12:45 -0700 Subject: [obol] reported Henslow's Sparrow In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090116211155.9337F9B0052@mail.blackfoot.net> While not wanting to denigrate anyone's rarity, a question needs to be asked: what features ruled out the other 4 possibles Ammodramus sparrows, all of which HAVE been seen in the west: LeConte's, Nelson's sharp-tailed, Grasshopper, Baird's? - Jim Greaves, Montana From lammergeiereyes at aol.com Fri Jan 16 13:28:16 2009 From: lammergeiereyes at aol.com (lammergeiereyes at aol.com) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:28:16 -0500 Subject: [obol] off topic; my photography Message-ID: <8CB46387A9FDC47-9DC-E21@mblk-d10.sysops.aol.com> Here is a link to a very limited and truly random assortment of my wildlife photography. It is ancillary to a broader personal website, under construction, but which law school seems determined to permanently forestall. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34328261 at N02/ Blake Matheson Carmel California & Portland Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/4ea8ff2c/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Fri Jan 16 17:23:46 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:23:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] E.E. Wilson sparrow: Why not some other Ammodramus sp.? Message-ID: <1232155426.3612.20.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi again folks, Re: Jim Greaves' question as to why the sparrow seen at E.E. Wilson was not one of the other four Ammodramus sp. that have occurred west of the Rockies, I would expect that the portions of the bird that Doug Robinson mentioned having had clear views of (nape, back, and wing edges) would be adequate for this distinction, though he did not elaborate on the details in his posting. Presumably he'll be sending in a more detailed description to the Oregon Bird Records Committee. Regarding my own views today (which may or may not have been of the same bird, although there seem to be precious few other birds in that immediate area), I'm still hung up on Ammodramus vs. Pseudoammodramus (namely Passerculus sandwichensis rufuskulkulus). If it was an Ammodramus sp. (the jizz I picked up in brief views was OK for that but hardly definitive), then it was one of the dark-backed kinds (by "back" here I mean the entire dorsal view of the bird in flight, not any particular patch). I'll go out on a limb here and say that the overall dorsal coloration of the bird in flight was a warm hue of brown, similar to our typical resident Song Sparrows. If you put that together with a presumption of an Ammodramus, then the choices are somewhat narrower. I'll go just a little farther out on the limb, and say I'm positive that I didn't see a LeConte's Sparrow today, as much as I would have liked to. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From 5hats at peak.org Fri Jan 16 17:46:35 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 17:46:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now Message-ID: <002701c97845$7b8c7950$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obolites, I cannot speak with any authority, or even knowledge as to the decline or increase in pheasant populations in the Willamette Valley. Neither can I speak with any certainty as to causes of a seeming difference in populations between now and say, forty years ago. What I can do is share what I have heard from my father about what the Willamette Valley was like in the late 1920's and early 1930's, and point out some of the obvious differences between then and now. People can draw their own conclusions. Actually, I can give share one anecdotal comment from even further back, perhaps as long ago as the 1830's. That comment came from one Mr. Cox, who, according to my father, claimed to be the first white child born in the Oregon Territory. Whether or not his claim was true is, for the purpose of this post, irrelevant. He was in the Valley long enough ago to remember what it was like before there was much white settlement. He said he could remember when the valley floor was covered with a growth of native Timothy Grass as tall as a horses back, and there were no fences anywhere. My own father was born in 1905, and farmed in several places between Philomath and Lebanon until 1937. His recollection of that territory was that there were Bobwhite, pheasants, and jackrabbits everywhere. This assessment, at least in respect to the birds, agrees with what Gabrielson and Jewett had to say about them in Birds of Oregon, published in 1940. It is interesting that in respect to the Bobwhite, they comment, "In every county in the Willamette Valley from Multnomah to Lane, the diversified farming practiced there provide conditions s uitable for these quail." Their comments regarding pheasants are somewhat different. They note that after their initial release in 1881, "they increased at an amazing rate for a numbe of years, only to decrease again later until at present, despite the continued release of new birds, they occur only in small numbers compared to former years". So apparently even as long ago as 1940, or earlier, the status of this species as self-sustaining was a matter of some question. However one may understand these things, it must be remembered that the period in which my father was farming in the Valley was before the development of thousands of acres into urban settlement; before the heavy application of pesticides and herbicides on farm land; before diversified farming practices were largely replaced by grass seed farming; before the development of Interstate 5; before the use of automobiles became common place ( one of my father's stories was that sometime in the 1920's precisely three cars went past his Albany home on U.S. Highway 99 E during the course of an entire Sunday afternoon); before most of the things we now take for granted were in existence. Even if we had blow by blow documentation of all these things in sequence, and answerable statistical data regarding pheasant and quail populations corresponding to the changes, it would still be hard to prove any certain cause and effect relationship between them, even though we all can surmise that such correlation exists. Like every other biological scenario, it is full of complexities beyond our comprehension, and it leaves us with more questions than answers. Darrel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/3c46f8e2/attachment.html From whoffman at peak.org Fri Jan 16 18:48:45 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:48:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now References: <002701c97845$7b8c7950$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Message-ID: I am not clear on when tractors became prevalent in the Willamette Valley to pull plows, harrows, and disks, but It was before my youth in the 1950s-60s. Anyway, pre-tractor agricultural communities, that depended on animal power - draft horses, oxen, mules - devoted 20-30% of their farmland to maintaining the animals. This included pasture, hayfields, oats, crops for silage. I have been told that in the midwest the conversion to mecanaical farming was accompanied by a major decline in biodiversity, as these land uses were phased out. Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: Darrel Faxon To: Obol Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 5:46 PM Subject: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now Obolites, I cannot speak with any authority, or even knowledge as to the decline or increase in pheasant populations in the Willamette Valley. Neither can I speak with any certainty as to causes of a seeming difference in populations between now and say, forty years ago. What I can do is share what I have heard from my father about what the Willamette Valley was like in the late 1920's and early 1930's, and point out some of the obvious differences between then and now. People can draw their own conclusions. Actually, I can give share one anecdotal comment from even further back, perhaps as long ago as the 1830's. That comment came from one Mr. Cox, who, according to my father, claimed to be the first white child born in the Oregon Territory. Whether or not his claim was true is, for the purpose of this post, irrelevant. He was in the Valley long enough ago to remember what it was like before there was much white settlement. He said he could remember when the valley floor was covered with a growth of native Timothy Grass as tall as a horses back, and there were no fences anywhere. My own father was born in 1905, and farmed in several places between Philomath and Lebanon until 1937. His recollection of that territory was that there were Bobwhite, pheasants, and jackrabbits everywhere. This assessment, at least in respect to the birds, agrees with what Gabrielson and Jewett had to say about them in Birds of Oregon, published in 1940. It is interesting that in respect to the Bobwhite, they comment, "In every county in the Willamette Valley from Multnomah to Lane, the diversified farming practiced there provide conditions s uitable for these quail." Their comments regarding pheasants are somewhat different. They note that after their initial release in 1881, "they increased at an amazing rate for a numbe of years, only to decrease again later until at present, despite the continued release of new birds, they occur only in small numbers compared to former years". So apparently even as long ago as 1940, or earlier, the status of this species as self-sustaining was a matter of some question. However one may understand these things, it must be remembered that the period in which my father was farming in the Valley was before the development of thousands of acres into urban settlement; before the heavy application of pesticides and herbicides on farm land; before diversified farming practices were largely replaced by grass seed farming; before the development of Interstate 5; before the use of automobiles became common place ( one of my father's stories was that sometime in the 1920's precisely three cars went past his Albany home on U.S. Highway 99 E during the course of an entire Sunday afternoon); before most of the things we now take for granted were in existence. Even if we had blow by blow documentation of all these things in sequence, and answerable statistical data regarding pheasant and quail populations corresponding to the changes, it would still be hard to prove any certain cause and effect relationship between them, even though we all can surmise that such correlation exists. Like every other biological scenario, it is full of complexities beyond our comprehension, and it leaves us with more questions than answers. Darrel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/2e74f0be/attachment.html From whoffman at peak.org Fri Jan 16 18:55:30 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:55:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Off topic: cyber birding "game" Message-ID: The Frontiers of Identification listserve recently had a thread about setting up computer-controllable video cameras in birding hotspots, and birders going online to operate the cameras and see "new" birds. I do not want to reopen that can of worms, but it suggested something different. I have been very impressed by the quality of some of the coverage in Google Earth, and decided to see if I could detect any birds in the images - and I succeded! I am not talking about the linked photos that you get by clicking on the little blue squares, but just birds visible in the vertical coverage. So here is the challenge: to find identifiable birds in these images. I did not find it easy, but its doable. So far I have found one species, in Oregon. Wayne -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/fd493c81/attachment.html From kcboddie at bendbroadband.com Fri Jan 16 19:29:43 2009 From: kcboddie at bendbroadband.com (Kim Boddie) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:29:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] ECBC Christmas Valley Raptor Survey Message-ID: <2DE7EA4CE1FC43CCAD70253FDA35F01F@KimPC> I drove the Christmas Valley Raptor Route today (Fri. 9/16) under clear skies, no snow cover, and temps.between 21 & 49 degrees F. It took 5 hr. 55 Min to drive 86.6 Miles. The species mix was a little different from last year and there were a few more birds enjoying the nice weather. See below. Beside the raptors, I saw 1 N, Shrike, 5 E. Collared Doves, 216 C. Ravens, 3 Coyotes, 81 Mule deer, and 67 Pronghorns plus lots of Am. Robins and Mtn. Bluebirds. Raptors Seen Jan. 16, 2009 Jan. 16, 2008 Red-tailed Hawk 32 26 Am. Kestrel 0 4 N. Harrier 0 2 Bald Eagle 4 A, 1 S 2 A, 1 S Golden Eagles 11 6 Rough-legged Hawk 25 14 Ferruginous Hawk 5 4 Unidentified Buteo 1 4 Prairie Falcon 4 1 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 0 Cooper's Hawk 1 0 Kim Boddie Bend -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090116/2f2261e8/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Fri Jan 16 21:17:38 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:17:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message Message-ID: REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO RELOCATE AND CONFIRM THE E.E. WILSON HENSLOW'S SPARROW, Dated 16 January 2009 COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Rich Armstrong, Marcia Cutler, Karl Fairchild, Joel Geier, Heidi Geier, Hendrik Herlyn, Paula Vanderheul, Jay Withgott TASK: The Committee, after duly appointing itself, tasked itself with refinding and confirming the illustrious Dr. Robinson's reported Henslow's Sparrow, in an attempt to increase the Oregon State List by one species and to bring glory to the State of Oregon and its birding community for the first documented individual of said species west of the Rockies. ACTIVITIES: Committee Members plodded, tromped, tripped, and stumbled over an increasingly tiresome area of grass, weedstalks, and brambles for all of the morning and half the afternoon. RESULTS: Committee Members' butts were collectively kicked by a little 5-inch bird. The Committee disintegrated in disarray throughout the day as members left, defeated, bruised, and psychologically beaten. .... Actually, it wasn't quite that bad. We had a good time, but boy, it was tough. I don't have much to add to Joel's excellent and detailed description, because after Joel left we never saw the bird again. That is, all of our observations were before 10:00 or so, despite off & on coverage by at least some of us until 3:30. I personally feel that our bird had to be the bird that Doug reported, because its behavior and locations were identical, and because in all the time we were there, in that whole area, there were NO other sparrows -- no other birds, in fact. All the Songs, Lincoln's, Foxes, etc., stayed in the bramble hedges that partially surround this grassier, lower-vegetation-profile area. Rich and Nanette had much the same experience yesterday afternoon. To repeat the upshot (read Joel's message for details): The bird or birds we flushed several times -- and, alas, never saw well -- was/were consistent with an Ammodramus sparrow in behavior and appearance. It was an extraordinarily elusive and sneaky bird, even for a sparrow. Given Doug's extensive experience with this species and given what we witnessed today, I am very intrigued by this bird. Despite our frustrations today, I would recommend that others pursue this bird, given the importance of confirming the species for Oregon. Kudos to Doug for finding the bird, and I hope that others can refind it and get good looks and photos. Jay Withgott, Portland PS -- I had 3 or 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS elsewhere at Wilson, Rich and I had a CINNAMON TEAL and HERRING GULL across the street at Toketee Marsh & Coffin Butte Landfill pond, and Karl and I had an entertaining STRIPED SKUNK parading around in broad daylight north of Doug's flagging tape. From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Fri Jan 16 21:19:43 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:19:43 -0800 Subject: [obol] Dave Marshall's new book Message-ID: Today's mail at my office brought me Dave Marshall's new "Memoirs of a Wildlife Biologist." It reached the office early this afternoon and I thought I'd glance into it for a few minutes. After a while my staff started looking at me oddly because I hadn't moved from the same position. Eventually the office closed and I came home. And now, I see that as I set the book down, it is 9:00 p.m. I suppose that I should have dinner. This book, about Dave's life and his role in the establishment and growth of Oregon's wildlife refuges (and those of the west and indeed the country), is one of the finest nonfiction books I have ever read, about anything, anywhere. And I read a lot of books. Anyone interested in the history of Malheur NWR, of the valley refuges, of the endangered species act, of life in a fire watchtower as a 17-year-old, of early birding in Portland, of birding by bicycle in the Willamette Valley of the late 1930s, of the extraordinary experiences of an 18-year-old birder-kid dropped into the closing years of World War Two, should read this book. It is also so stuffed with humorous and astonishing anecdotes that you will absolutely fall from your chair - I will mention only the discovery of Nixon's Secretary of Defense prowling a marsh all by himself (a secret birder) and Dave keeping two Sandhill Cranes in the pilots lounge of the Anchorage airport overnight. This is an historical event, not just a publication. The book is available, as far as I know, only from the Audubon Society of Portland bookstore, 503-292-9453. Get yours soon in case they run out. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From jeffgill at teleport.com Fri Jan 16 21:23:50 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:23:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Is there someone with a mist net and proper licensing who might try to capture, photograph, and release the bird? Jeff Gilligan On 1/16/09 9:17 PM, "Jay Withgott" wrote: > > REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO RELOCATE AND CONFIRM THE E.E. > WILSON HENSLOW'S SPARROW, Dated 16 January 2009 > > COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Rich Armstrong, Marcia Cutler, Karl Fairchild, > Joel Geier, Heidi Geier, Hendrik Herlyn, Paula Vanderheul, Jay > Withgott > > TASK: The Committee, after duly appointing itself, tasked itself > with refinding and confirming the illustrious Dr. Robinson's reported > Henslow's Sparrow, in an attempt to increase the Oregon State List by > one species and to bring glory to the State of Oregon and its birding > community for the first documented individual of said species west of > the Rockies. > > ACTIVITIES: Committee Members plodded, tromped, tripped, and > stumbled over an increasingly tiresome area of grass, weedstalks, and > brambles for all of the morning and half the afternoon. > > RESULTS: Committee Members' butts were collectively kicked by a > little 5-inch bird. The Committee disintegrated in disarray > throughout the day as members left, defeated, bruised, and > psychologically beaten. > > > > .... Actually, it wasn't quite that bad. We had a good time, but > boy, it was tough. I don't have much to add to Joel's excellent and > detailed description, because after Joel left we never saw the bird > again. That is, all of our observations were before 10:00 or so, > despite off & on coverage by at least some of us until 3:30. I > personally feel that our bird had to be the bird that Doug reported, > because its behavior and locations were identical, and because in all > the time we were there, in that whole area, there were NO other > sparrows -- no other birds, in fact. All the Songs, Lincoln's, > Foxes, etc., stayed in the bramble hedges that partially surround > this grassier, lower-vegetation-profile area. Rich and Nanette had > much the same experience yesterday afternoon. > > To repeat the upshot (read Joel's message for details): The bird or > birds we flushed several times -- and, alas, never saw well -- > was/were consistent with an Ammodramus sparrow in behavior and > appearance. It was an extraordinarily elusive and sneaky bird, even > for a sparrow. Given Doug's extensive experience with this species > and given what we witnessed today, I am very intrigued by this bird. > Despite our frustrations today, I would recommend that others pursue > this bird, given the importance of confirming the species for Oregon. > Kudos to Doug for finding the bird, and I hope that others can refind > it and get good looks and photos. > > Jay Withgott, Portland > > PS -- I had 3 or 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS elsewhere at Wilson, Rich > and I had a CINNAMON TEAL and HERRING GULL across the street at > Toketee Marsh & Coffin Butte Landfill pond, and Karl and I had an > entertaining STRIPED SKUNK parading around in broad daylight north of > Doug's flagging tape. > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From withgott at comcast.net Fri Jan 16 21:25:48 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:25:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Barn Swallows at Baskett Slough Message-ID: After leaving the Sparrowfest, I stopped at the lookout at Baskett Slough NWR as the sun was setting. Five, or possibly six, BARN SWALLOWS were flying over the water. See the excellent article by Doug Robinson (yes, the same Doug Robinson) in the most recent issue of Oregon Birds dealing with the mysterious mid-winter Barn Swallow influx of the past several years. His article presents four hypotheses and gives birders advice on what to look for to help begin solving the mystery. Alas, my swallows today were too far away to see much that could help. There were also 2 SNOW GEESE amid the (rough estimate) 16,000 Cackling Geese, and there were impressive numbers of GW Teal (over a thousand or two, surely), as well as at least 700-800 DUNLIN and 100-plus LB DOWITCHERS. Wish I'd had longer and a bit more light to scope more effectively from this great vantage point. Finally, at least 20 HORNED LARKS flew over as I stood scoping from the kiosk. Jay W, Portland From rawieland at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 07:25:21 2009 From: rawieland at comcast.net (Rainer Wieland) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:25:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? Message-ID: My daughter heard and recorded a call in the middle of the night. We've puzzled over what this call may be and so I'm posting this for your suggestions and possible identification. She lives on a house boat on San Juan Island, WA. She posted details about the call on her blog http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-this-middle-of-night-mystery.html The recorded call can be played at http://tinyurl.com/7z54x6 Your feedback is appreciated. Cheers, Rainer Wieland Portland, OR From calliope at theriver.com Sat Jan 17 07:35:24 2009 From: calliope at theriver.com (Rich Hoyer) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:35:24 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3DD81E8D-7568-4670-AE84-0953B20D41EB@theriver.com> Hi All, My friend Gavin Bieber, who has done winter surveys of Henslow's Sparrows in Mississippi, tells me that their winter home range is usually only 100 square meters, and that the birds can be found in that little patch time and again all winter. Yes, that's only 10 meters by 10 meters! If it has indeed settled down for the winter, it should be right back where Doug found it. Wish I could join in the search. Rich --- Rich Hoyer Tucson, Arizona Senior Leader for WINGS http://wingsbirds.com --- On Jan 16, 2009, at 10:17 PM, Jay Withgott wrote: > > REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO RELOCATE AND CONFIRM THE E.E. > WILSON HENSLOW'S SPARROW, Dated 16 January 2009 > > COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Rich Armstrong, Marcia Cutler, Karl Fairchild, > Joel Geier, Heidi Geier, Hendrik Herlyn, Paula Vanderheul, Jay > Withgott > > TASK: The Committee, after duly appointing itself, tasked itself > with refinding and confirming the illustrious Dr. Robinson's reported > Henslow's Sparrow, in an attempt to increase the Oregon State List by > one species and to bring glory to the State of Oregon and its birding > community for the first documented individual of said species west of > the Rockies. > > ACTIVITIES: Committee Members plodded, tromped, tripped, and > stumbled over an increasingly tiresome area of grass, weedstalks, and > brambles for all of the morning and half the afternoon. > > RESULTS: Committee Members' butts were collectively kicked by a > little 5-inch bird. The Committee disintegrated in disarray > throughout the day as members left, defeated, bruised, and > psychologically beaten. > > > > .... Actually, it wasn't quite that bad. We had a good time, but > boy, it was tough. I don't have much to add to Joel's excellent and > detailed description, because after Joel left we never saw the bird > again. That is, all of our observations were before 10:00 or so, > despite off & on coverage by at least some of us until 3:30. I > personally feel that our bird had to be the bird that Doug reported, > because its behavior and locations were identical, and because in all > the time we were there, in that whole area, there were NO other > sparrows -- no other birds, in fact. All the Songs, Lincoln's, > Foxes, etc., stayed in the bramble hedges that partially surround > this grassier, lower-vegetation-profile area. Rich and Nanette had > much the same experience yesterday afternoon. > > To repeat the upshot (read Joel's message for details): The bird or > birds we flushed several times -- and, alas, never saw well -- > was/were consistent with an Ammodramus sparrow in behavior and > appearance. It was an extraordinarily elusive and sneaky bird, even > for a sparrow. Given Doug's extensive experience with this species > and given what we witnessed today, I am very intrigued by this bird. > Despite our frustrations today, I would recommend that others pursue > this bird, given the importance of confirming the species for Oregon. > Kudos to Doug for finding the bird, and I hope that others can refind > it and get good looks and photos. > > Jay Withgott, Portland > > PS -- I had 3 or 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS elsewhere at Wilson, Rich > and I had a CINNAMON TEAL and HERRING GULL across the street at > Toketee Marsh & Coffin Butte Landfill pond, and Karl and I had an > entertaining STRIPED SKUNK parading around in broad daylight north of > Doug's flagging tape. > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From joel.geier at peak.org Sat Jan 17 07:46:31 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:46:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message Message-ID: <1232207191.3515.33.camel@localhost.localdomain> Jeff Gilligan wrote: > Is there someone with a mist net and proper licensing who might try to > capture, photograph, and release the bird? Jeff Gilligan How well do mist nets work on birds that act more like rodents than birds, and seem to have the ability to use underground vole runs? "We're looking for a vole with wings," was Jay's comment yesterday, and that was even before frustration set in. Maybe someone should lay out some corrugated tin sheets, like the ones that herpetologists use in other parts of E.E. Wilson, then see if the sparrow turns up hiding under one of those. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area southwest of The Shed. From dpvroman at budget.net Sat Jan 17 07:57:03 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:57:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message References: Message-ID: Good thought Jeff, As it turns out, this message was on "BIRDBAND" from an eastern bander and was about capturing this particular Sparrow about the time of the reported bird out our way. If a bander decides to capture the Sparrow in question, they might find it interesting, . Dennis "I hope one of you US banders can help me. Today I assisted a Georgia DNR biologist in an attempt to band Henslow's Sparrows (HESP). We found at least 10 birds, but were unable to band them. The thing that shocked me is that at least 4 of them flew THROUGH our 33 mm mesh nets, and 2 of them were not even slowed down. Only one was briefly detatained, while one just shrugged and kept going. This is the standard net we use for small passerines. I regularly catch chickadees, kinglets, gnatcatchers... Most of the birds I band as sparrows. I've never seen any bird but a hummer fly through this size net." Recommendations? Charlie Muise Lamar County, GA Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message > Is there someone with a mist net and proper licensing who might try to > capture, photograph, and release the bird? Jeff Gilligan From celata at pacifier.com Sat Jan 17 07:59:11 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:59:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? Message-ID: <4972004F.4000305@pacifier.com> It is very unlikely that this is owl noise. What it sounds like to me is geese. When geese roost at night, there are usually one or two that are on guard. What I'm hearing sounds like the discussions those geese have when something has caught their attention. It's never full out honking that you hear when they're flying or really disturbed. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From greg at thebirdguide.com Sat Jan 17 08:40:00 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:40:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? Message-ID: <20090117084000.cey5bqujkkc48ogs@webmail.thebirdguide.com> I hear a California Sea Lion. Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From sandyleapt at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 08:41:31 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 16:41:31 +0000 Subject: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now Message-ID: <011720091641.19928.49720A3B00090FFC00004DD822007610649B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi All, This thread got me to thinking. I grew up in Sherwood, I suppose that counts as the Willamette Valley. My pony and I parted company many times when a pheasant would burst from the cover of tall grass under his feet. The pheasants used to hang out in the tall grass that grew along the shoulder of the county roads. Now because of fire danger county road crews spray and cut the tall grass. Another thing, our family used to grow hay for our livestock, then we bought from the next door neighbor. I don't see many local hay fields anymore, I think they all turned into houses, grazed horse pastures and vineyards. There we lots of quail, I used to feed hundreds. They hung out in a hedge in the yard. I spread seed on the path that led from the kitchen to the parking lot each morning. There were always lots of little family groups running across the driveway and along the country roads. There aren't many around the old place anymore. Mom and dad have seen a few in the last couple years after not seeing any for years. I also remember grouse drumming in the woods, I never hear that anymore. One other thing, sort of off topic, we had banty chickens. The banties and the pheasants seemed to have hybridized. Some of the female banties laid started laying blue-green eggs. They chickens could fly like pheasants and some of them left the barn yard to live along the hedgerows with the pheasants. Our old farm was subdivided in to two and five-acre lots. Because of fire danger people are so darn tidy. Mind you we had one heck of a wild fire out there in the late 60s or early 70s where the fire department training station is, it burned right up to the peat bog on mom and dad's old place. People have removed all the underbrush and they mow what used to be tall grass pasture with and edging of snowberry, steeplebush, wild roses, ocean spray, red currant, oregon grape, wild hazel brush etc....Maybe we need to start a hedge row revival project. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: "Wayne Hoffman" > I am not clear on when tractors became prevalent in the Willamette Valley to > pull plows, harrows, and disks, but It was before my youth in the 1950s-60s. > Anyway, pre-tractor agricultural communities, that depended on animal power - > draft horses, oxen, mules - devoted 20-30% of their farmland to maintaining the > animals. This included pasture, hayfields, oats, crops for silage. I have been > told that in the midwest the conversion to mecanaical farming was accompanied by > a major decline in biodiversity, as these land uses were phased out. > > Wayne > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Darrel Faxon > To: Obol > Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 5:46 PM > Subject: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now > > > Obolites, > I cannot speak with any authority, or even knowledge as to the decline or > increase in pheasant populations in the Willamette Valley. Neither can I speak > with any certainty as to causes of a seeming difference in populations between > now and say, forty years ago. What I can do is share what I have heard from my > father about what the Willamette Valley was like in the late 1920's and early > 1930's, and point out some of the obvious differences between then and now. > People can draw their own conclusions. > Actually, I can give share one anecdotal comment from even further back, > perhaps as long ago as the 1830's. That comment came from one Mr. Cox, who, > according to my father, claimed to be the first white child born in the Oregon > Territory. Whether or not his claim was true is, for the purpose of this post, > irrelevant. He was in the Valley long enough ago to remember what it was like > before there was much white settlement. He said he could remember when the > valley floor was covered with a growth of native Timothy Grass as tall as a > horses back, and there were no fences anywhere. > My own father was born in 1905, and farmed in several places between > Philomath and Lebanon until 1937. His recollection of that territory was that > there were Bobwhite, pheasants, and jackrabbits everywhere. This assessment, at > least in respect to the birds, agrees with what Gabrielson and Jewett had to say > about them in Birds of Oregon, published in 1940. It is interesting that in > respect to the Bobwhite, they comment, "In every county in the Willamette Valley > from Multnomah to Lane, the diversified farming practiced there provide > conditions s uitable for these quail." Their comments regarding pheasants are > somewhat different. They note that after their initial release in 1881, "they > increased at an amazing rate for a numbe of years, only to decrease again later > until at present, despite the continued release of new birds, they occur only in > small numbers compared to former years". So apparently even as long ago as > 1940, or earlier, the status of this species as self-sustaining was a matter of > some question. > However one may understand these things, it must be remembered that the > period in which my father was farming in the Valley was before the development > of thousands of acres into urban settlement; before the heavy application of > pesticides and herbicides on farm land; before diversified farming practices > were largely replaced by grass seed farming; before the development of > Interstate 5; before the use of automobiles became common place ( one of my > father's stories was that sometime in the 1920's precisely three cars went past > his Albany home on U.S. Highway 99 E during the course of an entire Sunday > afternoon); before most of the things we now take for granted were in existence. > Even if we had blow by blow documentation of all these things in sequence, and > answerable statistical data regarding pheasant and quail populations > corresponding to the changes, it would still be hard to prove any certain cause > and effect relationship between them, even though we all can surmise that such > correlation exists. Like every other biological scenario, it is full of > complexities beyond our comprehension, and it leaves us with more questions than > answers. > > Darrel > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Wayne Hoffman" Subject: Re: [obol] The Willamette Valley, then and now Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:49:35 +0000 Size: 11729 Url: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/63a346be/attachment.mht From jeffgill at teleport.com Sat Jan 17 10:52:35 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:52:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This is more complicated than I thought. Perhaps Joel's comments about corrugated tin sheets has merit. Might a few tin cans tucked into the grass also be a possibility? Perhaps corrugated plastic piping such as is used to drain water away form a house? That would reasonably mimic a vole's burrow. As always, we want to try to get physical evidence to support a first state record. This record (which I believe) is as almost all know is very surprising. That the species is not known to fly over mountain ranges and hasn't previously been recorded west of the Rockies really doesn't mean much. It is a very secretive species and I doubt that there is any evidence as to how high they can fly in migration. Additionally, even the Rockies and Cascades (as well as deserts) have patches of marshy grass and meadows. That it may only move rodent-like on its winter territory doesn't preclude it from being a wanderer that can fly long-distances. Note how many "skulky" rails and crakes have shown to be long distance vagrants. Its normal migration is generally from the northern tier of "eastern" states to southern states. Eastern migrants with migrations that are generally within the US (rather than to neo-tropical locations) are less likely to vagrate to Oregon. That written, Eastern Towhee and Red-headed Woodpecker occurred in Oregon in 2008, and Sedge Wren isn't that far off from that arbitrarily designated group of migrants. Really, that a species, even a pecies no one who I know predicted, can occur in Oregon as a vagrant shouldn't surprise us too much. A friend in California expressed some skepticism about this report, noting that the species hasn't been recorded in California. That shouldn't be a significant factor in considering this bird. Jeff Gilligan On 1/17/09 7:57 AM, "Dennis P. Vroman" wrote: > Good thought Jeff, > > As it turns out, this message was on "BIRDBAND" from an eastern bander and > was about capturing this particular Sparrow about the time of the reported > bird out our way. If a bander decides to capture the Sparrow in question, > they might find it interesting, . Dennis > > > "I hope one of you US banders can help me. Today I assisted a Georgia DNR > biologist in an attempt to band Henslow's Sparrows (HESP). We found at least > 10 birds, but were unable to band them. The thing that shocked me is that at > least 4 of them flew THROUGH our 33 mm mesh nets, and 2 of them were not > even slowed down. Only one was briefly detatained, while one just shrugged > and kept going. This is the standard net we use for small passerines. I > regularly catch chickadees, kinglets, gnatcatchers... Most of the birds I > band as sparrows. I've never seen any bird but a hummer fly through this > size net." > > Recommendations? > > Charlie Muise > Lamar County, GA > > > > > Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: follow-up to Joel's message > > >> Is there someone with a mist net and proper licensing who might try to >> capture, photograph, and release the bird? Jeff Gilligan > > From goosemiller at gmail.com Sat Jan 17 11:06:06 2009 From: goosemiller at gmail.com (Marilyn Miller) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:06:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <49722c1c.1b068e0a.4015.ffff836f@mx.google.com> The sound on my computer isn't great, but I don't think it is a goose. Maybe a seal? Marilyn Miller -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Rainer Wieland Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 7:25 AM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Cc: Monika Wieland Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? My daughter heard and recorded a call in the middle of the night. We've puzzled over what this call may be and so I'm posting this for your suggestions and possible identification. She lives on a house boat on San Juan Island, WA. She posted details about the call on her blog http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-is-this-middle-of-night-mystery .html The recorded call can be played at http://tinyurl.com/7z54x6 Your feedback is appreciated. Cheers, Rainer Wieland Portland, OR _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From marciafcutler at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 11:27:20 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:27:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's Message In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <72BE006ED9104105B0D9919011E57528@melvintrex4uoq> ADDENDUM: A subcommittee, consisting of Marcia Cutler, Hendrik Herlyn and Paula Vanderheul, was formed for the purpose of returning to a vehicle in order to get back to Corvallis by 11 a.m. During the course of the return, the subcommittee sighted a MERLIN eating some small creature. The Merlin retreated concommitant with our advance and then was chased out of its perching spot by a COOPER'S HAWK. Marcia F. Cutler Corvallis -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Jay Withgott Sent: Friday, January 16, 2009 9:18 PM To: OBOL Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE TO RELOCATE AND CONFIRM THE E.E. WILSON HENSLOW'S SPARROW, Dated 16 January 2009 COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Rich Armstrong, Marcia Cutler, Karl Fairchild, Joel Geier, Heidi Geier, Hendrik Herlyn, Paula Vanderheul, Jay Withgott TASK: The Committee, after duly appointing itself, tasked itself with refinding and confirming the illustrious Dr. Robinson's reported Henslow's Sparrow, in an attempt to increase the Oregon State List by one species and to bring glory to the State of Oregon and its birding community for the first documented individual of said species west of the Rockies. ACTIVITIES: Committee Members plodded, tromped, tripped, and stumbled over an increasingly tiresome area of grass, weedstalks, and brambles for all of the morning and half the afternoon. RESULTS: Committee Members' butts were collectively kicked by a little 5-inch bird. The Committee disintegrated in disarray throughout the day as members left, defeated, bruised, and psychologically beaten. .... Actually, it wasn't quite that bad. We had a good time, but boy, it was tough. I don't have much to add to Joel's excellent and detailed description, because after Joel left we never saw the bird again. That is, all of our observations were before 10:00 or so, despite off & on coverage by at least some of us until 3:30. I personally feel that our bird had to be the bird that Doug reported, because its behavior and locations were identical, and because in all the time we were there, in that whole area, there were NO other sparrows -- no other birds, in fact. All the Songs, Lincoln's, Foxes, etc., stayed in the bramble hedges that partially surround this grassier, lower-vegetation-profile area. Rich and Nanette had much the same experience yesterday afternoon. To repeat the upshot (read Joel's message for details): The bird or birds we flushed several times -- and, alas, never saw well -- was/were consistent with an Ammodramus sparrow in behavior and appearance. It was an extraordinarily elusive and sneaky bird, even for a sparrow. Given Doug's extensive experience with this species and given what we witnessed today, I am very intrigued by this bird. Despite our frustrations today, I would recommend that others pursue this bird, given the importance of confirming the species for Oregon. Kudos to Doug for finding the bird, and I hope that others can refind it and get good looks and photos. Jay Withgott, Portland PS -- I had 3 or 4 WHITE-THROATED SPARROWS elsewhere at Wilson, Rich and I had a CINNAMON TEAL and HERRING GULL across the street at Toketee Marsh & Coffin Butte Landfill pond, and Karl and I had an entertaining STRIPED SKUNK parading around in broad daylight north of Doug's flagging tape. _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From 4cains at charter.net Sat Jan 17 11:53:45 2009 From: 4cains at charter.net (Lee and Lori Cain) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:53:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? Message-ID: My first choice, given that this occurred next to a marina, is sea lion. I hear sounds identical to this all the time when I am looking at right them. Not a full out bark, but a short guttural vocalization is clearly heard 2/3 through the recording. Second choice is black bear, because it is also like very much like sounds I have heard bears make, but I don't know enough about the site to say if that is a likely occurrence. Lee Cain Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/dfdca487/attachment.html From lbviman at blackfoot.net Sat Jan 17 12:40:29 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:40:29 -0700 Subject: [obol] mist-netting Henslow's sparrow In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090117203937.B02369B0059@mail.blackfoot.net> Below question: Recommendation for net avoiding sparrow? Use a smaller mesh net, and since it's for specific species that stays low in vegetation, a one- or two-tier net should be all that's needed. At 01:00 PM 1/17/2009, obol-request at oregonbirdwatch.org wrote: >The thing that shocked me is that at >least 4 of them flew THROUGH our 33 mm mesh nets, and 2 of them were not >even slowed down. Only one was briefly detatained, while one just shrugged >and kept going. This is the standard net we use for small passerines. I >regularly catch chickadees, kinglets, gnatcatchers... Most of the birds I >band as sparrows. I've never seen any bird but a hummer fly through this >size net." > >Recommendations? > >Charlie Muise >Lamar County, GA From jvanmoo at sisna.com Sat Jan 17 12:40:07 2009 From: jvanmoo at sisna.com (Julie Van Moorhem) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:40:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Winter Wings Festival Message-ID: <0E680D50-D773-4A69-B6F1-48A228B65581@sisna.com> Hi Folks, Looking for something to do Presidents' Day Weekend, February 13-15, 2009? Come to Klamath Falls for the Winter Wings Festival. Klamath Basin Audubon Society will host the 30th anniversary of the event (started as the Bald Eagle Conference) at Oregon Institute of Technology. Highlights; ***Pete Dunne, Director of the Cape May Bird Observatory, will be the keynote speaker on Friday, Feb. 13 ***Field Trips Flyouts Raptor Identification--Jeff Smith, Science Director, HawkWatch International Hawks for Beginners--Dick Ashford, Board President, Klamath Bird Observatory Refuge Discovery Photography-- Dave Menke, Lower Klamath NWR Outdoor Recreation Planner ***Workshops Birding by Ear--John Alexander, Director, Klamath Bird Observatory The Art of Pishing--Pete Dunne It's Not in My Field Guide!--Dan Gleason, author & retired Biologist, University of Oregon, OFO President Canon Photo Safari--Canon representatives ***Mini-sessions Harpy Eagles and other Neotropical Raptors--Ryan Phillips, Raptor Biologist, DeAnza College California Condor Recovery--Jesse Grantham, USFWS Biologist and California Condor Coordinator Oregon Owls--Damian Fagan, naturalist and photographer ***Receptions Keynote--Pete Dunne Aerie Afternoon Breakfast with the Eagles Taste of the Arts Also free family activities with hands-on nature-related craft projects and exhibits, live birds, vendors, displays, photo contest, etc. Visitors interested in more details should review the Festival website, www.winterwingsfest.org, for updated registration and program information. Call Travel Klamath at 1-800-445-6728 for travel information or contact Todd Christian, Festival Registrar at singingbear at charter.net or 541-850-0084 for festival brochures and registration information. On-line registration available. Special motel rates available from eight (8) motels and a B&B if you identify yourself as a festival attendee when you register. Hope to see you at the festival. Julie Van Moorhem Klamath Falls -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/8df9cc2a/attachment.html From richarmstrong at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 13:25:53 2009 From: richarmstrong at comcast.net (rich armstrong) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:25:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] no henslow's Message-ID: 1. a group that started at 1 at dawn and got to 6 people by 9 searched for the sparrow to about 11 this morning with ZERO success. 2. i don't think any of us even saw a possible candidate, absolutely nothing from the original field, which was a neat looking white icy tundra early, but with almost no fog today. 3. in surrounding fields we flushed lincoln's and song sparrows, but nothing else. 4. based on a couple we have seen in texas i agree with posts that henslow's can stay in same small area all winter, but unless this bird has figured out how to use vole holes or how to be under bramble patches, it was not in the field - and this field is probably 100/100 meters. we walked through every grass patch multiple times. 5. other birds seen include a snow goose, a shrike, multiple cooper's hawks, and a few varied thrushes as well as all the normals. Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/b99d54db/attachment.html From deweysage at verizon.net Sat Jan 17 13:36:37 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:36:37 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <49724F65.7010701@verizon.net> Jeff Gilligan wrote: > > Additionally, even the Rockies and Cascades > (as well as deserts) have patches of marshy grass and meadows. > > > Just want to point out that despite being an Ammodramus, Henslow's Sparrow is not a marsh bird. Like Grasshopper Sparrow, this species prefers dry fields, at least in my experience. So, yes, meadows, but I don't think marshy grass really makes much of a difference to the species. I'm not sure about winter preference though. Cheers Dave Lauten > > > From Tana.Ellis at oregonstate.edu Sat Jan 17 13:30:27 2009 From: Tana.Ellis at oregonstate.edu (Ellis, Tana) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:30:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bird Banders and Point Counter needed Message-ID: BIRD BANDERS needed (mid May - Aug 2009) for a masters research project on the productivity of songbirds in early-seral conifer forest. Fieldwork will be in the Coast Range of north-western Oregon. Responsibilities include mist-netting, ageing/sexing and banding a variety of bird species, collecting blood samples, trapping arthropods, surveying vegetation, hiking in difficult terrain, navigating with GPS, and data entry. Workdays begin early (4-5 am) 5 to 6 days per week. Preferred applicants will have prior field experience banding and removing birds from mist-nets. Self-motivation, good physical condition, ability to work well in a group living situation, and willingness to spend long hours in the field are a must. Pay is $1550 to $2000 per month, depending on experience. Housing and transportation to and from field sites is provided. Work and play in the Corvallis area, where there are nearby opportunities for exceptional mountain and coastal recreation. TO APPLY: Please email letter of interest, resume, and three professional references to Tana Ellis (EM: tana.ellis AT oregonstate.edu). Candidates will be hired as applications are received. AVIAN POINT COUNTER needed (May - July 2009) for a masters research project on the occurrence of songbirds in early-seral conifer forest. Fieldwork will be in the Coast Range of north-western Oregon. Responsibilities include multi-species point counts, identifying field sites using GIS and aerial imagery, independently navigating logging roads using maps, surveying vegetation, hiking in difficult terrain, navigating with GPS, and data entry. Workdays begin early (4-5 am) 5 to 6 days per week. Candidates with a strong background in bird identification by sight and sound and previous experience point counting are strongly preferred. Self-motivation, good physical condition, ability to work well in a group living situation, and willingness to spend long hours in the field are a must. Pay is $1550 to $2000 per month, depending on experience. Housing and transportation to and from field sites is provided. Work and play in the Corvallis area, where there are nearby opportunities for exceptional mountain and coastal recreation. TO APPLY: Please email letter of interest, resume, and three professional references to Tana Ellis (EM: tana.ellis AT oregonstate.edu). Candidate will be hired as applications are received. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/371a97c7/attachment.html From jeffgill at teleport.com Sat Jan 17 14:31:26 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:31:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. Message-ID: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henslow's_Sparrow This site refers to the species migrating to marshy areas in winter. I googled "Henslow's Sparrow habitat". A Michigan conservation page refers to low, damp grassy habitats, and indicates that they also occur in drier habitats. Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest floors...a strange concept to me...) My experience with the species is very limited. Decades ago a bander/birder in Illinois took me to site near Rockford where we saw territorial Henslow's Sparrows. As I recall, that site was a remnant of tall prairie grass, and that it was damp. Jeff Gilligan From withgott at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 14:56:13 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:56:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ... and of course, check out the paper that Doug Robinson pointed us all to in the first place, along with certain citations within it. (http://www.auburn.edu/~grandjb/wildpop/readings/Occupancy/Tucker_et_al_2003.pdf). It was in part his experience studying them in winter, leading to this publication, that enabled him to feel confidence in the identification. - J At 2:31 PM -0800 1/17/09, Jeff Gilligan wrote: >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henslow's_Sparrow > > >This site refers to the species migrating to marshy areas in winter. I >googled "Henslow's Sparrow habitat". > >A Michigan conservation page refers to low, damp grassy habitats, and >indicates that they also occur in drier habitats. > >Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest >floors...a strange concept to me...) > >My experience with the species is very limited. Decades ago a bander/birder >in Illinois took me to site near Rockford where we saw territorial Henslow's >Sparrows. As I recall, that site was a remnant of tall prairie grass, and >that it was damp. > > >Jeff Gilligan > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From larmcqueen at msn.com Sat Jan 17 15:04:48 2009 From: larmcqueen at msn.com (Larry McQueen) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 15:04:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt: followup to Joel's message In-Reply-To: <3DD81E8D-7568-4670-AE84-0953B20D41EB@theriver.com> Message-ID: I found Henslow's wintering in Louisiana in dry grass in a pine forest. In my limited experience, they are reluctant to fly; people can practically stem on them as they sit tight. Kinda like Jack Snipe! Larry From joel.geier at peak.org Sat Jan 17 17:07:09 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:07:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] How to catch a vole with wings Message-ID: <1232240829.3630.45.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hi folks, Just to be clear, I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole with my comment about the putative Henslow's Sparrow seeming to make use of "underground vole runs." Just a bit of hyperbole, though. The bird does seem to move quickly under matted grasses, and I would not doubt that it's capable of using surficial vole runs which are abundant in the area in which it's been seen. Any attempt at mist-netting might be foiled by this behavior, unless the net is extremely well staked to the ground. Knowing how much trouble I've had keeping our banty hens from crawling under chicken wire staked to rough, grassy ground, and knowing what the ground looks like out there, this seems like a very difficult task. Still, if Doug managed to get a partial view, and based on the idea that this species tends to stick to a small winter territory, then I think that with patience and persistence, others will manage to do the same or better. Yesterday I had my best luck with a patient, stalking approach that has worked for me on other Ammodramus sp. in the upper Midwest, versus the "skirmish line" approach that a group of us we tried later on. I'm suspecting that the latter approach might work better in more uniform habitats where there are likely to be multiple Henslow's Sparrows. However a single bird in the type of habitat out there, which offers abundant patches of cover under brambles etc., could easily evade such tactics. I'll admit that I started off a little skeptical on this bird, despite the stellar qualifications of the initial reporter. However, the more I think about yesterday's encounter, the more I'm convinced that we were dealing with an Ammodramus sparrow. Starting from that, then based on the general coloration that I saw, it's hard to go with anything but Henslow's. I plan to keep working on this bird off and on for the next week, as often as I can find the time. Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From cyncay at comcast.net Sat Jan 17 17:27:53 2009 From: cyncay at comcast.net (Cindy Talbott-Nelson) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:27:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? In-Reply-To: <20090117084000.cey5bqujkkc48ogs@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Message-ID: <20090118012755.96C31A8239@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> I'm with Greg. I hear sea lion also. C -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Greg Gillson Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:40 AM To: OBOL Subject: Re: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? I hear a California Sea Lion. Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.7/1895 - Release Date: 1/16/2009 3:09 PM From luk916 at hotmail.com Sat Jan 17 18:16:51 2009 From: luk916 at hotmail.com (Luke Redmond) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:16:51 -0500 Subject: [obol] Sauvie Island Barn Swallow, Jan 17 Message-ID: I birded Sauvie Island this afternoon for a few hours. The most notable bird was a BARN SWALLOW approximately 200m from the end of Rentenaar Rd at around 315pm. I had decent looks at it as it appeared to forage over the fields on both sides of the road and my best guess would be a second year bird based on the short outer tail feathers. Good birding. Luke Redmond _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? Hotmail?: Chat. Store. Share. Do more with mail. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/ccc03023/attachment.html From 5hats at peak.org Sat Jan 17 19:24:48 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:24:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. References: Message-ID: <008501c9791c$53d3e290$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> All, All this discussion on Henslow's is making me grateful. I lived in Michigan in 1967-8, and birded a little. Precisely one time I saw a bird of this species perched on top of some tall grass stalks along a roadside ditch. They are a really unique appearing species if you happen to see them well. Guess I was fortunate. Darrel ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Gilligan" To: "OBOL" Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 2:31 PM Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henslow's_Sparrow > > > This site refers to the species migrating to marshy areas in winter. I > googled "Henslow's Sparrow habitat". > > A Michigan conservation page refers to low, damp grassy habitats, and > indicates that they also occur in drier habitats. > > Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest > floors...a strange concept to me...) > > My experience with the species is very limited. Decades ago a > bander/birder > in Illinois took me to site near Rockford where we saw territorial > Henslow's > Sparrows. As I recall, that site was a remnant of tall prairie grass, and > that it was damp. > > > Jeff Gilligan > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From jeffgill at teleport.com Sat Jan 17 19:48:26 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:48:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] How to catch a vole with wings In-Reply-To: <1232240829.3630.45.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: On 1/17/09 5:07 PM, "Joel Geier" wrote: > Hi folks, > > Just to be clear, I was engaging in a bit of hyperbole with my comment > about the putative Henslow's Sparrow seeming to make use of "underground > vole runs." > > Note that Doug Robinson indicated in a private email that Henslow's Sparrows do in fact retreat to tortoise holes when being harassed on their winter grounds in the south. That they might take refuge in vole holes in Oregon isn't that far fetched. Jeff Gilligan From namitzr at hotmail.com Sat Jan 17 20:36:23 2009 From: namitzr at hotmail.com (Russ Namitz) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:36:23 -0800 Subject: [obol] EE Wilson birds & misc. comments, YTWA photo Message-ID: Early this morning at the flagged sparrow site at EE Wilson, there were a few notable birds that flew over. Two SNOW GEESE (both singles in differnt Canada flocks), NORTHERN SHRIKE, ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK & 25 TUNDRA SWANS. On the way out, there was a WHITE-THROATED SPARROW along the paved road. Rodent-like or not, stepped on or not, I was not able to detect any sparrow from the grass field itself (i.e. not in blackberry tangle). I was there from 7:30am to 10:30am. I did however, see 3 different voles, which got the blood pumping each time. I feel confident that, at least this morning, the bird was not present in the initial field where it was detected. At Fern Ridge Reservoir in Eugene, John Sullivan and I walked the field at the Fisher Butte Unit for 1.5 hrs where the Jack Snipe was reported without detecting a single snipe. Two marginal photos of the Langlois YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER can be seen here. http://surfbirds.com/albums/showgallery.php/cat/594 Good birding, Russ Namitz Coos Bay -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/0dbdb8ae/attachment.html From md at teleport.com Sat Jan 17 20:38:59 2009 From: md at teleport.com (Sumner Sharpe) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:38:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tree Swallows at Ridgefield Message-ID: <001201c97926$ae723c10$0b56b430$@com> We spotted three tree swallows this morning at Ridgefield. Sumner Sharpe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/a38ae423/attachment.html From willclemons at yahoo.com Sat Jan 17 20:58:38 2009 From: willclemons at yahoo.com (Will Clemons) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:58:38 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Ridgefield NWR: DUNLIN, BARN & TREE SWALLOWS Message-ID: <214613.37515.qm@web55101.mail.re4.yahoo.com> My mother (Olive) and I birded from 8:30A.M. to 3:30P.M. at Ridgefield. We joined Carol Ledford 11A.M. onward on the River "S" Unit at Ridgefield NWR (~4mi W of I-5 at Exit 14 in SW Washington; http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/ ). Highlights: TREE & BARN SWALLOWS: Bravo for Northward position holding SWALLOWS! Carol and I counted a combined minimum of six. Both BARN & TREE were first of the year for both of us. We saw these early SWALLOWS over the road between Rest Lake and S Big Lake. We watched them over both wetlands and while they crossed the road in front of us several times. DUNLIN: While we were on the E side of Rest Lake, Carol was scoping the shallow S end, where she spotted and counted 51 DUNLIN. They were a pretty surprising find for us on this bright and cold winter day. HOARFROST: When Olive and I arrived on the River "S" Unit at 8:30A.M. it was quite foggy and 27 degrees, with hoarfrost on Cattails, Teasels, spider webs, grasses, and nearly everything else -- Beautiful! Will Clemons SW of Portland willclemons AT Yahoo dot com Birding: The best excuse for getting outdoors And avoiding chores Complete list of 51 species seen / heard: Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Cackling Goose Canada Goose (~ 20 Dusky CGs, 4 with collars ) Tundra Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck LESSER SCAUP Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle Northern Harrier (females, juveniles and one prime plumed male) COOPER'S HAWK (100 yds W of entrance booth) Red-tailed Hawk HARLAN'S RED-TAILED HAWK DARK MORPH RED-TAILED HAWK ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK American Kestrel American Coot Sandhill Crane Killdeer DUNLIN (51 counted on Rest Lake) Ring-billed Gull Belted Kingfisher Downy Woodpecker Steller's Jay Western Scrub-Jay American Crow TREE SWALLOW BARN SWALLOW Black-capped Chickadee Bushtit White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Bewick's Wren Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin European Starling Spotted Towhee Song Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird From craig at greatskua.com Sat Jan 17 21:05:31 2009 From: craig at greatskua.com (Craig Tumer) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:05:31 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. Message-ID: <20090117220531.3bd901d66b2d769bd36646c62e7e74c3.6f6666823b.wbe@email.secureserver.net> All, I've enjoyed following the posts about the search for the reported Henslow's sparrow. I have some first-hand experience with Henslow's sparrow breeding and wintering habitat back East. In my previous job with an environmental consulting firm in Northern Virginia, I did a number of surveys and habitat assessments for Henslow's sparrows, which is a state-threatened species in Virginia. To prepare for this work, I did a good deal of research on what is known about Henslow's sparrow breeding habitat, and I did some vegetation characterization in a field at the Manassas National Battlefield Park where Henslow's sparrows successfully nested in summer 2005. In the core of their range, Henslow's sparrows typically nest in tallgrass prairie habitats or fields that resemble tallgrass prairie. Further east, where the species is more sparsely distributed, Henslow's sparrows most often nest in fields with a predominance of native warm season grasses such as Andropogon, Sorghastrum, and Schizycharium and a good diversity of native forbs. The fields in which they nest also often have occasional tree seedlings, which the sparrows use as singing perches. Henslow's sparrows are often found in the damp fields, but will use drier fields as well. In West Virginia and western Maryland, they nest in revegetated strip mines. I spent two weeks of March 2007 in east-central Arkansas, and during a free weekend, I did some birding at a site in south-central Arkansas where Henslow's sparrows winter. Habitat in this area would be characterized as open pine savanna. In this area, I saw three or four Henslow's sparrows in more open grassy meadows within the pines. This habitat is very different than typical nesting habitat. At this site, there were low, wet areas in the meadows, but the meadows were predominantly non-wetland. The grasses in the meadows were not particularly dense or tall. The Henslow's sparrows there were also not particularly hard to observe. When first flushed, they typically flew to another patch of grass and disappeared; but after being flushed two or three times, they typically flew to low, woody vegetation where they were easily observed (though they didn't often remain in the open for more than a minute or two). I've observed this type of behavior during fall migration in Virginia, as well. In my experience, grasshopper sparrows, Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrows, and saltmarsh sharp-tailed sparrows are more difficult to observe in non-breeding season than Henslow's sparrows because they don't seem to flush to more easily observable areas, as the Arkansas Henslow's sparrows did for me. I've uploaded several photos of Henslow's sparrows and their winter habitat in Arkansas for anyone interested (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=craigPDX&target=PHOTO&id=5292483021662002722&aid=5292482976459218641&authkey=XYeqqRhdbDA&feat=email). You can see in the photos, that the herbaceous vegetation in this area is not particularly tall or dense - much lesstall and dense than the typical stand of reed canarygrass. But, regardless of Henslow's sparrow habitat preferences in the core of their distribution, out-of-range birds often turn up in not-so-typical habitats, so the fact that the reed canarygrass patch where the EE Wilson sparrow was observed doesn't mean that the bird is not a Henslow's sparrow. Hopefully the sparrow at E.E. Wilson can be found and its ID confirmed. Craig Tumer SW Portland > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. > From: Jeff Gilligan > Date: Sat, January 17, 2009 2:31 pm > To: OBOL > > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henslow's_Sparrow > > > This site refers to the species migrating to marshy areas in winter. I > googled "Henslow's Sparrow habitat". > > A Michigan conservation page refers to low, damp grassy habitats, and > indicates that they also occur in drier habitats. > > Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest > floors...a strange concept to me...) > > My experience with the species is very limited. Decades ago a bander/birder > in Illinois took me to site near Rockford where we saw territorial Henslow's > Sparrows. As I recall, that site was a remnant of tall prairie grass, and > that it was damp. > > > Jeff Gilligan > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From pamelaj at spiritone.com Sat Jan 17 21:32:28 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:32:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] The Hunting of the Ammodramus Message-ID: <051104068E0741E1BB318CCB7F150D3A@yourw5st28y9a3> After reading a day's worth of Henslow's Sparrow news and speculations, I feel obliged to offer some advice, as given by The Bellman in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark: "'You may seek it with thimbles- and seek it with care; You may hunt it with forks and hope; You may threaten its life with a railway share; You may charm it with smiles and soap---" The peculiar wrinkle in Snark hunting is that YOU will disappear if it not a snark, so take encouragement from your advantage over the snark hunter. Pamela Johnston From margieparis1 at mac.com Sat Jan 17 21:36:33 2009 From: margieparis1 at mac.com (Margie Paris) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:36:33 -0800 Subject: [obol] Yellow-shafted Flicker in Eugene In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Obol, Gary Tepfer had a Yellow-shafted Flicker at his suet feeder yesterday in the south Eugene hills. Best, Margie Paris 2394 Charnelton Street Eugene, OR 97405 (541) 484-0763 margieparis1 at mac.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/7b6a20cc/attachment.html From danpvdb at yahoo.com Sat Jan 17 21:49:35 2009 From: danpvdb at yahoo.com (Dan van den Broek) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:49:35 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Long-tailed Duck Boiler Bay flyby References: <001201c97926$ae723c10$0b56b430$@com> Message-ID: <213872.95544.qm@web55305.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Hi All PAS Master Birding group went to the coast today (January 17th). It was a sunny and warm day which made for pleasant winter birding. The highlight of the trip was a female Long-tailed Duck flying south with a flock of about 30 Surf Scoters at Boiler Bay. We also had Red-necked Grebes, Pigeon Guillemots, Marbled Murrelets, 2 Brown Pelicans flying north, and White-winged Scoters. Savannah Sparrow and Western Meadowlarks on the South Jetty Rd of Yaquina Bay. Two more Brown Pelicans, 4 Common Godeneye, Common Loons and a Pacific Loon at the Marina by the Marine Science Center. At Sally's Bend we had Red-breasted Mergansers, Horned Grebes, Brant, and a Ruddy Duck. We searched for Snow Buntings, Palm Warblers and Lapland Longspurs, but no luck. -Dan -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090117/03df48c9/attachment.html From gnorgren at earthlink.net Sat Jan 17 22:46:06 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:46:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] Clatsop County 1/16-17 Message-ID: <6bf0d906e50fe18605a8c8d11cc59590@earthlink.net> Gulls at Wireless Road on Friday night were hard to observe. One flock to the north and west of the road (distant and into the sun) many gulls behind the barn where residue of crab processing is heaped by the cubic yard. An additional flock very distant under the powerline to the east. Among the birds on a barn roof I could discern a NELSON'S. All of the willows around Young's Bay are devoid of open catkins-"pussy willows"- at the moment. I noticed some out on the east side of Coos Bay the day before the Coos Bay CBC (December 13). I remember pussy willows on the north bank of the Coquille River in early December of 1988. Very widespread frost on Saturday morning from Seaside to Knappa, where I decided the Marshland Tufted Duck was too far and turned around at 5:30 am. A stiff east wind at Wireless Road before sunrise. Perhaps my excessive winter birding in Coos County has ruined me for life. I went to the Coast and spent the night in Clatsop County for the first time in decades because of the Pacific Rim Wrestling Tournament, but thew tipping point was a weather forecast promising temperatures in the sixties. No gulls between Binder Slough and Tucker Creek where Mike Patterson saw a second winter Glaucous Gull earlier this week. The fact that these fields were largely frozen was probably a contributing factor. The field north of Capp Road had at least 700 CACKLING GEESE. I scanned it carefully and it was pure CACKLERS, possibly all minima, save one pale pair of equally small size. More were coming in from the north the whole time I was there (I arrived at 8am). Eventually Western Canada Geese began to arrive in smaller flocks, but landed apart from the CACKLERS. Back at wireless road the gulls were concentrated well to the east of the sharp bend under the powerline. The wind was as strong as ever, my resolve at its weakest. No obvious Glaucous Gulls, nor the prospect there-of worth the obvious physical discomfort required. An adult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK due east of the jct with Stoner Road promised to be the best bird of the morning. Up the Lewis and Clark Road a flock of GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GEESE due west of the Lewis and CLark Cemetary. 8 adults and 12 juveniles. In the same flock a number of CACKLERS (all taverni if I remember right) and some Western Canadas. A flock 300m north had no Cacklers, but a dozen or more DUSKY CANADA GEESE, one with a neck collar too distant to read, and half a dozen Western Canadas. 6 GREATER SCAUP were on the river just upstream of the bridge that joins the Lewis and Clark Road to Fort Clatsop Road. Immediately east of Lewis and Clark Cemetary at least 100 RAVENS were gathered at the edge of the woods. It was very hard to get an accurate count as they were perched widely in trees, on the ground, flying about in very short sorties. When I heard them I assumed a dead elk or cow had attracted them. But closer inspection did not bear that out. I wonder if it could be some kind of early spring social event. On the Necanicum immediately west of Seaside High School I saw 4 Common GOLDENEYE in two separate flocks. Many gulls were loafing on flats created by the ebb tide, but nothing more exotic than HERRRING and THAYER'S. The flock moved about as the tide and low-tide pedestrians influenced them. Walking north along the shore at 2pm I came upon my first Seaside SCRUB JAYS. I saw some in Gearhart two years ago, and know they were already established in this part of Seaside then. But as a Willamette Valley native, it was a special feeling to watch them with my feet below the high-tide line. The shore pines at the spot in question are colonizing former saltmarsh, and resemble the structure of some juniper forests in eastern Oregon. Within the same minute of spotting the Scrub Jays I saw a second winter GLAUCOUS GULL in the very large flock of gulls loafing near the spot where Neawanna Creek joins the Neccanicum. In the bright early afternoon sunlight it looked unreal to the \naked eye- perhaps a beached Clorox bottle at the edge of the flock. But in the scope it became a gull, the same size and shape as its grungy compasnions. The Cove at sunset had no loons or Cormorants. HARLEQUIN DUCKS outnumbered all other birds on the water by the time I turned around at what may be called Third Point. I saw 5 in the first flock, almost within sight of the surfers' parking lot. Each subsequent flock was twice the size as the previous, and the breakers were twice as high. There were 37 ducks in the final flock. When 15 foot waves broke they sat calmly beneath, gradually emerging as the froth settled. I had seen at least 60 when fading light turned me around at 5:30. It did get up into the 60s at the High School for many hours in the afternoon. Lars Norgren From loinneilceol at yahoo.com Sat Jan 17 23:32:33 2009 From: loinneilceol at yahoo.com (Leith McKenzie) Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:32:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] E.E.Wilson Midday Shift Message-ID: <752465.45506.qm@web30408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I spent 3 hours at the location of the reported Henslow's Sparrow, arriving at noon, leaving at three. I saw no Ammodramus sparrows. Much of the time I stood silently alone. From time to time I played recordings of all 4 Ammodramus species. For a time, the habitat was disrupted by rabbit hunters, who fired perhaps 10 rounds within 100 meters of the sparrow site. Maitreya From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Sun Jan 18 09:43:46 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:43:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] ECBC Linn County Unit 3 January raptor results Message-ID: <715603.89481.qm@web50905.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Obolers, Yesterday 1-17-09 I completed the second half of Unit 3's raptor survey for the East Cascades Bird Conservancy Winter Raptor Project. The day started under a blanket of fog which reduced visibility to under a quarter mile in a lot of places. By 11 AM, the fog was no longer a factor and visibility under sunny skies was unimpeded. It was a great day for looking for birds of prey and the results were no less than great! Unit 3 covers the area of Linn County bordered on the north by Hwy 34, on the south by Hwy 228, on the west by the Willamette River, and on the east by the foothills of the Cascades. A total of 189.7 miles were covered during 11 hours and 30 minutes of surveying on two days. Following is a listing of birds observed west (section A - the section that I did) and east (section B - completed by Cheryl Whelchel on 11-11) of I-5, the dividing line between these two sections: Section A / B / Jan 09 total / Dec 08 total Red-tailed Hawk 65 / 59 / 124 / 93 American Kestrel 56 / 41 / 97 / 64 Northern Harrier 11 / 15 / 26 / 13 Bald Eagle 19 / 41 / 60 / 25 Rough-legged Hawk 4 / 6 / 10 / 17 Red-shouldered Hawk 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 UnID Buteo 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 / 0 / 1 / 0 Prairie Falcon 1 / 2 / 3 / 1 Cooper's Hawk 2 / 0 / 2 / 0 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 / 0 / 2 / 0 Short-eared Owl 0 / 1 / 1 / 1 Burrowing Owl 0 / 0 / 0 / 1 The totals for RTHA were the second highest monthly count recorded in this project now into its fifth winter, trailing only the 168 tallied in Nov 05. The totals for AMKE were the fifth highest monthly count, short of the high of 115 counted in Dec 05. After "suffering" through the last two winters with noticeably lower numbers for these two major species in the project, it was indeed refreshing to see the return of "good" numbers again :) Of course, Bald Eagle numbers were again a significant contributor to the total count as well, part of the 128 that I saw last Saturday on the Linn County Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey. Regarding specific sightings yesterday in section A, the PEFA was seen along Oakville Rd at the start of the day, the PRFA was observed along Pugh Rd just west of the railroad tracks (Cheryl's two observations were on Glaser Rd and Ridge Dr east of I-5) , and the immature RSHA was seen on the south portion of Danner Rd just west of Powerline Rd. I checked all the major culverts that have provided shelter for Burrowing Owls and found zero birds and no fresh sign near or on the culverts. Plans are to conduct my raptor survey for Unit 4, which is located south of Unit 3, tommorrow. Unit 4 has historically been a bigger raptor number area since I started these surveys and I am looking forward to seeing comparable "good" numbers again in this area :) Jeff Fleischer Albany From kosciuch at gmail.com Sun Jan 18 09:41:51 2009 From: kosciuch at gmail.com (Karl Kosciuch) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 09:41:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Ancient Murrelet - Bioler Bay - 1/17/09 Message-ID: Greetings - I had two Ancient Murrelets at Boiler Bay at noon on Saturday, 1/17/09. Both birds, one in alternate plumage, were found just south of the main vantage point Seems that these birds are hanging around the area and we had nice looks with a scope. Cheers, Karl -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/a515088e/attachment.html From gerard.lillie at comcast.net Sun Jan 18 10:09:31 2009 From: gerard.lillie at comcast.net (Gerard Lillie) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 10:09:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Test Message-ID: <00c001c97997$e9859c40$bc90d4c0$@lillie@comcast.net> Test only -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/1e860a76/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Sun Jan 18 10:42:28 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:42:28 +0000 Subject: [obol] High quality images of Acorn Woodpecker and American Robin needed. Message-ID: Greetings All, I am preparing a BirdFellow blog piece on the geographical variation in several bird species based on a recent trip to Baja California Sur. I don't have a good picture of either a local Acorn Woodpecker or a local American Robin for comparison to the resident Acorn Woodpeckers (which have dark eyes and more streaking) and the San Lucas American Robins (which are paler, call differently, and have different bill color) that I saw and photographed in B.C.S. If anyone has images of these relative common PNW birds, I would be most grateful. You will be properly credited in the photo. All I need is reasonable close-ups that show these species in profile in a .jpg file format. Please provide the date and location of the photo and what kind of camera setup was used to take the image. Thanks in advance for your help. I will post a note once I receive suitable materials so I won't get flooded with pix. Dave Irons Eugene, OR _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/3d58e980/attachment.html From Oropendolas at aol.com Sun Jan 18 11:19:11 2009 From: Oropendolas at aol.com (Oropendolas at aol.com) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:19:11 EST Subject: [obol] Little Blue Heron - New Location Message-ID: Hello All, We just received a call from Dan Heyerly, 11:00 AM Sunday, Jan. 18th. He is watching the LITTLE BLUE HERON at a slightly different location than previously reported. The Little Blue is being seen from Hwy 101 approximately 1/4 mile South of Drift Creek Road in Siletz Bay. There is a parking area on the east side of Hwy 101 just south of the Drift Creek Bridge that crosses Hwy 101. The Heron is approximately 100 yards south of this parking area on the Bay side of Hwy 101. John Sullivan & Laura Jonhson Springfield, Oregon **************Inauguration '09: Get complete coverage from the nation's capital.(http://www.aol.com?ncid=emlcntaolcom00000027) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/26f71417/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Sun Jan 18 11:45:43 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:43 +0000 Subject: [obol] American Robin images received, still need an Acorn Woodpecker picture Message-ID: I have received a couple good images of American Robins, so you can refrain from sending more, but I am still in search of a good Acorn Woodpecker picture. Make sure that it shows the underparts and eyes if possible. Thanks, Dave Irons _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/837b98e1/attachment.html From brownnab at gmail.com Sun Jan 18 12:26:58 2009 From: brownnab at gmail.com (Nancy Brown) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:26:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Off topic - Florida Birding Places Message-ID: Hello - A birder friend and I going to Florida Feb 19-25, to do some birding. We plan to visit the Ding Darling reserve on Sanibel Island, and also the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples (where I'll be staying). If anyone is familiar with Ding Darling and has some suggestions on the best places to hit there, or if there are other places we shouldn't miss in the area, I'd sure appreciate them. I understand the Wood Storks are back nesting at Corkscrew after a two year hiatus, so that'll be an amazing sight. Please respond off list - thanks! Nancy Brown NE Portland -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/12d82e64/attachment.html From 4cains at charter.net Sun Jan 18 12:49:48 2009 From: 4cains at charter.net (Lee and Lori Cain) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:49:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tufted Duck still at Woodson Message-ID: <2875F625553D4F17A8C1E0EBD76103C9@HAL> Evan and I found the TUFTED DUCK near Westport this am. It was with about 500 other scaup, near the dike, and allowed us to take photos which he may post later. The exact location was about 1/4 mile east of the junction of River Front Rd and Midland District rds, just east of the skinny willow island that is next to the road. Raptors seen in the area were: Red-tailed Hawk -- 8 Northern Harrier -- 5 Bald Eagle -- 4 American Kestrel -- 2 Lee Cain Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/446176c3/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sun Jan 18 13:17:11 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:17:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] Raptor Count: Youngs Bay Route - 1/18/2009 Message-ID: <49739C57.9090104@pacifier.com> More kestrels than usual, curiously few Bald Eagles... Date: January 18, 2009 Location: Clatsop County, Oregon Temperature: 40 degrees fahrenheit Wind direction: SE Prevailing wind speed: 20-28 km/h Youngs Bay Route - 61mi; 2hr Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier 2 Red-tailed Hawk 8 American Kestrel 5 Total number of species seen: 4 -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From lbviman at blackfoot.net Sun Jan 18 13:43:34 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:43:34 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's winter habitat In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090118214240.CD0939B0043@mail.blackfoot.net> I have zero experience with Henslow's sparrow but have trekked MANY wet pine forests in winter -- the entire coastal plain of the eastern part of North America is mixed hardwood-conifer, hardwood, and pure stands of pine forests, many of them at and just above sea level. Hence, "wet" in winter. If that's the area in which to find Henslow's "normally", then it makes sense to me, and would not be unlikely to find them in similar situations elsewhere. Perhaps by "non-marsh" researchers were referring to preferred "niche" rather than habitat - Jim Greaves, Montana At 01:00 PM 1/18/2009, Jeff Gilligan, at obol-request at oregonbirdwatch.org wrote: >Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest >floors...a strange concept to me...) From douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu Sun Jan 18 14:18:59 2009 From: douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu (Douglas Robinson) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:18:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan Message-ID: Hi folks, I was out of town the last few days and responded to only a couple emails about the Henslow's Sparrow. Given the interesting range of responses, I thought I would summarize more about the sighting. First, here are the fieldmarks I saw from a distance of about 8 feet: chunky bodied sparrow with an olive nape, tertials with a broad rufous distal margin, and a scaly-appearing back. The back feathers were very round-tipped (not elongated) and black with dark chestnut toward the distal edges. Each feather was edged with a very narrow (about 1 mm) and uniform-width white fringe. It's the fringes on dark feathers that made the back appear "scaly." As I reported earlier, when I flushed the bird first by nearly stepping on it, it flew about 4 feet and dived into a patch of grass. The bunch of grass it was under had a gap in the canopy and I could see the bird move into an open space. I moved slightly and focused my binoculars on the bird. I could see the nape, back, and upper edge of the right wing (tertials) very clearly. The rest of the bird was mostly obscured by grass. I watched it there for several seconds and it was not moving. So I tried to shift to the side carefully so I could see the head better. As I did, the bird ran out of sight. I then took a couple steps forward to where it had been sitting and it flew into a briar patch. I watched carefully as it flew. When the bird flew, it did so with a "herky-jerky" movement; low flight that is somewhat indirect in that it seemed like the bird was being pulled forward by the side of its head, rather than going straight ahead. I quickly walked up to the briars and tried for 2 or 3 minutes to re-locate it. I had no success, but knew I had seen enough to make a conclusive identification (see below), and I decided that if other people were going to see it, I had better not harass it any more. (Yeah, imagine that; walking away from a Henslow's Sparrow in Oregon because you want others to have a chance at it. I did the same thing with the Sedge Wren last year in this same field. When I flushed the Sedge Wren as I was walking slowly through the field I hardly broke stride and kept right on walking. My first thought was: "Ah ha, a Sedge Wren. Other people will want to see that, so I'll leave it alone for now.") So, why is seeing the nape, back, and tertials enough for a conclusive identification? If you know Ammodramus sparrows, you know that is enough. First and foremost, no other species has a nape the same color. Henslow's has that dark olive-green color, which is like no other species. Second, combine that with a rufous wing patch caused by the colored patch in the tertials and the scaly-appearing back pattern and you have eliminated all the other possibilities. For example, LeConte's, Sharp-tailed, and Grasshopper sparrows have grayish napes (all with somewhat different patterns of streaking on them and Grasshoppers have more of a buffy-gray nape); Baird's has a paler, rather buffy nape. None of the other common local sparrows like Savannah, Swamp, Lincoln's or Song Sparrows have an olive nape. All the other species have back patterns that look streaky, which is largely caused by back feather shape and the occurrence of broader color patterns toward the margins of the back feathers. Henslow's is different in that, in fresher plumages as they would be in during fall and early winter, those fringes are narrow and give the whole back a scaly appearance. Last, the broad rufous tertial margins are not present in LeConte's (very buffy instead), Sharp-tailed (darker brown with narrow paler edge), Grasshopper (patterned brown and buff), Baird's (very buffy edges), Lincoln's (buffy to tan edges), nor Savannah (pale buffy fringe). Song and Swamp have some rusty-brown wing feathers, but typically the pattern is different; in Swamp the rusty is brighter toward the inner instead of outer edge and in Song the red-brown is dull and does not contrast that much with the rest of the wing. Note, too, that both Marsh and Sedge Wrens have streaky backs. I won't go into all the other reasons Henslow's Sparrows are not wrens. So, if you get a clear look at nape, back, and tertials, you can eliminate the other possible identifications. It's too bad the folks who tried later the afternoon I found the Henslow's Sparrow and the next day did not get a clear look, but they all know now how hard it is to relocate a Henslow's Sparrow during winter. They are incredibly elusive. They prefer to run on the ground whenever possible. When pressed, they hide in underground tunnels such as tortoise burrows (the Southeast USA) and vole holes. So, to finish a long email, let me summarize my experience with this and similar species. First, this is not the first Henslow's Sparrow I have seen. I have studied the species on its wintering grounds in Alabama and Florida. The previous posting had a link to a pdf of a paper I wrote with my graduate student on winter habitat use of Henslow's Sparrows. I have seen dozens of these guys during winter. That is another reason I did not continue to chase the EE Wilson bird for better looks. I know the bird's flight behavior, I know the key field marks that make a short or obscured look a conclusive identification, and I know how tough they are to see well. I have also seen the species regularly in Illinois during spring and summer (check my book Southern Illinois Birds, 1996, for a nice photo of a Henslow's Sparrow). Last, I have seen hundreds to thousands of all the aforementioned species except Baird's. I've gotten one look at Baird's ever, excepting studies of specimens in museums. LeConte's are regular in winter in southern Illinois and I have seen hundreds of them over the years; yes, hundreds. Enough of a long email. I hope someone else can get the bird to cooperate long enough to get good looks. Would be great to move this Henslow's Sparrow out of the single-observer record category and into a multi-observer Oregon record. Have fun out there, and try stomping through some fields this winter; you never know what you might kick up. Douglas Robinson -- W. Douglas Robinson Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife 104 Nash Hall And Oak Creek Lab of Biology Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 http://fw.oregonstate.edu/robinson 541-737-9501 From john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org Sun Jan 18 15:00:20 2009 From: john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org (John Gatchet) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:00:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Columbia County Common Goldeneye, Thayer's Gull Message-ID: <41450F4C98633F449B0D441BFA16956F01D7183A@npuceb.NPU.NA.SDA> Henry Horvat and I birded Columbia County yesterday and although we missed the Tufted Duck we did have a COMMON GOLDENEYE at the junction of Adams and Beeson Road. We saw at least 400 Greater Scaup voraciously feeding on clams or muscles when we got there mid-afternoon. A single SNOW GOOSE is wintering at the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant Park. Along Honeyman Road there was a single PEREGRINE FALCON and a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK as well as 14 GREAT EGRET. In Scappoose Johnsons Landing Road had 40 DUNLIN, several LEAST SANDPIPER, and lone THAYER'S and HERRING GULL. There were two EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVE in a yard along Johnsons Landing Road. John F. Gatchet Gresham, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/6bc14d82/attachment.html From slcarpenter at gmail.com Sun Jan 18 15:16:02 2009 From: slcarpenter at gmail.com (Scott Carpenter) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:16:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bird Vocalization ID Help Message-ID: No Sightings. If you are interested in a bird-id challenge based on vocalization samples, please visit http://westerngrebe.com/contest/ Please reply to me directly (and not to OBOL), since this is part of a competition that is happening right now. I will be happy to share the conclusions my brother and I reached and/or the official results once the competition is over. Thank you in advance for your interest. Scott Carpenter SW Portland scott at westerngrebe.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/fb75f654/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Sun Jan 18 15:36:05 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:36:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] [birding] More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1232321765.3523.33.camel@localhost.localdomain> Thanks Doug, for posting the detailed description on this list. I was hoping that you were able to see that level of detail, from the views that you indicated. From my point of view, from going over the Ammodramus references, that's enough to clinch the ID. I'm furthermore convinced that the bird that I saw on Friday (almost surely the same one seen by Jay Withgott as well) had to be the same bird. It's hard to put it in any other pigeonhole. So that's enough for me for the time being. If I don't get a better view later on in the winter when that patch has quieted down, there's always the chance that I'll make a stopover in their regular breeding habitat some fine spring day. This is where the concept of "semi-lifers" comes in handy -- getting a better view later on, of a species that you're pretty sure you've seen, is as much fun as a completely new lifer. Your closing sentence (quoted below) is worth underlining: > Have fun out there, and try stomping through some fields this winter; you > never know what you might kick up. Taking and my daughter Martha and Heidi, the vole-sniffing dog, for a walk around the south half of the same refuge today, I noticed that there are several other grassy patches with similar habitat structure, some larger in area. We detoured through a few of those. Although we had to skip a few of the more interesting-looking patches due to rabbit hunters, and we didn't kick up anything out of the grass in the other patches, there is clearly a lot of habitat that could yield more surprises if covered on foot every winter. I'm still puzzled how a relatively short-range, north-south migrant could find its way out here. It doesn't fit the usual explanations for east-west vagrants that I've heard. Jeff Gilligan compared three other recent vagrants (Red-headed Woodpecker, Sedge Wren, and Eastern Towhee) which are sort of similar, but all have significant populations in Saskatchewan (so could start significantly closer to Oregon) and a generally SE-directed migration (so less likely to head SW with the magnetic navigation-flip idea). Anybody know of a theory that fits? Or is this just one very confused bird? Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From joel.geier at peak.org Sun Jan 18 15:48:11 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 15:48:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] [birding] More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan Message-ID: <1232322491.3523.38.camel@localhost.localdomain> Oops, I meant to say "... a generally SE-directed migration (so MORE likely to head SW with the magnetic navigation-flip idea)." -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From namitzr at hotmail.com Sun Jan 18 16:07:14 2009 From: namitzr at hotmail.com (Russ Namitz) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:07:14 -0800 Subject: [obol] Coos birds Message-ID: Tim Rodenkirk, Eric Clough and I led our monthly Audubon outing this morning. We birded the lower part of Coos Bay (the body of water, not the town). There were 4-5 PIGEON GUILLEMOTS, a female LONG-TAILED DUCK, a BRANT (missed on the CBC) and 2 HARLEQUIN DUCKS. There were the usual loons, gulls, cormorants & ducks, but we were unable to find any goldeneye or Black Scoters. Out at Cape Arago, there were 5 BROWN PELICANS still surviving. About a dozen Northern Elephant Seals were hauled out on Simpson Reef while the numbers of California Sea Lion & Harbor Seal were way down and I couldn't find a single Steller's Sea Lion. There were 6-7 Gray Whales migrating by as well. There is a Slate-colored Junco coming to my feeder in Coos Bay. The EMPEROR GOOSE in Bandon is still being seen. Good birding, Russ Namitz Coos Bay -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/d7529133/attachment.html From llsdirons at msn.com Sun Jan 18 16:15:17 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:15:17 +0000 Subject: [obol] No more Acorn Woodpecker or Am. Robin images needed Message-ID: I now have what I need for Acorn Woodpecker and American Robin images. Thanks to all who provided them, Dave Irons _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? Hotmail?: Chat. Store. Share. Do more with mail. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/20b58d73/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Sun Jan 18 16:24:48 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:24:48 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bird Vocalization ID Help Message-ID: <4973C850.2020905@pacifier.com> Here's another clue for you all.... http://www.audubon.org/statebirds/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From m.denny at charter.net Sun Jan 18 17:59:17 2009 From: m.denny at charter.net (Mike and MerryLynn) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:59:17 -0800 Subject: [obol] Milton-Freewater Raptor Route results Message-ID: <3A387BF34FD746ABBBE7423866C13EEB@24FLIGHT> Hello all, Today Rodger and Ginger Shoemake and MerryLynn and I did the Milton-Freewater (Umatilla County) raptor route. 98 miles and the fog lifted so we could even see the hills!! Another fun day of raptor counting - here are the results: Red-tailed Hawk - 189 Rough-legged Hawk - 2 Ferruginous Hawk - 3 Am. Kestrel - 27 Prairie Falcon - 1 N. Harrier - only 1 Bald Eagle - 1 adult Cooper's Hawk - 1 N. Pygmy Owl - 1 - the highlight of the day!! New for this route. Northern Shrike - 1 No wind today - the majority of the birds were sitting. Later Mike .................................................................................. Mike and MerryLynn Denny Birding the beautiful Walla Walla Valley If you have not birded, you have not lived From slcarpenter at gmail.com Sun Jan 18 18:05:07 2009 From: slcarpenter at gmail.com (Scott Carpenter) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:05:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bird Vocalization ID Help In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Many thanks to those who responded -- the puzzle has been solved. Scott Carpenter SW Portland On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 3:16 PM, Scott Carpenter wrote: > No Sightings. > > If you are interested in a bird-id challenge based on vocalization samples, > please visit http://westerngrebe.com/contest/ > > Please reply to me directly (and not to OBOL), since this is part of a > competition that is happening right now. I will be happy to share the > conclusions my brother and I reached and/or the official results once the > competition is over. > > Thank you in advance for your interest. > > Scott Carpenter > SW Portland > scott at westerngrebe.com > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/46d43105/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Sun Jan 18 18:48:46 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:48:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lane coast birds Message-ID: I spent Sunday 18 at the Lane Co. coast with Holly Reinhard and Chris Raabe. We had a very enjoyable day, though it was cold in the morning and east-windy in most locations. Best finds: *Three pairs of Cinnamon Teal at the Ada Grange at the se corner of Siltcoos lake. I don't recall hearing of these before and that location often has the earliest of the season. *A possible hybrid Greenwing x Eurasian teal at south slough off Canary Rd. It was slightly larger than the other greenwings and had a fairly obvious white horizontal stripe, a stripe that only seemed to occupy the rear 2/3 of where it should be. A bird worth another look. *1 Long-tailed Duck off Klootchman wayside in n Lane Co. *4 Brown Pelicans on the ocean off Sea Lion Caves. The ocean was otherwise rather empty. We also enjoyed up-close looks at two dippers doing their thing in Cape Creek right by the parking lot east of the 101 bridge at Heceta Head. An adult Ring-billed Gull at the north jetty flats this afternoon may be the same one that has been there off and on since November. In most years they don't use that area in winter. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From ErikKnight05 at comcast.net Sun Jan 18 18:46:15 2009 From: ErikKnight05 at comcast.net (ErikKnight05 at comcast.net) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 02:46:15 GMT Subject: [obol] Census Count: Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Marion County, Oregon on January 18, 2009 Message-ID: <200901190246.n0J2kFp2028467@host-231.colo.spiretech.com> This report was mailed for Erik Knight by http://birdnotes.net Date: January 18, 2009 Location: Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, Marion County, Oregon Wind direction: N Prevailing wind speed: 6-11 km/h Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 0% Precipitation: none from 11:50AM to 4:38PM. Spoke with the new refuge manager who pointed out that the Egret Marsh viewing platform is closed due to fire damage. Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Canada Goose Cackling Goose Tundra Swan 5 Gadwall 7 Eurasian Wigeon 2 [1] American Wigeon 357 Mallard Cinnamon Teal 7 [2] Northern Shoveler 133 Northern Pintail 560 Green-Winged Teal 767 Canvasback 13 Redhead 2 Ring-necked Duck 12 Lesser Scaup 26 Bufflehead 41 Hooded Merganser 11 Ruddy Duck 59 Pied-billed Grebe 9 Double-crested Cormorant 5 Great Blue Heron 6 Great Egret 8 Northern Harrier 4 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 [3] Cooper's Hawk 1 [4] Red-tailed Hawk 7 American Kestrel 4 American Coot 311 Killdeer 1 Dunlin 57 Long-billed Dowitcher 113 Great Horned Owl 1 [5] Belted Kingfisher 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker 8 Western Scrub-Jay 7 Black-capped Chickadee White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Brown Creeper 1 Bewick's Wren 2 Winter Wren 1 Golden-crowned Kinglet American Robin European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler Spotted Towhee 2 Song Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco 9 Red-winged Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird House Finch Footnotes: [1] males, SW corner of Eagle Marsh [2] Eagle & Pintail marshes [3] juv, Peregrine Pond [4] juv, Ankeny Hill Overlook [5] adult seen & heard-and photographed-along Rail Trail Total number of species seen: 51 From Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us Sun Jan 18 19:45:25 2009 From: Kyle.W.Bratcher at state.or.us (Kyle W Bratcher) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:45:25 -0800 Subject: [obol] Wallowa County Message-ID: I had a great weekend. I finally go out with some other birders and learned a few things. It was great to get out and talk with some people that share my interest so thanks everybody. That being said I personally saw a fairly wide variety of birds. Some of the highlights are: Grey-crowned Rosy Finches, I have seen these quite a bit but seemed to be absent the last week so it was good to see them again. The White-winged Crossbills are still in the area. A couple of Prairie Falcons. A Merlin on Friday during work. A Pileated Woodpecker also during work. There are thousands of Bohemian waxwings in the Wallowa Valley right now and it takes very little effort to find them. There are also lots of nuthatches at Wallowa Lake Stat Park. But the biggest highlight for me was my first ever flock of about 20 Common Redpolls between Lostine and Enterprise. I have been looking for these birds for the last month or so and they showed up when I least expected it. On another note if people are in the area I can almost always make time to get out and look for some birds. E-mail is the best way to get a hold of me or you can leave a message at 541-740-1093. Good birding all. Kyle Bratcher Joseph Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/a8ba9846/attachment.html From roygerig at hotmail.com Sun Jan 18 19:51:00 2009 From: roygerig at hotmail.com (Roy Gerig) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 19:51:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] EEWilson Henslow's, TV, Wrentit 1/18/09 Message-ID: Teresa and I made a slight detour on our way to see my parents near Crabtree (Linn County) today to look for the Henslow's Sparrow at EE Wilson (Benton Co.). After about a half hour of quietly watching and moving slowly along the pathways in the area of the red and white flagging where there was exactly one other bird, a SONG SPARROW, we flushed a much smaller bird which flew in a herky-jerky path to the east, stopping at the edge of the blackberry brambles where it landed in some teasl and immediately disappeared. A few minutes later it flushed again and went a little ways further into the blackberries and seemingly landed high up on the bramble but immediately disappeared again. I have seldom seen a bird disappear so quickly when it landed. Both times we saw it, it was clearly much smaller than the Song Sparrow and there was never another bird in the area. It was silent, flew low and not very direct and a rusty brown color was visible as it flew away from us. Everything seemed consistent with Henslow's, but I have never seen one. It did not seem at all like Grasshopper or Swamp Sparrow, and was obviously not Lincoln's. Just my two cents on a bird I know nothing about. Meanwhile, a TURKEY VULTURE flew over, my first of the spring (let me be the first to announce that Spring 2009 is on its way), and we heard a WRENTIT call twice, to the north of us. It was a beautiful day, and I was surprised to see only one other birder there, on our way out. Roy Gerig, Salem OR (Marion Co.) _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/a93fbe73/attachment.html From cgates326 at gmail.com Sun Jan 18 21:01:05 2009 From: cgates326 at gmail.com (Charles Gates) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:01:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Bend to Peoria to Newport and back Message-ID: Good coast weather was too much to pass up so 4 of us from Central Oregon took a road trip to the coast via Peoria. Myself, Dean Hale, Kim Kathol and Darwin Wile were the crew. We saw a total of 104 species. We spent 3 1/2 hours looking for Pyrrhuloxia on two separate occasions and failed both times. We also failed to locate the Little Blue Heron although it looks like it is still in the area. We did find a few good birds though: 75 Brant at Yaquina Bay 1 Harlequin Duck female at south Jetty Newport 10 Black Scoter at Boiler Bay 1 Brown Pelican at Boiler Bay 2 White-tailed Kite just east of Alsea 18 Black Oystercatcher at Depoe Bay (Isn't that a lot in one location?) 1 Red-necked Grebe at South Jetty Newport 2 Great Egret just east of Waldport and another in Peoria 1 Whimbrel at South Jetty Newport 2-3 ROCK SANDPIPERS at Seal Rock 1 GLAUCUS GULL first winter bird at South Jetty Newport 1 Ancient Murrelet at Boiler Bay - We were not sure of this bird as it was a long way away bobbing in surf 1 Northern Shrike near Corvallis 1 Western Screech Owl in Peoria 1 Wrentit on the Horse Trail South Jetty Newport 3-5 White-throated Sparrow Peoria Chuck Gates Powell Butte HERE ARE THE REST Canada Goose Cackling Goose Tundra Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Redhead Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganzer Common Merganzer Red-breasted Merganzer Ruddy Duck California Quail Red-throated Loon Pacific Loon Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Horned Grebe Western Grebe Brandt's Cormorant Double-crested Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant Great-blue Heron Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin American Coot Killdeer Black Turnstone Surfbird Sanderling Dunlin Wilson's Snipe Mew Gull Ring-billed Gull California Gull Herring Gull Western Gull Glaucus-winged Gull Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Steller's Jay Scrub Jay American Crow Common Raven Black-capped Chickadee Bushtit Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Winter Wren American Dipper Ruby-crowned Kinglet Western Bluebird Hermit Thrush American Robin European Starling Yellow-rumped Warbler Spotted Towhee Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark Brewer's Blackbird House Finch American Goldfinch House Sparrow No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.9/1900 - Release Date: 1/18/2009 12:11 PM From tanager at nu-world.com Sun Jan 18 21:02:23 2009 From: tanager at nu-world.com (Anne & Dan Heyerly) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:02:23 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lincoln Co. Sunday Jan. 18, 2009 Message-ID: <000301c979f3$1d98d960$58ca8c20$@com> As John Sullivan indicated Anne and I found the LITTLE BLUE HERON approximately one mile away from where it had been seen by others and last reported last weekend. We initially searched Drift Creek Rd., 0.7 mile east of Hwy. 101 in the vicinity of "the" red barn (in reality it was the only barn 0.7 mile from 101, but the 4th red barn we saw . . ) but had no luck other than a Great Egret and a couple Great Blue Herons. We backtracked to 101, went north to Lincoln City and searched the northern part of Siletz Bay before heading south on 101. We hit the jackpot just exactly as John Sullivan said, approximately 100 yards south of the Hwy 101 bridge over Drift Creek. We took a few photos, Anne shot a bunch through her Canon zoom and I managed a couple of digiscoped images with my point-and-shoot. The LBHE briefly preened and nicely showed off the dark primary tips, but mostly stood motionless in the sun on the edge of the bay. Thankfully the LBHE chose the side of the bay right next to Hwy. 101! The tide was out when we saw it. The pastures up Drift Creek Rd. were very frosty, and we are speculating maybe that had something to do with it having moved to the bay. We headed south in sunshine and stopped at Boiler Bay. There was little wind and very few birds. There was a small group of RED-THROATED LOONS, WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS, two fly-by BLACK SCOTERS, a couple of groups of COMMON MURRES, and one PIGEON GUILLEMOT. One BROWN PELICAN flew by in a NORTHERLY direction at about noon!! We met Nate and Shannon Richardson of Corvallis while there, and they took over after we left. We didn't get far. We noticed a couple of white dots on the ocean (100-200 yards out and more or less even with the southern entrance into Boiler Bay State Park) so we stopped and got the scope on them. Since the sun was shining, it was shirt sleeve and flip flop weather, we took this rare opportunity to study well two ANCIENT MURRELETS. I walked back to inform the Richardsons while Anne kept the birds in the scope. All were able to get great looks at these two birds without having to constantly wipe moisture from rain-drenched optics. Nate's father John, his mother (sorry did not get name), and two other Eugene birders (Vicki James and Pam Otley) were also able to add this bird to their lists! We headed to Newport and the South Jetty where the highlight was two GLAUCOUS GULLS (YES TWO!) in the gull puddles right along the road. It was a great day birding in Lincoln County. Dan & Anne Heyerly, Eugene -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090118/5e71891b/attachment.html From jmeredit at bendnet.com Sun Jan 18 21:56:47 2009 From: jmeredit at bendnet.com (Judy Meredith) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 21:56:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] No Pine Warbler today - LaGrande Message-ID: Hi Obol No Pine Warbler for us today in LaGrande Four of us from Bend ran into Dave Trochell and some nice Portland birders also. No one saw it today. We birded the area for 5 hours. That being said, the area is still very very birdy and the residents were friendly and interested. We enjoyed close looks at WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLs, a pair of Golden Eagles with one carrying a stick, Prairie Falcon, Coop and Sharpie, and nice yard birds in the area. There are a lot of feeders and a LOT of Ponderosa pines scattered throughout that neighborhood. I hope people keep posting whether or not they find the bird. We were Sheran Wright, Pete Low, Steve Kornfeld and me. Good birding, Judy Meredith jmeredit at bendnet.com From tjanzen at comcast.net Sun Jan 18 22:11:45 2009 From: tjanzen at comcast.net (Tim Janzen) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:11:45 -0800 Subject: [obol] No Pine Warbler yesterday - La Grande In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20090119061147.69C9BA8255@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Dear All, I can add to Judy's message below that no one saw the Pine Warbler yesterday either. Dave Trochell, Gerard Lillie, Shawneen Finnegan, Bob Lockett, Adrienne Lockett, and I spent quite a bit of time looking for it and none of us saw it either. Everyone else left by about 1 pm, but I birded the area until it got dark yesterday. The most interesting birds I saw in the neighborhood were 4 EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVES and a flock of about 50 CEDAR WAXWINGS. As far as I know, Jeff Gilligan was the last person to have seen the Pine Warbler and that was on January 15. If someone relocates the Pine Warbler, please post the sighting to OBOL. Sincerely, Tim Janzen Portland -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Judy Meredith Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2009 9:57 PM To: obol Subject: [obol] No Pine Warbler today - LaGrande Hi Obol No Pine Warbler for us today in LaGrande Four of us from Bend ran into Dave Trochell and some nice Portland birders also. No one saw it today. We birded the area for 5 hours. That being said, the area is still very very birdy and the residents were friendly and interested. We enjoyed close looks at WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLs, a pair of Golden Eagles with one carrying a stick, Prairie Falcon, Coop and Sharpie, and nice yard birds in the area. There are a lot of feeders and a LOT of Ponderosa pines scattered throughout that neighborhood. I hope people keep posting whether or not they find the bird. We were Sheran Wright, Pete Low, Steve Kornfeld and me. Good birding, Judy Meredith jmeredit at bendnet.com From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Sun Jan 18 23:20:40 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 23:20:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] ECBC Winter Raptor Survey results for December 2008 Message-ID: <389.33927.qm@web50904.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Obolers, Following is a summary of the results collected around the state during December 2008 for the Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Bird Conservancy. We are now conducting monthly surveys through March during this fifth winter for the project. During the oft times horrendous weather conditions that a lot of us experienced last month along with Christmas season demands, we still managed to get a total of 93 out of a possible 125 routes surveyed so project volunteers deserve a big hand for their efforts, even the ones who even DARED to think about doing their work but couldn't!! My heartfelt thanks for a job well done :) A total of 6998.2 miles of transects were surveyed which took 415 hours and 55 minutes to complete. A total of 5,683 birds were tallied with the following species breakdown: Red-tailed Hawk 2,715 American Kestrel 1,319 Northern Harrier 386 Bald Eagle 350 (212 adult, 115 subadult, 23 unaged) Golden Eagle 81 UNID Eagle 3 Rough-legged Hawk 447 Red-shouldered Hawk 44 Ferruginous Hawk 39 UNID Buteo 31 White-tailed Kite 73 Peregrine Falcon 32 Prairie Falcon 50 Merlin 13 UNID Falcon 1 Cooper's Hawk 33 Sharp-shinned Hawk 23 Northern Goshawk 1 UNID Accipiter 3 Osprey 2 Great Horned Owl 15 Barn Owl 2 Burrowing Owl 2 Short-eared Owl 2 Northern Pygmy Owl 1 Long-eared Owl 1 UNID Raptor 14 IN keeping with OBOL guidelines, I have not attached my monthly summary chart which displays in detail what was seen where. If any of you are interested in knowing more about these results please feel free to email me and I will forward the chart to you :) Jeff Fleischer Project Coordinator East Cascades Bird Conservancy Winter Statewide Raptor Survey Project From pat2ly at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 00:02:46 2009 From: pat2ly at comcast.net (Pat Tilley) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:02:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Polk Co. South Raptor Run Message-ID: Hello OBOL, Carol Karlen, Mary Lou Hornaday and myself completed the Raptor Run in South Polk County on Jan. 7, 2009. It was a cold, windy day, with some fog near the river and rain. Numbers lower than anticipated. We covered 104 miles in about 6.5 hours. Red-tailed Hawk: 20 American Kestrel: 21 Northern Harrier 8 Rough-legged Hawk 4 White-tailed Kite 2 20 Wild Turkeys in Buena Vista at the Boat Ramp +79 Swan, likely all Tundra along Tartar Rd. 12 Western Bluebirds on Buena Vista and Maple Grove Roads Pat Tilley Salem, OR. pat2ly at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/99e7d027/attachment.html From louisfredd at msn.com Mon Jan 19 06:48:55 2009 From: louisfredd at msn.com (LOUIS C FREDD) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:48:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] CASSIN'S FINCH, MERLIN (Oregon City) Message-ID: Sunday, 18 Jan 09, 0800-0900h CASSIN'S FINCH Male, nice color. Perched in yard shrubbery, joined 5 House Finches to forage a bit on lawn underneath hanging sunflower feeder. Whole bird views, wonderful. Yard first. MERLIN "Taiga" Perched very briefly atop very tall fir. Merlins unusually scarce here this winter. Last winter also. Neither seen again for remainder of day. I think perhaps both brought to my doorstep (figuratively speaking, but for the Cassin's a few feet from literally) by stiff east winds overnight into Sunday morning. Good birding, Lou _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? Hotmail?: Chat. Store. Share. Do more with mail. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_hm_justgotbetter_explore_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/462f6f56/attachment.html From jeffharding at centurytel.net Mon Jan 19 08:45:28 2009 From: jeffharding at centurytel.net (Jeff Harding) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:45:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Linn County Raptor Survey - Crabtree area Message-ID: <6D256AB6DD8B40C8BC09A72141409B7E@laptop> Yesterday and Saturday, Bill Thackaberry and I ran the ECBC Raptor Survey, Linn County Route 5, covering the area around Crabtree and Scio. We found raptor numbers similar to December but with more Bald Eagles, and no large Falcons. The increase in Bald Eagles in the area, to 13 from 1 on December 7th, may have something to do with lambing at the Thackaberry Sheep Farm, though they were not all around the farm, but in spread throughout the area, mostly one or two adults at a time. Only six were right on at the farm. Just to be clear, they aren't taking lambs, but in the lambing process there will be a few casualties, and there are always some carcasses around. Compared to last year, there are more Northern Harriers, mostly on Oupor Drive. It was lovely to watch three female harriers interacting with two redtails in the clear blue sky. It seemed the harriers would dive at each other as often as they would at the red-tails, or more often. Perhaps noteworthy was a flock of eight hen pheasants at Richardson's Gap Road and Snow Peak Drive. There were a few groups of Western Meadowlarks and Western Bluebirds, and a flock of American Pipits on the Cawrse Farm on Providence School Road. There were two Great Horned Owls calling on Griggs Drive just before dawn yesterday. Here are the numbers: Red-tailed Hawk - 32 American kestrel-22 Northern Harrier - 9 Bald Eagle, imm - 4 Bald Eagle, Ad - 9 Cooper's Hawk - 1 Sharp-shinned Hk 1 Unident. Accipiter 1 Great Horned Owls - 2 Miles 65 Hours 7 Good birding, Jeff -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/1c870bc9/attachment.html From calliope at theriver.com Mon Jan 19 08:54:28 2009 From: calliope at theriver.com (Rich Hoyer) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:54:28 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1AF01190-D5A0-41D7-A592-26B49300EA5C@theriver.com> Hi All, On Jan 17, 2009, at 11:52 AM, Jeff Gilligan wrote: > A friend in California expressed some skepticism about this report, > noting that the species hasn't been recorded in California. But has Doug Robinson birded extensively in California? If not, that may explain their paucity of Sedge Wren records too (only 7 accepted). After all, he's found twice as many in Oregon as anyone has in California. Rich --- Rich Hoyer Tucson, Arizona Senior Leader for WINGS http://wingsbirds.com --- From rmkepler at gmail.com Mon Jan 19 09:02:18 2009 From: rmkepler at gmail.com (Ryan Kepler) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:02:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Finley NWR on Sunday Message-ID: <8400DB40-5372-4D54-8CF2-74872D9F08E4@gmail.com> Hello OBOLers Sunday was a wonderful day for birding out at Finely NWR. Highlights included a MERLIN right at the main entrance off HWY 99, two PILEATED WOODPECKERS in flight, six EURASIAN WIGEON with four at the pond by the red barn and another two at McFadden Marsh, three ROUGH LEGGED HAWK, two SNOW GEESE, tons of TUNDRA SWANS, as well as most of the usual suspects for the mid valley in winter. Bird on, Ryan Kepler From alderspr at peak.org Mon Jan 19 09:29:46 2009 From: alderspr at peak.org (Karan & Jim Fairchild) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:29:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Turkey vulture Curry Co. Jan 17 Message-ID: <6A5E548418D24EF7B3003DBAF4E026D2@HOMESTEAD> Hi Obolites- Sorry for the late post, but we just got back from a winter fog escape to the coast late last night. Our main quarry was the SUN, which we found in wonderful and warm abundance. We stayed in Bandon and mostly birded within 30 or so miles of it. On Saturday Jan 17 we went to the famous blue silos on Floras Lake Rd, Curry Co, and spent quite a bit of time looking for the YELLOW THROATED WARBLER and never found it. We did see one or two PALM WARBLERS there, foraging on the buildings and equipment. Also a TURKEY VULTURE on a nearby power pole, which the local birders informed us was early in that area. We returned to the silos 3 times during the day, and never saw the yellow throat. Several other people were also looking. We enjoyed visiting with friendly birders and very friendly local landowners and farmers. No other particularly notable birds during the 3 days, though we did see 4 BROWN PELICANS flying off of Cape Arago, one on the rocks as Bandon and several more flying north near Bandon. Also the EMPEROR GOOSE and GREATER WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE were hanging with their domestic goose friends along the streets near the Bandon Jetty. Karan and Jim Fairchild From jvanmoo at sisna.com Mon Jan 19 09:31:09 2009 From: jvanmoo at sisna.com (Julie Van Moorhem) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:31:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Klamath Falls, 1-18-09 Message-ID: Marilyn Christian and I birded around the Link River yesterday and found a juvenile BLACK SCOTER in the calm water just below the Link River dam. On Old Fort Rd. we found a NORTHERN PYGMY OWL being harrassed by a flock of Pygmy Nuthatches. Good birding y'all, Julie Van Moorhem Klamath Falls From greg at thebirdguide.com Mon Jan 19 10:48:03 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:48:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren Message-ID: <20090119104803.nu30aabhw8sg0880@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Photos I took of a Bewick's Wren at Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, last Friday show some ugly deformed swollen toes. I have heard of chickadees up near Seattle with deformed bills (Red-tailed Hawks too, up in BC?). This is the first I've seen of this malady (not counting gulls with club feet). Switch to "original size" under photo to see larger view. http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274923 http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274861 Samples of other photos taken over the weekend include: Fox Sparrow Great Blue Heron Black Turnstone Red-breasted Nuthatch Chestnut-backed Chickadee Golden-crowned Sparrow Canvasback Western Scrub-Jay Rock Sandpiper http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_recent_photos I'm still working on uploading more... Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From dan at heyerly.com Mon Jan 19 10:51:34 2009 From: dan at heyerly.com (Dan Heyerly) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:51:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Hunt - Rich Hoyer's post Message-ID: Touch?! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/7b824df6/attachment.html From dan at heyerly.com Mon Jan 19 10:54:47 2009 From: dan at heyerly.com (Dan Heyerly) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:54:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Hunt - Hoyer clarification Message-ID: For those reading on Siler's site only, and not receiving the e-mails, the pronunciation goes: TOO-SHAY! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/8f8dad85/attachment.html From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Mon Jan 19 11:00:13 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:00:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck Message-ID: I hope people don't give up on the Sparrow From Heck. I hope to give it a try next weekend. I have not seen the location yet, but it seems to me that a standard skirmish-line rail-flush sort of approach is tactically wrong for this bird. We don't want it moving to the edge of the field, we want it moving to the middle where the chances of someone seeing it increase and where it needs to fly past someone head-first to get out. Therefore ideally Operation Lasso needs enough people to make a tighening-noose formation of some kind. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From campbell at peak.org Mon Jan 19 11:06:50 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:06:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pyrrhuloxia, Palm Warbler, Yes! Message-ID: <5137B5249249458DB2BD9D05B9840A26@maryPC> Since so many people seem to have struck out on the Pyrrhuloxia recently, I thought I'd tell you all that it is still here, found a few minutes ago in the scrubby patch east of Main Street and a block north of Stark Street. I put out feed there this morning. The Palm Warbler was feeding in the sunshine in the large fir just south of the greenhouse. The greenhouse in question is the one visible from the park's parking area. Peoria can be found in the Delorme Atlas, p. 47 A7. It's east of the Willamette River on Peoria Road, which runs between Corvallis and Harrisburg. Peoria is about 9 miles south of Hwy. 34 and 12 miles north of Harrisburg. An old church is at the south end of town, and Peoria Park (and boat ramp) is at the north end. Main Street runs between them, along the river. Our house is 29756 Main Street. Sometimes the Pyrrhuloxia visits our back yard. Birders are welcome to stand north of our house to check out the yard. Randy Campbell Peoria -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/1a582292/attachment.html From sandyleapt at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 11:13:12 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:13:12 +0000 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck Message-ID: <011920091913.2821.4974D0C80007498100000B0522069984999B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> What do these sparrows like to eat? Seems like enough people are looking for it that one could chum for sparrows, would it join a mixed flock to feed? So, people who are looking for the little bird--start bringing a little seed and mark the place you set up the feeding station so others can contribute when they come by. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland PS: Golden-crowned Sparrows; Juncos including a Slate-colored; House Sparrows and Finches; continue to abound in my garden. The White-throated Sparrow continue along with other assorted birds that should be here this time of year. -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Alan Contreras > I hope people don't give up on the Sparrow From Heck. I hope to give it a > try next weekend. > > I have not seen the location yet, but it seems to me that a standard > skirmish-line rail-flush sort of approach is tactically wrong for this bird. > We don't want it moving to the edge of the field, we want it moving to the > middle where the chances of someone seeing it increase and where it needs to > fly past someone head-first to get out. Therefore ideally Operation Lasso > needs enough people to make a tighening-noose formation of some kind. > > -- > Alan Contreras > EUGENE, OREGON > acontrer at mindspring.com > > http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary > http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From calliope at theriver.com Mon Jan 19 11:18:51 2009 From: calliope at theriver.com (Rich Hoyer) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:18:51 -0700 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck In-Reply-To: <011920091913.2821.4974D0C80007498100000B0522069984999B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <011920091913.2821.4974D0C80007498100000B0522069984999B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: <0888E50B-63B8-4A31-9B30-FA0E09E28A55@theriver.com> Hi All, Good question Sandy. If one can find some untreated grass seed, that would be much better than any bird seed mix you'd buy at the store. Garden stores here in AZ have only grass seed treated with chemicals to keep birds from eating them. In any event, Henslow's Sparrows do not join mixed sparrow flocks. Remember, their winter home range is 100 square meters. That describes the typical Golden-crowned Sparrow's 10-minute foraging area, so you're not likely to see the two associate. Rich --- Rich Hoyer Tucson, Arizona Senior Leader for WINGS http://wingsbirds.com --- On Jan 19, 2009, at 12:13 PM, sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > What do these sparrows like to eat? Seems like enough people are > looking for it that one could chum for sparrows, would it join a > mixed flock to feed? So, people who are looking for the little > bird--start bringing a little seed and mark the place you set up the > feeding station so others can contribute when they come by. > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > > PS: Golden-crowned Sparrows; Juncos including a Slate-colored; > House Sparrows and Finches; continue to abound in my garden. The > White-throated Sparrow continue along with other assorted birds that > should be here this time of year. > -------------- Original message --- From sandyleapt at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 11:22:08 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:22:08 +0000 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren Message-ID: <011920091922.9927.4974D2E0000DF654000026C722069997359B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Greg, I wonder if the Wren's feet were frostbitten during the cold weather? During the cold weather I noticed some Starlings with toes that appeared to be swollen. I also saw a Fox Sparrow scratch in the snow with both feet, then tuck one foot up into its soft little belly feathers while it pecked at the ground. The Fox Sparrow would then switch the foot it was standing on. I don't know why, but I didn't think birds get cold feet. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Greg Gillson > > Photos I took of a Bewick's Wren at Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, > last Friday show some ugly deformed swollen toes. I have heard of > chickadees up near Seattle with deformed bills (Red-tailed Hawks too, > up in BC?). > > This is the first I've seen of this malady (not counting gulls with > club feet). > > Switch to "original size" under photo to see larger view. > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274923 > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274861 > > Samples of other photos taken over the weekend include: > Fox Sparrow > Great Blue Heron > Black Turnstone > Red-breasted Nuthatch > Chestnut-backed Chickadee > Golden-crowned Sparrow > Canvasback > Western Scrub-Jay > Rock Sandpiper > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_recent_photos > > I'm still working on uploading more... > > Greg Gillson > Hillsboro, Oregon > greg at thebirdguide.com > http://thebirdguide.com > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From sandyleapt at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 11:29:51 2009 From: sandyleapt at comcast.net (sandyleapt at comcast.net) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:29:51 +0000 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck Message-ID: <011920091929.7548.4974D4AF0007AD1300001D7C22007610649B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Hi Rich, All we need is an organic grass seed farmer. I get my bird seed at the Backyard Bird Shop so there tends to be very little waste or leftover seed to sprout. You are right, a person does not want to be introducing a lot of non-native weed seed to a natural area. Sandy Leaptrott NE Portland -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: Rich Hoyer > Hi All, > > Good question Sandy. If one can find some untreated grass seed, that > would be much better than any bird seed mix you'd buy at the store. > Garden stores here in AZ have only grass seed treated with chemicals > to keep birds from eating them. In any event, Henslow's Sparrows do > not join mixed sparrow flocks. Remember, their winter home range is > 100 square meters. That describes the typical Golden-crowned Sparrow's > 10-minute foraging area, so you're not likely to see the two associate. > > Rich > --- > Rich Hoyer > Tucson, Arizona > > Senior Leader for WINGS > http://wingsbirds.com > --- > > On Jan 19, 2009, at 12:13 PM, sandyleapt at comcast.net wrote: > > > What do these sparrows like to eat? Seems like enough people are > > looking for it that one could chum for sparrows, would it join a > > mixed flock to feed? So, people who are looking for the little > > bird--start bringing a little seed and mark the place you set up the > > feeding station so others can contribute when they come by. > > > > Sandy Leaptrott > > NE Portland > > > > PS: Golden-crowned Sparrows; Juncos including a Slate-colored; > > House Sparrows and Finches; continue to abound in my garden. The > > White-throated Sparrow continue along with other assorted birds that > > should be here this time of year. > > -------------- Original message --- > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From jdanielfarrar at gmail.com Mon Jan 19 11:51:56 2009 From: jdanielfarrar at gmail.com (Daniel Farrar) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:51:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren In-Reply-To: <011920091922.9927.4974D2E0000DF654000026C722069997359B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> References: <011920091922.9927.4974D2E0000DF654000026C722069997359B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> Message-ID: <2b1bbd260901191151o6fa142b8m4ed95c279c20c41d@mail.gmail.com> Greg and Sandy, In general standing on one foot is more energy efficient for birds. This is seen very commonly in shorebirds (often reported as having a broken leg). During the banding season, swollen feet like seen in Greg's photos are one of the most common deformities I see. What causes this, I am not sure. It does not seem to be solely cold related, as I have seen it in summer and winter. Daniel On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 11:22 AM, wrote: > Hi Greg, I wonder if the Wren's feet were frostbitten during the cold > weather? During the cold weather I noticed some Starlings with toes that > appeared to be swollen. I also saw a Fox Sparrow scratch in the snow with > both feet, then tuck one foot up into its soft little belly feathers while > it pecked at the ground. The Fox Sparrow would then switch the foot it was > standing on. I don't know why, but I didn't think birds get cold feet. > > Sandy Leaptrott > NE Portland > -------------- Original message ---------------------- > From: Greg Gillson > > > > Photos I took of a Bewick's Wren at Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, > > last Friday show some ugly deformed swollen toes. I have heard of > > chickadees up near Seattle with deformed bills (Red-tailed Hawks too, > > up in BC?). > > > > This is the first I've seen of this malady (not counting gulls with > > club feet). > > > > Switch to "original size" under photo to see larger view. > > > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274923 > > > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274861 > > > > Samples of other photos taken over the weekend include: > > Fox Sparrow > > Great Blue Heron > > Black Turnstone > > Red-breasted Nuthatch > > Chestnut-backed Chickadee > > Golden-crowned Sparrow > > Canvasback > > Western Scrub-Jay > > Rock Sandpiper > > > > http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_recent_photos > > > > I'm still working on uploading more... > > > > Greg Gillson > > Hillsboro, Oregon > > greg at thebirdguide.com > > http://thebirdguide.com > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > obol mailing list > > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -- Daniel Farrar Eugene, Oregon jdanielfarrar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/73b79239/attachment.html From TASGENL at COMCAST.NET Mon Jan 19 11:59:02 2009 From: TASGENL at COMCAST.NET (Tom Shreve) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:59:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren In-Reply-To: <20090119104803.nu30aabhw8sg0880@webmail.thebirdguide.com> References: <20090119104803.nu30aabhw8sg0880@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Message-ID: <00d901c97a70$60d4e2a0$227ea7e0$@NET> Is it possible this is frostbite damage? I realize birds have ways to keep their feet warm by pulling them up or crouching to cover them but our weather was pretty cold for a while. I have pictures of a Song Sparrow on our (plastic) feeder during the cold weather that appears to have balls of ice on its toes. I first thought it was something under the bird on the feeder but it disappears in subsequent frames. A quick search turned up a mention of Mourning Doves losing toes to frostbite: http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/ask/index.html?quid=967 Tom Shreve Tigard -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Greg Gillson Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 10:48 AM To: OBOL Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren Photos I took of a Bewick's Wren at Fernhill Wetlands, Forest Grove, last Friday show some ugly deformed swollen toes. I have heard of chickadees up near Seattle with deformed bills (Red-tailed Hawks too, up in BC?). This is the first I've seen of this malady (not counting gulls with club feet). Switch to "original size" under photo to see larger view. http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274923 http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108274861 Samples of other photos taken over the weekend include: Fox Sparrow Great Blue Heron Black Turnstone Red-breasted Nuthatch Chestnut-backed Chickadee Golden-crowned Sparrow Canvasback Western Scrub-Jay Rock Sandpiper http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/_recent_photos I'm still working on uploading more... Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From teena at bikerider.com Mon Jan 19 12:28:59 2009 From: teena at bikerider.com (Teena McKenzie) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:28:59 -0500 Subject: [obol] barn owl Message-ID: <20090119202859.53D4511581F@ws1-7.us4.outblaze.com> Last night just after dusk we spotted a barn owl hunting along the fern ridge gravel road at the end of Royal. It came right up to us twice, face to face checking us out before it swooped off into the trees. We walk there four nights a week and this is our first sighting at this location. -- Be Yourself @ mail.com! Choose From 200+ Email Addresses Get a Free Account at www.mail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/0541b308/attachment.html From mklittletree at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 12:35:03 2009 From: mklittletree at comcast.net (michel Kleinbaum) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:35:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck References: Message-ID: <5B63B94DF0194B65AAE6271856ED8295@michel1927> In May of 1961, Guy Tudor, Fred Heath and I drove down to Readington Airfield N.J. to try for our life Henslow's Sparrow. When we finally found one, it would flush, fly 3 or 4 feet and vanish in the grass. We adopted a sort of triangulation method, each pointing to the spot where the bird landed then walk towards it only to see the bird flush again 6 or more feet away. Eventually it landed, briefly, in the open, we got our 1-minute look and stopped the chase. They are now gone from New Jersey as they are from New York where I lucked out on one a couple of years later. Michel Kleinbaum S. Salem ----- Original Message ----- From: "Alan Contreras" To: "obol" Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 11:00 AM Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck I hope people don't give up on the Sparrow From Heck. I hope to give it a try next weekend. I have not seen the location yet, but it seems to me that a standard skirmish-line rail-flush sort of approach is tactically wrong for this bird. We don't want it moving to the edge of the field, we want it moving to the middle where the chances of someone seeing it increase and where it needs to fly past someone head-first to get out. Therefore ideally Operation Lasso needs enough people to make a tighening-noose formation of some kind. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From greg at thebirdguide.com Mon Jan 19 12:51:21 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:51:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] eBird local experts? Message-ID: <20090119125121.5q9z0mbfsoosgw0s@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Who are the Oregon eBird local experts? I have a question about a sighting that has been reviewed according to the eBird gadget. If anyone can tell me how to get actual data out of the eBird project, I'd appreciate knowing that, too! Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From dhughes55 at clearwire.net Mon Jan 19 13:29:11 2009 From: dhughes55 at clearwire.net (Denise Hughes) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:29:11 -0700 Subject: [obol] Nyssa and Vale Raptor routes Message-ID: <000601c97a7c$f8dd35f0$ea97a1d0$@net> Here are two raptor survey results from eastern Oregon Nyssa Red-tailed Hawks 36 American Kestrels 38 Northern Harriers 9 Bald Eagles 2 (adult) Prairie Falcons 2 Vale Red-tailed Hawks 43 American Kestrels 51 Northern Harriers 10 Rough legged Hawks 4 Merlins 2 Prairie Falcons 2 Barn Owl 1 Great Horned Owls 2 Denise Hughes Caldwell, Idaho -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/a3bc24c6/attachment.html From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 19 13:33:07 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:33:07 +0000 Subject: [obol] Photo Quiz of Mystery Raptor REVEALED!! Message-ID: Hi all, Here is the breakdown of guesses for the mystery raptor who I named Ghengis. It was not an easy one so many thanks for participating! I usually don't enjoy photo quizzes myself but we all can something from them. Firstly, I neglected to say the hawk was photographed this early January in Conconully, WA (Okanogan Co) while birding with Mike Marsh. We had 52 birders who participated despite having over 2100 looks or 'hits' for this mystery raptor. Rough legged 26 Swainson's 20 Red shouldered 1 Broad winged 2 Harlan?s 3 Here is a SUMMARY to the correct ID. Swainson's can be ruled out based on the body shape and proportions and the fairly strong pattern on the wing coverts and scapulars. Harlan's should be more strongly black and white with some white spots in the scapulars and more white around the eyes. Things suggesting Rough-legged include small bill, white forehead, long wings reaching at least to the tail tip, and the overall mottled pattern. If you guess Dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk, you were CORRECT! MANY THANKS to David Sibley, Jerry Liguori, and Bud Anderson for confirming the ID. The latter two, being the raptor authorities. Also, you can see a few birder's comments as to what they guessed and why on my website. http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/photo_quiz_ Good birding, Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From winkg at hevanet.com Mon Jan 19 14:02:35 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:02:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Barn Swallow, Ancient Murrelets at Tierra del Mar Message-ID: <20090119220302.5D81EA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Pretty amazing weather at the coast this long weekend. This morning (Jan 19) a female BARN SWALLOW was foraging along the beach at Tierra del Mar (Tillamook Co.). Off shore, 4 ANCIENT MURRELETS were swimming just beyond the surf. (They, or 4 more just like them, were still here at 1PM.) 3 BLACK SCOTERS (1 male and 2 females) flew by. I've seen only one Aechmophorus grebe this weekend. It was a long way out, but, judging by it's pale back, I think it was a CLARK'S GREBE. Saturday afternoon, a close-in feeding frenzy attracted many COMMON MURRES, two ANCIENT MURRELETS, a few RHINOCEROS AUKLETS, a single winter-plumage TUFTED PUFFIN, and a RED- NECKED GREBE. At Sandlake this morning, we found about 50 BUFFLEHEADS, 3 GREATER YELLOWLEGS, and 8 LONG-BILLED (presumably) DOWITCHERS. Over the weekend, I've seen about a half dozen BROWN PELICANS either swimming or flying by. I expected to find many dead pelicans on the beach but have found none. The only beached birds were a couple each of Common Murres and adult Black-legged Kittiwakes and an adult Western Gull. Yesterday morning, 5 WESTERN BLUEBIRDS were foraging in a pasture off Redberg Rd. in South Tillamook Co. Wink Gross Tierra del Mar (and Portland) From magnus at pcez.com Mon Jan 19 14:05:24 2009 From: magnus at pcez.com (Elisabeth Magnus) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:05:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] question: semipalmated plovers and bloodworms/fireworms Message-ID: <4974f924.3471.0@pcez.com> Yesterday I was hiking along the bay at Bay Ocean Spit at low tide when I saw a semipalmated plover out on the mudflats who appeared to be gingerly messing about with an earthworm-sized marine worm. I couldn?t get a great view of the worm because I had no scope with me, but it was reddish-orange and looked flattened along one side. It could have been a polychaete (I looked up their pictures later and read that semipalms eat polychaetes), though I?m not sure what kind. If it had bristles I wouldn?t have been able to see them from my distance. The plover kept picking the worm up, tossing it around, and dropping it as the worm writhed about. Sometimes it held the worm by its middle, but even when it got the worm lengthwise by one end it didn?t swallow it, and in the end it abandoned it. A nearby gull who came over to take a look did not attempt to eat it either. A little later I saw another semipalm toy in the same way with another reddish-orange worm and again finally drop it. Would these be bloodworms, which bite? Fireworms, which have a stinging irritant in their bristles? (Are the latter even present in Tillamook Bay?) The warning coloration and the birds? behavior suggest that the worm had some kind of defense. If so, do semipalms ever eat these? Do they have some way around the defense? --Elisabeth Magnus ------------------- http://www.pcez.com From pamao at q.com Mon Jan 19 14:06:20 2009 From: pamao at q.com (Pam Otley) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:06:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Plovers near Halsey Message-ID: Hi all, Today, 1/19, I spotted 10 large plovers in a field near Halsey. They were associating with a mixed group of dunlin, killdeer, and starlings. They were larger than the killdeer. I was unable to determine wing markings or underwing black patches due to the distance and lighting. I am thinking they were Black-bellied Plovers due to their size. Directions to the field - 2 miles south from Halsey on Hwy 99E, turn left (east) on Twin Buttes W Drive, proceed .7 mile, they were on the north side of the road. Pam -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/e8b19867/attachment.html From rriparia at charter.net Mon Jan 19 14:32:18 2009 From: rriparia at charter.net (Kevin Spencer) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:32:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] KLAMCO RBA: BLACK SCOTER Message-ID: <20090119173219.B5TCT.1758511.root@mp19> OBOL, and Klamath Basin Bird News, The first winter female BLACK SCOTER, seen yesterday, Sunday, Jan. 18, by Julie Van Moorhem and Marilyn Christian was seen again today, the 19th. It was just below the Link River Dam, on the down side of the dam, in calm water just below the dam. It was also diving in the moving water just below the dam, in the area of a concrete outflow pipe. There were Common Mergansers, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Mergansers in the vicinity also. It was actively diving and would stay down longer than the other divers. Sometimes it would hang close to a concrete barrier wall and viewing occurred by looking through bars atop the wall. To my knowledge, this is a first county record. It was photographed. Kevin Spencer rriparia at charter.net From lbviman at blackfoot.net Mon Jan 19 14:45:41 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:45:41 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's sparrow In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090119224446.0CD6B9B006C@mail.blackfoot.net> In response to how a relatively short-distance, probably relatively sedentary species can travel so far off course, I am reminded of the explanation for how rails and coots get so far afield - they are poor fliers, and if swept up in a storm can, will, and are blown to just about anywhere the storm may blow them, hence their great dispersal for such poor navigators. With storms sweeping SW to NE across the continent, there are reverse and at right angle winds as well into which such a bird may have been lifted, landing it far from where it expected (genetically-speaking) it would be - Jim Greaves, Montana At 01:00 PM 1/19/2009, Joel Geier at obol-request at oregonbirdwatch.org wrote: >Anybody know of a theory that fits? Or is this just one very confused bird? From dpvroman at budget.net Mon Jan 19 14:47:38 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:47:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren References: <20090119104803.nu30aabhw8sg0880@webmail.thebirdguide.com> <00d901c97a70$60d4e2a0$227ea7e0$@NET> Message-ID: <4BFA19D9622744E38B9BDFB79E1C6B40@Warbler> Have not looked at Greg's photo yet, but think about this. Low temps should not be a problem for passerine birds. Birds like Redpolls find sub-zero temps no problem. When living in northern NY we would have them and others species in minus 30-40 below temps. Our OR temps are pretty mild when you think about it. Have captured Mourning Doves and their legs/feet are soft and tender, not as hard and scale-like as passerines and I could see where they might be frost or cold damaged. Dennis > Is it possible this is frostbite damage? I realize birds have ways to > keep > their feet warm by pulling them up or crouching to cover them but our > weather was pretty cold for a while. I have pictures of a Song Sparrow on > our (plastic) feeder during the cold weather that appears to have balls of > ice on its toes. I first thought it was something under the bird on the > feeder but it disappears in subsequent frames. > A quick search turned up a mention of Mourning Doves losing toes to > frostbite: > http://www.ccmr.cornell.edu/education/ask/index.html?quid=967 > > Tom Shreve > Tigard From watice at msn.com Mon Jan 19 14:53:38 2009 From: watice at msn.com (BILL ROSIE TICE) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:53:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Hunt Message-ID: Hi Folks, I went to EE Wilson this morning to look for this Henslow's Sparrow. There were 2 other birders who got there about the same time as me, with their dog. I did not get their names. I found Doug's marker, and started slowly walking the field to the south. Little by little I made wider circles. I did not see even one sparrow-type bird for one half hour. Finally, I saw one fly into a small bramble patch at least 100 yards SW of the marker. So I walked over there. That particular look was into the sun, but I could tell it was small. I came to about 20 feet of the brambles and waited for 5 minutes, then slowly started to circle it, which took at least another 5 minutes as I was really in slow motion. I returned to my starting place, and decided to head 50 feet to the south, and make a sweep of the area beyond the brambles in case the bird had kept going in the same direction on foot. So I made the sweep and was just getting back to the small bramble when it flushed. I almost stepped on it. In hindsight, I must have come close to doing that when circling the patch the first time. It flew directly away from me, with that herky-jerky type of flight that Doug described, and landed on a bramble about 50 feet away. If I was not looking for a Henslow's, I would have suspected a Clay-colored/Brewer's/Chipping based on the size and the light colored head, which I was seeing as I was putting my binocs up to my eyes. The bird allowed me about a one second look through my bins, and I could then tell it was not one of those species. What I did see in that one second was a light brown face and head, just like the color on the head of a Harris' Sparrow (Sibley is best for that). I also did see a small, dark mark behind the eye. The impression I had was that of a very large supercilium, the area above the eye a little light in color than that below the eye. I should mention that the bird was in very bright sunlight. The back was darkish, and, while I did not hone in on the breast, I don't recall seeing streaks. I wish I had a few seconds more, but the bird then flew another 30 feet or so to more brambles and did land in a viewable spot, but I could not get on it, where it stayed for another few seconds, and then it flew to the south to the beginning of a long hedgerow of brambles. In 2-3 seconds it flew further down the row and I lost it after that, even though I trudged through the area for another 25 minutes. To describe the area, I would say to reach it look for the small fir tree south of Doug's marker. From there go west. You will see the bramble hedgerow, and beyond that is a small bramble patch that is just sough of the field with teasel. Good luck to whoever goes looking for this bird. It is not very cooperative. I can certainly say with Roy Gerig that it was not a Lincoln's Sparrow, and I have no experience with Henslow's. Well, it is now off to Mexico for 2 weeks of birding, sunshine, and R&R. I do hope someone can nail this bird down a little farther. I should have remembered to bring my Jeff Gilligan mask................. Bill Tice -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/a40a1a1a/attachment.html From lbviman at blackfoot.net Mon Jan 19 15:05:46 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:05:46 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's sparrow, chumming and chasing In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090119230450.D736E9B0054@mail.blackfoot.net> My limited experience with the genus, a Nelson's sharp-tail which landed in Santa Barbara County a couple falls ago, indicates they eat small insects and glean small seeds from live or dormant weeds. Of course, I don't know what weeds might still retain seeds at "Heck", but watching American Tree Sparrows this month, eating seeds a foot or so above deep snow from sparse weeds indicates to me that "chumming" might not work with birds that usually (?) glean seeds from plants, or eat small insects off the ground - Jim Greaves, Montana http://blackfoot.net/~larkwick/Nelsons_Sparrow.html ps. The idea posited by a different reader/writer, that surrounding the bird and forcing it to show itself might be in order, it seems to me such method may defeat the purpose of "friendly" competitive birding, and is hardly "sporting". If the point is to "prove" it's Henslow's sparrow, why not just shoot it and put it in a drawer at the nearest university or natural history museum? THAT would solve the problem of ID with the least "disturbance" to habitat; although that WAS the usual habit of proving the existence of such rare birds, even into and past the 1970's, it certainly isn't very nice - and in my estimation, no less nice than harassing the bird into a potential frenzy to leave by surrounding it with dogs and humans beating the bush, and I venture to say, would ruin the "sport" for many less than aggressive birders who merely want to see birds, not traumatize them. At 01:00 PM 1/19/2009, obol-request at oregonbirdwatch.org wrote: >Subject: Re: [obol] Sparrow from Heck >What do these sparrows like to eat? Seems like enough people are >looking for it that one could chum for sparrows, would it join a >mixed flock to feed? So, people who are looking for the little >bird--start bringing a little seed and mark the place you set up the >feeding station so others can contribute when they come by. > >Sandy Leaptrott >NE Portland From birdmandon at clearwire.net Mon Jan 19 14:58:30 2009 From: birdmandon at clearwire.net (Don Schrouder) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:58:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lane Co. Golden Eagle Message-ID: OBOL, After a good morning birding Alton Baker Park and relocating the RED- SHOULDERED HAWK found there in recent postings, I decided to spend some time west of Eugene. First stop was in Alvadore at the end of Starlite, just past Dave Browns place (Hi Dave). There were a couple thousand Geese and hundreds of ducks that I was in the process of scanning when something flushed everything up. I looked up from my scope and grabbed the binos to find an immature GOLDEN EAGLE hunting everything in sight. After several passes it landed in the oak trees to the west and waited for birds to return. After 25 minutes it made another attempt at lunch and landed on the ground by the flooded field for a couple of minutes before taking off and heading north. I then ran into Al Prigge and Bill Hunter on Franklin Road and they also had the bird earlier in the morning on Washburne Lane so it has been hanging around the area today. Also had a PEREGRINE FALCON hunting the fields and birds at the end of Starlite. Don Schrouder birdmandon at clearwire.net From dpvroman at budget.net Mon Jan 19 15:20:27 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:20:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Deformed toes: Bewick's Wren References: <011920091922.9927.4974D2E0000DF654000026C722069997359B9F0E0A04970B020E9C@comcast.net> <2b1bbd260901191151o6fa142b8m4ed95c279c20c41d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Having banded 1000s of passerines, I have to agree with Daniel, deformed toes are not all that uncommon. There can be numerous causes, from avian pox on down. Dennis Greg and Sandy, In general standing on one foot is more energy efficient for birds. This is seen very commonly in shorebirds (often reported as having a broken leg). During the banding season, swollen feet like seen in Greg's photos are one of the most common deformities I see. What causes this, I am not sure. It does not seem to be solely cold related, as I have seen it in summer and winter. Daniel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/32d5c3b7/attachment.html From joel.geier at peak.org Mon Jan 19 15:44:53 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:44:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Sparrow from Heck Message-ID: <1232408693.3627.23.camel@localhost.localdomain> Sandy Leaptrott wrote: > All we need is an organic grass seed farmer ....You are right, a person does > not want to be introducing a lot of non-native weed seed to a natural area. I can donate a half a pound or so mix of native Willamette Valley prairie seed (hand-harvested from our front-yard restoration, mix of prairie Junegrass, Roemer's fescue and maybe some Calapooia tufted hairgrass) for this effort, plus a pile of elegant madia which has pretty small seeds, slender cinquefoil, and whatever else I can spare. That's serious overkill for that patch, which is actually full of nasty non- native grasses. But since the bird is not a normal WV species, who says it has to go for the prime native habitats? Anyway, at least a native seed mix will do no harm. If anyone wants to stop by and pick this up tomorrow morning, our place is the second house south of the landfill along Hwy 99W (red house w/ white trim, green mailbox). Happy birding, Joel -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From celata at pacifier.com Mon Jan 19 16:54:18 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:54:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Raptor Count: Columbia River Route - 1/19/2009 Message-ID: <497520BA.6080208@pacifier.com> Still plenty of east wind. NO kestrels, and given that more kestrels than average were farther west on the Youngs Bay count yesterday, I'm guessing this may be an artifact of the iciness of the last few weeks. Bald Eagle numbers also uncharacteristically low. Probably all gone to the valley for the sheep feast... Date: January 19, 2009 Location: Clatsop County, Oregon Temperature: 48 degrees fahrenheit Wind direction: E Prevailing wind speed: 12-19 km/h Columbia River Route: 3hrs; 62mi Birds seen (in taxonomic order): Red-throated Loon 2 [1] Bald Eagle 8 Northern Harrier 5 Red-tailed Hawk 11 Peregrine Falcon 3 [2] Footnotes: [1] Blind Slough, first time they've shown there since early December... [2] including the Jackson Rd pair courting -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From dlrobbo at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 16:58:21 2009 From: dlrobbo at comcast.net (Doug Robberson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:58:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] Movie Message-ID: http://www.vimeo.com/2885985 The person who shot the video says they are swallows. They appear to be swifts using a natural rock roost Doug Robberson Tigard, OR From celata at pacifier.com Mon Jan 19 17:07:39 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:07:39 -0800 Subject: [obol] Movie Message-ID: <497523DB.5040106@pacifier.com> They look to be Cliff Swallows to me. It you watch carefully, you can see the pale rump patch on some individuals. -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From dlrobbo at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 18:00:21 2009 From: dlrobbo at comcast.net (Doug Robberson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:00:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] Picture request Message-ID: Does anyone have a picture of a male Eurasian Wigeon in non-breeding plumage that I may use in teaching a class to non-profit organization. Doug Robberson Tigard, OR From frankdanl at yahoo.com Mon Jan 19 18:11:07 2009 From: frankdanl at yahoo.com (frank lospalluto) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:11:07 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Agency Lake_Ft. Klamath ECBC Raptor Run, Klamath Co., 01/18/09 Message-ID: <863497.50669.qm@web36704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi! Yesterday under great observing conditions I completed the January ECBC Agency Lake_Ft. Klamath_RR. 82 miles in 4:45 hrs. RED-TAILED HAWK 42 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK 4 COOPER'S HAWK 2 BALD EAGLE 11 ADULTS, 3 SUBADULTS Other birds of interest: small flock of Evening Grosbeaks at Wood River Wetlands and Pygmy Nuthatches in the Ponderosa stand along Modoc Pt. Rd. just northwest of Williamson River. frank From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 18:38:36 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:38:36 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - EE Wilson - Yes. Message-ID: Owen Schmidt and I visited the site today in afternoon where Doug Robinson originally located the Henslow's Sparrow. We had perfect views of the bird and saw all of the field marks. Remarkably (except for the fact that we expect Owen to do the remarkable in photography) Owen obtained several very good diagnostic photos of it. He will post them later today. Congratulations to Doug on the original find. We first saw only Song Sparrows on the periphery of the field. After seeing a bit of vague movement in the blackberries near Doug's red and white ribbon, we looked into that bush, but only a Song Sparrow emerged. As we were about to leave that spot, we heard the crunch of a dry leaf. We froze and waited. Eventually the Henslow's Sparrow ran through an opening on the ground, but only the back pattern was discernible. We waited longer and it popped into the open on an arching branch, but the light was poor due to the sun angle and it flew off to the margin of the thistles on the west side of the field. We visually marked the spot and circled around toward it from the west, but the bird was missing. We then looped back into the thistles to approach again from the west about 20 feet to the south. The small sparrow flew low into the field and landed near a dead dark forbe. The herky-jerky flight style was obvious both times it had flown. The head seems to go back and forth as it flies - with the bill often not pointed in the direction it was flying, and the tail may move laterally as well - though the bird flies in a rather straight line. It then flew to a small clump of blackberries, and then to a row of thistles where I saw it land on rather bare ground and run about 7 feet into cover. It runs VERY well - faster than I think a vole can. Fortunately, Owen was stationed on the far end of the thistle row and obtained the photos as it ran by. It then flew toward another berry thicket. As Owen was telling me he got photos, I was still watching the bird, which had landed on the outer part of the thicket in perfect sunlight. After reviewing the photos and having confirmed that we had both seen the Henslow's Sparrow well, we departed. What we saw on the bird was conclusive regarding the identification. It is very small, with a proportionately large bill. In the good light we saw it in, the nape and head generally (but particularly the eye-line) are yellow-sage in color. The dark back has bright white lines that are somewhat scalloped. The tertials (remember we had it in excellent light) were red rust-colored. As Doug Robinson indicated - no other species has this combination of features. The chest and sides have bold dark streaks. While the head was usually flat, at one point it raised the crown feathers a bit to give a shaggy appearance. The throat was whitish, with dark whisker streaks. Don't rely on the National Geographic Guide (5th edition) for identification help. The face is too dull and the back is very poorly illustrated in the Geo. Guide. That book shows the back as far too scalloped. It in fact does have something of a scalloped effect - but really the dark back is more lined in white running length-wise. Sibley illustrates the species well. For strategy, we recommend slow movements while listening for any faint noise of the bird in the dry vegetation. It never called while we were there. Don't expect it to be where you saw it land. It lands and runs fast and far. With quiet patience, it perches for a while in the open every once in a while. Too many people being aggressive in the search will cause it to be difficult to see. If you see where it lands, have at least one person keep a wide-angled search to see if it might take flight. It flies fast, low, and silently. Jeff Gilligan Portland From john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org Mon Jan 19 19:03:15 2009 From: john.gatchet at oc.npuc.org (John Gatchet) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:03:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] Tufted Duck at Woodson Message-ID: <41450F4C98633F449B0D441BFA16956F01D718A1@npuceb.NPU.NA.SDA> I stopped at Woodson in Columbia County (west of Clatskanie) and found the TUFTED DUCK this morning. A European Starling was imitating a Black Phoebe along River Front Road near the duck's location. At Brownsmead in Clatsop County I found a MERLIN and 5 BALD EAGLE. A strong east wind was blowing there. Mike Patterson was birding the area and we visited briefly. On the way home I stopped in Westport and there was no wind. It was birdy there with a dozen RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET, BUSHTITS, BEWICK'S WREN, BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES and a gorgeous RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER. John F. Gatchet Gresham, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/0faa4e82/attachment.html From whoffman at peak.org Mon Jan 19 19:07:31 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:07:31 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. References: Message-ID: I have a little experience with habitat in the southeast - actually a lot more with the habitat than with the sparrows! Some of the southeastern pines, particularly slash pine and longleaf pine, grow in seasonally damp savanna habitats. The pine trees tend to be well spaced, with a lot of light reaching the ground, and hebaceous ground cover. If fire is suppressed they grow up to shrubs and hardwood trees, but larger tracts usually burn often enough to keep things herbaceous. Low spots tend to have marsh plants, including pitcher plants, sundews, and Pinguicula. The important thing, though, is those areas have wet summers and the driest time of year is winter. So, they usually are pretty well drained and dried out when the sparrows would be present. Wayne ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeff Gilligan" To: "OBOL" Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 2:31 PM Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow - habitat in winter. > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henslow's_Sparrow > > > This site refers to the species migrating to marshy areas in winter. I > googled "Henslow's Sparrow habitat". > > A Michigan conservation page refers to low, damp grassy habitats, and > indicates that they also occur in drier habitats. > > Another site refers to wet pine forest floors in winter (wet pine forest > floors...a strange concept to me...) > > My experience with the species is very limited. Decades ago a > bander/birder > in Illinois took me to site near Rockford where we saw territorial > Henslow's > Sparrows. As I recall, that site was a remnant of tall prairie grass, and > that it was damp. > > > Jeff Gilligan > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 19:22:52 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:22:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Finding the Henslow's Sparrow site. (EE Wilson) Message-ID: My version of how to get there: 1. Park at the visitors parking on Camp Adair Rd. 2. Walk past the pheasant, chukar, etc. pens. 3. When you see the old small building (I think it is red) with the white pole near it (perhaps once a flag pole) follow the mowed path across he grassy area and keep going. 3. Cross the ash swale creek on the wooden foot bridge ( a marker on the far side refers to Troop 250). 4. Find the old paved road and keep walking north. 5. When you get to the "T", go west (left). 6. You will soon see an old shed tot eh south-west. You can jump the wet ditch, or keep going until you reach a spot where there is a culvert over the ditch. 7. Go to the shed. 8. Look east with binoculars and you will see Doug's red and white tape on a thistle. 9. Go to the taped thistle. Start birding to the south within and on the margins of the "field" that is vaguely surrounded by blackberries and thistle. From oschmidt at att.net Mon Jan 19 19:32:19 2009 From: oschmidt at att.net (Owen Schmidt) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:32:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos posted Message-ID: ...... from earlier today: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html oschmidt at att.net Monday, January 19, 2009 From rawieland at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 19:40:14 2009 From: rawieland at comcast.net (Rainer Wieland) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:40:14 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? It's otherwise! Message-ID: Thanks for all of your posts suggesting what the recorded call at http://tinyurl.com/7z54x6 was in the middle of the night. Suggested sources of the call were: o Heron, probably Great Blue Heron o unlikely to be an owl; roosting geese o California Sea Lion o not a goose; maybe a seal o first choice sea lion, second choice black bear o sea lions o sea lion Well, we have a definitive answer. And it's none of the above! You can read about it at http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/2009/01/mystery-solved.html Cheers, Rainer Wieland Portland, OR From cyncay at comcast.net Mon Jan 19 19:59:34 2009 From: cyncay at comcast.net (Cindy Talbott-Nelson) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:59:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? It's otherwise! In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20090120035935.0E8C2A8255@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Rainer, Aha, that's it a DC Cormorant imitating a sea lion, what a clever bird! Cynthia -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Rainer Wieland Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 7:40 PM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Cc: Monika Wieland Subject: [obol] Mystery call: owl or otherwise? It's otherwise! Thanks for all of your posts suggesting what the recorded call at http://tinyurl.com/7z54x6 was in the middle of the night. Suggested sources of the call were: o Heron, probably Great Blue Heron o unlikely to be an owl; roosting geese o California Sea Lion o not a goose; maybe a seal o first choice sea lion, second choice black bear o sea lions o sea lion Well, we have a definitive answer. And it's none of the above! You can read about it at http://orcawatcher.blogspot.com/2009/01/mystery-solved.html Cheers, Rainer Wieland Portland, OR _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.7/1895 - Release Date: 1/19/2009 9:37 AM From whoffman at peak.org Mon Jan 19 20:02:28 2009 From: whoffman at peak.org (Wayne Hoffman) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:02:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] South coast, and Baja Oregon Message-ID: I spent the 3-day weekend on the south coast, and down as far as Centerville Beach, CA, which is maybe 20 miles S. of Eureka. Highlights: Emperor Goose in Bandon: I spent quite a while Saturday and today watching it, and saw that it is at the very bottom of the pecking order in the flock. The Greater White-fronted Goose chased it several times, but seemed subservient to all the Barnyard Geese. The Barnyard Geese seemed more agressive and quarrelsome than I have noticed in the past. Ferrugineous Hawk. Nice Adult, pale phase, in the dairy fields just S of the Smith River, N. of Crescent City. Saw it on a power pole crossbar on Saturday PM along Lower Lake Rd., just N. of the barnyard with all the veal boxes. On Sunday PM it was in a treetop 1/4 mile wast of the Hwy 101 bridge over Smith River. I have not seen this bird mentioned on Calbirds, so maybe someone can cross-post. I think it would be pretty rare anywhere on the north coast? Peregrines: Five seen. One, near Ferndale, was doing what I call slow flight: flapping fast with shallow wingbeats, without traveling very fast at all. Red-shouldered Hawks: Saw 8 and later will post something about immature plumages. Brant: more than 1000 in the air over S. Humboldt Bay, seen from the South Spit. 3 Ravens on the beach at Crescent City attacking a live, beached Western Grebe. I suspect they would have killed it, but a passerby flushed them, and then a wave floated the grebe enough to get back into deeper water. Hundreds of Tundra Swans in a field near Ferndale, CA. Lowlights: According to Sheila in Harbor, Eurasian Flying Rats I mean Collared Doves have become common there. They are common form there all the way to Ferndale, anywhere that is not forested. A few around each farmyard or village in the Eel River Bottoms, Ditto the Smith River bottoms, ditto in Crescent City, Arcata, Eureka, McKinleyville. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/c2170f15/attachment.html From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 19 20:18:45 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:18:45 +0000 Subject: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos Message-ID: Hi Owen and Jeff, With all due respect, I think you photographed two different birds. The first set I feel is a Lincoln's sparrow. I am studying the set with the three photos of a Ammodramus species but not totally convinced it is a Henslow without further examination. To me, the flat head, larger beak appearance and overall structure does not gel. A frontal view would have been helpful. Be curious what others think, this is simply my opinion. Thanks for getting documentation of such a skulker! All the best, Khanh Tran From ninerharv2 at msn.com Mon Jan 19 20:25:57 2009 From: ninerharv2 at msn.com (HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE ) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:25:57 +0000 Subject: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos Message-ID: I was about to make the same post and agree with Khahn Tran. The photos do not appear to me to be henslow sparrow. I am not sure we have two bird here but I wondered about that also. But none would appear to be Henslow. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: khanh tran Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:18:45 To: Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos Hi Owen and Jeff, ? With all due respect, I think you photographed two different birds.? The first set I feel is a Lincoln's sparrow.? I am studying the set with the three photos of a Ammodramus species but not totally convinced it is a Henslow without further examination.? To me, the flat head, larger beak appearance and overall structure does not gel.? ? A frontal view would have been helpful. ? Be curious what others think, this is simply my opinion.? Thanks for getting documentation of such a skulker! ? All the best, ? Khanh Tran _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From birdboy at bkpix.com Mon Jan 19 20:30:52 2009 From: birdboy at bkpix.com (Noah Strycker) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:30:52 +1300 Subject: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: OBOL and Henslow's hunters, Interesting photos. Looks like a particularly well-marked Lincoln's Sparrow to me, by structure and plumage (behavior notwithstanding). That doesn't mean a Henslow's isn't also out there, though... Good birding, Noah Strycker On 1/20/09, khanh tran wrote: > > > Hi Owen and Jeff, > > With all due respect, I think you photographed two different birds. The > first set I feel is a Lincoln's sparrow. I am studying the set with the > three photos of a Ammodramus species but not totally convinced it is a > Henslow without further examination. To me, the flat head, larger beak > appearance and overall structure does not gel. > > A frontal view would have been helpful. > > Be curious what others think, this is simply my opinion. Thanks for getting > documentation of such a skulker! > > All the best, > > Khanh Tran > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Mon Jan 19 20:33:59 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:33:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I just got home from the Wallowas and missing the Pine Warbler and just looked at Owen's photos. Looks like a Lincoln's to me also. Henslow's have a different shape, being much bigger billed and flatter headed, for starters. Will post more on the trip over yonder later. Cheers, Shawneen From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Mon Jan 19 20:35:16 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:35:16 +0000 Subject: [obol] Excellent Henslow's sparrow photos for comparsion. Message-ID: Hi Obolers! Here are photos from my favorite bird photographer of a Henslow's sparrow. It offers a wide variety of variation, angles, and lighting of a Henslow's sparrow that most field guides don't cover. Maybe it will shed some light for those that have never seen one in REAL life like me! Real photos are tough to come by-- especially something this clear and sharp! http://www.roysephotos.com/HenslowsSparrow.html Good birding, Khanh Tran From hhactitis at yahoo.com Mon Jan 19 20:46:49 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:46:49 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos posted In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <25148.38354.qm@web37005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hi Owen, Jeff and the rest of OBOL, I have to agree with the previously offered opinions as to this bird: The first two pictures definitely show a typical Lincoln's Sparrow, and I believe the remaining shots to be of the same species, although that bird perches on the ground and appears flatter-crowned and bigger-billed - still, I don't see any of the characteristic scaling on the back, the bill should be paler and even bigger in a Henslow's, the color of the nape is all wrong, there is too much of a dark pattern on the cheeks, and the eye stripe and crown look wrong. I've compared Owen's shots with many pictures of Henslow's Sparrow on the web, and I believe this to be a case of a little too much wishful thinking - and quite likely a somewhat oddly behaving Lincoln's Sparrow. A valient effort to document an extremely elusive first for Oregon, and having unsuccesfully chased that bird myself, I can understand only too well how a fleeting glimpse at a potential candidate in the right area would get the heart rate up and one would concentrate on nothing but getting a decent picture ..... unfortunately, the visible results don't bear out the initial impression. I'm curious to see what others think about this bird/these birds .... Respectfully, Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com --- On Mon, 1/19/09, Owen Schmidt wrote: From: Owen Schmidt Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos posted To: "OBOL" Date: Monday, January 19, 2009, 7:32 PM ...... from earlier today: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html oschmidt at att.net Monday, January 19, 2009 _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090119/1a2da0ff/attachment.html From craig at greatskua.com Mon Jan 19 20:59:17 2009 From: craig at greatskua.com (Craig Tumer) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:59:17 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos Message-ID: <20090119215917.3bd901d66b2d769bd36646c62e7e74c3.0e12da74bb.wbe@email.secureserver.net> I agree with the previous posts by others. None of the birds in these photos appear to be Henslow's sparrows. The top three photos appear to be of a Lincoln's sparrows, and the bottom photos look like a different sparrow (probably savannah) to me. The bills of the birds in the photos posted by Schmidt are WAY too small. That's the first thing that struck me when I first looked at the photos. Henslow's sparrows have big, honkin' bills, and the flat-headed profile really accentuates the size of the bill on Henslow's sparrows. Here's a link to some photos of Henslow's sparrows I took in Arkansas in March 2007 for comparison. (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=craigPDX&target=PHOTO&id=5292483021662002722&aid=5292482976459218641&authkey=XYeqqRhdbDA&feat=email) The face pattern for the bird in the bottom three photos is also wrong for Henslow's sparrow. Note the relatively broad, distinct post-ocular stripe in Schmidt's photos. Henslow's sparrows have a very narrow post-ocular stripe, so narrow, that it often appears to be absent. Note also on Schmidt's photos, that the dark malar stripe curves up behind the auriculars. That's wrong for Henslow's sparrows. See my photos for comparison. Also, the head streaking on Henslow's sparrows is very dark, almost black. The heading streaking on Schmidt's sparrow is quite reddish. The back streaking on the sparrow in the bottom three photos appears way too heavy for a Henslow's sparrows, and the streaks don't have the scaly pattern caused by lighter feather edges as on Henslow's sparrows. Nice photos, but I don't think they are of Henslow's sparrows. Craig Tumer SW Portland > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow Sparrow photos > From: Shawneen Finnegan > Date: Mon, January 19, 2009 8:33 pm > To: OBOL OBOL > > > I just got home from the Wallowas and missing the Pine Warbler and > just looked at Owen's photos. Looks like a Lincoln's to me also. > Henslow's have a different shape, being much bigger billed and flatter > headed, for starters. > > Will post more on the trip over yonder later. > > Cheers, > Shawneen > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From dinpdx at yahoo.com Mon Jan 19 21:15:42 2009 From: dinpdx at yahoo.com (Dwight) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:15:42 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] more Henslow's Sparrow photos for comparison Message-ID: <220276.68761.qm@web31607.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Khanh Tran posted some fine Henslow's Sparrow photos from Robert Royse. I've stumbled onto his work while searching for photos online and agree he does excellent photography. I thought I would share some Henslow's images from one of my favorite bird photographers, Mark Bartosik. His entire "current news photoblog" is worth exploring too. http://www.pbase.com/mbb/henslows_sparrow_010409 Good Birding, Dwight Porter Portland, OR From acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM Mon Jan 19 22:00:18 2009 From: acontrer at MINDSPRING.COM (Alan Contreras) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:00:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Revisions from Lane coast report Message-ID: After some additional research, I am not persuaded that we saw a hybrid teal at South Slough near Florence on Sunday. I think it was within the range of variation of Green-winged, some of which show a half-cooked pale horizontal stripe. I also forgot to mention that we saw a female Red-breasted Merganser far up the southeast lobe of Siltcoos Lake. I rarely see them on lakes along the coast. We saw a raft of Common Mergansers shortly after that for a nice comparison of the females. We saw a Black Phoebe along Canary Rd north of the LCC junction and heard one somewhere around the Ada Grange, but didn't see it. They have been regular in those areas for a few years now. -- Alan Contreras EUGENE, OREGON acontrer at mindspring.com http://oregonreview.blogspot.com/ ? Commentary http://contrerasbirds.blogspot.com/ ? Bird Photos & News From oschmidt at att.net Mon Jan 19 22:06:07 2009 From: oschmidt at att.net (Owen Schmidt) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:06:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted Message-ID: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> I've added a second page, with 11 photos of the bird on the ground in shadow: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html oschmidt at att.net Monday, January 19, 2009 From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 22:07:32 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:07:32 -0800 Subject: [obol] Additional photos of the sparrow(s) Message-ID: I understand that Owen is posting additional photos of the sparrow or sparrows. As soon as I looked at the photos that were originally posted, I wondered whether the photos of the bird in the blackberry were of a Lincoln's Sparrow. I don't have time tonight to examine the matter closely enough. That said...I am not ruling out the dreaded "two Bird Theory" in regard to the photos. I will comment though that the Henslow's photographed on an apparent winter stalk in the Audubon Society Master Guide To Birding (Vol. 3) does not have the scaled back appearance as shown in at least some photos of summer birds. The scaly-backed aspect may be a matter of the season. Look at the additional photos Owen is posting. Some of the photos of the bird on the ground show the yellow-greenish color to the eye line. Some also show a bill much larger than that apparent in the photo of the bird in the berry bush. Additionally, the back and flanks of the birds Owen photographed seem to show bolder streaking than I would expect on a Lincoln's Sparrow. It should be noted that I couldn't see a sparrow either of the times Owen was photographing, and that when someone is trying to photograph a furtive bird, one can't ay that moment analyze the bird well. We were on the opposite sides of the berry patches. That said, if the bird on the ground isn't a Henslow's, we didn't see one. I am not sure that the bird in the bush isn't the same bird though, despite it looking quite different. I think it probably is the same bird. I suggest that people also google "Henslow's Sparrow" and click on the images button. More in the next day or two. (I have to go birding with a friend from California - Nick Lethaby - all day tomorrow.) Jeff Gilligan From joel.geier at peak.org Mon Jan 19 22:14:44 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:14:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] Directions to Henslow's Sparrow patch Message-ID: <1232432084.3630.24.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, I could not view the photos that were posted on line, but I did react with some alarm to the directions. The route suggested by Jeff seems to go through the old scout jamboree site, then off toward the NE corner of the refuge before heading back west. It's an interesting walk and perhaps your best bet for seeing a wintering Green Heron, but it is not the most direct route by close to a mile. The other way that I suggested will get you there with less exertion, and does not require any ditch- hopping. Let me try again: Follow the previous directions to the parking area for the WW II memorial park. There should be some (not-so) Wild Turkeys in a pen right where you park. Proceed north past the turkeys, Egyptian Geese, Mountain Quail, Golden Pheasants etc., then the old hatchery building and guest-host RV. Just past the signboard next to a big oak (which tells the story of historic Wellsdale), turn LEFT and walk for about 200 yards with a cottonwood- lined pond to your left, until you get to the next intersection. The headquarters building will now be on your left (feel free to stop by and ask for a map of the refuge). You should be able to see a Barn Owl nest box on the north side of the adjacent equipment shed (take a peek, sometimes you can see a Barn Owl in there). There are also a bunch of swallow boxes on posts, and another guest-host RV (E.E. Wilson must have more guest hosts than any other place in the state ... there are several more south of Camp Adair Rd.). Turn the other direction and go NORTH from here along the paved road. You will cross a canal (without getting your feet wet), which opens into a pond to your right. Keep walking north. You will next pass an old orchard, then an oak grove on your right. Continue another 1/4 mile and then look for the previously described shed on your right. At this point you will have to leave the pavement, but not sooner. Walk east past the shed and go another 225 yards to get to Doug's red & white flagging, which is tied to a teasel stem. All sightings described thus far (except maybe Roy Gerig's) will now be within spitting distance for any self-respecting, watermelon-seed spitting matron from the heart of Henslow's Sparrow wintering territory. Bring along a few watermelon seeds if you want to calibrate your search radius. Happy birding, Joel P.S. By the way, bicycles are allowed in E.E. Wilson, and are a significantly quicker way to cover the distance. However, the blackberry vines are tough on inner tubes, so bring your patch kit. -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com Mon Jan 19 22:19:18 2009 From: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com (Jeff Fleischer) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:19:18 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] ECBC Linn County Unit 4 raptor run Message-ID: <15123.74850.qm@web50904.