I would echo David Bailey's comments about birding slightly inland when looking
for vagrant landbirds. After decades of reading accounts of vagrants being
found at outer coastal oases like Pt. Loma in San Diego and the various cypress
patches on Point Reyes, I was seduced by the idea that points of land with
little patches of trees and otherwise short grassy vegetation were the places
to look for vagrants. Only one problem, Oregon doesn't have too many of these
(aside from some spots of the far south coast).
My notions about appropriate vagrant traps have been altered by a number of
trips to Humboldt County, California over the past decade. I've even have had
the good fortune to find a few vagrants myself down there. While the willow
patches and the cypress grove on the north spit of Humboldt Bay have a rich
history of producing vagrant passerines, just as many unusual warblers, vireos,
flycatchers and the like have been found away from the immediacy of the outer
coast in that county, sometimes several miles inland. As David Fix has pointed
out, the key is to find the first inland locations that have the capacity to
host a flock and HOLD birds. A tiny wind-blasted patch of spruce or lodgepole
pines, or small sump of willows and alders may pick up a disoriented bird when
it first comes back to land after ending over the ocean during its nocturnal
migrations. However, such places are usually short on three things a landbird
needs...food, water, and the protection from predators that comes by
associating with a larger flock. In other words, such sites are unlikely to
hold a bird for more than a very brief period after it makes landfall.
My barometer for assessing the potential of a vagrant trap on the coast starts
with, "are there Black-capped Chickadees present?" They are the watchdog of the
small passerine world. They are typically first on the scene to assess a
potential threat (my screech-owl or pygmy-owl imitations) and the last to
figure out its just some weird guy doing owl imitations. In the interim they
scold likely crazy drawing the attention of every small bird within earshot. If
you get the chickadees going it won't be long before a Red-breasted Nuthatch or
two joins the fray, shortly followed Ruby-crowned and or Golden-crowned
Kinglets. If you have a "chicklet" flock then you are in business. The warblers
are out there somewhere, usually a Townsend's or two in winter, or maybe even
an Orange-crowned. They will be the last to come in, so be patient. If you have
flock, work it. If you stop and pish and don't get chickadees to respond, or a
flock doesn't appear within a couple minutes, time to move on. Go to where the
birds are and don't waste a lot of time pishing a spot where there isn't
already some activity. Dead is usually dead, not to be revived no matter how
long you pish.
Once you find a spot that consistently has a flock, go there again and again.
You may only find common birds the first 10 or 20 visits, but then one day you
will strike gold. I've birded the patch where I found the Yellow-throated Vireo
many, many times without ever finding anything rare, but I've always found a
nice little chicklet flock there. On the day that I found the vireo I hooked
our dog Rozi's leash over a tree branch next to the trail. As I pished in the
chickadees they suddenly caught sight of her laying next to the trail and
within seconds there were about a half dozen chickadees all scolding her from
about 6-8 feet away. As is typical, the rare bird (the vireo) was one of the
last birds to come in.
In Humboldt some of the most productive places are sites where there are long
corridors of streamside alders and willows that run through pasturelands. Think
Fenk Road west of Tillamook or some of the areas that David Bailey and Mike
Patterson bird regularly east of Seaside (Newanna Creek). The new park at
Kilchis Point south of Bay City in Tillamook County is quite a ways from the
beach, but there isn't much between the ocean and this park except Bayocean
Spit and Tillamook Bay. The trails there wind through a lush mixed forest of
spruce, alder, and Douglas-fir. I've found it to be very birdy during my
visits, but haven't birded it often enough to find anything fun yet. The
gallery forests along the lower Wilson River also merit coverage. There are
also some really juicy looking willow-lined sloughs on the east side of
Tillamook around the high school and fairgrounds. One of the best spots in
Humboldt is Shay Park right in the middle of Arcata. It is about six miles
inland and is surrounded by some fairly wooded neighborhoods, so you would not
think it would be that great. There is usually one good flock in the park. If
you find it you'll see a good variety species. If you don't cross paths with
the flock you see almost nothing. The park has had a slew of vagrant warblers
over the years, including a Connecticut, a species still undocumented for
Oregon.
Another mistake to avoid is thinking that it is getting too late in the season
to find a vagrant landbird. October and November have produced some spectacular
rarities in the Pacific Northwest and a bird found here this late into the
season may end up overwintering. Who will be the person to go out and find
something fun tomorrow?
