[obol] Curry Birds today Blue Jay et al. 10/19/2014
- From: Tim Rodenkirk <timrodenkirk@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 19 Oct 2014 18:30:22 -0700
I spent a good part of the day birding with Terry Wahl in Curry. Weather
was, well, pretty crappy most of the day with high winds from the SW and
rain off and on in the AM. It finally got less moist by late AM but the
winds were howling out of the SW. Here are our highlights:
Ophir- Euchre Creek area:
2- CLAY-COLORED SPARROWS we heard their distinctive high pitch soft call
note then found them together and watched them flit around a while.
Gold Beach, later in the AM (really crappy weather there):
We found a large blackbird flock behind the high school and with it was a
female YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD.
We then headed north and decided to stop at Otter Point, a nice sea watch
spot just a few miles north of Gold Beach. We spent over an hour here as
we had a steady flow of ELEGANT TERNS, but no other tern species (much to
Terry's chagrin). Saw maybe 50 total, there were none in Gold Beach as far
as we could tell in the blowing rain. Anyhow, there were two PARASITIC
JAEGERS not to far offshore that would hit on the terns from time to time
then fly back down onto the water right off the point. We had great views
of them. Other birds of note included a couple close BONIE GULLS and 2
BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKES. Not a shearwater anywhere, but this spot would not
be a good spot for them as we were on the wrong side of the reef there
which extends quite a way offshore. Sure was fun watching the jaegers from
point blank range though.
As we left we got a call from Knute Andersson about a BLUE JAY at his
feeder which was still around when I finally arrived there a couple hours
later. Gorgeous bird. I think this is about the 5th Curry record, amazing
coming off last year's bird in Brookings in Nov/Dec hosted by Christi
Loring (thanks Christi). I never thought I would see a second one in
Curry! Knute puts out prodigious amounts of seed at his place and it pays
off- nice work Knute!!!! I bet Knute and Lois will have some nice pictures
of this bird.
Fun day. My wife tells me it was over 70F at the house in Coos Bay today,
not so warm or nice down south- go figure?
Merry migration,
Tim R
Coos Bay
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- » [obol] Curry Birds today Blue Jay et al. 10/19/2014 - Tim Rodenkirk
