On 10/31 Holly, Pip and I headed south to camp/hike up near Vulcan Lake in
the Kalmiopsis Wilderness east of Brookings.
In our way there, we stopped at Floras Lake for a hike and headed north to
New River. Heard one LAPLAND LONGSPUR and saw two WT KITES (been around in
low numbers past few years except in their Coquille Valley stronghold).
While beach combing I heard a Peregrine screaming- I looked up to see a
Peregrine chasing a gray phase Gyrfalcon south. Great looks at the big
falcon which seemed undisturbed by the Peregrine trailing behind it. Likely
the same bird photographed in Bandon in late Sep. For the inevitable
questions of where to find this Gyr- it is likely chasing and dining on
cacklers somewhere between Bandon and Floras Lake which is primarily
private ranchland- the key to getting lucky would be to spend considerable
time at Floras Lake. I am sure it isn’t in any one spot long- good luck!
The road from Brookings up to the Vulcan Lake trailhead use to be nasty and
take a good hour and 45 to drive. The road is now in great shape due to all
the salvage logging after the Chetco Bar fire two years ago. One could take
a car up and do the entire drive in an hour! The fire aftermath is sobering
with miles of total scorched forest which has been salvaged logged in many
areas. Up high we camped at Red Mtn. Prairie with superb views of the
ocean. We watched the sunset from out campspot and even saw the GREEN FLASH
from 3,200 feet- awesome! Great star show and we were camped in the thermal
belt with temps only down to 61F at sunrise. No wind. One N SAW-WHET OWL
calling overnight.
This morningbwe did about a 51/2 mile round trip hike to Vulcan Lake. It
did not burn during the Chetco Bar fire fortunately. Got up to 74F on hike-
I had shorts on whole time. Best birds were a half dozen MTN CHICKADEES,
but mostly not many birds except lots of robins and Varied Thrushes. We
saw many flowering sticky tofeldia and one flowering beargrass- way late
for flowers. Gorgeous area.
On drive down we saw a WESTERN MEADOWLARK in a clearcut- an unusual site
for sure! Just south of Port Orford along Hwy 101 we had a soaring
ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK.
Absolutely awesome trip with superb weather!
Merry Novembertime,
Tim Rodenkirk
Coos Bay
