Adrian, my mom, and I did Portland Audubon's Birdathon for the twelfth year
in a row last weekend, raising several thousand dollars and tallying 221
species over 48 hours, including 207 on Saturday.
We start Friday evening at 5:00 pm on Yaquina Head, where we find a flock
of seven Western Kingbirds, a Black Scoter, and two Harlequin Ducks.
By o-dark-thirty Saturday we're at Cummins Peak Road above Cape Perpetua in
coastal Lincoln County, where Mountain Quail, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red
Crossbill, and Barred Owl are among our first species.
Our anticipation deflates quickly below a heavy drizzle. We leave the coast
underwhelmed and racking up the misses, but with over 100 species despite
the slow going. Quick stops near Florence net Hutton's Vireo, White-tailed
Kite, and Hooded Merganser before we drive straight into a rainstorm that
doesn't let up until we've started into the Cascades. Our bad luck
crescendoes into the afternoon when we encounter a locked gate at Gold
Lake, with no backup for the five additions we were expecting here, and
reenter the cold, windy rain in Central Oregon.
By the time we hit Lake County our day list stands at only 130 species, but
the tables turn and we close out the day on a remarkable run.
Fort Rock nets White-throated Swift, Barn Owl, Prairie Falcon, and
Hammond's Flycatcher. Cabin Lake produces Pinyon Jay, White-headed and
Lewis's Woodpecker, Loggerhead Shrike, solitaire, and Western Bluebird. We
pick up Ash-throated Flycatcher in an roadside juniper grove and come
across a bonus Common Goldeneye among the marsh birds at Paulina Marsh.
We get back on schedule by Winter Rim, where the stormy skies hold off long
enough to find Callope Hummingbird, Black-backed Woodpecker, pygmy-owl,
Green-tailed Towhee, Fox Sparrow, and Townsend's Warbler within fifteen
minutes along the second mile of road. We drive through another rainstorm
on the tour loop at Summer Lake, but emerge with over eighty species by the
time the sun sets over the marshes. Our best birding of the day is here -
we get twenty new species including an unexpected flock of twelve Red
Knots. We tally the day list over our first meal since the night before,
and are surprised to count 205, given that we hadn't scouted and were up
against weather that couldn't have gotten much worse. After dark we add
Virginia Rail (206) and our final species of the day, Ring-necked Pheasant
(#207). We're still missing poorwill, flam owl, saw-whet owl, etc. and
contemplate going for 210, but call it a day and set up camp.
Sunday we head home, picking up a few additional species by 5:00 pm, making
221 species for our forty-eight-hour list--twenty more than our personal
record from last year.
Our notable birds were "prairie" Merlin on the coast, Common Goldeneye at
Paulina Marsh, and 12 RED KNOTS with 5 Sanderling at Summer Lake. I added
some crummy but identifiable photos of the knots on this ebird checklist.
All of our sightings are in ebird.
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29725339
Thanks for all the Birdathon support. Already looking forward to next year.
Cheers,
Chris Hinkle