Since the snow is slowing my ability to find birds in the wild, I
decided to stay in and pound some keys on the keyboard. Most of you
know that the East Cascades Audubon sponsors a "Birding Oregon" website
that offers descriptions, directions, maps... of over 1100 locations in
Oregon. If you don't know about this site, you can find it here
<https://www.ecaudubon.org/> and bookmark it. Just click on the "Birding
Oregon" tab at the top and off you go. This site is user run so, if you
see problems, please bring them to my attention. I depend on the public
to help me find bugs or mistakes.
Also on that site, you will find field checklists and complete
checklists of the birds for each of Oregon's 36 counties. The field
checklists are lists of expected birds in that county. The full
checklists are interesting because they are an attempt to list all the
birds seen in each county. This is not easy because there are often
disagreements about which birds to include on an "official list". I
give it a shot. It's not perfect but it is likely better than any other
similar effort (like an eBird county list for example). These "official
lists" are vetted by local experts and follow a few basic rules. I try
to publish an update every year and you can see the table below for that
update. You should be able to find a column with the county name and
the number of species accepted for that county. Further to the right,
you can find a column that says "Changes since 2018. Here you will find
the number of new species added since the last update (Feb 2018).
I'm afraid I don't track the names of the new species added each year
so, if you have questions about new species in the county, go the the
above website and click on "Birding Oregon" and then on "County
Checklists". Each checklist has a contact person who is a local county
expert and they should be able to answer questions about new species.
Again, if there are mistakes on the checklists, please let me know. You
might notice that a couple of counties had negative gains this year.
That is because observant members of the birding community informed of
species that needed to be removed from the list due to an error in
recording. The whole thing is dependent upon you and your local knowledge.
It was a good year to be a lister in Columbia, Wasco and Benton
counties. Check out your favorite counties and let me know if you see
errors.
Update
Changes
3_3_19
since 2018
1 Lane 422
1 Columbia 6
2 Lincoln 413
2 Wasco 4
3 Curry 409
3 Benton 3
4 Coos 409
4 Hood River 2
5 Douglas 388
5 Jackson 2
6 Harney 385
6 Lincoln 2
7 Tillamook 381
7 Baker 1
8 Clatsop 378
8 Clatsop 1
9 Multnomah 356
9 Crook 1
10 Klamath 355
10 Gilliam 1
11 Deschutes 349
11 Jefferson 1
12 Lake 346
12 Josephine 1
13 Jackson 341
13 Klamath 1
14 Benton 337
14 Lane 1
15 Marion 324
15 Malheur 1
16 Linn 321
16 Marion 1
17 Umatilla 319
17 Multnomah 1
18 Polk 315
18 Polk 1
19 Washington 313
19 Union 1
20 Union 309
20 Wheeler 1
21 Grant 305
21 Clackamas 0
22 Wallowa 299
22 Coos 0
23 Crook 296
23 Deschutes 0
24 Wasco 296
24 Douglas 0
25 Clackamas 295
25 Grant 0
26 Malheur 295
26 Harney 0
27 Jefferson 291
27 Lake 0
28 Yamhill 289
28 Morrow 0
29 Hood River 284
29 Sherman 0
30 Josephine 283
30 Tillamook 0
31 Baker 282
31 Umatilla 0
32 Columbia 281
32 Washington 0
33 Morrow 279
33 Wallowa 0
34 Sherman 272
34 Yamhill 0
35 Wheeler 262
35 Curry -1
36 Gilliam 260
36 Linn -1
--
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for
sure that just ain't so.
Mark Twain
Chuck Gates
Prineville Bird Club
541-280-4957
Powell Butte,
Central Oregon Oregon Birding Site Guide
http://www.ecaudubon.org/birding-locations
Oregon County Checklists
http://www.ecaudubon.org/county-checklists
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