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Obolers, Today, under absolutely beautiful skies and little wind, I conducted this months ECBC survey for Linn County Unit 4. I was ably assisted on the run by Glen Lindeman and Sue Hecox from Salem and we had phenominal success! Linn County Unit 4 is bordered on the north by Hwy 228/American Drive, on the west by the Willamette River, on the east by the foothills of the Cascades south of Brownsville, and on the south by Priceboro Rd. We covered the 130.8 mile route in 9 hours 20 minutes. The total count of 384 birds was second only to the 421 found in December 05. Following is a list of birds that were found today: Red-tailed Hawk 146 American Kestrel 82 Northern Harrier 65 Bald Eagle 76 (32 adults, 44 subadults) Rough-legged Hawk 7 Prairie Falcon 3 Peregrine Falcon 1 UNID large falcon 1 Cooper's Hawk 2 UNID raptor 1 The Red-tailed Hawk figure is the highest January figure for this route and third highest monthly total recorded. During the winter of 05-06, RTHA totals were the highest recorded so far for this project (Dec 05 - 235, Jan 06 - 143, and Feb 06 - 168). The American Kestrel figure was the highest since Feb 06. That winter, the highest AMKE numbers were found during Jan 06 (114) and Dec 05 (111). The Northern Harrier figure was the highest since Jan 06 (74) and short of the all time high totals of 103 and 101 for Feb 05 and Mar 05 respectively. The Bald Eagle total for today compares with 110 birds found in this Unit during the Mid Winter Bald Eagle Count conducted last Saturday when 128 total eagles were found inside and outside of Unit 4. Special sightings today included PRFAs found on Nixon Dr, Center School Rd, and Harris Dr. The PEFA was found on Diamond Hill Dr just east of Weatherford Rd. One unidentified large falcon was observed flying east into the foothills east of Gap Rd south of Belts Drive. We felt it was probably a PEFA but couldn't determine that for certain. And finally, I want to personally thank Glen and Sue for their enthusiastic help on what turned out to be a really great day of raptoring under perfect viewing conditions! :) Jeff Fleischer Albany From ninerharv2 at msn.com Mon Jan 19 22:35:48 2009 From: ninerharv2 at msn.com (HARVEY W SCHUBOTHE ) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:35:48 +0000 Subject: [obol] Additional photos of the sparrow(s) Message-ID: I'll stick to our previous observation. These photos do not appear to be Henslows. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: Jeff Gilligan Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:07:32 To: Subject: [obol] Additional photos of the sparrow(s) I understand that Owen is posting additional photos of the sparrow or sparrows.? As soon as I looked at the photos that were originally posted, I wondered whether the photos of the bird in the blackberry were of a Lincoln's Sparrow. I don't have time tonight to examine the matter closely enough. That said...I am not ruling out the dreaded "two Bird Theory" in regard to the photos. I will comment though that the Henslow's photographed on an apparent winter stalk in the Audubon Society Master Guide To Birding (Vol. 3) does not have the scaled back appearance as shown in at least some photos of summer birds. The scaly-backed aspect may be a matter of the season. Look at the additional photos Owen is posting.? Some of the photos of the bird on the ground show the yellow-greenish color to the eye line. Some also show a bill much larger than that apparent in the photo of the bird in the berry bush. Additionally, the back and flanks of the birds Owen photographed seem to show bolder streaking than I would expect on a Lincoln's Sparrow. It should be noted that I couldn't see a sparrow either of the times Owen was photographing, and that when someone is trying to photograph a furtive bird, one can't ay that moment analyze the bird well.? We were on the opposite sides of the berry patches. That said, if the bird on the ground isn't a Henslow's, we didn't see one. I am not sure that the bird in the bush isn't the same bird though, despite it looking quite different.? I think it probably is the same bird. I suggest that people also google "Henslow's Sparrow" and click on the images button. More in the next day or two.? (I have to go birding with a friend from California - Nick Lethaby -? all day tomorrow.) Jeff Gilligan _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 22:42:58 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:42:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Owen's additional photos. Message-ID: You can se the additional photos by clicking on the underlined word "Ground" in the broad arrow. Craig Turner and others have interesting comments. I am certainly not an expert on Henslow's Sparrow. The best photo is #11. The bird in that photo is very similar to the Henslow's photographed in The Audubon Society Master Guide - in regard to the back pattern. The bird photographed in that guide definitely doesn't have a scaly back appearance. I think the back patter is a seasonal thing. The illustration of a juvenile Henslow's in this guide book shows the cheek being enclosed in black (including the malar as part of the triangle). Might a winter immature retain some of that aspect in showing a malar that curves up behind the auricular? I don't know. If it is an immature Henslow's, might it have reddish to the crown rather being black crowned. Again, I don't know, but we see that in White-crowned Sparrows. Finally, photo #11 shows a large bill, pale pink in color. The bill in that photo may be within the range for Henslow's. Finally, Tim Janzen pointed out that one of the photos of Henslow's in the Rising guide shows the crown being lifted and somewhat shaggy, somewhat similar to what is show in the photos of the bird in the bush - whether or not it is the same bird as the one on the ground. Jeff Gilligan From joel.geier at peak.org Mon Jan 19 22:50:28 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:50:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Directions to Henslow's sparrow patch Message-ID: <1232434228.3630.48.camel@localhost.localdomain> P.S. If you do follow Jeff's directions, might as well smell the roses along the way: About 200 yards before the northernmost point on this journey, you come through an area that has annually hosted what I believe may be Oregon's largest concentration of White-throated Sparrows. My high count for this winter was 5 or 6 (in a single view), but there may well be more than that if you look around. In recent winters, flocks totalling up to 18 or so have wintered here. Just past here, on the right, is the spot where Bill Proebsting reported another Sedge Wren in November. When you come to the T, the area to the right is a semi-regular spot for Swamp Sparrow and once had three (seems like someone found one there recently, though I've missed them this winter). Peek over the railroad tracks and you could see a Prairie Falcon or Northern Shrike (both close to annual), or a Short-eared Owl. This was also a one-time site for White Wagtail, but it's probably expecting too much for a repeat, especially since that field has been tiled so that the grass no longer drowns out in winter. Harris's Sparrows have been found in at least two spots along this walk, once before you get to the WTSP area, and once closer to the current patch of interest. Wrentits have colonized this area over the past 10 years so chances are that you'll hear one. I'm probably missing some other winter birds that Alan McGie and others found in that part of the refuge in years past. Anyway, it's not too bad of place to go birding, even if you're stressed about how to find the "sparrow from heck" at the end of the walk. Joel From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 22:51:03 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:51:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: Vindicated, thanks! (re Henslow's) In-Reply-To: Message-ID: ------ Forwarded Message From: Douglas Robinson Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:10:01 -0800 To: Jeff Gilligan Conversation: Vindicated, thanks! Subject: Vindicated, thanks! Hi Jeff, Great work getting pictures of the Henslow's Sparrow! I appreciate that you trusted the ID and spent time chasing the bird. It's interesting that the photos of the bird on the ground don't show the white edges to the tips of the back feathers that I could see from very close range. Maybe it's light or focus. Anyway, looks like it is completely nailed down as a first for Oregon now. Cheers Doug -- ------ End of Forwarded Message From jeffgill at teleport.com Mon Jan 19 22:53:50 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:53:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] FW: More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan In-Reply-To: Message-ID: In case this wasn't read earlier, I have forwarded Doug Robinson's comments regarding his sighting and his analysis. ------ Forwarded Message From: Douglas Robinson Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 14:18:59 -0800 To: "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" Cc: Midvalley Birding Conversation: More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan Subject: [obol] More on the Henslow's Sparrow at EEWilson, 15 Jan Hi folks, I was out of town the last few days and responded to only a couple emails about the Henslow's Sparrow. Given the interesting range of responses, I thought I would summarize more about the sighting. First, here are the fieldmarks I saw from a distance of about 8 feet: chunky bodied sparrow with an olive nape, tertials with a broad rufous distal margin, and a scaly-appearing back. The back feathers were very round-tipped (not elongated) and black with dark chestnut toward the distal edges. Each feather was edged with a very narrow (about 1 mm) and uniform-width white fringe. It's the fringes on dark feathers that made the back appear "scaly." As I reported earlier, when I flushed the bird first by nearly stepping on it, it flew about 4 feet and dived into a patch of grass. The bunch of grass it was under had a gap in the canopy and I could see the bird move into an open space. I moved slightly and focused my binoculars on the bird. I could see the nape, back, and upper edge of the right wing (tertials) very clearly. The rest of the bird was mostly obscured by grass. I watched it there for several seconds and it was not moving. So I tried to shift to the side carefully so I could see the head better. As I did, the bird ran out of sight. I then took a couple steps forward to where it had been sitting and it flew into a briar patch. I watched carefully as it flew. When the bird flew, it did so with a "herky-jerky" movement; low flight that is somewhat indirect in that it seemed like the bird was being pulled forward by the side of its head, rather than going straight ahead. I quickly walked up to the briars and tried for 2 or 3 minutes to re-locate it. I had no success, but knew I had seen enough to make a conclusive identification (see below), and I decided that if other people were going to see it, I had better not harass it any more. (Yeah, imagine that; walking away from a Henslow's Sparrow in Oregon because you want others to have a chance at it. I did the same thing with the Sedge Wren last year in this same field. When I flushed the Sedge Wren as I was walking slowly through the field I hardly broke stride and kept right on walking. My first thought was: "Ah ha, a Sedge Wren. Other people will want to see that, so I'll leave it alone for now.") So, why is seeing the nape, back, and tertials enough for a conclusive identification? If you know Ammodramus sparrows, you know that is enough. First and foremost, no other species has a nape the same color. Henslow's has that dark olive-green color, which is like no other species. Second, combine that with a rufous wing patch caused by the colored patch in the tertials and the scaly-appearing back pattern and you have eliminated all the other possibilities. For example, LeConte's, Sharp-tailed, and Grasshopper sparrows have grayish napes (all with somewhat different patterns of streaking on them and Grasshoppers have more of a buffy-gray nape); Baird's has a paler, rather buffy nape. None of the other common local sparrows like Savannah, Swamp, Lincoln's or Song Sparrows have an olive nape. All the other species have back patterns that look streaky, which is largely caused by back feather shape and the occurrence of broader color patterns toward the margins of the back feathers. Henslow's is different in that, in fresher plumages as they would be in during fall and early winter, those fringes are narrow and give the whole back a scaly appearance. Last, the broad rufous tertial margins are not present in LeConte's (very buffy instead), Sharp-tailed (darker brown with narrow paler edge), Grasshopper (patterned brown and buff), Baird's (very buffy edges), Lincoln's (buffy to tan edges), nor Savannah (pale buffy fringe). Song and Swamp have some rusty-brown wing feathers, but typically the pattern is different; in Swamp the rusty is brighter toward the inner instead of outer edge and in Song the red-brown is dull and does not contrast that much with the rest of the wing. Note, too, that both Marsh and Sedge Wrens have streaky backs. I won't go into all the other reasons Henslow's Sparrows are not wrens. So, if you get a clear look at nape, back, and tertials, you can eliminate the other possible identifications. It's too bad the folks who tried later the afternoon I found the Henslow's Sparrow and the next day did not get a clear look, but they all know now how hard it is to relocate a Henslow's Sparrow during winter. They are incredibly elusive. They prefer to run on the ground whenever possible. When pressed, they hide in underground tunnels such as tortoise burrows (the Southeast USA) and vole holes. So, to finish a long email, let me summarize my experience with this and similar species. First, this is not the first Henslow's Sparrow I have seen. I have studied the species on its wintering grounds in Alabama and Florida. The previous posting had a link to a pdf of a paper I wrote with my graduate student on winter habitat use of Henslow's Sparrows. I have seen dozens of these guys during winter. That is another reason I did not continue to chase the EE Wilson bird for better looks. I know the bird's flight behavior, I know the key field marks that make a short or obscured look a conclusive identification, and I know how tough they are to see well. I have also seen the species regularly in Illinois during spring and summer (check my book Southern Illinois Birds, 1996, for a nice photo of a Henslow's Sparrow). Last, I have seen hundreds to thousands of all the aforementioned species except Baird's. I've gotten one look at Baird's ever, excepting studies of specimens in museums. LeConte's are regular in winter in southern Illinois and I have seen hundreds of them over the years; yes, hundreds. Enough of a long email. I hope someone else can get the bird to cooperate long enough to get good looks. Would be great to move this Henslow's Sparrow out of the single-observer record category and into a multi-observer Oregon record. Have fun out there, and try stomping through some fields this winter; you never know what you might kick up. Douglas Robinson -- W. Douglas Robinson Dept of Fisheries and Wildlife 104 Nash Hall And Oak Creek Lab of Biology Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 http://fw.oregonstate.edu/robinson 541-737-9501 _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol ------ End of Forwarded Message From godwit513 at msn.com Mon Jan 19 23:07:10 2009 From: godwit513 at msn.com (Ruth Sullivan) Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:07:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Excellent Henslow's sparrow photos for comparsion. References: Message-ID: Hello Khan, I am so glad that you put the excellent photos of the Henslow's Sparrow up on Obol. First it helps to been seeing this species in the field so you know how this bird really looks. I using the National Geographic "Birds of North America" Where the facial on the Henslow's looking quite green Olive.The comparison is extreme.I hope you all going to find the real Henslow's Sparrow. Cheers Ruth Sullivan Tacoma WA, ----- Original Message ----- From: "khanh tran" To: Sent: Monday, January 19, 2009 8:35 PM Subject: [obol] Excellent Henslow's sparrow photos for comparsion. > > Hi Obolers! > > Here are photos from my favorite bird photographer of a Henslow's sparrow. > It offers a wide variety of variation, angles, and lighting of a Henslow's > sparrow that most field guides don't cover. > > Maybe it will shed some light for those that have never seen one in REAL > life like me! Real photos are tough to come by-- especially something > this clear and sharp! > > http://www.roysephotos.com/HenslowsSparrow.html > > Good birding, > > Khanh Tran > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From llsdirons at msn.com Mon Jan 19 23:20:23 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:20:23 +0000 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted In-Reply-To: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> References: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> Message-ID: Greetings All, I think that the bird in these images is a Lincoln's Sparrow and not a Henslow's for the following reasons: 1. Even though the bill looks on the large size for a Lincoln's in a couple of the images, I think it is still too small for a Henslow's 2. The tail looks pretty long and rather squared off in most of the images. Typically, Ammodramus sparrows have noticeably short and somewhat spiked tails that are not evenly squared off at the end. 3. The dark submalar mark (below the broad buffy malar stripe that starts at the base of the bill), is broad and flairs out as it gets farther from the base of the bill eventually fanning out into the breast streaking. This is typical of Lincoln's Sparrow and I'm not finding images that show this look on a Henslow's. The dark stripe above the buffy malar is also fairly broad. This look is dead-on for a Lincoln's and does not fit Henslow's, which generally shows less obvious narrow black submalar and supramalar stripes. 4. For the most part, the base color of the face looks gray and does not show the expected olive tones of a Henslows. Also, the post-ocular strip does not really taper much as it approaches the back of the eye and meets the back of the eye. In looking at pictures and illustrations of Henslow's, they consistently show the post-ocular stripe tapering and becoming so narrow as to look almost absent as it reaches the back of the eye. > From: oschmidt at att.net > To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:06:07 -0800 > Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted > > > > I've added a second page, with 11 photos of the bird on the ground in > shadow: > http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html > > oschmidt at att.net > Monday, January 19, 2009 > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/55bc92bc/attachment.html From carolk at viclink.com Tue Jan 20 00:05:03 2009 From: carolk at viclink.com (Carol Karlen) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:05:03 -0800 Subject: [obol] Audubon Birding Weekend to NE Oregon Message-ID: <000701c97ad5$e11bfba0$1a430a0a@home> OBOL: We just returned from an Audubon Birding Weekend trip to NE Oregon. Friday, Jan 16, we spent from 11-3 in LaGrande without finding the Pine Warbler. Saturday, Jan. 17, we spent mostly in fog near Enterprise & Joseph. We found: NO Gray Partridge, Snow Buntings or Redpolls 2 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches on School Flat Rd. 1 N. Shrike on Leap Ln. 30 Bohemian Waxwings with 160 Cedars in N. Enterprise; 150 more in Joseph 8 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS east of the Enterprise Fishhatchery 1 Pygmy Owl at the head of Wallowa Lake 25 Am. Tree Sparrows on Repplinger Rd., east of Enterprise (at canal crossing) Sunday, Jan. 18. we dodged the fog by going up to Prairie Creek early, then to Zumwalt Rd., then to Flora. We found: 250 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS swarming on the ground in the open field near the cemetery on the east slope of the Wallowa Lake moraine. 18 Wild Turkeys at Flora 1 N. Pygmy Owl off the Hwy 3 ~ 30 miles N of Enterprise 2 W. Screech Owls along Williamson Rd. after dark Monday, Jan. 119, we tried Ant Flat Rd. (impassable), Leap Ln.(no birds, fog), and School Flat Rd. (fog). We returned to Enterprise on Hwy 82. We found: 9 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches on School Flat Rd. NO Snow Buntings or Gray Partridge 75-200 COMMON REDPOLLS at m.p. 59 on Hwy 82. Following a tip from Kyle Bratcher, we stopped along Hwy 82 at the upper end of the passing lane (eastbound) east of Enterprise. We parked near a gate with a top crossbar, and walked across to the RR tracks. From there, Carol spotted the flock of little birds swarming in the alder catkins along the Wallowa River at the foot of the hill across a small field. We were able to walk over and get close looks. Thank you, Kyle!! 'Twas a fine weekend. Good birding, everyone, Paul Sullivan & Carol Karlen From birdboy at bkpix.com Tue Jan 20 00:09:18 2009 From: birdboy at bkpix.com (Noah Strycker) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:09:18 +1300 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted In-Reply-To: References: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> Message-ID: Hi all, I think David is right on. In the ground images, the sparrow is active (running or walking), and its feathers are slicked back, approaching the flat-headed, large-billed look of a Henslow's or other Ammodramus. But plumage still identifies it as a Lincoln's, especially the face, crown, and nape patterns. This individual seems colorful - the rusty flight feathers, back patterning, and breast/side streaking are quite heavy as Lincoln's Sparrows go, but I see little reason to suspect it is something else. And Lincoln's Sparrows may be the most abundant wintering bird in that particular field. I remember hours spent trying to turn them into Sedge Wrens last winter, to no avail... though Karl's observation of a striped skunk nearby gives a new meaning to getting "skunked"! Good birding, Noah Strycker On 1/20/09, David Irons wrote: > > > > > > > > Greetings All, > > I think that the bird in these images is a Lincoln's Sparrow and not a > Henslow's for the following reasons: > > 1. Even though the bill looks on the large size for a Lincoln's in a couple > of the images, I think it is still too small for a Henslow's > > 2. The tail looks pretty long and rather squared off in most of the images. > Typically, Ammodramus sparrows have noticeably short and somewhat spiked > tails that are not evenly squared off at the end. > > 3. The dark submalar mark (below the broad buffy malar stripe that starts at > the base of the bill), is broad and flairs out as it gets farther from the > base of the bill eventually fanning out into the breast streaking. This is > typical of Lincoln's Sparrow and I'm not finding images that show this look > on a Henslow's. The dark stripe above the buffy malar is also fairly broad. > This look is dead-on for a Lincoln's and does not fit Henslow's, which > generally shows less obvious narrow black submalar and supramalar stripes. > > 4. For the most part, the base color of the face looks gray and does not > show the expected olive tones of a Henslows. Also, the post-ocular strip > does not really taper much as it approaches the back of the eye and meets > the back of the eye. In looking at pictures and illustrations of Henslow's, > they consistently show the post-ocular stripe tapering and becoming so > narrow as to look almost absent as it reaches the back of the eye. > > > >> From: oschmidt at att.net >> To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:06:07 -0800 >> Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted >> >> >> >> I've added a second page, with 11 photos of the bird on the ground in >> shadow: >> http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html >> >> oschmidt at att.net >> Monday, January 19, 2009 >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> obol mailing list >> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > _________________________________________________________________ > Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. > http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_012009 From pygowl at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 00:10:21 2009 From: pygowl at gmail.com (Michael Marsh) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:10:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] Free "Birding" Mags Message-ID: <90d831b70901200010m5f2e64c9kceb6da667e72e5aa@mail.gmail.com> Moving into a smaller house (you know, downsizing) and will be offering for sale or free various birding (and other) related items. Starting off slow, but I'd like to find someone who could use the most recent 4 issues of "Birding" mag. Vol. 40, nos. 3-6). You pay postage or pick up in Beaverton. First reply gets 'em. Good birding, Mike -- Mike Marsh Portland, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/c10d1e88/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Tue Jan 20 00:16:10 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:16:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted In-Reply-To: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> References: <3D8F2549-0B77-4D95-994A-C376A1F35247@att.net> Message-ID: I, too, sad to say, feel all these photos show a Lincoln's Sparrow, albeit possibly an atypical one in that the face seems to have more yellowish and less gray than is typical. The bill is just not as big as it needs to be for Henslow's. The strong post-ocular stripe helps give it that Melospiza jizz rather than Henslow's to me. And -- this is the only thing that occurs to me right now that others have not yet mentioned -- note how the nape is pretty thoroughly (if finely) streaked, and how the two brownish lateral crown stripes extend down and back, leaving traces through the nape (see, e.g., photo #5 in the "Ground" series). Henslow's nape should be relatively unpatterned and olive-colored, as far as I can tell. I'm no expert on this species (and I also do not have the Rising & Beadle guide, which would be helpful), but the photos don't do it for me. I also would not be willing to bet my life from the photos alone that it's a Lincoln's rather than, say, an odd-looking Song or Savannah. I think at this point the crucial thing is to determine whether this photographed bird is in fact the one we've all been chasing for the past several days. It sounds like it is, yet that bird truly has been displaying unusual and consistent behavior, and Doug saw white scaling on the back feathers of his original bird, so perhaps the real mccoy is still out there.... Kudos to Owen and Jeff and everyone else for putting their time in to investigate this challenging bird. Jay W, Portland >I've added a second page, with 11 photos of the bird on the ground in >shadow: >http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html > >oschmidt at att.net >Monday, January 19, 2009 > > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From jeffgill at teleport.com Tue Jan 20 00:29:27 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:29:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Nick Lethaby and I have been going over photos from various sources - many on the internet. Based on that, I think the bird on the ground is likely the same bird as the one in the bush, and that it is a Lincoln's. Some photos of Lincoln's we looked at showed reddish on the tertial edges. There is a lot of variation though in the many photos we looked at of Henslow's. Some have the malar curving up onto the face. Some have streaked backs without scalloping. Some have bills that didn't look much different than a few of the photos Owen took of the bird on the ground. Some showed a dark line from the bill to the eye - but never as pronounced as that on the bird photographed by Owen. Some have back patterns very similar to the bird Owen photographed, and showed no real sign of scalloping. That said, I agree. It looks like a Lincoln's. It was a really sneaky thing for a Lincoln's. Jeff Gilligan On 1/20/09 12:09 AM, "Noah Strycker" wrote: > Hi all, > > I think David is right on. In the ground images, the sparrow is active > (running or walking), and its feathers are slicked back, approaching > the flat-headed, large-billed look of a Henslow's or other Ammodramus. > But plumage still identifies it as a Lincoln's, especially the face, > crown, and nape patterns. This individual seems colorful - the rusty > flight feathers, back patterning, and breast/side streaking are quite > heavy as Lincoln's Sparrows go, but I see little reason to suspect it is > something else. And Lincoln's Sparrows may be the most abundant > wintering bird in that particular field. I remember hours spent trying > to turn them into Sedge Wrens last winter, to no avail... though Karl's > observation of a striped skunk nearby gives a new meaning to getting > "skunked"! > > Good birding, > > Noah Strycker > > > On 1/20/09, David Irons wrote: >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Greetings All, >> >> I think that the bird in these images is a Lincoln's Sparrow and not a >> Henslow's for the following reasons: >> >> 1. Even though the bill looks on the large size for a Lincoln's in a couple >> of the images, I think it is still too small for a Henslow's >> >> 2. The tail looks pretty long and rather squared off in most of the images. >> Typically, Ammodramus sparrows have noticeably short and somewhat spiked >> tails that are not evenly squared off at the end. >> >> 3. The dark submalar mark (below the broad buffy malar stripe that starts at >> the base of the bill), is broad and flairs out as it gets farther from the >> base of the bill eventually fanning out into the breast streaking. This is >> typical of Lincoln's Sparrow and I'm not finding images that show this look >> on a Henslow's. The dark stripe above the buffy malar is also fairly broad. >> This look is dead-on for a Lincoln's and does not fit Henslow's, which >> generally shows less obvious narrow black submalar and supramalar stripes. >> >> 4. For the most part, the base color of the face looks gray and does not >> show the expected olive tones of a Henslows. Also, the post-ocular strip >> does not really taper much as it approaches the back of the eye and meets >> the back of the eye. In looking at pictures and illustrations of Henslow's, >> they consistently show the post-ocular stripe tapering and becoming so >> narrow as to look almost absent as it reaches the back of the eye. >> >> >> >>> From: oschmidt at att.net >>> To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >>> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:06:07 -0800 >>> Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted >>> >>> >>> >>> I've added a second page, with 11 photos of the bird on the ground in >>> shadow: >>> http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html >>> >>> oschmidt at att.net >>> Monday, January 19, 2009 >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> obol mailing list >>> obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >>> http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol >> >> _________________________________________________________________ >> Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. >> http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_howitworks_01200>> 9 > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From carolk at viclink.com Tue Jan 20 00:40:59 2009 From: carolk at viclink.com (Carol Karlen) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:40:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fw: Audubon Birding Weekend to NE Oregon - correction Message-ID: <001001c97ada$f4ae69a0$1a430a0a@home> Ooops! Milepost 59 on Hwy 82 is west of Enterprise, not east. Paul ----- Original Message ----- From: "Carol Karlen" To: "OBOL" Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:05 AM Subject: Audubon Birding Weekend to NE Oregon > OBOL: > > We just returned from an Audubon Birding Weekend trip to NE Oregon. > > Friday, Jan 16, we spent from 11-3 in LaGrande without finding the Pine > Warbler. > > Saturday, Jan. 17, we spent mostly in fog near Enterprise & Joseph. We > found: > NO Gray Partridge, Snow Buntings or Redpolls > 2 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches on School Flat Rd. > 1 N. Shrike on Leap Ln. > 30 Bohemian Waxwings with 160 Cedars in N. Enterprise; 150 more in Joseph > 8 WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS east of the Enterprise Fishhatchery > 1 Pygmy Owl at the head of Wallowa Lake > 25 Am. Tree Sparrows on Repplinger Rd., east of Enterprise (at canal > crossing) > > Sunday, Jan. 18. we dodged the fog by going up to Prairie Creek early, then > to Zumwalt Rd., then to Flora. We found: > 250 BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS swarming on the ground in the open field near the > cemetery on the east slope of the Wallowa Lake moraine. > 18 Wild Turkeys at Flora > 1 N. Pygmy Owl off the Hwy 3 ~ 30 miles N of Enterprise > 2 W. Screech Owls along Williamson Rd. after dark > > Monday, Jan. 119, we tried Ant Flat Rd. (impassable), Leap Ln.(no birds, > fog), and School Flat Rd. (fog). We returned to Enterprise on Hwy 82. We > found: > 9 Gray-crowned Rosy Finches on School Flat Rd. > NO Snow Buntings or Gray Partridge > 75-200 COMMON REDPOLLS at m.p. 59 on Hwy 82. Following a tip from Kyle > Bratcher, we stopped along Hwy 82 at the upper end of the passing lane > (eastbound) east of Enterprise. We parked near a gate with a top crossbar, > and walked across to the RR tracks. From there, Carol spotted the flock of > little birds swarming in the alder catkins along the Wallowa River at the > foot of the hill across a small field. We were able to walk over and get > close looks. Thank you, Kyle!! > > 'Twas a fine weekend. > > Good birding, everyone, > > Paul Sullivan & Carol Karlen > From pygowl at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 01:31:20 2009 From: pygowl at gmail.com (Michael Marsh) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:31:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] Definitely a Henslow's (I think) Message-ID: <90d831b70901200131p21b5748bj827c1859a1e68475@mail.gmail.com> I photographed several Henslow's in Ohio in April of '08. None of my several field guides that use paintings to illustrate the birds does a stellar job with Henslow's. I would suggest putting those aside and seeking out photos, either on-line or in books. At the moment, I am looking at photos in "Sparrows of the United States and Canada" by Rising and Beadle, and in "The Audubon Society Master Guide to Birding" editted by Farrand. These photographs show field marks that closely match my photos, AND OWEN's. Let's have a look at a cupla obvious features and then I'm going to bed. 1. If you get a good look at a Henslow's and do not see green in the supercilium you are not looking at a Henslow's. And I'm not talking Olive, or a subtle shade of green. Every Henslow's I saw in Ohio had obvious Green Green, and so do all the photos in front of me. Owen's pics were not taken in the best of light, yet they still show some green--esp. pics 6, 8, 9, and 11. 2. Owen's pics show precisely the pattern of the moustachial, including it's location, size, and the fact that it's shaped like a comma. The sub-moustachial stripe and the malar stripe also closely match my photos and the ones in the books. 3. Owen's pics also clearly illustrate an unmarked nape, scalloping on the lower back, and the short spikey tail the some are say is long and un-spikey. Folks, this is a Henslow's. Not even debateable. JK. But I do find it somewhat amazing that several highly experienced and knowledgeable birders called this bird a Lincoln's. (I did too at first!). My congrats to Jeff and Owen for even finding the bird, not to mention Owen getting good diagnostic pics. This has been a fun exercize and, for me, a good learning experience. One of which, since there are experts on both sides, is that even the experts are sometimes wrong. Good night all. Mike -- Mike Marsh Portland, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/49b128c3/attachment.html From douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu Tue Jan 20 05:40:25 2009 From: douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu (Douglas Robinson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:40:25 -0800 Subject: [obol] A Henslow's on the ground is a Henslow's on the ground Message-ID: Hi folks, Kudos to Owen for getting such useful pictures! What an amazing photographer we have here in Oregon! Does any bird get away from him? I will be brief here and not nitpick too much. I can certainly see why some of you have reacted so strongly and said the bird in the bush is a Lincoln's Sparrow. I cannot understand why some of you have also said the bird on the ground is a Lincoln's, too. There is ONE thing that clearly rules out Lincoln's Sparrow: tail feather shape. It has acute tail feathers that all Ammodramus sparrows have. Lincoln's lacks acute tail feathers. Besides the tail feather shape of the bird on the ground completely eliminating Lincoln's, the bill is a honkin' big schnoz, the head shape is flat, the supercilium and nape look greenish, and that nice rufous patch on the wings is there. And, oh by the way, take a real close look at the wings on the bird in the bush. How many Lincoln's Sparrows have you seen with that much rufous-red? Don't they usually have pale brownish-black and tan wings, not rufous and black? I think the trouble with the bird in the bush is an artifact of strong light (washes out the colors, just like it does with gull mantles, so it turns that nice dark green face and nape to gray), the bird being agitated (wouldn't you be if you had been chased around a field for the last week?), and the angle of the photograph, which diminishes the head shape and bill size we want to see. I think if you look very closely, you can see that the tail has acute tips and is patterned the same as the bird on the ground. Anyway, the bottom line is that the bird on the ground is a Henslow's sparrow. ZERO DOUBT. Have fun, Douglas Robinson From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Tue Jan 20 06:47:27 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:47:27 +0000 Subject: [obol] Thanks to Mike Marsh and Doug Robinson for the excellent comments regarding Henslow's ID Message-ID: Hi all, With more photos added I was able to do more thorough research and examination. I am more convinced that the bird is indeed a HENSLOW! Mike Marsh and Doug Robinson made some excellent points and I was able to see some of the diagnostic features better in the latter photos. Initially, I thought there were two different birds based on the lighting and from the agitated pose given by the bird in the bush; it did not appear to have a flat head and other key features. Last night, Mike Marsh and I had a good discussion based on the original 5 photos and both agreed that there was a Ammodramus species in the second set of 3 photos but wasn't sure of what species yet. It was a great learning experience for me! Congrats to Doug Robinson for finding the bird and Kudos to Jeff and Owen for getting excellent documentation of a skulking species!!! Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) My original posting*********************************************************************************************** Hi Owen and Jeff, With all due respect, I think you photographed two different birds. The first set I feel is a Lincoln's sparrow. I am studying the set with the three photos of a Ammodramus species but not totally convinced it is a Henslow without further examination. To me, the flat head, larger beak appearance and overall structure does not gel. A frontal view would have been helpful. Be curious what others think, this is simply my opinion. Thanks for getting documentation of such a skulker! All the best, Khanh Tran From joel.geier at peak.org Tue Jan 20 06:49:26 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:49:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted Message-ID: <1232462966.3629.32.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, I finally was able to look at Owen's photos this morning (for some reason the link that was posted yesterday kept re-routing me to a blank page), and I can see the reason for puzzlement: These are two different, though superficially very similar birds. The bird in the bush is a Lincoln's Sparrow (and an agitated Lincoln's, at that) without a doubt(*). The amount of red in the wings is within the norms, especially considering that the overall color saturation in this photo is so high. It does appear to have coarser streaking on the sides than typical Lincoln's, but when their feathers are fluffed out, they can look like this. Everything else about this bird says, "Lincoln's." The bird on the ground is not a Lincoln's, also without a doubt(*). You just don't ever see a Lincoln's Sparrow with its crown feathers flattened this much. The bill shape looks right for Ammodramus, along with the rectrice tips as Doug has pointed out. I see no reason not to call it a Henslow's Sparrow, but I'm going to leave that call to those who have actual experience with the species in the field, beyond just watching a brownish blur fly over the grass and then vanish. The colors are rather washed out by strong sunlight, but perhaps with some digital magic, more detail (such as the reported scalloping) can be seen. As to the reasons why I'm convinced that these are two different birds, without a doubt(*): The bird on the ground has much finer and distinct markings around the malar patch, than the bird in the bush which also has dark smudges within this patch. There are also differences in the shape of the postocular stripe. I don't think these differences can be explained in terms of agitation. The differences in bill size are also apparent, even though the agitated state of the bird in the bush has the effect of making the bill seem smaller. So, nice photos, Owen! I think the one set (bird on ground) makes the case as well as anything we're likely to get, short of a bird in the hand. As for the other set (bird in bush) -- well, it's nice for a Lincoln's Sparrow have the chance to be a star, now & then! Though the bird is probably wondering, "Why in the hell are the cameras all on me?" That may explain its agitated state - stage fright. Happy birding, Joel (*) I love this expression, "without a doubt," especially seeing how it has been used by almost everyone who has expressed a viewpoint on these photos -- despite mutually exclusive views! Clearly if you want to participate in this forum, you should adopt this phrase and use it liberally -- PREFERABLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS LIKE THIS!!! If we keep up this freedom from doubt, perhaps in a few hundred years this can develop into a full-blown religious war between "Henslowite" and "Lincolnian" adherents, all of them without a doubt(*). Now happy inauguration day, everyone. -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From joel.geier at peak.org Tue Jan 20 07:39:08 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:39:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted In-Reply-To: <1232462966.3629.32.