I agree with Dave that it's been my pleasure to bird this spit for the last
three years that we have lived halftime above the Park - our backyard abuts
the park boundary on the hill above the bay. The 1 mile south of the boat
ramp is especially productive in the fall season - less so in the spring.
In addition to the regular peeps, there have been LB Curlews, Marbled
Godwit, Whimbrels, Wandering Tattlers, Turnstones, Phalaropes, Yellowlegs
and a Willet here. And the little baylet at the one mile point is often
where they congregate. Terns, Kittiwakes and Jaegers have been seen around
here. The gulls roost here at high tide and across the river at low tide.
More uncommon or rare birds will show up at this baylet - a Northern
Mockingbird, a White-tailed Kite, Western Kingbirds, Black Phoebes. There
are seasonal ponds behind the baylet that attract waterfowl. And during
the winter you can get very close to the waterfowl in the river including
Long-tailed Ducks.
Don't forget to check the tidal flats to the north of the boat ramp. I've
found Godwits, Whimbrel, Curlews, Snowy Plovers and peeps here in abundance
- as well as Common Terns and Arctic Terns with the gulls. And there is a
HUGE patch of Salicornia if you follow the beach to the point north of the
boat ramp - more easily accessed from the hiking trail. But it is closed
at high tide so don't get stuck out there.
The ocean side has seen all of the above and more with Red Knots and
Plovers - more in springtime when there are days that thousands stream by
barely stopping. And Lapland Longspurs and Snow Buntings are regular here
in winter - sometimes seen but often heard - along with the pipits. The
jetty of course can have anything on it - the north jetty is a haven for
Wandering Tattlers in the fall - usually about five. The turnstones seem
to prefer the south jetty and the docks of the marinas along the bay. I've
seen peeps and phalaropes roosting on it. The bay itself is literally
packed with thousands of peeps at low tide at this time of year that are
very hard to see. With the right tide and right lighting you can view them
from Bayside Gardens or Tohl Rd.
While the spit is very uncrowded - there are unfortunately plenty of dogs
even in Snowy Plover season that I have seen flush the plovers from the
upper beach. People ignore the signs and are resentful and defiant when
you mention the restriction. And then there are the horses! So much poop
but they leave nice pockets in the sand that the plovers will roost in.
There are some elk trails on the spit that it make it possible to
transverse at the halfway point if you want to bushwack through the scotch
broom - I do this all the time. They show up on Google Maps.
Feeling lucky to have this as my second home,
Beverly
On Fri, Sep 7, 2018 at 8:10 AM David Irons <LLSDIRONS@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings All,
This past weekend Shawneen and I spent most of two days birding Nehalem
Spit in northern Tillamook County. I'm not sure what possessed me to
suggest to Shawneen that we focus on this area, perhaps the fact that it is
sort away from traditional weekend beachgoer destinations. I came away more
than impressed by the possibilities of this place. Despite that fact that
the weather was nice and there weren't big numbers of any shorebirds
around, we found a nice array of species and enjoyed closeup views of all
of them, including ten-plus Baird's Sandpipers and a nice juvenile
Buff-breasted Sandpiper (joined by a second the next day).
What most impressed me was the bayside mudflat habitat just to the south
of the boat ramp at Nehalem Bay State Park. There is a mix of mud, drier
sand, dense patches of Salicornia and cobble beds generally above the high
tide line where we found a variety of small shorebirds roosting at high
tide. In structure, it reminded me of the way the ponds at the base of the
South Jetty of the Columbia River used to look before they plugged a gap in
the jetty that allowed a lot more water to flood in there at high tide.
Back in the day, the jetty ponds were far more open and unvegetated. They
consistently attracted rare shorebirds, including the state's first (and
only) Spotted Redshank, Long-toed Stint, Red-necked Stint, plus birds like
Ruff, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper and Buff-breasted Sandpiper. The latter three
species were essentially annual there in the late 70s and through the
1980s. Although not as ideal in terms of geography, I think that the
Nehalem Bay flats might consistently produce these types of rarities with
more intense coverage. I know that Bev Hallberg and David Mandell visit
this area fairly regularly, but I haven't seen too many other reports.
About a mile south of the boat ramp there is a sandy wash where gulls and
potentially shorebirds might gather. It strikes me as a miniature version
of the "Crab Dock Cove" near the south jetty at the mouth of the Siuslaw
River (near Florence). We found a nice mix of gulls here on Sunday and the
flock of Baird's Sandpipers used this area some. The long stretch of cobble
beach between this wash and the flats by the boat ramp were used by
roosting Semipalmeted Plovers, Baird's Sandpipers, Western Sandpipers, a
Least Sandpiper and one juvenile Semipalmated Sandpiper this past weekend.
The open beach on the ocean side of the spit did not have that many birds
this weekend, but we did find three juvenile Snowy Plovers. The general
scarcity of people (even during Labor Day Weekend) between the parking lot
at the end of the road through the state park and the north jetty at the
bay mouth give me hope that this can long stretch of wide beach (about 2.5
miles) might collect large flocks of shorebirds during spring migration and
earlier in the fall when larger numbers are passing through. Unlike the
densely crowded beaches right in Rockaway to the south and Manzanita to the
north, there were only a smattering of beach walkers on this isolated
stretch of beach and I don't think any of them had dogs with them. It takes
some walking, but I think it is well worth it. This looks like a great
beach for large and small plovers, godwits and Whimbrel, Snow Buntings,
longspurs and who knows what else.
I've included some screen grabs of Google Maps satellite images and a
couple of my own close-up photos of the bayside habitat that I describe
above. Going forward, we intend to focus more of our spring and fall
shorebirding efforts on Nehalem Spit and it's definitely a spot we'll check
during late fall and winter.
Dave Irons
Beaverton, OR