Dave Irons
Portland, OR
________________________________
From: obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <obol-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of David
Bailey <davidcbaileyoregon@xxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2016 4:45 AM
To: obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [obol] Vagrant/rare land birds searches on the Coast (and inland)
Dave Iron's said:
These questions continue to keep some of us up nights scratching our thinning
scalps. The one thing that I think we can do to better our odds is to focus
more energy on searching for landbirds when we bird at the coast, particular
from September-March. The allure of sea-watching from Boiler Bay and checking
favored mudflats and gull flocks has occupied too many of my coastal birding
hours over the years, thus I have very few vagrant landbird discoveries that I
can claim. In recent years I've endeavored to devote some of my coastal birding
days entirely or almost entirely to looking for landbirds. In fact, it was on
one of these days that I found the recent Yellow-throated Vireo. That same day,
I encountered a big flock of warblers (included both forms of Yellow-rumped,
Townsend's, Black-throated Gray, Wilson's, Common Yellowthroat and
Orange-crowned), chickadees, kinglets etc. in the stand of alders along 63rd
St. across from the marsh as you turn west from Hwy 101 towards Cutler City. I
will find a vagrant here someday.
Two weeks ago, Shawneen and I made a dash over to the coast after I had an
early-morning medical procedure. We focused on landbirding around Newport,
first searching for the Lark Bunting behind the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
We missed that, but did find a White-throated Sparrow. We spent about 1.5 hours
birding the neighborhoods of north Newport between Nye Beach and Hwy 101. We
found a Palm Warbler plus two more White-throated Sparrows. There are a couple
of heavily-wooded ravines in that area that we'll definitely pound again the
next time we are in Newport. Some of the spots we visited definitely have
potential for an over-wintering warbler, vireo, or flycatcher and there are
lots of residential hummer feeders with oriole potential in that area.
I am of like mind Dave. Mike Patterson and Steve Warner know that I have been
saying this for years. It has been a desire of mind to somehow convince more
birders to go outside the twitch and/or shorebirding/seawatching when they come
to bird on the coast. Beat a few bushes at any patch of riparian or mixed
woodlands you come to. There will be Semipalmated Sandpipers and Buff-breasted
Sandpipers every year, but there are veins of gold to be found in the trees and
shrubs as well as the mudflats. For probably as long as I have been living at
the coast (nearing 15 years now), I have looked forward to Fall and Winter for
the chance of finding rare or vagrant migrant song birds in some patch or
another. The patch doesn't have to be immediately coastal. Those actually may
be too exposed. Go a quarter to a mile and half inland to check on woodland
patches too. Working these areas of shrubs and trees over the years I have
found Painted Bunting, Least Flycatcher, American Redstart, Clay-colored
Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, and more. Usually I just find the expected,
but so is the case with checking the shorebird and seabird flocks. Just
yesterday I found a bright Wilson's Warbler and a Common Yellowthroat (see
ebird). Today I encountered my first Hermit Thrush of the season. An example of
the potential of what is out there comes from the Christmas Bird Counts. During
these, more than the average number of birders converge on a small area and
intensively bird areas that don't always get such coverage. On the coast that
includes many habitat patches away from tidal influence. Usually one or two
rare birds turn up. Not always. Rare birds are rare.
A key strategy is to pish and toot pygmy-owl and screech-owl and make kissy
sounds on the back of your hand as you move along; more so if you encounter
sparrows, wrens, kinglets or chickadees. Once you get a response stay with it
for a couple minutes at least. If there is a flock in the vicinity it will
probably come closer to investigate. Use your ears to find where the chickadees
are as you bird along the edge of riparian area. Chickadee flocks are great
for having multiple species, especially when Black-capped Chickadees are
involved. The flock I pished up yesterday on Shoreterrace in Seaside contained
Black-capped Chickadees, Ruby and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Townsend's and
Wilson's Warblers, juncos, Song and Fox Sparrows, Spottee Towhee, Steller's
Jays, Downy Woodpecker, Hutton's Vireo, and Common Yellowthroat. It took me
about 15min in one place pishing and owl-tooting to bring all those birds in,
but it was well worth it.
One of those ravines Dave mentioned in Newport once held a Dusky-capped
Flycatcher for a few months....
David
David C. Bailey
Seaside, Oregon