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1232462966.3629.32.camel@localhost.localdomain> Message-ID: <1232465948.3629.38.camel@localhost.localdomain> Er -- though still without a doubt! -- I guess I should review those bird topography terms, or else have more coffee before I start to type. Auriculars, not malar patch. Or "ear patch," to stick to a term that I would more ordinarily use. > The bird on the ground has much finer and distinct > markings around the malar patch, than the bird in the bush which also > has dark smudges within this patch. -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area north of Corvallis From gnorgren at earthlink.net Tue Jan 20 07:43:50 2009 From: gnorgren at earthlink.net (Norgren Family) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:43:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] grassland birds Message-ID: <69dcee4745f5ec69141e218ecfe4b262@earthlink.net> Glad I sat out the sparrow spat. Being on dial-up is a significant deterrant, and I had Joel's experience of initially getting a blank page. My favorite Henry David Thoreau quote when I was a teenager was "I question the premise that the majority is always right. In fact, I put it to you that the majority is often wrong." Another grassland species continues to occupy my thoughts. Someone posted me privately about a PRAIRIE FALCON they saw at the base of Cape Blanco in September of 1966. My guess is that the South Coast has received more birder hours in the last ten years than the previous century. The level of skill of the observers has probably improved significantly. The same communicant also describes private raptor surveys 30 years ago between Eugene and Corvallis. One winter he and a friend documented seven distinct individuals. My first CBC was about 1971. We took a canoe from 53rd Street down to the mouth of the Mary's River. I don't recommend canoe counting. The 60s notion that alternative technology is by definition superior technology was surely at work there. Various groups tried it for a few years, and at least one of us ruined a very expensive Nikon binoccular as a result. It rained constantly on my excursion and the count of species and individuals was dismal. At one point we came to a place where tractors crossed the river in summer, creating a convenient landing. We beached the canoe and no sooner had reached the top of the bank when a falcon appeared from the north. This was very near the Corvallis Airport. It seemed to be large and we all three thought "Peregrine". It would have been a lifer for me. Remember this was 1971 and one could bird all year in Oregon without seeing a Peregrine. Reporting one on a CBC required some supporting details appropriate to real vagrants nowadays. We had seen a silhouette in the fog and rain. It got recorded as "falcon,sp." in the official tally. Only this winter it occurred to me that this bird was probably a PRAIRIE FALCON. I mention this here because at the time absolutely no one suggested that. As rare as Peregrines were then, a Prairie Falcon in the Willamette Valley was even more of an oddity to the collective conciousness of the time. It could also have been a Kestrel. Under poor light conditions distance is hard to calculate, and the crummy field mark of "size" becomes even more fuzzy. What remains eternal is the importance of expectations in our art and sport. Lars Norgren From shelmert at loswego.k12.or.us Tue Jan 20 07:53:27 2009 From: shelmert at loswego.k12.or.us (Shelmerdine, Timothy (Tim)) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:53:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lincoln County on Monday Message-ID: Hello, all. Taking advantage of the beautiful day and a day off, I went birding in Lincoln County yesterday. The LITTLE BLUE HERON was at the last location posted (by Dan Heyerly?), namely on Siletz Bay just south of where Drift Creek crosses under Hwy. 101. There were few birds at Boiler Bay, although there were whales far offshore. Two WHIMBREL were feeding on the rocks of one of the finger jetties off the south jetty of Yaquina Bay. I can't recall having seen them in January before. Other than that, it was a glorious day on the coast. Tim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/42d5ca8b/attachment.html From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Tue Jan 20 08:00:12 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:00:12 +0000 Subject: [obol] Excellent Lincoln's sparrow photos Message-ID: Hi all, Just for comparison and educational enlightment. Sometimes, we don't study common birds enough to really see what we take for granted. So much to learn and see! http://www.roysephotos.com/LincolnsSparrow.html All the best, Khanh Tran From philliplc at charter.net Tue Jan 20 08:23:52 2009 From: philliplc at charter.net (Phil Pickering) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:23:52 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos re-posted Message-ID: <7CCEC51DDC5243ABBD737C0845062EC3@Phil> With due respect to everyone arguing for 2 birds I think there is clearly only one species in these photos and most likely one individual (Lincoln's). The bird is in a radically different posture on the ground which is probably changing the shape of the facial pattern slightly, but otherwise plumage details are identical. Also the compressed crown feathers make the bill appear larger, but note that the eye/bill size ratio stays about the same between photos. Cheers, Phil philliplc at charter.net From campbell at peak.org Tue Jan 20 08:38:51 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:38:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Photos Message-ID: <99F35D8909F54501BB181A591583836F@maryPC> What a great puzzler. For what it's worth (exactly two cents) here are some observations on the first five of Owen Schmidt's great photos: The bird in the bush and the bird on the ground have a completely different "jizz"--the bird in the bush being Lincolnesque, but slightly "off", and the bird on the ground not Lincolnesque at all. That said, they seem to have freakishly similar plumage for two different species. To me, the look of the tertials, especially. The bill of the bird in the bush (BiB) may appear smaller because of the raised crown--and lighting--and the bill of the bird on the ground (BoG) may appear larger because of the lowered crown--or flat head--and posture. Where the BoG is facing left the bill looks much smaller than where it's facing right. A Henslow's Sparrow, according to Sibley, is supposed to have a "short, dark, lateral throat stripe" between malar and throat. It appears thin in his illustration and in the National Geographic Guide, and in all of the images from VIREO (vireo.acnatsci.org)--assuming that those actually are pictures of Henslow's. Both BiB and BoG show a broad throat-stripe that fits Lincoln's better. VIREO also has pictures of Lincoln's with crown flattened, which makes the bill appear decidedly larger. I encourage Oregon expert's, who have seen many hundred's of Lincoln's, to look at as many images of Henslow's as possible. Randy Campbell expert-texpert -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/76bc0b16/attachment.html From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 20 08:44:10 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:44:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: <4975FF5A.7040609@verizon.net> Folks, With all due respect, I'm a bit in Phil's camp. The one field mark of the bird on the ground that might lean towards HESP is the tail shape, but honestly I'm not even convinced of this either. I disagree that the pictures of the bird on the ground are diagnostic. To me almost all the images show a gray face and nape. Not a single image of Henslow's elsewhere is anywhere near this gray. I see little to no green on this bird except for a small yellowish spot on the front of the supercilium. Joel comments that the malar area on the ground bird is different from the malar area on the bush bird, but that to me is stretching it because only one image on the ground really shows the malar and not well at all, so how do you know that this isn't an aspect of the way the bird is turned or the image itself? There is no frontal image of this bird to give us an idea of what the front looked like, so I think arguing over the malar area is somewhat mute - at least the ground images. In additional, to me, LISP has a more heavy marked malar than HESP, and these images show a pretty heavy malar so that leans towards LISP. I don't know for sure what this bird is, and I'm not arguing either way, but I'm not convinced these images seal the fate of the ID. It do think this is hilariously funny to watch the emails fly and people get convinced it is a LISP and then convinced it is a HESP. What does that tell you? That the images are diagnostic? Maybe? I have the ultmost respect for all the people who are commenting, but this is amazing to watch top notch birders seeing such different things in the same photos! Are we convincing ourselves? Or are the images not good enough? Thankfully I won't have to vote on this one! cheers Dave Lauten From llsdirons at msn.com Tue Jan 20 08:50:54 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:50:54 +0000 Subject: [obol] Henslow's pictures re-posted Message-ID: Greetings All, Much is being made of shape of the crown this bird. We should remember that the bulk of the Lincoln's Sparrows most of us see have popped up on top of a brush pile or hedgerow. In such cases the bird is, to some degree, stressed or alarmed. When alarmed, many species raise their crown feathers, which in the case of Lincoln's gives them the angular crown profile most of us associate with that species. That being said, they can relax their crown feathers giving them a flatter crown and larger-billed look. While general shape is useful in identifying birds like this, it is important to resist the temptation to over-value more subtle structural clues that can be quite plastic depending on whether the bird is alarmed or relaxed. Dave Irons Eugene, OR _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/d39774fe/attachment.html From philliplc at charter.net Tue Jan 20 08:52:46 2009 From: philliplc at charter.net (Phil Pickering) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:52:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] A Henslow's on the ground is a Henslow's on the ground Message-ID: <7CEEAF452E1B4CD79D15797D955FE18C@Phil> >How many Lincoln's Sparrows have you seen with that much rufous-red? http://www.tringa.org/bird_pictures/9098_Lincolns_Sparrow_04-02-2008_1.jpg From foxsparrows at aol.com Tue Jan 20 09:03:30 2009 From: foxsparrows at aol.com (foxsparrows at aol.com) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:03:30 -0500 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos posted In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8CB493827177DDA-10F4-549@WEBMAIL-MB14.sysops.aol.com> Without going into great detail, since anything I would say has already been said.... I don't see anything definitive for Henslow's Sparrow in the photo set for "in the bush" or "on the ground..." I see Linclon's Sparrow in both sets. I have some experience with breeding Henslow's Sparrows in the "Piney Tract" in Clarion County, NW Pennsylvania (my home county). The species moved into this area after about 15 years of revegetation?following strip-mining, along with Prairie Warblers, Grasshopper Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, Short-eared Owls and other grassland species. The place was a moonscape, but the recovery provided habitat for several species that were in seerious decline in PA... Much of this area was essentially seasonally wet prairie... that's where the Henslow's were found. Although I won't cite this brief (and now dated) experience with the species as key support for my opinion, I have banded many Lincoln's Sparrows. The "jizz" of this species is quite variable, depending upon its level of excitment. I must respectfully side with those who believe that the (very nice) photos are all of?Linclon's Sparrow. Steve Dowlan OWLHOOTER at AOL.COM Foxsparrows at aol.com -----Original Message----- From: Owen Schmidt To: OBOL Sent: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 7:32 pm Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow photos posted ...... from earlier today: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html oschmidt at att.net Monday, January 19, 2009 _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/727bd144/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 20 09:19:04 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:19:04 -0800 Subject: [obol] Some Lincoln's Sparrow photos Message-ID: <49760788.2060900@pacifier.com> Some Lincoln's Sparrow photos http://www.flickr.com/photos/24226259 at N06/ I will add more as I dig them out of the files in my other computer... -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR nullius in verba From pat2ly at comcast.net Tue Jan 20 09:34:46 2009 From: pat2ly at comcast.net (Pat Tilley) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 09:34:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Photo from OK. Message-ID: <8CAE5C01CECF47D985C6DB58A523D569@Desktop> Hello OBOL, For what it may be worth: Perhaps it would be helpful to have other actual photos of the Henslow's Sparrow to compare with Owen's fine pictures. A friend in Oklahoma referred me to the Oklahoma Photo Directory of Birds Listserv maintained by the Sutton Avian Research Center. http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirds-directory2.html There are four excellent photos of the Henslow's Sparrow posted. http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix27.html#b http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix56.html#d http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix57.html#d http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix81.html#f Pat Tilley Salem -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/f8c94d44/attachment.html From dhaupt at tulelake.k12.ca.us Tue Jan 20 10:00:10 2009 From: dhaupt at tulelake.k12.ca.us (Dave Haupt) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:00:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Message-ID: <4975A0AA0200006700009034@mail.tulelake.k12.ca.us> OBOL, Great discussion thus far - really makes you study subtleties and structure. My suggestion is to look at these photos provided by Pat Tiley from Oklahoma ... http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix27.html#b http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix56.html#d http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix57.html#d http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix81.html#f ... and note the dark, scalloped mantle feather pattern of HESP, as well as the massive finch-like bill, and compare to these features to the bird in Owen's Photo #11 (on ground). These features may be more diagnostic than subtle color and markings on the face and nape. When I misidentified a Savannah Sparrow for Henslow's Sparrow in Monterey years ago its facial and nape color appeared olive green (in the fog) with facial markings approaching Henslow's. My amateur move was not to study tail shape, mantle pattern, and relative bill size. I believe these are the one to confirm the bird's ID. Dave Haupt Klamath Falls From davect at bendnet.com Tue Jan 20 10:09:32 2009 From: davect at bendnet.com (david tracy) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:09:32 -0800 Subject: [obol] Owen's Sparrow Pics Message-ID: <5EF8B6A9-CE6F-452A-9D08-A8501AA405F0@bendnet.com> Other than the excellent points made by Doug Robinson and Mike Marsh, I can't recall ever seeing a Lincoln's Sparrow with such heavy, dark lines on the back. The streaks on the sides/flanks also appear heavy. In my experience, a Lincoln's back would appear to have finer dark streaks in these areas. This distinction seems quite obvious to me in most of Owen's "Ground" photos and in the online photos I have been reviewing this morning from various sources. I don't know Henslow's personally, have never seen one. But I've seen lots of Lincoln's. I tell folks to think of a Lincoln's as having streaks that appear drawn with a finely sharpened pencil. The bird in Owen's photos has back streaks that look like they were blobed in liberally with a leaky fountain pen. This feature holds regardless of things like agitation, posture, foreshortening, and is not subject to the lighting/color problems associated with taking photos in the shade with a digital camera at high ISO setting. Dave david tracy davect at bendnet.com From jdanielfarrar at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 10:45:26 2009 From: jdanielfarrar at gmail.com (Daniel Farrar) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:45:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow.... Message-ID: <2b1bbd260901201045t76baa0c3pe034a9db26987a23@mail.gmail.com> Obol, In my eyes Owen's photos do not show the acutely pointed tail of an *Ammodramus *sparrow, but rather the worn, tapered tail of a first winter Lincoln's Sparrow. Photo 9 shows this well. The photographed bird also shows a very buffy eye ring. This may not always hold true, but in the photos and illustrations I've seen Henslow's exhibits a white eye ring. Lastly, the median crown stripe of this bird is clearly gray in every photo. I see no buffy-olive as one should see in Henslow's. -- Daniel Farrar Eugene, Oregon jdanielfarrar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/bbb32e39/attachment.html From baileydc at pdx.edu Tue Jan 20 10:51:59 2009 From: baileydc at pdx.edu (David Bailey) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:51:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's vs. Lincoln's Sparrow Message-ID: <49761D4F.9000602@pdx.edu> I am strongly in the LINCOLN'S SPARROW camp with respect to Owen's photographs of the E.E. Wilson microtine sparrow. From close examination of both sets of images, I am convinced these are all from the same individual. Tail feather shape is difficult to discern from the photographs. One feather shows fairly well and while pointed, is irregular and obviously very worn. I am not sure how much can be inferred from such a worn retrix of its newly molted shape. One mark that I have been comparing between Lincoln's and Henslow's Sparrow pictures is the crown stripes. In Lincoln's they are rufous finely streaked with black. In Henslow's they appear very black, without the fine streaks. The Lincoln's Sparrow in Owen's images show the rufous stripes consistent with that species. As always, I remain open minded and would be delighted to be shown that my conclusions so far are in error. Thanks to all those involved in this sparrow event. Perhaps we the next rare bird contestant will be something easier like a Empidonax flycatcher! David David C. Bailey Gearhart, Oregon From g_g_allin at hotmail.com Tue Jan 20 10:56:28 2009 From: g_g_allin at hotmail.com (John Puschock) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:56:28 +0000 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: Hi, First let me apologize if this gets posted several times. I sent similar versions to other OBOL members to forward to the list, but then I figured I might as well subscribe myself... I think most of this, except point 1, has already been posted by others The bird in all photos is a Lincoln's Sparrow. Here's the justification for that statement: 1) PRIMARY PROJECTION: One feature I just noticed in the Sibley guide and photos is that Henslow's Sparrows have a very short primary projection. The primaries barely extend beyond the tertials in Henslow's. Primary projection in Lincoln's is much longer, relatively speaking. The bird in the photos has a primary projection consistent with Lincoln's and not Henslow's. This is easy to see in the bird in the bush photo, but not as easy in the ground photos. See photos 5, 10, and 11. 2) The face appears to be gray, not olive. The nape also appears to be gray. 3) The eyering appears to be buff, not white. 4) Malar stripe (using the terminology of the Beadle and Rising guide) thickens as you move away from the bill. 5) Bill does not appear large enough (bill size may be exaggerated in the "ground" photos due to the bird having depressed its crown feathers). 6) Post-ocular stripe appears to be too thick immediately behind the eye. 7) I'm not sure if this is an actual difference between Lincoln's and Henslow's -- the guides don't have images of the birds from directly behind -- but the crown stripes appear to cross the nape and continue down to the back. I'm not sure if this is shown by Henslow's or if their crown stripes end at the nape. 8) The bird in the bush has a tail that is too long for Henslow's. While it's more difficult to discern tail length in the ground photos, the tail still appears too long as well. 9) While the visible tail feather appears to be narrow at the tip, I'm not sure if it can be said it's spiky like a Henslow's. The narrow portion of these feathers should extend further towards the body on a Henslow's if I'm not mistaken. The tail appears to be somewhat abraded, so some of the tail shape may be attributed to wear. John Puschock Seattle, WA (but formerly of PA and FL and elsewhere where I've seen about 50+ Henslow's) g_g_allin at hotmail.com http://www.birdtreks.com & http://www.zbirdtours.com _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? Hotmail?: Chat. Store. Share. Do more with mail. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_hm_justgotbetter_explore_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/273f1e6f/attachment.html From slcarpenter at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 11:02:58 2009 From: slcarpenter at gmail.com (Scott Carpenter) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:02:58 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow.... In-Reply-To: <2b1bbd260901201045t76baa0c3pe034a9db26987a23@mail.gmail.com> References: <2b1bbd260901201045t76baa0c3pe034a9db26987a23@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Photo 43.4 on page 202 of Beadle and Rising's Photographic Guide to Sparrows of the United States shows a Lincoln's Sparrow with a similar tail to the bird in Owen's photos. In my personal experience, I have seen both Henslow's and Lincoln's Sparrows many times in Illinois. During migration, I would often see Lincoln's Sparrows on the ground in a pose very similar to the one shown in Owen's photos of the bird on the ground (i.e., with a flattened crown). Of all the Henslow's Sparrows I have seen (mostly in spring/summer), not one had a lateral crown stripe that was reddish with black, as the bird in Owen's photos has (the two in the middle of the page at http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html) Scott Carpenter SW Portland On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Daniel Farrar wrote: > Obol, > In my eyes Owen's photos do not show the acutely pointed tail of an *Ammodramus > *sparrow, but rather the worn, tapered tail of a first winter Lincoln's > Sparrow. Photo 9 shows this well. > > The photographed bird also shows a very buffy eye ring. This may not > always hold true, but in the photos and illustrations I've seen Henslow's > exhibits a white eye ring. > > Lastly, the median crown stripe of this bird is clearly gray in every > photo. I see no buffy-olive as one should see in Henslow's. > > -- > Daniel Farrar > Eugene, Oregon > jdanielfarrar at gmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/3dd56a0f/attachment.html From lammergeiereyes at aol.com Tue Jan 20 11:19:14 2009 From: lammergeiereyes at aol.com (lammergeiereyes at aol.com) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:19:14 -0500 Subject: [obol] More Armchair Bird ID In-Reply-To: References: <2b1bbd260901201045t76baa0c3pe034a9db26987a23@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8CB494B1D4F7F80-1494-83C@MBLK-M29.sysops.aol.com> My Opinion and 2.50 will get you a bad latte. Everyone else has articulated the rationale better than I, but I believe the bird photographed to be a Lincoln's Sparrow. I also comment that the civility and the vitality with which the conversation has been carried out, has, thus far, remained notable. *holds breath Blake Matheson Portland Oregon and Carmel California -----Original Message----- From: Scott Carpenter To: OBOL Sent: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:02 am Subject: Re: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow.... Photo 43.4 on page 202 of Beadle and Rising's Photographic Guide to Sparrows of the United States shows a Lincoln's Sparrow with a similar tail to the bird in Owen's photos. In my personal experience, I have seen both Henslow's and Lincoln's Sparrows many times in Illinois.? During migration, I would often see Lincoln's Sparrows on the ground in a pose very similar to the one shown in Owen's photos of the bird on the ground (i.e., with a flattened crown). Of all the Henslow's Sparrows I have seen (mostly in spring/summer), not one had a lateral crown stripe that was reddish with black, as the bird in Owen's photos has (the two in the middle of the page at http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html) Scott Carpenter SW Portland On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM, Daniel Farrar wrote: Obol, ? In my eyes Owen's photos do not show the acutely pointed tail of an Ammodramus sparrow, but rather the worn, tapered tail of a first winter Lincoln's Sparrow.? Photo 9 shows this well. The photographed bird also shows a very buffy eye ring.? This may not always hold true, but in the photos and illustrations I've seen Henslow's exhibits a white eye ring. Lastly, the median crown stripe of this bird is clearly gray in every photo.? I see no buffy-olive as one should see in Henslow's. -- Daniel Farrar Eugene, Oregon jdanielfarrar at gmail.com _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/32db4caf/attachment.html From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 11:31:09 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:31:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's In-Reply-To: <4975A0AA0200006700009034@mail.tulelake.k12.ca.us> References: <4975A0AA0200006700009034@mail.tulelake.k12.ca.us> Message-ID: Being that most of us don't have much experience with Henslow's this is an interesting discussion. Because Owen's bird was photographed in the shade, certain colors are difficult to assess, like the gray versus green aspect. The reds do seem to show themselves a bit better, if that color is to be believed but both monitors. I have been reading Cornell's Birds of North America on line. I can see where people are having trouble. If the bird were sitting out in the sun with good light on it that would be wonderful, but the bird is in the shade, the position the bird is in such that we can't see the front or good profile of the whole body, and there are twigs in the way. I have looked at, home and at school, show the lateral crown stripes as being rufous with black center streaks and I don't recall anyone mentioning this. One thing I don't believe anyone has mentioned is that the lateral crown stripes. Per the photos that I have viewed on-line and in reading the BNA text, the crown of a Henslow's Sparrow is olive to buffy olive with black or blackish lateral crown stripes. Black, not brown or reddish. Per BNA Lincoln's Sparrow's head is: Head ruddy brown with fine black streaks and prominent gray-olive median stripe; sides of neck and nape gray, gray stripe over eye, inconspicuous buffy eye-ring, brownish gray cheeks outlined with dark brown stripes, malar region buffy; throat white with fine black streaks. Owen's sparrow in every photo appears to be a mix of rufous and black streaks. Here is a closeup for example of a Lincoln's: http://www.bbbo.org/photos/sparrows/LISP_eiseman_sp04.jpg Greg Lasley has wonderful photos of wintering Henslow's in Texas to compare. http://www.greglasley.net/henslow.html Cheers, Shawneen Finnegan Portland, OR On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Dave Haupt wrote: > OBOL, > Great discussion thus far - really makes you study subtleties and > structure. My suggestion is to look at these photos provided by Pat > Tiley from Oklahoma ... > http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix27.html#b > > http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix56.html#d > > http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix57.html#d > > http://www.suttoncenter.org/okbirdspix81.html#f > > ... and note the dark, scalloped mantle feather pattern of HESP, as > well as the massive finch-like bill, and compare to these features to > the bird in Owen's Photo #11 (on ground). These features may be more > diagnostic than subtle color and markings on the face and nape. When I > misidentified a Savannah Sparrow for Henslow's Sparrow in Monterey years > ago its facial and nape color appeared olive green (in the fog) with > facial markings approaching Henslow's. My amateur move was not to study > tail shape, mantle pattern, and relative bill size. I believe these are > the one to confirm the bird's ID. > > Dave Haupt > Klamath Falls > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/4b5e33d3/attachment.html From brandon.green18 at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 11:43:34 2009 From: brandon.green18 at gmail.com (Brandon Green) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:43:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> I'm no sparrow expert and I've misidentified more birds on OBOL than I'd care to admit but, for what it's worth, the bird on the ground appears to have a lot more yellow/olive coloring on the supercilium than what I've seen in any Lincoln's Sparrow. (Although, I'd expect to see more on the nape than what Owen's [very nice] photos show.) Am I correct in assuming that Henslow's and Lincoln's aren't closely-related enough to hybridize? Brandon Eugene From dhewitt37 at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 11:47:35 2009 From: dhewitt37 at gmail.com (David Hewitt) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:47:35 -0800 Subject: [obol] Life List 'sanitizing' Message-ID: <653eaf880901201147h5fc28530i4ee3dca0aeebcceb@mail.gmail.com> Just a little aside, that might be sorely needed at this point: Joel Geier's comment about 'semi-lifers' in connection with the Henslow's Sparrow reminded me of something similar I came across recently. Joel said: "This is where the concept of 'semi-lifers' comes in handy -- getting a better view later on, of a species that you're pretty sure you've seen, is as much fun as a completely new lifer." In his new-ish book A Supremely Bad Idea, Luke Dempsey mentions the phrase 'sanitizing your list' for getting a good look at a bird that you previously ticked even though views were poor, field marks weren't convincing, someone else convinced you that's what it was against your gut, etc. As an example, I saw my first Barrow's Goldeneye, a fall female/juvenile, on a little pond in Alaska. Having no experience with the species, I took a lady's word that Barrow's was the only bird around and thus that's what it must have been. The ID was far from convincing for me, mostly because the bill was a dull color with no clear markings (thus rousing consternation at what Sibley meant by 'usually' in the Barrow's description) and head shape seemed intermediate. In any case, it wasn't satisfying to my mind, but I checked it off anyway. I typically set a high standard for when something gets checked off my list, but this was a species I expected to have little chance at in the future (I lived in Virginia with no expectation of western transplant). When I got to see my first crisply plumaged pair of Barrow's here in Oregon this fall, I happily changed the entry in the 'where first seen' column of my spreadsheet and now consider the list 'sanitized'. I've found that the term comes in handy. * This is in no way a commentary on the Henslow's situation. I've got nothing to add on that one. Dave Hewitt Klamath Falls From loinneilceol at yahoo.com Tue Jan 20 11:53:39 2009 From: loinneilceol at yahoo.com (Leith McKenzie) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:53:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Lincoln's Sparrow Message-ID: <739975.83446.qm@web30407.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I uploaded a picture of a Lincoln's Sparrow taken at Fields Oasis here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30397515 at N07/?saved=1 The bird at Fields was running on the ground when photographed (notice the blurry foot).? Notice the asymmetrical shape and coloration of the rectrix.? The narrower web to the vein is dark, the wider side of the feather is light. The rectrix of the EE Wilson sparrow shows this same asymmetrical shape and coloration. I will not re-articulate the other points made by Irons, Strycker, Pickering, Bailey, et al. and simply join in the assessment, that all photos under discussion show a Lincoln's Sparrow. Maitreya ? ?Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull and an unlimited idea of freedom.? Jonathan Livingston Seagull -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/59321fc5/attachment.html From lbviman at blackfoot.net Tue Jan 20 12:29:15 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:29:15 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow photos In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <20090120202820.7712D9B0073@mail.blackfoot.net> First one Lincoln's; second one either Savannah or Song [looks very close to SOSP at my feeders]. Jim Greaves, Montana From lbviman at blackfoot.net Tue Jan 20 12:38:33 2009 From: lbviman at blackfoot.net (Jim Greaves) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:38:33 -0700 Subject: [obol] Henslow's photos -> Lincoln's Message-ID: <20090120203737.EE91F9B007A@mail.blackfoot.net> Upon seeing the in-shadow 11 photos, I'd have to say only one species involved, Lincoln's. Note the finely streaked crown in the last few shots of head in profile, color and pattern typical for Lincoln's, not Savannah nor Song. But I could be wrong. Keep on trying! And thanks - >First one Lincoln's; second one either Savannah or Song [looks very close to SOSP at my feeders]. Jim Greaves, Montana From dendroicaman at peak.org Tue Jan 20 12:45:26 2009 From: dendroicaman at peak.org (dendroicaman at peak.org) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:45:26 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow In-Reply-To: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> References: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2666.128.193.161.10.1232484326.squirrel@webmail.peak.org> It was only a matter of time...the dreaded "H" word has come out. I've never heard of any such hybrid, but I'm no expert on Ammodramus. I would like to contribute a few other thoughts. First and foremost, one thing I keep in mind while birding is that anything that looks rare needs to match the textbook example perfectly. Rare birds are just that: rare. Likewise, aberrant plumages/wear patterns on common birds are uncommon, hence the name. To see unusual plumage on a rarity would be truly extraordinary. I've certainly never seen it. With this in mind, I'd say with about 90% certainty that Owen's photos show a Lincoln's Sparrow. I say 90% because of a variety of odd features. First, the tail looks short with unusually tapered feathers. I concur that first year birds tend to have more tapered feathers. Likewise, feathers on first year birds are frequently weaker because the feathers are grown in a relative hurry as the bird prepares to fledge. While I'm not familiar with Henslow's Sparrow molt patterns (nor especially familiar with that of Lincoln's), the flight feathers grown in the nest are retained all the way until the next full molt the following fall, often creating a highly worn look. With the quality of first-year feathers in mind, consider what sparrows do for a living--scratch around in leaves and brush, which frequently results in even more worn tails. I've seen this on multiple occasions in Towhees that I've banded. Even with this in mind, the tail looks shorter than I'd expect. I wonder if this bird may have met with an accident sometime in the fall and regrew a shorter tail? Either that or it's still regrowing. With the number of accipiters present in the area, I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few sparrows in the neighborhood that have had close calls. Secondly, I don't know if I've ever seen a Lincoln's with that much dark on the back. But it also does not show the strong white feather edging shown in the excellent Henslow's Sparrow photos from other parts of the country. Thirdly, the face coloration is a lot less gray than I've seen in many Lincoln's Sparrows. But it is clearly much less green than in the Henslow's photos. Likewise, neither species seems to show the faint yellow loral spot shown on this bird. The only NW species I know that has such a thing is a Savannah Sparrow. But on the side of Lincoln's, what jumps out at me most is the crown pattern. The rufous in the lateral crown stripes is classic Lincoln's and the gray median is as well. Nowhere have I found any photo of a Henslow's that looks remotely like this. I would finally like to mention, though that here is also no substitute for being there. Photos can tell us very little about behavior, flight pattern, etc. If this bird looked unusually small and behaved strangely in comparison to the other Lincoln's in the area, I would certainly be at pains to explain why a bird that was aberrant in size and behavior also showed weird plumage patterns, unless their was some biological explanation (I can't think of one here). But I would still wager that a common bird with aberrant plumage, size and behavior is still more likely than a first state record that shows aberrant plumage. Respectfully, Karl Fairchild Corvallis, OR P.S.--take a look at the pic of this juvenile Henslow's. http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/672/galleries/photos/ES_050817__188/image_popup_view. It looks a lot better and has an interesting yellow loral spot. But the face is heavily streaked, which our bird clearly does not show. > I'm no sparrow expert and I've misidentified more birds on OBOL than > I'd care to admit but, for what it's worth, the bird on the ground > appears to have a lot more yellow/olive coloring on the supercilium > than what I've seen in any Lincoln's Sparrow. (Although, I'd expect > to see more on the nape than what Owen's [very nice] photos show.) > > Am I correct in assuming that Henslow's and Lincoln's aren't > closely-related enough to hybridize? > > Brandon > Eugene > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > From hhactitis at yahoo.com Tue Jan 20 13:04:15 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:04:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: <396640.5384.qm@web37006.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello All, Well, this has been a very enlightening discussion (which has taken me away from my translation work far too long), and I have learned more about sparrow parts (and Henslow's parts in particular - a species I have actually never laid eyes on in the field) than I ever thought possible. Despite some good points made for this bird being a Henslow's, I firmly stick to my initially uttered impression that all of Owen's images show a Lincoln's Sparrow. I still can see nothing, even in the ground pictures, that is entirely inconsistent with Lincoln's, while I see many characteristics that speak against Henslow's. I will not go into detail again - excellent summaries have been posted by Irons, Strycker et al., but I must say that I would not vote for this record, were I still on the OBRC. That said, thanks to Owen and Jeff for their efforts in chasing the bird down, obtaining such wonderful pictures and fanning this enormously entertaining and educational discussion. The big question that remains in my mind: Is there a real Ammodramus still out there, or was it a funky Lincoln's all along? Respectfully Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/6b11f63c/attachment.html From watice at msn.com Tue Jan 20 13:04:26 2009 From: watice at msn.com (BILL ROSIE TICE) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:04:26 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow In-Reply-To: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> <2666.128.193.161.10.1232484326.squirrel@webmail.peak.org> References: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> <2666.128.193.161.10.1232484326.squirrel@webmail.peak.org> Message-ID: There is one small point I have not read in our Henslow's/Lincoln's discussions as yet. In the 2nd set of photos (especially # 11), one can clearly see the broken eyering at the rear of the eye. In all the plates and photos I have looked over of both birds, all make the distinction: for Lincoln's the eyering is unbroken, for Henslow's it is broken. Plus, the eyering in the pics appears to be fatter than what Lincoln's wound show. Even in the shade the supercilium, especially before the eye looks to me to be a cream color. Seems to me if it were the typical grey color, it would not look cream in the shade, would it? It appears to be these are 2 different birds here. I would suggest that neither of these may be the one Doug saw, and that a few of us ought to return to the sight and see what we can come up with. After looking over the pics, I am not sure either are what I saw yesterday, given that one second look. Bill Tice -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/5e72c032/attachment.html From campbell at peak.org Tue Jan 20 13:08:15 2009 From: campbell at peak.org (M & R Campbell) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:08:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] In praise of the Henslow's vs. Lincoln's thread Message-ID: Though, by now, this thread may appear to be interminable pointless nitpicking, I think this is one of the most important threads to ever drag on (and on) in this forum. It is a cautionary demonstration--to beginners, especially--of just how easy it is to screw up an ID. We now know that birders with many years of education and field experience can look at the very same pictures and without any doubt disagree about what they are seeing. Some of them are wrong. I've already edged toward the camp of the "bird on the ground same as the bird in the bush" faction, and into the "bird in the bush is not a Henslow's Sparrow" camp, but given my skills and history, that might militate in favor of Henslow's. Two other points made obvious by this thread: Colors, because of different conditions of light and points of view, are unreliable field marks. Shapes and relative sizes, because of changing postures and behaviors, are unreliable field marks. Good luck. Randy Campbell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/476afac9/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 20 13:15:10 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:15:10 -0800 Subject: [obol] A birder's tale (no. 117) Message-ID: <49763EDE.6090703@pacifier.com> Once upon a time, a young(ish) birder and his lovely wife were enjoying a picnic lunch of bread and cheese and raw vegetables at a wayside rest area somewhere in the southeastern part of our great state. Quite unexpectedly, a flycatcher appeared above them in a nearby juniper. It was brightly marked with a dark crown, back and wings and pale throat, breast belly and vent. It gave the impression of a smallish Eastern Kingbird, but was obviously not that species. It moved around through the branches of the trees in a manner the young(ish) birder had not seen before. He decided the combination of fieldmarks most closely matched Eastern Phoebe. This all happened in the dimly lit, late 20th Century, a time without cell phones, a time with limited internet access. A simpler time. As a result, he was unable to contact any of his fellow birders until very late in the day, hours after his initial observation. Others were not able to go looking for this marvel until the next morning. By all accounts there were plenty of folks looking for the bird the next day and they found it, working the sagebrush edge that bordered the picnic area. Fieldmarks were noted. Photographs were taken. Ticks were ticked. Everyone was happy and excited. Then the photos came back from the developer (simpler times, remember). The bird in the photographs was not an Eastern Phoebe. In the cold light of the still images, references could be consulted, plumages could be closely evaluated, wing formulas could be summed. The bird in the photos was a very brightly marked Willow Flycatcher, arguably somewhat out of context amidst the juniper and sagebrush. Ticks were unticked. Everyone was sad. To this day, the young(ish) bird maintains, though with less certainty or righteous indignation, that the bird he saw while picnicking with his lovely wife was not the same bird seen by the birding throngs the next day. There is always solace, no matter how tenuous, in the two bird theory. In time, other, unchallengeable Eastern Phoebes appeared. Ticks could be ticked. Everyone could be happy, again. The End -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From celata at pacifier.com Tue Jan 20 13:22:20 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:22:20 -0800 Subject: [obol] More Lincoln's Sparrow photos- many in-hand Message-ID: <4976408C.8020801@pacifier.com> http://www.flickr.com/photos/24226259 at N06/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu Tue Jan 20 13:25:28 2009 From: douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu (Douglas Robinson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:25:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's (?) photos, maybe more than zero doubt Message-ID: Hi folks, In my pre-dawn and pre-coffee haste to dash off an email about Owen's photos, I said I had zero doubt about the identity of the bird photographed on the ground. Well, some good points have been made about inconsistent field marks. Although I am still not sure completely of the identity of the photographed bird (the tail feather shape still bothers me; I will look at specimens in the OSU collection and see what I can learn), I did do some comparisons of the photographed bird with my notes from the field and there is a major discrepancy, the back feathers. In my notes I wrote: " The back feathers were very round-tipped (not elongated) and black with dark chestnut toward the distal edges. Each feather was edged with a very narrow (about 1 mm) and uniform-width white fringe. It's the fringes on dark feathers that made the back appear "scaly." " As far as I can see on the bird in the photographs, there are two big differences with my notes: 1) I can't see that chestnut color toward the outer edges of each feather; and 2) the lateral margins look grayish, not white, are not narrow and don't extend all the way around each back feather. I mentioned this lack of fringes to Jeff Gilligan in an earlier email, but did not follow up on it properly. Unless others can see these marks and I am just missing them, I think the photographed bird is a different bird. Sorry for not making this comparison earlier. Doug From philliplc at charter.net Tue Jan 20 13:29:15 2009 From: philliplc at charter.net (Phil Pickering) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:29:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow References: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com><2666.128.193.161.10.1232484326.squirrel@webmail.peak.org> Message-ID: <3F66730C304F47918C76DE536327DD6D@Phil> On most Lincoln's the dark post-ocular stripe appears to extend all the way to the eye breaking the otherwise complete ring at the rear. The appearance of this bird is prototypical for Lincoln's in that respect. Cheers, Phil >There is one small point I have not read in our Henslow's/Lincoln's >discussions as yet. In the 2nd set of photos (especially # 11), one can >clearly see the broken eyering at the rear of the eye. In all the plates >and photos I have looked over of both birds, all make the distinction: >for Lincoln's the eyering is unbroken, for Henslow's it is broken. From acontrer at mindspring.com Tue Jan 20 13:46:20 2009 From: acontrer at mindspring.com (Alan Contreras) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:46:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: [obol] A birder's tale (no. 117) Message-ID: <24340021.1232487980827.JavaMail.root@elwamui-darkeyed.atl.sa.earthlink.net> As another survivor of the pre-field-electronics age, and someone who participated in the empid chase in the junipers, I'll add an almost parallel story to Mike's. I was at Malheur HQ once, I think it was spring 2007 but I'd have to look it up. I was standing on the lawn and noticed a typical Gray Flycatcher to the west, near the low stone wall, dipping its tail and looking around. I watched it for a moment, then looked away. Perhaps two minutes later I heard a call note and looked back that way as some other birders came out of the thrush-grove near the parking area. Perched in the same bush that the flycatcher had been was a similar tail-bobbing flycatcher. We all sort of stared at it for a moment, then it made a quick local flight and called, returning to the same area. I looked over at Tim Rodenkirk and said something like "There was a Gray Flycatcher right there, but isn't this an Eastern Phoebe? I shot one quick photo. Tim was right near it and said "it IS an Eastern Phoebe" and then it flew toward the display pond. A few others saw it at that moment. The photo was not very good, but showed an Eastern Phoebe acceptable to the OBRC. Perhaps most interesting, neither bird was ever seen again, to my knowledge, despite the presence of many birders. Were they both really there? I think so. This recent sparrow discussion on obol is one of the best parts of obol. Back in the day, it would have taken nine months to gather half the information that we assembled in nine hours, and we have all learned a lot. This might even make gull i.d. more attractive to Mary Anne. The pleasure never ends. -----Original Message----- >From: Mike Patterson >Sent: Jan 20, 2009 4:15 PM >To: OBOL >Subject: [obol] A birder's tale (no. 117) > >Once upon a time, a young(ish) birder and his lovely wife were enjoying >a picnic lunch of bread and cheese and raw vegetables at a wayside rest >area somewhere in the southeastern part of our great state. Quite >unexpectedly, a flycatcher appeared above them in a nearby juniper. It >was brightly marked with a dark crown, back and wings and pale throat, >breast belly and vent. It gave the impression of a smallish Eastern >Kingbird, but was obviously not that species. It moved around through >the branches of the trees in a manner the young(ish) birder had not seen >before. He decided the combination of fieldmarks most closely matched >Eastern Phoebe. > >This all happened in the dimly lit, late 20th Century, a time without >cell phones, a time with limited internet access. A simpler time. As a >result, he was unable to contact any of his fellow birders until very >late in the day, hours after his initial observation. Others were not >able to go looking for this marvel until the next morning. > >By all accounts there were plenty of folks looking for the bird the next >day and they found it, working the sagebrush edge that bordered the >picnic area. Fieldmarks were noted. Photographs were taken. Ticks >were ticked. Everyone was happy and excited. > >Then the photos came back from the developer (simpler times, remember). > The bird in the photographs was not an Eastern Phoebe. In the cold >light of the still images, references could be consulted, plumages could >be closely evaluated, wing formulas could be summed. The bird in the >photos was a very brightly marked Willow Flycatcher, arguably somewhat >out of context amidst the juniper and sagebrush. > >Ticks were unticked. Everyone was sad. > >To this day, the young(ish) bird maintains, though with less certainty >or righteous indignation, that the bird he saw while picnicking with his >lovely wife was not the same bird seen by the birding throngs the next >day. There is always solace, no matter how tenuous, in the two bird >theory. > >In time, other, unchallengeable Eastern Phoebes appeared. Ticks could >be ticked. Everyone could be happy, again. > >The End > >-- >Mike Patterson >Astoria, OR >Studies in ambiguity >http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 20 14:34:09 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:34:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Abe's Yellow-throated Henslow's Shorebird Sparrow Warbler thing....... Message-ID: <49765161.4010209@verizon.net> Folks, In case you are totally bored, completely frustrated, or ready to kill the next person who dares to debate the little flying vole in the weedy field somewhere in the great valley of Oregon that you will NEVER get a chance to see even if you cut all the weeds to stubs and smash every vole hole in the field, I thought I might mention that Kathy and I and Dave Ledig looked for the YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER on Monday afternoon (that be yesterday, the one that was at Floras Lake, Curry Cty) when it was sunny and HOT here on the coast (how's 86 degrees in the sun in our yard sound?), and we could not find it. Nor was it reported Saturday or Sunday. We were there Saturday and when we pulled up I saw a PEREGRINE FALCON flying away from the barn area with a small something in its talons. Kathy cursed me over and over for making the suggestion that maybe the said warbler became brunch. On a cheerier note, I took a look at Russ's photos of said Warbler, and I thought I just mention that I think everyone got the identification wrong. Yes, it superficially resembles a Yellow-throated Warbler, but what it really is is a Yellow-chinned Barn Bugger. This is a very rare Chinese species, only known from a small area of agricultural China, hence the reason why so many of you don't have a clue that that is what it was. In that part of China, you have to be a card carrying member of the Commie Party to gain access to this wonderfully depleted habitat area. What we know is that this species prefers barn yards, and despite being generally non-migratory, they do occasionally disperse great distances. There are a number of records spread throughout the US, most misidentified as Yellow-throated Warblers. If you are still with me on this one, you either are a friend of mine, you are getting a good laugh, or you are already cursing me and wishing I would just fade away or a tsunami would wipe me out the next time I survey for plovers. So I'll stop here..... PS - and about those White-breasted Nuthatches in Bandon.........never mind........ Cheers Dave Lauten Bandon, OR deweysage at verizon.net From douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu Tue Jan 20 14:43:41 2009 From: douglas.robinson at oregonstate.edu (Douglas Robinson) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:43:41 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's, one more good lesson Message-ID: I like Alan and Randy's messages about useful lessons and the utility of OBOL. After too rapidly jumping on the hip-hip-hooray photo bandwagon this morning, I went birding all day, only to return and see that the wisdom of the crowds seemed to have reached consensus that the photos were of a Lincoln's. Naturally, this wreaked havoc with my brain. Did I screw up the field identification, too? Did I see what I thought I saw? I've seen dozens of those little sh*ts; how could I have done that? What did I actually see? After looking at dozens of images of Lincoln's and Henslow's today, good ones and bad ones, the latter question loomed larger and larger. What DID I see? Crap! So, here's the message and the lesson: Always write what you saw as soon as possible. Look at the bird as long as possible, but then immediately write your description. Do this even if you get a photo! All the discussion about what colors are on the sparrow photographs should convince us all from now on that we can not rely only on photos. If I had not written notes in the field, and now have been able to compare those notes with the photos, I truly would not have been able to figure out if the bird I saw in the field matched the marks on the photographed bird. Just too many new images overlaid on top of the memory that gets farther and farther away in time. Let's hope a Henslow's Sparrow can be found again at EE Wilson, or maybe this is just one that got away.... Doug From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 20 14:53:34 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:53:34 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow In-Reply-To: References: <81b2a9930901201143i1e0dfafeo59ae61ab4b5cffa9@mail.gmail.com> <2666.128.193.161.10.1232484326.squirrel@webmail.peak.org> Message-ID: <497655EE.5070609@verizon.net> BILL ROSIE TICE wrote: > There is one small point I have not read in our Henslow's/Lincoln's > discussions as yet. In the 2nd set of photos (especially # 11), one > can clearly see the broken eyering at the rear of the eye. In all the > plates and photos I have looked over of both birds, all make the > distinction: for Lincoln's the eyering is unbroken, for Henslow's it > is broken. > Phil Pickering sent a link to an image of a Lincoln's Sparrow earlier this morning. If you go there, you'll see a wonderful photo of a Lincoln's Sparrow, with a broken eye ring in the rear. So much for that field mark........ Cheers Dave Lauten From acontrer at mindspring.com Tue Jan 20 15:02:40 2009 From: acontrer at mindspring.com (Alan Contreras) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:02:40 -0800 (GMT-08:00) Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications Message-ID: <15880225.1232492560298.JavaMail.root@mswamui-chipeau.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Doug, I can't remember if you know this story (many on obol do), but some years ago I identified a Red-necked Grebe floating on Netarts Bay, its long reddish neck obvious even at a distance. Unfortunately upon closer examination it proved to be Podiceps budweiser longneckii. So if you misidentified this sparrow, which strikes me as a somewhat atypical Lincoln's, you'll have to try a LOT harder to impress us with your badness. Some of us have set a very low standard indeed. Alan -----Original Message----- >From: Douglas Robinson >Sent: Jan 20, 2009 2:43 PM >To: "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" >Subject: [obol] Henslow's, one more good lesson > >I like Alan and Randy's messages about useful lessons and the utility of >OBOL. > >After too rapidly jumping on the hip-hip-hooray photo bandwagon this >morning, I went birding all day, only to return and see that the wisdom of >the crowds seemed to have reached consensus that the photos were of a >Lincoln's. > >Naturally, this wreaked havoc with my brain. Did I screw up the field >identification, too? Did I see what I thought I saw? I've seen dozens of >those little sh*ts; how could I have done that? What did I actually see? > >After looking at dozens of images of Lincoln's and Henslow's today, good >ones and bad ones, the latter question loomed larger and larger. What DID I >see? Crap! > >So, here's the message and the lesson: Always write what you saw as soon as >possible. Look at the bird as long as possible, but then immediately write >your description. Do this even if you get a photo! All the discussion about >what colors are on the sparrow photographs should convince us all from now >on that we can not rely only on photos. If I had not written notes in the >field, and now have been able to compare those notes with the photos, I >truly would not have been able to figure out if the bird I saw in the field >matched the marks on the photographed bird. Just too many new images >overlaid on top of the memory that gets farther and farther away in time. > >Let's hope a Henslow's Sparrow can be found again at EE Wilson, or maybe >this is just one that got away.... > >Doug > > > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon From garbledmodwit at yahoo.com Tue Jan 20 15:47:31 2009 From: garbledmodwit at yahoo.com (Tim Rodenkirk) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 15:47:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Some Coos Birds of Late Message-ID: <896524.74999.qm@web45305.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Great Henslow thread, been too busy birding to add much but it has been so impressive! Back in Coos County I saw the overwintering north spit of Coos Bay SAY'S PHOEBE on Monday (1st verified wintering record), it may have been the same one I saw out there in early November and is likely the bird I saw twice in December. I've checked for it many times at the lumber mill but only seem to see it about every three weeks. The other overwintering SAPH in the Coquille Valley near Norway found by Irons, Norgren, & Fairchild on the Coquile Valley CBC (the 2nd verified overwintering record) is also still around or was last week. Also on the north spit of Coos Bay was a PALM WARBLER, the first one I've seen out there in a couple months. Over in the SW corner of the county, up Bethel Mtn. Road (right on the Coos side of the Coos/Curry line), I found a HORNED LARK, only about the 4th Coos mid-winter record. Also up there was a ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK (one wintered there last year) and a pair of GOLDEN EAGLES, one of which drifted over into Curry Co. while I was watching it (a long overdue new Curry bird for me!). One addition Curry tidbit, while waiting for the Yellow-throated Warbler (without luck) near Floras Lake in Curry Co. last Saturday, several of us saw a distance white goose with some Canadas that was like a SNOW GOOSE, west of the silos a mile or so. The YT Warbler was last seen on Friday, so it looks like it's moved on. Happy birding all! Tim R Coos Bay From willclemons at yahoo.com Tue Jan 20 16:20:46 2009 From: willclemons at yahoo.com (Will Clemons) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:20:46 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] =?utf-8?q?Lincoln=27s_Sparrow_versus_Henslow=27s_Sparrow_I?= =?utf-8?q?D_=26_Killing_the_Ordinary_man=E2=80=A6?= Message-ID: <833800.79708.qm@web55103.mail.re4.yahoo.com> A) I have no opinion on the ID of this Sparrow. I do follow and understand the various points made by each person who takes a side. Thank you for doing so. I am now, and always will be, an Ordinary birder. As such I will leave it to those with more knowledge and experience, than I have. 2) I do however want to thank all who chimed in on this whole Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID puzzler. You have all added to our collective knowledge with ID tips a plenty, not to mention references. Birders I know and respect; names I know as reputable, but have never met, and more. This thread is a perfect example of but one way in which OBOL serves flocks of birders so well. Many of us Ordinary birders out here in OBOL land, may have opinions on this ID (or similar tough calls), but we are too timid to post them on OBOL. We do however, learn from others, and enjoy the reading. III) "It would have killed an Ordinary man!" I once had a neighbor/friend for ten of his 90 years. Every time I complemented him on something he knew or could do better than I could, his reply was always the above quote. That is how I feel (for myself) about this Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID, and all the photos taken and proffered. There have been many trusted expert opinions on each side of the Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow story. If I tried to resolve this Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID puzzle, it might just kill this Ordinary man by making my head explode. I told myself a good long while back, that I need to get down to EE Wilson again, but solely to study Sparrows. Now I may actually do it, though not to see a Henslow's. I will go because I believe that over the years folks have posted it as good sparrow habitat, and I could use some added schooling on Lincoln's etc. SO this year I will make an education day to EE Wilson. Thanks OBOL, for improving my life, now if you will excuse me I need to go take some aspirin, as just this mmodest thinking about Henslow's Sparrow versus Lincoln's Sparrow ID has made my head hurt, and I fear for my life. Keep explaining the tough ones to us, because we love you all for it. Will Clemons SW of Portland willclemons AT Yahoo dot com Birding: The best excuse for getting outdoors And avoiding chores From kolwicz at minetfiber.com Tue Jan 20 16:29:17 2009 From: kolwicz at minetfiber.com (kolwicz at minetfiber.com) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 16:29:17 -0800 Subject: [obol] Hummer food Message-ID: <49766C5D.1030604@minetfiber.com> I make a 1:4 sugar:water mix for my hummers and it always gets cloudy within a few days, even now, during this cool/cold weather and I assume that it's contaminated. This happens even with the refrigerated unused portion over a few weeks time. I boil the mix hard for a minute or so, put it in a hot canning jar, then cool and cap it and then refrigerate it until needed. The feeder itself has a pint glass, hour-glass shaped, bottle on the red plastic feeder. The glass bottle is microwaved with water until it boils then that hot bottle is attached to the plastic feeder and inverted so the hot water sits in the previously cleaned plastic. Is the cloudy mix potentially harmful? Is there a better way to be sure my sugar solution is uncontaminated? Frank From gerard.lillie at comcast.net Tue Jan 20 16:35:18 2009 From: gerard.lillie at comcast.net (gerard.lillie at comcast.net) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:35:18 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications In-Reply-To: <15880225.1232492560298.JavaMail.root@mswamui-chipeau.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Message-ID: <1877345063.3124171232498118410.JavaMail.root@sz0066a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net> Ah yes. We have ALL been there, done that. Like the time in my dear old home state of Michigan when while driving slowly down a country road I yelled out "Pileated Woodpecker" only to have an American Robin fly in front of the car for all to see. Don't ask how I blew that one as there is no good answer. At least you have a very good excuse, Doug. Gerard Lillie Portland, OR Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications Doug, I can't remember if you know this story (many on obol do), but some years ago I identified a Red-necked Grebe floating on Netarts Bay, its long reddish neck obvious even at a distance. ?Unfortunately upon closer examination it proved to be Podiceps budweiser longneckii. ? So if you misidentified this sparrow, which strikes me as a somewhat atypical Lincoln's, you'll have to try a LOT harder to impress us with your badness. Some of us have set a very low standard indeed. Alan -----Original Message----- >From: Douglas Robinson >Sent: Jan 20, 2009 2:43 PM >To: "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" >Subject: [obol] Henslow's, one more good lesson > >I like Alan and Randy's messages about useful lessons and the utility of >OBOL. > >After too rapidly jumping on the hip-hip-hooray photo bandwagon this >morning, I went birding all day, only to return and see that the wisdom of >the crowds seemed to have reached consensus that the photos were of a >Lincoln's. > >Naturally, this wreaked havoc with my brain. Did I screw up the field >identification, too? Did I see what I thought I saw? I've seen dozens of >those little sh*ts; how could I have done that? What did I actually see? > >After looking at dozens of images of Lincoln's and Henslow's today, good >ones and bad ones, the latter question loomed larger and larger. What DID I >see? Crap! > >So, here's the message and the lesson: Always write what you saw as soon as >possible. Look at the bird as long as possible, but then immediately write >your description. Do this even if you get a photo! All the discussion about >what colors are on the sparrow photographs should convince us all from now >on that we can not rely only on photos. ?If I had not written notes in the >field, and now have been able to compare those notes with the photos, I >truly would not have been able to figure out if the bird I saw in the field >matched the marks on the photographed bird. Just too many new images >overlaid on top of the memory that gets farther and farther away in time. > >Let's hope a Henslow's Sparrow can be found again at EE Wilson, or maybe >this is just one that got away.... > >Doug > > > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/dc0fadbc/attachment.html From deweysage at verizon.net Tue Jan 20 17:49:02 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 17:49:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] =?windows-1252?q?Lincoln=27s_Sparrow_versus_Henslow=27s_Sp?= =?windows-1252?q?arrow_ID_=26_Killing_the_Ordinary_man=85?= In-Reply-To: <833800.79708.qm@web55103.mail.re4.yahoo.com> References: <833800.79708.qm@web55103.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <49767F0E.6060607@verizon.net> Since we are on the topic of Henslow's Sparrow and Ordinary Birders, I thought I might just chime in that for those who have never seen this species on their breeding grounds, for all the frustration of positively IDing one, they must be one of the absolutely easiest species to find and learn....meaning learn the song. When you are in Henslow's Sparrow country, there is only one thing that sings like that. And it is simple. "Se-lick". That's it. No kidding. No warbles to figure from the other warblers, no buzzing to figure from the other buzzers, no trilling to figure from the other trillers. Just a simple "Se-lick". Most often from the top of a blade of grass. Sitting up in the open. No skylarking even. It's that simple. Really. For the most part. Just don't confuse it with the local grasshoppers. The real ones, not the sparrow one. It's really really cool, I highly recommend it. Cheers Dave Lauten Will Clemons wrote: > A) I have no opinion on the ID of this Sparrow. I do follow and understand the various points made by each person who takes a side. Thank you for doing so. I am now, and always will be, an Ordinary birder. As such I will leave it to those with more knowledge and experience, than I have. > > 2) I do however want to thank all who chimed in on this whole Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID puzzler. You have all added to our collective knowledge with ID tips a plenty, not to mention references. Birders I know and respect; names I know as reputable, but have never met, and more. This thread is a perfect example of but one way in which OBOL serves flocks of birders so well. Many of us Ordinary birders out here in OBOL land, may have opinions on this ID (or similar tough calls), but we are too timid to post them on OBOL. > > We do however, learn from others, and enjoy the reading. > > III) "It would have killed an Ordinary man!" > > I once had a neighbor/friend for ten of his 90 years. Every time I complemented him on something he knew or could do better than I could, his reply was always the above quote. > > That is how I feel (for myself) about this Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID, and all the photos taken and proffered. There have been many trusted expert opinions on each side of the Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow story. If I tried to resolve this Lincoln's Sparrow versus Henslow's Sparrow ID puzzle, it might just kill this Ordinary man by making my head explode. > > I told myself a good long while back, that I need to get down to EE Wilson again, but solely to study Sparrows. Now I may actually do it, though not to see a Henslow's. I will go because I believe that over the years folks have posted it as good sparrow habitat, and I could use some added schooling on Lincoln's etc. SO this year I will make an education day to EE Wilson. > > Thanks OBOL, for improving my life, now if you will excuse me I need to go take some aspirin, as just this mmodest thinking about Henslow's Sparrow versus Lincoln's Sparrow ID has made my head hurt, and I fear for my life. > > Keep explaining the tough ones to us, because we love you all for it. > > Will Clemons > SW of Portland > willclemons AT Yahoo dot com > > Birding: > The best excuse for getting outdoors > And avoiding chores > > > > > _______________________________________________ > obol mailing list > obol at oregonbirdwatch.org > http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol > > > From hhactitis at yahoo.com Tue Jan 20 18:32:29 2009 From: hhactitis at yahoo.com (Hendrik Herlyn) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:32:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications In-Reply-To: <1877345063.3124171232498118410.JavaMail.root@sz0066a.emeryville.ca.mail.comcast.net> Message-ID: <277317.66660.qm@web37005.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I vividly remember the time Rich Hoyer and I sort of led the OSU Zoology Club field trip in South Eastern Arizona. We had pulled the van over to allow all participants excellent looks at a picture-perfect Swainson's Hawk perched within easy viewing distance. We diligently pointed out every field mark and explained how it clearly proved that this bird was a Swainson's Hawk and not a Red-tail .... until the little bastard flew, displaying a brilliant red tail! Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us to restore our reputation as exert birders for the remainder of the trip! Such goes life ... Cheers and happy birding to all Hendrik _________________________________ Hendrik G. Herlyn 2445 SW Leonard Street, Apt. 5 Corvallis, OR 97333 USA E-Mail: hhactitis at yahoo.com --- On Tue, 1/20/09, gerard.lillie at comcast.net wrote: From: gerard.lillie at comcast.net Subject: Re: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications To: "Alan Contreras" Cc: "Douglas Robinson" , obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Date: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 4:35 PM #yiv529921445 p {margin:0;}Ah yes. We have ALL been there, done that. Like the time in my dear old home state of Michigan when while driving slowly down a country road I yelled out "Pileated Woodpecker" only to have an American Robin fly in front of the car for all to see. Don't ask how I blew that one as there is no good answer. At least you have a very good excuse, Doug. ? Gerard Lillie Portland, OR Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications Doug, I can't remember if you know this story (many on obol do), but some years ago I identified a Red-necked Grebe floating on Netarts Bay, its long reddish neck obvious even at a distance. ?Unfortunately upon closer examination it proved to be Podiceps budweiser longneckii. ? So if you misidentified this sparrow, which strikes me as a somewhat atypical Lincoln's, you'll have to try a LOT harder to impress us with your badness. Some of us have set a very low standard indeed. Alan -----Original Message----- >From: Douglas Robinson >Sent: Jan 20, 2009 2:43 PM >To: "obol at oregonbirdwatch.org" >Subject: [obol] Henslow's, one more good lesson > >I like Alan and Randy's messages about useful lessons and the utility of >OBOL. > >After too rapidly jumping on the hip-hip-hooray photo bandwagon this >morning, I went birding all day, only to return and see that the wisdom of >the crowds seemed to have reached consensus that the photos were of a >Lincoln's. > >Naturally, this wreaked havoc with my brain. Did I screw up the field >identification, too? Did I see what I thought I saw? I've seen dozens of >those little sh*ts; how could I have done that? What did I actually see? > >After looking at dozens of images of Lincoln's and Henslow's today, good >ones and bad ones, the latter question loomed larger and larger. What DID I >see? Crap! > >So, here's the message and the lesson: Always write what you saw as soon as >possible. Look at the bird as long as possible, but then immediately write >your description. Do this even if you get a photo! All the discussion about >what colors are on the sparrow photographs should convince us all from now >on that we can not rely only on photos. ?If I had not written notes in the >field, and now have been able to compare those notes with the photos, I >truly would not have been able to figure out if the bird I saw in the field >matched the marks on the photographed bird. Just too many new images >overlaid on top of the memory that gets farther and farther away in time. > >Let's hope a Henslow's Sparrow can be found again at EE Wilson, or maybe >this is just one that got away.... > >Doug > > > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol Alan Contreras - Eugene, Oregon _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/a04c3393/attachment.html From tc at empnet.com Tue Jan 20 18:49:19 2009 From: tc at empnet.com (Tom Crabtree) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:49:19 -0800 Subject: [obol] On the joy of incorrect identifications Message-ID: <00f601c97b72$dbcaf7d0$4e01a8c0@102889> Doug, Alan, et al, This episode underscores several points about OBOL and birding. 1. OBOL is a great source of information to the Oregon Birding Community. No one else has brought this up lately, but we owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to Jim Norton for keeping this going. We tend to take its existence for granted, but if it weren't for a volunteer devoting his time to keeping it running smoothly, we would still have to rely on a phone tree for information about rarities. So everybody, take some time and let Jim know publicly or privately that you appreciate what he does for us. THANK YOU, JIM! 2. Even the best birders in the state are human and can misidentify a bird. Alan mentioned one of his "blunders," I can add a couple of my beauts -- a Snowy Owl, Nyctea milkjugii and a Eurasian Dotterel, Phalaropus muddyi. We all do it and it's not anything to be ashamed of. Momentary embarrassment is likely, but it's not one of the seven deadly sins. So, don't be afraid of letting people know about your sightings, even if you could be wrong. I'm guessing that there are a few hundred people in Oregon who know an awful lot more about Henslow's Sparrows and finer ID points of Lincoln's Sparrows than they did a week ago. 3. A corollary to point 2, if you see something rare, don't be afraid to turn in your documentation of it to the OBRC. It establishes the record for a species occurrence in the state and contributes to an ever expanding knowledge base. Again, don't be afraid to be wrong. The absolute worst that can happen is you'll get a letter saying it wasn't accepted for XX reason. 4. The vast, vast majority of posters on OBOL are helpful people. I didn't hear a single person say, "@!#$%^& I drove umpteen miles to see that ______ _______ sparrow and it had been misidentified!" Obviously it was a bird that was confusing, at best and OBOL posters responded in a polite, appropriate, informative way. Not every list is so courteous. 5. Birds are fun. This exercise the last week was downright fun to observe, to read the posts, plan to go over and check out the bird and learn something in the process. The debates about which bird it was were educational and enjoyable. Thanks to all who participated in this endeavor. Tom Crabtree Bend, OR "Today the two most beautiful words in the English language were spoken 'President Obama.'" From winkg at hevanet.com Tue Jan 20 19:03:41 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:03:41 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow "singing" Message-ID: <20090121030343.EC8EBA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Dave Lauten's post about the singing of Henslow's Sparrows reminded me of one of my favorite passages from Peterson's old "Field Guide to the Birds": Voice: The Henslow's perches atop a weed, from which it utters one of the poorest vocal efforts of any bird; throwing back its head, it ejects a hiccoughing 'tsi-lick'. As if to practice this 'song' so that it might not always remain at the bottom of the list, it often hiccoughs all night long. It's too bad we no longer have field guides that you can just read cover-to-cover for enjoyment. Wink Gross Portland From calliope at theriver.com Tue Jan 20 19:13:08 2009 From: calliope at theriver.com (Rich Hoyer) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:13:08 -0700 Subject: [obol] Don't Give Up On Henslow's Message-ID: <5F80BC6A-F953-433D-8331-92BD3B795BC9@theriver.com> Hi All, The rest of the world won't know for sure if Doug actually saw a Henslow's Sparrow or not until someone else actually sees and photographs one there. But because a very confusing Lincoln's Sparrow was photographed in the same area does not mean that it was the same bird that Doug saw. So don't give up on trying to find the bird. I know if I were up there, I'd be out there looking around (and I'd take Joel up on the offer to use his bird seed). The number of birders tromping through that 100 square meters might have convinced the bird to take up a different territory nearby. By the way, for the naysayers who are forever resistant to all things new (such as first state records, and thereby scream "impossible") I did a quick bit of distance measuring on Google Earth. The distance from the northernmost breeding range of Henslow's Sparrow (in a good year, like, was it last year?) to its southernmost winter range is the same as from the former to western Oregon, about 1200 miles. The only difference is almost exactly 90?. On the other hand, there's only a tiny corner of northeastern California within a similar radius, so that state does not look like a good potential end point for a lost Henslow's Sparrow. Note that I'm going on the observation that a vast majority of vagrants that reach an end point err in direction only, not distance. Good Birding, Rich --- Rich Hoyer Tucson, Arizona Senior Leader for WINGS http://wingsbirds.com --- From llsdirons at msn.com Tue Jan 20 23:28:22 2009 From: llsdirons at msn.com (David Irons) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:28:22 +0000 Subject: [obol] Partial report on my recent trip to Baja now up on BirdFellow.com Message-ID: Greetings All, For anyone interested in a break from the riveting Henslow's vs Lincoln's Sparrow ID discussion, or just a little vicarious birding enjoyment, check out BirdFellow.com. Steve Mlodinow and I recently returned from eight days of birding and relaxation in Baja California Sur, where we saw 189 species including several rarities. I will break up the trip report into 3-4 installments that will appear on our blog over the next week or so. I'm still editing the 1019 images that came home on memory cards. Winter birding on the southern Baja peninsula offers a great opportunity to see local endemics, multiple "eastern" warblers, large numbers of shorebirds, terns, and marshbirds, and see lots of wintering passerines that summer north of the border along the west coast. If nothing else, it was nice to be someplace where the temperature was 40F+ warmer than an average January day in the Willamette Valley. Dave Irons _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: Keep your life in sync. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/3ae114d8/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Tue Jan 20 23:44:47 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:44:47 -0800 Subject: [obol] Henslow's Sparrow "singing" In-Reply-To: <20090121030343.EC8EBA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> References: <20090121030343.EC8EBA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Message-ID: Listening to Henslow's Sparrows sing at night is the easiest way to detect them. The song is so quiet that it is easily overwhelmed in the daytime by louder sounds, but it carries nicely on a still night, and indeed they do often rock & roll all night long. This also mercifully alleviates the need to find the little buggers visually and pay attention to all those aggravating field marks. - JW, P At 7:03 PM -0800 1/20/09, Wink Gross wrote: >Dave Lauten's post about the singing of Henslow's Sparrows >reminded me of one of my favorite passages from Peterson's >old "Field Guide to the Birds": > > Voice: The Henslow's perches atop a weed, from which > it utters one of the poorest vocal efforts of any bird; > throwing back its head, it ejects a hiccoughing 'tsi-lick'. > As if to practice this 'song' so that it might not always > remain at the bottom of the list, it often hiccoughs all > night long. > >It's too bad we no longer have field guides that you can just >read cover-to-cover for enjoyment. > >Wink Gross >Portland > > >_______________________________________________ >obol mailing list >obol at oregonbirdwatch.org >http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From joel.geier at peak.org Wed Jan 21 05:50:30 2009 From: joel.geier at peak.org (Joel Geier) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 05:50:30 -0800 Subject: [obol] Don't give up on Henslow's Sparrow Message-ID: <1232545830.3510.31.camel@localhost.localdomain> Hello folks, Let me second Rich Hoyer's comments. All that's been proven is that there's a Lincoln's Sparrow in the same vicinity as the initially reported Henslow's Sparrow, which allowed itself to be photographed. We have all gained a lesson in the superficial similarities between two unrelated species that we never expected to have to distinguish between in Oregon. I wonder if Jeff & Owen's bird is really such an unusual Lincoln's Sparrow, or if it's just that we aren't accustomed to looking so closely at each & every Lincoln's Sparrow. For my part, I plan to do more observation of Lincoln's Sparrows on the ground, rather than just adding a dot to my tally sheet whenever I see one fly to the bushes, or hear one give its buzzy little call. Clearly I have a few things to learn about this species, even though for years I've been seeing 50 or more per winter, and usually a few in breeding habitat as well. There *were* some discrepancies between Doug's detailed description of the bird he saw, and the bird in Owen's photos (even in the one shot that looked more like an Ammodramus to me), e.g. the lack of scaly apearance on the back. While Doug may have been a bit hasty in going along with the photos that were posted, this doesn't necessarily mean that he blew the ID in the field. Looking at a flat, still photo is very different from looking at the real, living bird with the stereoscopic vision that most of are still blessed with. I would also not rule out the possibility that Jeff and Owen may have seen the right bird at least for part of the sequence that Jeff described, but photographed another that was easier to get clear views of. They may have been victims of a vicious game of "sparrow tag-team," where one sparrow flies into a bit of cover and another one flies out. The idea that just one single sparrow was in that patch of habitat did seem more than a little strange to me -- practically freakish. It's hard to find a patch with such a low density of sparrows, anywhere in E.E. Wilson Wildlife Area in the winter. More likely that perception was due to too many of us tromping around at once. I now have no doubt about one thing: I have no idea what kind of sparrow I saw out there last Friday. Lucky for me, the place is close enough that I can give it a few more tries this winter .... motorless tries, even. Happy birding, Joel P.S. As to the power of suggestion on one's perception of an evasive bird, I'm sure that somewhere in Google's archives you can look up my beautiful sketch of Oregon's first nesting Northern Hawk-Owl, which seemingly had its nest adopted by a Cooper's Hawk when I went back to check a couple of weeks later. I never did see the real Hawk-Owl while it was in Bend. -- Joel Geier Camp Adair area, capital of Heck From 5hats at peak.org Wed Jan 21 06:58:22 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:58:22 -0800 Subject: [obol] ode Message-ID: <000801c97bd8$b926cd10$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Is it? Was it? Could it be, Henslow's Sparrow, flying free? Or were you Lincoln's after all, Hiding in the grasses tall? Who's right? Who's wrong? It may be we will never know Which field mark it is you show. Doug may have been right all along. Whichever - - you caused quite a fuss, You Ammo-melodramus! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/8bfd5767/attachment.html From 4cains at charter.net Wed Jan 21 07:14:46 2009 From: 4cains at charter.net (Lee and Lori Cain) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 07:14:46 -0800 Subject: [obol] Short-eared Owl, Astoria Airport Message-ID: <657D73B836AD493EBF1AAD9729FECBAA@HAL> Went for a run yesterday (in gorgeous crisp sunshine) on the Astoria Airport dike at about 1630 hrs. Saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk and Northern Harrier, but the best bird was a SHORT-EARED OWL hunting in the grasses at the end of the NW airstrip. Virginia Rails were noisy in the wetland. Lee Cain Astoria, Or -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/b99b94ca/attachment.html From jeffgill at teleport.com Wed Jan 21 08:08:06 2009 From: jeffgill at teleport.com (Jeff Gilligan) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:08:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] Little Blue heron - perhaps a new location. (etc.) Message-ID: Nick Lethaby and I saw the Little Blue Heron Tuesday. It was feeding in a tidal pool on Siletz Bay on the north side of Cutler City. From the street that runs parallel to the bay, walk through a narrow public path between the houses to the grassy dune. The bird and the pool were just beyond the dunes. (There is a pump station of some sort across the street from where the public access trail starts.) A first year GLAUCOUS GULL was loafing in the channel near Mo's. There were also 6 Brown Pelicans there - my first ever in January in Oregon. A WHIMBREL was on the rocks along the south south side of the channel near the mouth of Yaquina Bay. Off to Chile and Argentina until late February. Jeff Gilligan Portland From rkorpi at hotmail.com Wed Jan 21 09:26:29 2009 From: rkorpi at hotmail.com (Ray Korpi) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:26:29 -0800 Subject: [obol] Red-naped Sapsucker at Clark College Message-ID: All, I just walked out of my office in Anna Pechanec Hall (APH) and found a RED-NAPED SAPSUCKER for the third winter in the last five or so here at Clark College in Vancouver. THe bird was in the pine trees on the west end of APH. Off to my boring meetings! Ray Korpi rkorpi at hotmail.com Vancouver WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/e3413f8c/attachment.html From pamelaj at spiritone.com Wed Jan 21 09:46:53 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:46:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] Band-tailed Pigeon, Yamhill Co Message-ID: <44D419FC4AA9471B87173ACC8DD0F467@yourw5st28y9a3> A lone Band-tailed Pigeon appeared this morning at my feeders, possibly attracted by the 50 or so Juncos on the ground. This is the first one I have seen here in winter. The last left in October. Two Pine Siskins showed up as well. They're more common in McMinnville, which is loaded with birches. Pamela Johnston From tom-escue at comcast.net Wed Jan 21 10:27:44 2009 From: tom-escue at comcast.net (Tom Escue) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:27:44 -0800 Subject: [obol] YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER Message-ID: <9159DFEC655C4AFF9A68E277C28347F4@TomsPC> I have a female YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER at my backyard suet feeder. Tom Escue Springfield -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/0ee75f8b/attachment.html From dbarendt at comcast.net Wed Jan 21 12:32:24 2009 From: dbarendt at comcast.net (Dennis Arendt) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 12:32:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] Eugene's Wednesday Bird sightings Message-ID: <5349C9329E454E55A9902C6055B36B96@DennisArendt> Eugene's Wednesday birders went to the Delta Ponds north of Valley River Center. The fog was not too thick nor the cold too severe to see ducks on the river, BALD EAGLES over head and an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER in the bushes near the parking lot. Here is the list of our sightings. Cackling Goose (heard flying over) Canada Goose Wood Duck (m & f high in a tree) Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup (small numbers on river) Lesser Scaup (several on the river) Bufflehead Hooded Merganser (2m & 3f on ponds) Common Merganser Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron (5) Great Egret (1) Bald Eagle (2) American Coot Greater Yellowlegs (1 or 2) Wilson's Snipe Ring-billed Gull Glaucous-winged Gull (and may unidentified gulls) Rock Pigeon Anna's Hummingbird Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker (1 or 2) Northern Flicker Western Scrub-Jay American Crow Black-capped Chickadee Bushtit White-breasted Nuthatch (1) Brown Creeper (6 or more) Bewick's Wren Ruby-crowned Kinglet European Starling Orange-crowned Warbler (stayed low in brush) Yellow-rumped Warbler (singles in several places) Spotted Towhee Fox Sparrow (2) Song Sparrow Golden-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco (only a few) Red-winged Blackbird House Finch (heard) American Goldfinch (2) House Sparrow (mingling with really wild birds) Birders: Tom Mickel, Paul Sherrell, Don Schrouder, Fred Chancey, Sarah Vasconcellos, Sylvia Maulding, Roger Robb and Dennis Arendt -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/5d123b6f/attachment.html From celata at pacifier.com Wed Jan 21 13:34:06 2009 From: celata at pacifier.com (Mike Patterson) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 13:34:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] The last sunny day... Message-ID: <497794CE.5050006@pacifier.com> According to the weather forecast, we're in for a change in the weather... I spent the morning taking advantage of the really nice light. http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/ -- Mike Patterson Astoria, OR Studies in ambiguity http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/archives/2009/01/ambiguity20090111.html From dpvroman at budget.net Wed Jan 21 15:04:11 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:04:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] 2nd S. Grants Pass raptor survey Message-ID: <7B5AAF0A377C4C8BBDCB214B5C6CB639@Warbler> Today (01-21-09) the 2nd South Grants Pass raptor survey was accomplished. Total of 3.0 hrs; 27.2 miles; weather: low to mid-level fog/overcast conditions. Observed were: Red-tailed Hawk - 11 American Kestrel - 4 Red-shouldered Hawk - 4 White-tailed Kite - 5 Merlin - 3 Cooper's Hawk - 1 The fog just doesn't want to leave, but it appears to be finally breaking up. In spite of some dense fog pockets, numbers of observed birds was pretty good. Was unable to find any Eagles this round, however. Number of Merlins found pretty good for here. No unusual birds found along the route. Dennis (north of Grants Pass) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/d56b2735/attachment.html From woodpecker97330 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 21 15:12:27 2009 From: woodpecker97330 at yahoo.com (Jamie S.) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:12:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Odd fem. Eurasian Wigeon, Corvallis 1/21 Message-ID: <36139.83803.qm@web39501.mail.mud.yahoo.com> An interesting?female EURASIAN WIGEON is at Stewart Lake (HP) today, Wed 1/21 at noon.? The head is obviously redder than the accompanying American Wigeons. In fact, it seems of more of a reddish hue than other females I've seen, more similar to the eclipse male shown in Waterfowl by Madge & Burn. The throat is also noticably light, a mark I haven't seen before. ? Otherwise, the usual suspects are there: Canvasback - 19 No. Shoveler - still lots Am. Wigeon - over 100 Lesser Scaup - 19 or more (in a variety of winter plumages) Ring-necked Duck - only a handful of females Green-winged Teal - 1 male Pied-billed Grebe? - 2 ? 2 black-tailed deer were on the east side of the lake. ? Jamie Simmons Corvallis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/62361ab0/attachment.html From andy.frank at kp.org Wed Jan 21 15:49:07 2009 From: andy.frank at kp.org (Andy Frank) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:49:07 -0800 Subject: [obol] North Portland sightings today Message-ID: <510BAD19F1C84B929850B2B76A85CEDD@familyroom> Today Wink Gross and I birded north Portland with the following highlights: At Vanport Wetlands, there was an immature RED-SHOULDERED HAWK and 63 CANVASVACKS (by far the most I've ever seen there). Portland International Raceway: an adult RED-SHOULDERED HAWK; and a small collection of gulls that had remarkable variety with a single GLAUCOUS GULL, a THAYER'S, a HERRING, a CALIFORNIA, and small numbers of GLAUCOUS-WINGED, MEW and RING-BILLED GULLS. There was a EURASIAN WIGEON with many AMERICAN WIGEON. Columbia River Slough trail on south side of Smith-Bybee: a single TREE SWALLOW. At the "hole in the wall" off Marine Drive West: RED-THROATED LOON and COMMON GOLDENEYE. Broughton Beach was very quiet but had a WESTERN GULL and 2 HORNED GREBES. Andy Frank From rflores_2 at msn.com Wed Jan 21 17:34:27 2009 From: rflores_2 at msn.com (Bob Flores) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:34:27 -0800 Subject: [obol] Horned Lark, Ridgefield NWR, Clark Co, WA Message-ID: Today I found a horned lark at the River S tour route this morning. The bird was on the se corner of Rest Lake right at the bend in the road. It was very cooperative and one photographer was able to get close up shots of the bird. Bob Flores Ridgefield, WA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/f30d7c21/attachment.html From woodpecker97330 at yahoo.com Wed Jan 21 21:18:24 2009 From: woodpecker97330 at yahoo.com (Jamie S.) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:18:24 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Photos of female Eurasian Wigeon w/ light throat Message-ID: <847099.28933.qm@web39508.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I have posted 6 photos of the female Eurasian Wigeon at Stewart Lake (HP), Corvallis at the link below.? (The first 6 photos; click on each photo to see it larger.)? I included female American Wigeon for comparison in?4 of the cropped pics. ?The light-colored throat is obvious.? Sibley notes "often unmarked throat" but it's not as obvious in?his example?as in these photos. ? http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3573&l=16dd7&id=1533961816 ? Jamie Simmons' Corvallis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/43017660/attachment.html From winkg at hevanet.com Wed Jan 21 21:43:00 2009 From: winkg at hevanet.com (Wink Gross) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:43:00 -0800 Subject: [obol] Pittock, NW Portland, week ending 01/21/09 Message-ID: <20090122054303.68F1BA8216@server2.midvalleyhosting.com> Here is the summary of my morning dogwalks from NW Seblar Terrace to the Pittock Mansion for the week 01/15 to 01/21/09. Species in ALL CAPS were neither seen nor heard the previous week. Additional information about my dogwalk, including an archive of weekly summaries and a checklist, may be found at http://www.hevanet.com/winkg/dogwalkpage.html We did the walk 5 days this week. Species # days found (peak #, date) Cackling Goose 1 (3, 1/16) Canada Goose 1 (5, 1/16) MALLARD 1 (2, 1/15) RED-TAILED HAWK 2 (1, 1/17 & 20) ROCK PIGEON 1 (1, 1/15) Band-tailed Pigeon 1 (1, 1/15) Mourning Dove 3 (5, 1/16) Anna's Hummingbird 4 (3) Red-breasted Sapsucker 1 (1, 1/15) Downy Woodpecker 2 (1, 1/16 & 20) HAIRY WOODPECKER 1 (1, 1/17) Northern Flicker 4 (2) Pileated Woodpecker 1 (2, 1/15) Hutton's Vireo 1 (1, 1/21) Steller's Jay 4 (5) Western Scrub-Jay 5 (1) American Crow 4 (2) Black-capped Chickadee 5 (20, 1/21) Chestnut-backed Chickadee 2 (5, 1/21) Red-breasted Nuthatch 4 (4, 1/15) Brown Creeper 1 (2, 1/16) Winter Wren 1 (2, 1/16) Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 (5, 1/21) American Robin 4 (25, 1/20) Varied Thrush 3 (3) European Starling 3 (5, 1/21) Spotted Towhee 5 (5) Song Sparrow 5 (10) Dark-eyed Junco 5 (25, 1/21) House Finch 5 (30, 1/20) Pine Siskin 2 (4, 1/20) Evening Grosbeak 1 (11, 1/21) Wink Gross Portland From khanhbatran at hotmail.com Wed Jan 21 22:15:19 2009 From: khanhbatran at hotmail.com (khanh tran) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 06:15:19 +0000 Subject: [obol] Updated Photo Gallery (Great Gray, Hawk Owl, and Northern SawWhet) Message-ID: Hi all, >From late spring 2008 to present, I had an extremely LUCKY and productive time finding owls. With a little bit of downtime, I condensed some second hand 'scraps' of images that I didn't load or was too hasty in developing and editing. The majority of the Great Grays and Hawk Owl images were taken in Alaska, BC, or Yukon this past spring. For this trip, I had 12 hawkowls during the 13 days I was there and 7 Great Gray owls on a 90-degree day between Fort Nelson and Toad River, BC in May! Anyhow, it was tough to pick a favorite but getting a wink from a Northern SawWhet Owl really made my day!! Also, seeing the dapper Great Gray owl in Chesaw, WA with Mike Marsh with lightly falling snow is tough to beat:) No one can ever look as good in a bow-tie than these magnificent boreal birds. Why I am wasting my time with fancy, alpine clucking chickens? Hope you enjoy and OWL the best!! http://www.pbase.com/spruce_grouse/owl_images_of_2008_and_2009&page=all Khanh Tran (Portland, Oregon) From mlvandyk at onlinemac.com Wed Jan 21 22:19:02 2009 From: mlvandyk at onlinemac.com (Marilyn van Dyk) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:19:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Little Blue Heron Message-ID: A small group of us looked mid-morning today without success for the Little Blue Heron in locations where it had been seen previously.Irene Stewart and I found it this afternoon at about 4 p.m. in the northeast corner of Siletz Bay. We were scoping that area when the Little Blue Heron flew in and landed a few feet away from a Great Egret, allowing us to make good comparisons.This must be approximately the same location where Heyerlys reported having seen it on Sunday at 11 a.m.(See John Sullivan's post for directions.)Marilyn van Dyk From ellencantor at gmail.com Wed Jan 21 22:28:05 2009 From: ellencantor at gmail.com (Ellen Cantor) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:28:05 -0800 Subject: [obol] Mt. Pisgah singing Wrentit and flashing Kinglet Message-ID: <7058c4c60901212228o1cf3e3c7q8d213d635079ee6b@mail.gmail.com> Late yesterday afternoon I hiked in the sun at the north end of Mt Pisgah. FOX SPARROWS and SPOTTED TOWHEES popped out of every blackberry patch I stopped to pish at. Best patch though had a singing WRENTIT which popped up when I pished and a RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET which excitedly flashed its ruby crown and approached ever closer in response to my pishing, finally flitting on to a seed stem within a couple of feet from me. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/fb1ea679/attachment.html From hnehls6 at comcast.net Wed Jan 21 23:30:55 2009 From: hnehls6 at comcast.net (Harry Nehls) Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:30:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] RBA: Portland, OR 1-22-09 Message-ID: - RBA * Oregon * Portland * January 22, 2009 * ORPO0901.22 - birds mentioned Canvasback TUFTED DUCK Black Scoter Brown Pelican LITTLE BLUE HERON Turkey Vulture Red-shouldered Hawk Ancient Murrelet Tufted Puffin Tree Swallow Barn Swallow Bohemian Waxwing HENSLOW?S SPARROW PYRRHULOXIA Cassin?s Finch White-winged Crossbill Common Redpoll - transcript hotline: Portland Oregon Audubon RBA (weekly) number: 503-292-6855 To report: Harry Nehls 503-233-3976 compiler: Harry Nehls coverage: entire state Hello, this is the Audubon Society of Portland Rare Bird Report. This report was made Thursday January 22. If you have anything to add call Harry Nehls at 503-233-3976. On January 15 a HENSLOW?S SPARROW was reported from the EE Wilson SWA. Despite an extensive search the bird was not relocated. The Peoria PYRRHULOXIA and the Siletz Bay LITTLE BLUE HERON continue to be seen, as is the TUFTED DUCK east of Clatskanie. Small groups of BROWN PELICANS continue to be seen along the coast. On January 17 an early TURKEY VULTURE was near Langlois. That day two ANCIENT MURRELETS were at Boiler Bay. Four ANCIENT MURRELETS and one BARN SWALLOW were at Tierra del Mar. A winter plumage TUFTED PUFFIN was there January 16. On January 17 three TREE and three BARN SWALLOWS were at Ridgefield NWR. That day one BARN SWALLOW was on Sauvie Island. On January 21 one TREE SWALLOW was at Smith/Bybee Lakes. Two RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS and 63 CANVASBACKS were at the Vanport Wetlands that day. On January 18 a male CASSIN?S FINCH was in Oregon City. Six BARN SWALLOWS were seen January 16 at Baskett Slough NWR. Four TREE SWALLOWS were over Ankeny NWR January 15. On January 18 a TURKEY VULTURE was over the EE Wilson SWA. On January 18 a BLACK SCOTER was at the Link River Dam in Klamath Falls. Large flocks of BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS, along with smaller numbers of WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS are still being seen in the Wallowa Valley. Up to 200 COMMON REDPOLLS were seen during the week along Hwy 82 west of Enterprise. That?s it for this week. - end transcript -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090121/c78e3323/attachment.html From 5hats at peak.org Thu Jan 22 08:06:06 2009 From: 5hats at peak.org (Darrel Faxon) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:06:06 -0800 Subject: [obol] more white throats Message-ID: <002c01c97cab$599bbbc0$0000a398@your5rlp3a9516> Obolites, White throated Sparrows are rare here at Thornton Creek ( Lincoln) in winter. Normally one will winter every five years or so. this year thee are two. One showed up January 14 and another on the 17th. Darrel -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/65d5ccd4/attachment.html From calocitta8 at gmail.com Tue Jan 20 12:42:21 2009 From: calocitta8 at gmail.com (Jesse Ellis) Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:42:21 -0800 Subject: [obol] The photographed sparrow In-Reply-To: <739975.83446.qm@web30407.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <739975.83446.qm@web30407.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Hey all- Very interesting discussion going on here. Many great comments have been posted. My opinion, after having seen Henslow's a few times in Minnesota (there was an "invasion" a few summers ago), is that the photographed bird is a Lincoln's. The color and patterning of the crown stripes, the bill size and shape, and the coloration of the face seem to me to rule out Henslow's. Anyway, my opinion is not truly that of an expert. I'm popping in to suggest that people pass this link: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html around to friends and experts in parts of the country where both species occur. Many of us should be experts on Lincoln's Sparrow, but I think few of us would have a good handle on variation present in Henslow's. I want to also state that my opinion on the ID of this individual is just that: my opinion of this individual. This is not to say there's not a Henslow's out there to be photographed. A Henslow's record for the west would be great, and we should not stop at these photos. Douglas Robinson's description is convincing. I'd be interested to hear how this photographed individual differs from his sightings. (White margins was one thing - any others?) At least it's not huge, white-billed, and very poorly videotaped. Jesse Ellis Seattle -- Jesse Ellis, Ph. D. Neurobiology and Behavior jme29 at cornell.edu 111 Mudd Hall Cornell University Ithaca, 14853 Also Seattle. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090120/eac92951/attachment.html From tc at empnet.com Thu Jan 22 10:31:09 2009 From: tc at empnet.com (Tom Crabtree) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:31:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] The photographed sparrow In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <009601c97cbf$98d407c0$4e01a8c0@102889> Jesse & others, I received three responses from professional guides with Field Guides, Inc. and all three of them unequivocally said it was a Lincoln's, too. Here are some of their comments: * In particular, there are too many fine streaks on the nape and on the throat side of the malar, just too much fine detail for a Henslow's that should be rather plain-faced and big billed. * For one, the bill is too small, face pattern is not right for Henslow's, etc. I am traveling now and can't give you more details than that for the moment. * I can see where one might be thinking Henslow's, but among inconsistencies, the bill is too small, the crown has reddish streaking (not found on Henslow's), and it has streaked rather than scalloped upperparts. Tom Crabtree, Bend, OR _____ From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of Jesse Ellis Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 12:42 PM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] The photographed sparrow Hey all- Very interesting discussion going on here. Many great comments have been posted. My opinion, after having seen Henslow's a few times in Minnesota (there was an "invasion" a few summers ago), is that the photographed bird is a Lincoln's. The color and patterning of the crown stripes, the bill size and shape, and the coloration of the face seem to me to rule out Henslow's. Anyway, my opinion is not truly that of an expert. I'm popping in to suggest that people pass this link: http://web.me.com/olschmidt/HESP/Index.html around to friends and experts in parts of the country where both species occur. Many of us should be experts on Lincoln's Sparrow, but I think few of us would have a good handle on variation present in Henslow's. I want to also state that my opinion on the ID of this individual is just that: my opinion of this individual. This is not to say there's not a Henslow's out there to be photographed. A Henslow's record for the west would be great, and we should not stop at these photos. Douglas Robinson's description is convincing. I'd be interested to hear how this photographed individual differs from his sightings. (White margins was one thing - any others?) At least it's not huge, white-billed, and very poorly videotaped. Jesse Ellis Seattle -- Jesse Ellis, Ph. D. Neurobiology and Behavior jme29 at cornell.edu 111 Mudd Hall Cornell University Ithaca, 14853 Also Seattle. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/8a706eff/attachment.html From TASGENL at COMCAST.NET Thu Jan 22 13:54:18 2009 From: TASGENL at COMCAST.NET (Tom Shreve) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:54:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] Siletz Little Blue Heron Message-ID: <003401c97cdb$fa03e0d0$ee0ba270$@NET> I saw the LITTLE BLUE HERON at the same point Marilyn did yesterday and took photos as some others were leaving. I have posted some of the photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom_pix/ The bird was visible from the shoulder of hwy 101south of Lincoln City looking west in the vicinity of the ?Siletz River 229 ? mile? sign. The traffic and narrow shoulder make this a hazardous area to pull off but it is a short walk from some better and safer spots to stop to the north. I have also posted a picture of the sign. I posted a picture of a juvenile Little Blue taken in the Everglades for comparison. The low tide was around sunset and it will be a minus tide in the evening through the weekend so there will be large areas of the bay exposed and available for this bird and the Great Egrets that are there to feed well beyond the range where they will be easily identifiable. Those planning to go would do well to consult a tide table. We were very fortunate the bird chose to come in close enough to the road to be identifiable when there was so much tidal flat exposed. Thank you to all those who have posted updates on this bird. Tom Shreve Tigard -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/16d27941/attachment.html From ensatina3 at hotmail.com Thu Jan 22 14:01:54 2009 From: ensatina3 at hotmail.com (Bobbett Pierce) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:01:54 -0500 Subject: [obol] more grosbeaks Message-ID: Today more than twenty EVENING GROSBEAKS were visiting one of my sunflower feeders. I have regularly been getting a small group of six the last month or so. If birdwatching south Columbia County, often there are nice views of swans and geese on Scappoose Bay if you drive on Old Portland Road thru Warren. Turn onto Bennett Road from Highway 30, over the tracks, to get to Old Ptld. Rd. The geese often graze in the pastures there, including white-fronted sometimes. There are resident domestic geese, too. Walk the Scappoose Bay Marina trail while in the neighborhood. I saw a HAIRY WOODPECKER there last week. The beavers are determined to cut trees in the small marina woodland that the marina staff are just as determined to save. Lona Pierce, Warren _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail? goes where you go. On a PC, on the Web, on your phone. http://www.windowslive-hotmail.com/learnmore/versatility.aspx#mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGHM_WL_HM_versatility_121208 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/4c0df770/attachment.html From richarmstrong at comcast.net Thu Jan 22 16:12:55 2009 From: richarmstrong at comcast.net (rich armstrong) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:12:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] no Henslow's References: Message-ID: 1. on the theory that doug's original sighting was probably a henslow's sparrow nanette & i did another walk through "the" field as well as adjoining fields. 2. it is somewhat depressing that in now 5 times spending an hour in "the" field walking on every grass clump and through the canary grass in every direction, etc, we have not flushed or seen any sparrow at all in that field. we saw voles (or whatever little things with no feathers scurry into a hole) and garter snakes, but not a sparrow. 3. north of doug's marker nanette flushed a lincoln's and an unknown strong flying light colored longer tailed sparrow that was definitely not a candidate. 4. so if there is a henslow's there it is much sneakier than henslow's in fields in texas were. 5. i think we are done with that field now, but i wanted to give it 1 last chance. hopefully someone else will do better. Rich Armstrong 541-753-1978 From dpvroman at budget.net Thu Jan 22 16:26:53 2009 From: dpvroman at budget.net (Dennis P. Vroman) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 16:26:53 -0800 Subject: [obol] 2nd William-Applegate raptor survey Message-ID: <5D422E7317A640EAB75309A697F1EF80@Warbler> 2nd Applegate-Williams area raptor survey was completed today (01-22-09). Route is along the roads surrounding the towns of Murphy and Williams, Josephine Co. Total of 37.1 miles; 3.5 hours; weather: Overcast (thin at times) Found were: Red-tailed Hawk - 22 American Kestrel - 7 Bald Eagle - 1 (adult), 2 (Immature) Red-shouldered Hawk - 1 White-tailed Kite - 3 Cooper's Hawk - 1 Barn Owl - 2 (perched on rafter in barn, where else) Two immature Balds were a surprise; one scared an adult bird off its cottonwood perch and then landed in its place. Others were 4 Great Egrets (with several Great Blues), not often found in the Applegate valley in winter, but appear to be attracted to cattle sewage being sprayed over a pasture (likely after earthworms). Good number of American Robins around, Waxwings thinned out and must have taken the Merlins with them, none found today. Dennis (north of Grants Pass) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/bd407806/attachment.html From ptweet2005 at msn.com Thu Jan 22 19:35:16 2009 From: ptweet2005 at msn.com (NANCY FRASER) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:35:16 -0800 Subject: [obol] Western Bluebird Monitoring (off topic) Message-ID: Would you like to find out about bluebird monitoring volunteer opportunities in the northern Willamette Valley? Come to the Prescott Bluebird Recovery Project Spring Workshop in February. Where: Champoeg State Heritage Park Visitors' Center When: Saturday, February 21, from 9:00 am until noon No charge (parking will be paid by the project), tiny food items, and a lot of information to be presented. Come meet current volunteer monitors and banders. For more information, visit the PBRP Website www.prescottbluebird.com. Register to attend by e mailing from the website or calling 503 246 7920. Nancy Fraserptweet2005 at msn.com503 246 7920 home971 409 8540 cell -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090122/e886f736/attachment.html From rdbayer at charter.net Thu Jan 22 23:20:08 2009 From: rdbayer at charter.net (Range Bayer) Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 23:20:08 -0800 Subject: [obol] Brant Wintering at Yaquina Bay Message-ID: <20090123022008.K9ENR.3621189.root@mp18> Hi, I counted 185 Brant at Yaquina Bay embayments this afternoon, which is about the same as the 185-188 Brant reported at Yaquina Bay on Jan. 3 & 5. This is the peak number so far this winter. On jan. 22, they were all at the Sally's Bend embayment. This was the latest posting for Brant in Lincoln County to the International Brant Monitoring Project. See the Observation Log link at http://www.padillabay.gov/brant/ for other Brant observations along the West Coast. Cheers, Range Bayer for Yaquina Birders & Naturalists From pygowl at gmail.com Fri Jan 23 01:35:55 2009 From: pygowl at gmail.com (Michael Marsh) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:35:55 -0800 Subject: [obol] Red Fox Sparrow in West Portland Message-ID: <90d831b70901230135h246b19a5hc20f4fc3762a7387@mail.gmail.com> I've had a Fox Sparrow at my feeders since December 23. It did not occur to me until today that there is a good possibility it is a RED FOX SPARROW, so obviously it is not one of the redder ones. Pretty well matches up with the one pictured in the upper photo on page 187 of Beadle & Rising's "Sparrows of the US and Canada." Anyone who wants to get a life bird in the bank is welcome to come by and have a look. Any day now this bird is going to be split off from FOX SPARROW (Passerella iliaca). I think I've been hearing about this impending split for about 15 years. In fact, Beadle and Rising have already split them and they devote a chapter to four "species" that the AOU and the ABA consider subspecies but that they have elevated to species status. They call the RED FOX SPARROW Passerella iliaca, and the "subspecies" in my yard is P.i. zaboria. Wonder what the AOU would call my bird: P.i.i. zaboria? This is giving me a headache......................... Also in my yard on and off for the past two weeks are a male Townsend's Warbler, and one female each of Audubon's and Myrtle Warbler. Call to make sure I'm home if you want to see this little guy: 503-730-8638. I live in Rock Creek, near Tanasbourne. Remember, the split will be occurring very soon. Oh, unfortunately, I'll be out of town over the weekend but back on Mon. Best, Mike -- Mike Marsh Portland, OR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/20156b0e/attachment.html From greg at thebirdguide.com Fri Jan 23 08:50:38 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:50:38 -0800 Subject: [obol] Garibaldi Rock Sandpiper photos Message-ID: <20090123085038.6ovjnlwm8k4owsk4@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Last weekend I got out of the freezing Valley fog over to Tillamook. At Garibaldi jetty, right under the Coast Guard tower, I found a ROCK SANDPIPER and a BLACK TURNSTONE together. These photos emerged from my digital darkroom.... Rock Sandpiper: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108248934/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108248935/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108403750/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108403751/original.jpg http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108410188/original.jpg Black Turnstone: http://www.pbase.com/gregbirder/image/108373584/original.jpg Greg Gillson Hillsboro, Oregon greg at thebirdguide.com http://thebirdguide.com From deweysage at verizon.net Fri Jan 23 10:07:56 2009 From: deweysage at verizon.net (DJ Lauten and KACastelein) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:07:56 -0800 Subject: [obol] American Bird Conservancy Message-ID: <497A077C.3030901@verizon.net> Folks, Got an email from American Bird Conservancy this morning, which carried news of some neat birds including a new subspecies of Antpitta from Columbia. But at the bottom of the email was a link to a story about Juan Fernandez Firecrown, a rare hummingbird. Go to this link to see a picture of a male, it will blow your socks off: http://www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/stories/081230.html Cheers Dave Lauten From greg at thebirdguide.com Fri Jan 23 10:25:09 2009 From: greg at thebirdguide.com (Greg Gillson) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:25:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Seabird bar chart and Feb 21 trip reminder Message-ID: <20090123102509.f8wl9hng40c888ko@webmail.thebirdguide.com> Friends, If you have a high speed Internet connection you may be interested in this 2-page abundance bar chart checklist of Oregon seabirds. (1.4 Mbytes) http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/pelagic_checklist.doc It displays 62 seabird species detected in Oregon at a resolution of half-month intervals. Besides listing the semimonthly abundance of all 29 of the regular species, this list includes such goodies as each sighting of JUAN FERNANDEZ and HAWAIIAN PETRELS, STREAKED and WEDGE-TAILED SHEARWATERS, THICK-BILLED MURRES, and LONG-BILLED MURRELETS. It also includes hypothetical sightings of several species not yet accepted by the Oregon Bird Records Committee, including GREAT-WINGED PETREL, PARKINSON'S PETREL, RINGED STORM-PETREL, RED-FOOTED BOOBY, KITTLITZ'S MURRELET, WHISKERED AUKLET, and other surprises. For specific details on these rarities see: http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/rare_seabirds.htm For my personal use, I print this Oregon seabird bar chart out on heavier card stock and flip it over on my single-sided printer, but it is worth the effort. Because, in addition to the bar chart, it also has a depth chart of the central Oregon coast from off Lincoln City to Florence. It shows the locations and depths of Heceta and Perpetua Banks, Depoe Basin, Hydrate Ridge, Newport Sea Valley, the Chicken Ranch, the Abyssal Plain, and more. It also has a list of 32 marine mammals recorded off Oregon (we've observed 18 of these on our trips). Last year we added GREATER SHEARWATER and WANDERING ALBATROSS to Oregon's seabird checklist with great photo-documentation from our pelagic trips. There are more rarities out there and about 1/3 of the participants now have decent cameras for recording shots of both common and unusual birds we might see. Thus, I encourage you to grab your camera and come out with us in 4 weeks: February 21, 2009, from Newport, Oregon. The target bird is LAYSAN ALBATROSS, but we also expect SHORT-TAILED SHEARWATERS and ANCIENT MURRELETS as rare but regular winter seabirds. We are running this trip a week earlier than last year in the hope of something more unusual (MOTTLED PETREL and PARAKEET AUKLET, but check the bar chart for other possibilities). The photo trip report from the past 3 years are here: March 18, 2006 with 1 SHORT-TAILED ALBATROSS and 4 LAYSAN ALBATROSSES http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/archive/03182006.htm March 25, 2007 with 1 LAYSAN ALBATROSS and 7 HORNED PUFFINS http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/archive/03252007.htm March 1, 2008 with 8 LAYSAN ALBATROSSES and 1 MANX SHEARWATER http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/archive/03012008.htm To sign up for this exciting 11-hour trip on February 21, and view additional information, please visit our web site: http://thebirdguide.com/pelagics/ Thank you! Greg Gillson The Bird Guide, Inc. greg at thebirdguide.com From tlove at linfield.edu Fri Jan 23 11:30:24 2009 From: tlove at linfield.edu (Thomas Love) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:30:24 -0800 Subject: [obol] link to Owen's Henslow's pix? Message-ID: <48AAF0D003D67944931DDDC72D022F1214968F51@exchangedb.wfo.linfield.edu> I can't find Owen's website. Could someone send me or repost the link to his Henslow's photos? Thanks. Tom L. tlove at linfield.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/24f6e7a6/attachment.html From timkadlecek at msn.com Fri Jan 23 11:49:54 2009 From: timkadlecek at msn.com (Tim Kadlecek) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:49:54 -0800 Subject: [obol] (no subject) Message-ID: I birded virginia lake on sauvie island this morning. there were two highlight ducks on the lake. the first is what I believe to be a northern shoveler x blue-winged teal hybrid. this bird had the shnoz of a shoveler and the white facial crescent of a blue-winged. it had a whitish patch on its side toward the rump, similar to what both male ducks have. it was otherwise mostly brown. I would judge its overall size similar to a shoveler. the second highlight is a eurasian wigeon. both ducks were in separate small mixed flocks with other am. wigeons, northern shovelers, and green-winged teal. these birds were on the fore side of the lake, along the east side and slowly swam away from me as I got closer. It would be nice if somewhat could photograph the hybrid this weekend, since I don't have a good quality camera. tim -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/8a98ae86/attachment.html From gmluft at yahoo.com Fri Jan 23 12:15:27 2009 From: gmluft at yahoo.com (Glenn Luft) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:15:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Bizarre junco Message-ID: <356848.99861.qm@web51602.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Photos of an odd junco were taken on Jan. 12 in the Washington Park area of NW Portland. Thought to be a leucistic junco, per Dan van den Broek of Portland Audubon. To view photos click on link below. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34658789 at N04/?saved=1 Rie Luft From ptsulliv at spiritone.com Fri Jan 23 13:10:59 2009 From: ptsulliv at spiritone.com (ptsulliv at spiritone.com) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:10:59 -0800 Subject: [obol] Test -- ignore Message-ID: <908d38c025da3700e49ac221c48d88c3@spiritone.com> asdf jklm ____ ____ sfkldj ____ ____ oiuqerqwopru From lammergeiereyes at aol.com Fri Jan 23 13:47:39 2009 From: lammergeiereyes at aol.com (lammergeiereyes at aol.com) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:47:39 -0500 Subject: [obol] More Photos; Sort of Off Topic Message-ID: <8CB4BBB58D9C0E1-4E0-D02@FWM-M30.sysops.aol.com> I've added a few hundred more photos below. The Birds are taxonomic-alphabetical [loosely following the latest by Sibley and Monroe]. Notes re mislables are appreciated. A good chunk are from either Central California or the Pacific Northwest. http://www.flickr.com/photos/34328261 at N02/sets/ Good birding, Blake Matheson Carmel California & Portland Oregon -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/5355d05d/attachment.html From ptsulliv at spiritone.com Fri Jan 23 14:03:04 2009 From: ptsulliv at spiritone.com (ptsulliv at spiritone.com) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:03:04 -0800 Subject: [obol] Oregon listing - appeal & form Message-ID: <200901232203.n0NM34eh019365@sapphire.spiritone.com> Do you keep a list of the birds you've seen? In your lifetime? In Oregon? In your yard or your county? Did you pick up on the invitation to tally birds in a 15-mile diameter circle somewhere in 2008? The report form was in the center of the last issue of Oregon Birds. I've taken on the task of compiling the listing results for Oregon Birds. Thanks to Jamie Simmons, who did it for so many years. So far, I've heard from about 20 people. I'd like to invite you to send your tallies to me, for inclusion in a forthcoming issue of Oregon Birds. There are thresholds: Your Oregon state list needs to be over 250. For county lists, you need to have seen 100 species to be included in either the "life list" or "2008 year list" category. This doesn't have to be about ego, about whether your list is long or short, about whether you're leading the race in your county or whether someone else got ahead of you. It's just a reporting of facts: "I've seen X number of birds in location Y." The more facts we report, the more complete picture we'll have of what bird sightings are possible in various parts of Oregon. If you don't report, the final reort will be like looking at baseball statistics without including Mikey Mantle. Please join in. Simply fill in the table below with your numbers and send them to me at ptsulliv at spiritone.com Life 2008 _____ _____ Oregon _____ _____ Baker _____ _____ Benton _____ _____ Clackamas _____ _____ Clatsop _____ _____ Columbia _____ _____ Coos _____ _____ Crook _____ _____ Curry _____ _____ Deschutes _____ _____ Douglas _____ _____ Gilliam _____ _____ Grant _____ _____ Harney _____ _____ Hood River _____ _____ Jackson _____ _____ Jefferson _____ _____ Josephine _____ _____ Klamath _____ _____ Lake _____ _____ Lane _____ _____ Lincoln _____ _____ Linn _____ _____ Malheur _____ _____ Marion _____ _____ Morrow _____ _____ Multnomah _____ _____ Polk _____ _____ Sherman _____ _____ Tillamook _____ _____ Umatilla _____ _____ Union _____ _____ Wallowa _____ _____ Wasco _____ _____ Washington _____ _____ Wheeler _____ _____ Yamhill _XXX_ _____ Your chosen 15-mile circle Please include a description of where your circle is located. Thank you very much! Good birding, everyone, Paul T. Sullivan From timkadlecek at msn.com Fri Jan 23 14:12:15 2009 From: timkadlecek at msn.com (Tim Kadlecek) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:12:15 -0800 Subject: [obol] possible shoveler x blue-wing hybrid In-Reply-To: <113677.49273.qm@web55104.mail.re4.yahoo.com> References: <113677.49273.qm@web55104.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Message-ID: I'm sorry I forgot to include a subject on my last posting. will clemens sent me some photos of a hybrid shoveler x blue winged that scott carpenter had previously taken. I recall seeing scott's duck posted on obol before. the bird in scott's photos is NOT the same duck I saw. although it was quite foggy at ~8:15 this morning when I saw the duck, it was near the shore fairly close to where i was and I feel like I got a fairly good look at it with my binoculars. at first glance while scanning the water, i thought it was a blue-winged teal, given its white facial crescent, which I did not really expect to see there, therefore I took another better look at which point I noticed its obvious huge bill similar to a shoveler. the duck slowly swam farther away from shore where I could not see it as well due to the fog, however, I did notice its white patch on its side posteriorly as it was swimming away. this duck was otherwise essentially brown, as far as I could tell in the fog. there were both male and female shovelers in the same group of ducks, and the males had obvious rufous flanks and green heads and the females lacked any white on either their face or on their posterior side, even with the fog that was present. I now am looking at sibley's guide to birds on page 86 under northern shoveler. there is a picture of an adult fall male (sep-nov) that has a thin white facial crescent and which lacks the dark green head and bright rufous flanks. this very well could be the bird that I saw, instead of a hybrid. will clemens asked that I state specifically where I saw the duck. from the parking lot, take the path right at the shelter, counter clockwise around the lake. the path winds around the corner of the lake and then heads north. just after it starts heading north, there is a spot where the lake extends fairly close to the path, and this is where this duck was. just a ways further north is another area where the lake comes fairly close to the path and this is where the eurasian wigeon was. this spot is along the stretch of path that always has a bunch of golden crown sparrows and juncos and a frequent lincoln's with the fence on the right side of the path. by the time I went around the whole lake the fog had completely lifted and I was able to find the eurasian wigeon again, but most of the ducks were on the far side of the lake. hope this helps. tim -------------------------------------------------- From: "Will Clemons" Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 12:38 PM To: "Tim Kadlecek" Cc: "Scott Carpenter" Subject: Is this your Shoveler X ?? > Tim, > > Saw your post. > > 1) Do the attached pix fit the duck you saw at Virginia Lake? > > 2) The pix are not mine so please keep them to yourself unless the > photographer (Scott Carpenter) lets you use them (he is Cc on this Email). > > 3) Scott saw and photographed this guy on Nov 29, 2008 and posted the > find on Tweeters (see post w/links below). > > 4) Please say where exactly at VA Lake you saw this fellow, as some of us > may want to run out for a look. We have been looking for it at Ridgefield > NWR since it was first seen, but to no avail. > > Thanks, > > Will > ************************* > Scott Carpenter slcarpenter at gmail.com > Sat Nov 29 20:10:32 PST 2008 > > This afternoon at Ridgefield NWR in Clark County I observed what appears > to be a BLUE-WINGED TEAL X NORTHERN SHOVELER hybrid. I saw it from the > blind at the River S Unit. From the shoveler perspective, the bird had a > green head, yellow eye, rufous flanks, and a shoveler like bill. From the > blue-winged teal perspective, it had the white crescent on the face, and > was about the same size as nearby Cinnamon Teal. The white "hip patch" was > present, but had a cinnamon wash to it. > > The flank color was about the same as the nearby Cinnamon Teal, as was the > size of the bird. I initially focused on this and thought it was a > Cinnamon x Blue-winged Teal. However, I ran into the bird again and the > green head and yellow eye caught my attention. This, cominbed with the > bill structure/size, caused me to rethink my initial assessment, and > conclude it was a BLUE-WINGED TEAL x NORTHERN SHOVELER. > > Photos (poor, but sufficient) of this bird are online at: > http://westerngrebe.com/anas_hybrid/ > > Also present on Rest Lake were a male EURASIAN WIGEON as well as an > apparent hybrid male AMERICAN X EURASIAN WIGEON (in some of the photos > referenced above); both of these birds were present last week, too. An > adult BALD EAGLE put on quite a show attempting to nab a coot. Despite the > eagle landing in the water at one point, the coot somehow managed to > escape. > > Both the ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK and the dark morph RED-TAILED HAWK put in > appearances, as did 3 SHORT-EARED OWLS that first appeared around 4:40 pm. > Last week around the same time and place I had only 1 SHORT-EARED OWL. > Also a repeat of last week just before sunset was the influx of 500+ > SANDHILL CRANES that are apparently roosting on the edge of Rest Lake, > best observed from the south end of Rest Lake. > > Once again, Swainson's Hawk was written on the board as having been seen > perched in a tree between posts 9 and 10. Unfortunately, all I could turn > up in that area were several Red-tailed Hawks. > > Scott Carpenter > Portland, Oregon > > > > From fitzbeew at gmail.com Fri Jan 23 14:33:18 2009 From: fitzbeew at gmail.com (Holly Reinhard) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:33:18 -0800 Subject: [obol] LCC Birds (Common Goldeneye still there) Message-ID: Obol, Eva Aronica and I birded LCC and neighboring wetlands (across the street from campus; on 30th) today as part of my school point-count bird monitoring project. We had a total of 27 species. Highlights: At pond across 30th street we had a male Hooded Merganser and a Pied-billed Grebe, both species I had never seen before at LCC. In the middle pond on campus we had the female COMMON GOLDENEYE swimming and diving with a female Bufflehead. I got several photos in between her intermittent diving. Nice looks at one or two Lincoln's Sparrows going into the wetlands across the street from campus. I have had Lincoln's Sparrow here more than once. LCC owns a few acres of land across the street from campus; they bought it a few years ago to use for educational purposes. Prior to now, no bird surveys had been conducted there. I have found a nice variety of birds there over the past few months, including Cal. Quail, Wrentit (heard), Wood Duck, Am. Wigeon (I have never seen Am. Wig. at the "regular" LCC ponds), and Purple Finch. I am actually in need of one or two people to go with me to do the point-count surveys; if you are interested in getting up very early in the mornings, with a possibility for some nice birds, please let me know at this e-mail address. Good birding, -Holly Reinhard Eugene, OR fitzbeew at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/1a18db40/attachment.html From gerard.lillie at comcast.net Fri Jan 23 15:47:57 2009 From: gerard.lillie at comcast.net (Gerard Lillie) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:47:57 -0800 Subject: [obol] Oregon listing - appeal & form In-Reply-To: <200901232203.n0NM34eh019365@sapphire.spiritone.com> References: <200901232203.n0NM34eh019365@sapphire.spiritone.com> Message-ID: <008d01c97db5$053c4bc0$0fb4e340$@lillie@comcast.net> Thank you Jamie for all the years of your effort- I know it takes a lot of time to do what you have done. Gerard Lillie Mt. Tabor Portland , OR -----Original Message----- From: obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org [mailto:obol-bounces at oregonbirdwatch.org] On Behalf Of ptsulliv at spiritone.com Sent: Friday, January 23, 2009 2:03 PM To: obol at oregonbirdwatch.org Subject: [obol] Oregon listing - appeal & form Do you keep a list of the birds you've seen? In your lifetime? In Oregon? In your yard or your county? Did you pick up on the invitation to tally birds in a 15-mile diameter circle somewhere in 2008? The report form was in the center of the last issue of Oregon Birds. I've taken on the task of compiling the listing results for Oregon Birds. Thanks to Jamie Simmons, who did it for so many years. So far, I've heard from about 20 people. I'd like to invite you to send your tallies to me, for inclusion in a forthcoming issue of Oregon Birds. There are thresholds: Your Oregon state list needs to be over 250. For county lists, you need to have seen 100 species to be included in either the "life list" or "2008 year list" category. This doesn't have to be about ego, about whether your list is long or short, about whether you're leading the race in your county or whether someone else got ahead of you. It's just a reporting of facts: "I've seen X number of birds in location Y." The more facts we report, the more complete picture we'll have of what bird sightings are possible in various parts of Oregon. If you don't report, the final reort will be like looking at baseball statistics without including Mikey Mantle. Please join in. Simply fill in the table below with your numbers and send them to me at ptsulliv at spiritone.com Life 2008 _____ _____ Oregon _____ _____ Baker _____ _____ Benton _____ _____ Clackamas _____ _____ Clatsop _____ _____ Columbia _____ _____ Coos _____ _____ Crook _____ _____ Curry _____ _____ Deschutes _____ _____ Douglas _____ _____ Gilliam _____ _____ Grant _____ _____ Harney _____ _____ Hood River _____ _____ Jackson _____ _____ Jefferson _____ _____ Josephine _____ _____ Klamath _____ _____ Lake _____ _____ Lane _____ _____ Lincoln _____ _____ Linn _____ _____ Malheur _____ _____ Marion _____ _____ Morrow _____ _____ Multnomah _____ _____ Polk _____ _____ Sherman _____ _____ Tillamook _____ _____ Umatilla _____ _____ Union _____ _____ Wallowa _____ _____ Wasco _____ _____ Washington _____ _____ Wheeler _____ _____ Yamhill _XXX_ _____ Your chosen 15-mile circle Please include a description of where your circle is located. Thank you very much! Good birding, everyone, Paul T. Sullivan _______________________________________________ obol mailing list obol at oregonbirdwatch.org http://oregonbirdwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/obol From pamelaj at spiritone.com Fri Jan 23 16:15:13 2009 From: pamelaj at spiritone.com (pamela johnston) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:15:13 -0800 Subject: [obol] thanks to Jamie, greetings to Paul Message-ID: <8CBE107C18044E92A0135B2BEA1D89B0@yourw5st28y9a3> Let me add to Gerard's thanks that anybody who can take time to answer a lot of individual inquiries as Jamie has done is spending more than time at a job. I appreciate your efforts. My best to Paul as he stats the job. Pam Johnston From ptsulliv at spiritone.com Fri Jan 23 17:40:51 2009 From: ptsulliv at spiritone.com (ptsulliv at spiritone.com) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:40:51 -0800 Subject: [obol] Oregon listing thresholds Message-ID: <200901240140.n0O1epEE008382@sapphire.spiritone.com> OBOL: Jamie pointed out to me that I mis-stated the Oregon state listing thresholds for inclusion in the published report in Oregon Birds: The threshold for your Oregon state life list is 300. The threshold for your Oregon state 2008 year list is 250. Thanks, Paul T. Sullivan ___________________________ Paul T. Sullivan wrote: ... > > I'd like to invite you to send your tallies to me, for inclusion in a forthcoming issue of Oregon Birds. There are thresholds: Your Oregon state list needs to be over 250. For county lists, you need to have seen 100 species to be included in either the "life list" or "2008 year list" category. > ... > Thank you very much! > > Good birding, everyone, > > Paul T. Sullivan From withgott at comcast.net Fri Jan 23 20:08:12 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:08:12 -0800 Subject: [obol] Lincoln Co. Coast - LBHE, Ancient M, Rock Sandpipers, etc. Message-ID: I birded the Lincoln County coast today. The LITTLE BLUE HERON evaded me the entire morning, so I headed south to Newport, and later was relieved to find it at Siletz Bay upon my return. I saw the heron at 4:00 pm standing on the beach along the south edge of the Cutler City peninsula at low tide, viewed at a distance from the pulloff along Hwy 101 between Drift Creek and Kernville. A RED-SHOULDERED HAWK was at Gorton & Drift Cr. Rds, and a VIRGINIA RAIL called from a flooded pasture along Drift Cr. Rd. 0.7 mi inland from Gorton. 1 ANCIENT MURRELET was swimming in the middle of Depoe Bay, while Surfbirds, Black Turnstones, & Sanderlings were in the cove just north of the bay. At Newport, I found 6 ROCK SANDPIPERS along the jetties with Surfbirds, Turnstones, Sanderlings, & Dunlin. 4 of the Rock Sandpipers were on the North Jetty and 2 were on the South Jetty. I think this may be the highest number I've found in one spot ever in OR or CA. I did not find any Harlequin Ducks. A RED-NECKED GREBE was in the channel. 2 GLAUCOUS GULLS were on the North Jetty, one having flown from the parking lot puddle on the south side. The 1st-winter bird looks white-winged enough to me to be pure, but the other one -- 2nd or 3rd-cycle -- looks like it may have somebody else's genes mixed in. I did not get a great view of this bird, and the bill looked good for Glaucous, but the primaries looked a bit too dark to be pure. Maybe someone else can get a better look. In Yaquina Bay behind the HMSC were 8 RED-NECKED GREBES, 1 EARED GREBE, and 200+ BRANT among the many other waterfowl. A very nice day at the coast! Jay Withgott, Portland From marciafcutler at comcast.net Fri Jan 23 20:19:02 2009 From: marciafcutler at comcast.net (Marcia F. Cutler) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:19:02 -0800 Subject: [obol] Benton Co. Raptor Run 1/22/09 Message-ID: <3EB4A68E869C45A890648847E20EC078@melvintrex4uoq> Yesterday, Jan Landau joined me in doing the Central Benton Co. raptor run. The route goes from just south of Corvallis to North Refuge Rd. through Finley NWR. It took us 5:20 hrs to cover the 60 mile route including about a ? mi. walk (approx. ? hr) on the boardwalk to and from Cabell marsh. At the Prairie Overlook we ran into a group of people from the Willamette Birding Trail committee including Joel Geier, Bill Proebsting, Pat Tilley and a lady whose name I don?t know. They reported seeing a Cooper?s Hawk there shortly before we arrived. We observed 5 similar-sized raptors cavorting in the distance to the south. I managed to discern enough marks to say that 3 of them were White-tailed Kites, it?s possible the other 2 also were this species. Three other raptors seen at the Prairie Overlook were also too far away to determine species. A Northern Shrike was seen in a small tree near the road at the north-west end of the prairie area. Red-tailed Hawk 42 American Kestrel 15 Northern Harrier 15 Bald Eagle 1 immature, 2 unknown age Rough-legged Hawk 11 White-tailed Kite 3 [Cooper?s Hawk 1] Burrowing Owl 1 ? on duty at the edge of the Venell airstrip by Llewellyn Rd. Raptor, sp. Large 5 Raptor, sp. Med-small 2 Marcia F. Cutler Corvallis -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/d787250f/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Fri Jan 23 20:46:09 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:46:09 -0800 Subject: [obol] Boiler Bay, 23 Jan Message-ID: In my previous posting I forgot to mention that I spent an hour seawatching at Boiler Bay. Things were fairly slow (for such a good seawatching spot), but here is what there was, from 7:50 to 8:45: 4,700 Common Murre (most flying S and far out) 49 White-winged Scoter 1 Black Scoter 4 Surf Scoter 1 BROWN PELICAN 14 Pelagic Cormorant 7 Brandt's Cormorant 10 Red-throated Loon 2 Common Loon 4 Loon Sp. 20 Western Grebe plenty o gulls 1 Gray Whale 4 Harbor Porpoise Judging by observations at other coastal spots later, the Murre flights continued at nearly this rate throughout the day. Jay W, Portland From shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com Fri Jan 23 20:54:04 2009 From: shawneenfinnegan at gmail.com (Shawneen Finnegan) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:54:04 -0800 Subject: [obol] Fernhill Wetlands today Message-ID: <340D43BC-5669-4395-8402-F886FB2E9289@gmail.com> I had to spend much of the day in the Forest Grove area, as my dog was at a Forest Grove vet having minor surgery. A couple of hours was spent in the morning at Fernhill Wetlands. Most of the birds seen below were in the morning when I strolled around the impoundments. I returned in the afternoon and bumped into Harry Nehls at the parking lot. Harry and I watched a young GLAUCOUS GULL that flew in while we were chatting. After Harry left an hour later, a second first-cycle GLAUCOUS GULL arrived and floated nearby the first. It was quite the mish-mash of gulls and mixes thereof. Shawneen Finnegan NW Portland Location: Fernhill Wetlands Observation date: 1/23/09 Notes: The two Glaucous Gulls were first-cycle, seen close to one another. One was photographed. Number of species: 39 Cackling Goose 1000 Canada Goose 75 Tundra Swan 98 Gadwall 24 American Wigeon 40 Northern Shoveler 150 Northern Pintail 475 Green-winged Teal 9 Canvasback 8 Lesser Scaup 21 Bufflehead 25 Hooded Merganser 1 Common Merganser 11 Ruddy Duck 3 Double-crested Cormorant 24 Great Blue Heron 17 Northern Harrier 2 Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 1 Dunlin 2 Mew Gull 60 Ring-billed Gull 4 Western Gull 1 Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) 50 California Gull 5 Herring Gull 5 Thayer's Gull 4 Glaucous-winged Gull 150 Glaucous Gull 2 Belted Kingfisher 1 Downy Woodpecker 1 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 2 Western Scrub-Jay 1 Marsh Wren 2 European Starling 10 Song Sparrow 25 Golden-crowned Sparrow 15 Red-winged Blackbird 40 Brewer's Blackbird 100 This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090123/66adf273/attachment.html From withgott at comcast.net Fri Jan 23 21:04:28 2009 From: withgott at comcast.net (Jay Withgott) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:04:28 -0800 Subject: [obol] Barrow's Goldeneye too Message-ID: Sorry for the multiple messages. Forgot to add a few more birds.... The male BARROW'S GOLDENEYE continued today with a small flock of Commons at the mouth of Schooner Creek at Taft in the NE corner of Siletz Bay. A PEREGRINE FALCON was at Kernville, I had 45 or so RED CROSSBILLS at several sites around SIletz Bay, and a PIGEON GUILLEMOT was in the channel at Newport. I promise I'm done now; goodnight, all, J From rriparia at charter.net Fri Jan 23 22:56:42 2009 From: rriparia at charter.net (Kevin Spencer) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:56:42 -0800 Subject: [obol] Take a look at this duck Message-ID: <20090124015642.6A6OH.1689065.root@mp07> OBOL, Last weekend I observed what I thought was an identifiable duck in Klamath Falls, but now having the very active diving duck frozen in images I took, I'm having second thoughts. If any of you wish to look at some of the better images I have I'd like your thoughts. I have 3 that may give clues. Kevin Spencer rriparia at charter.net From cgates326 at gmail.com Fri Jan 23 23:06:11 2009 From: cgates326 at gmail.com (Charles Gates) Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:06:11 -0800 Subject: [obol] You don't see that every day Message-ID: Today at the Prineville Sewer Ponds, I found a Red-tailed Hawk feeding on a Ring-necked Duck. I don't know if he was scavenging the carcass or if he had dispatched a disabled bird. Either way, you don't see that every day. Chuck Gates Powell Butte No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.552 / Virus Database: 270.10.13/1912 - Release Date: 1/23/2009 6:54 PM From grantandstacy17 at gmail.com Sat Jan 24 10:10:50 2009 From: grantandstacy17 at gmail.com (Grant Canterbury) Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 10:10:50 -0800 Subject: [obol] dreaded ugly gull Message-ID: Okay y'all, I am only an aspiring gull nerd, but I checked the Howell/Dunn guide to gulls of the Americas out from the library and have been perusing it of evenings, so I know just enough to be dangerous now. Interesting bird I saw recently on the downtown Portland waterfront (sorry no photo), among the scattered Thayer's and swarms of Glaucous-wings and sundry hybrids. Large white-headed gull, third-cycle individual, very dark gray mantle with a few brownish feathers on the coverts, heavily streaked head with strikingly pale whitish eyes staring out as if from a mask, distinct series of prominent subterminal white spots on the primaries out to about P8. Bill was not the massive bulbous sort with jutting gonydeal angle typical of the bigger Glaucous-wings; but maybe not out of the range of a smaller female Glaucous-wing? I don't think I have a good eye for the subtleties yet. Pink legs, but I didn't particularly notice the tone of the color. So, the purer Glaucous-wings and Westerns are easily excluded by the mantle color and head streaking; and these characters above are generally consistent with Slaty-backed Gull, BUT they also all occur in some combination in the Glaucous-winged/Western hybrid swarm, and a hybrid is obviously a priori a lot more likely. I thought that the subterminal "string of pearls" on the primaries was a pretty good indicator of Slaty-backed, until I saw this picture of a hybrid GW-W wing closeup ( http://geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/6181/ocgl5.htm, bottom image) Which is, yes, just about like what I saw. And after looking at multiple pictures of bills for Slaty-backed, Glaucous-winged, and Westerns, I think that on the whole Slaty-backs are indeed more parallel-sided, less angled, a bit less robust? but there is not to me an obviously clear distinction in the borderline cases, and I have no idea which side of the divide this particular bird fell upon. So my question is? what do I do for my mental anguish? :-) ... No. I'm resigned to never knowing what this critter was for sure? I think? and I will assume it was a weird hybrid. But IN FUTURE, what the heck do I look for to tell the difference, when one of these should hove across my bow? Do I measure the bill with a protractor? Do I ask my dog to fetch a DNA sample (which I can tell you he would be more than happy to do)? Do I look for a handy bar code on the back of its neck? Suggestions welcome - Grant Canterbury -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090124/a98347ae/attachment.html From ensatina3 at hotmail.com Sat Jan 24 10:43:48 2009 From: ensatina3 at hotmail.com (Bobbett Pierce) Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 13:43:48 -0500 Subject: [obol] 60-70 grosbeaks Message-ID: They keep showing up from somewhere, more and more EVENING GROSBEAKS in Warren, Columbia County. Today it's between 60-70 birds, which are too many to fit on the feeders. They are also on the ground under the feeders, at the birdbaths, flying back and forth -- loud chirps as they sit in the trees. They don't stay all day long, although this morning they've been around for three hours. On Thursday while in Portland (20 miles from here), in our car waiting at a traffic light, a peregrine landed on the edge of a nearly building with a pigeon. It then flew off. Cool. Lona Pierce _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live?: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_howitworks_012009 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://oregonbirdwatch.org/pipermail/obol/attachments/20090124/389d0a96/attachment.html From dinpdx at yahoo.com Sat Jan 24 12:56:47 2009 From: dinpdx at yahoo.com (Dwight) Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 12:56:47 -0800 (PST) Subject: [obol] Fanno Creek Trail SW Portland HOODED MERGANSER Message-ID: <859527.97202.qm@web31608.mail.mud.yahoo.com> There was a male HOODED MERGANSER in Fanno Creek downstream from the footbridge next to Vista Brook Park in SW Portland this morning (Species #73 for my local birdwalk). I also saw an immature Red-tailed Hawk perched in a backyard next to the trail. A few days ago there was a