Holly, Pip and I met some friends at the North Bank Mgmt Area NE of
Roseburg on Saturday. We took a long six hour hike. The country is
absolutely gorgeous. We saw a few horseback riders and one group of three
other hikers. Trails are wide so mostly easy to “socially distance”. We
went in the main gate and hiked from the Comstock trailhead. We went up the
Blacktail Basin Trail and did a loop that ran along the edge of private
land on the north boundary and then looped back. The LARK SPARROW was in
the open grassland area as we switchbacked out of Blacktail Basin up
towards an intersection where five trails come together. It was not singing
but flew up and landed on a fencepost in front of us. I was mildly
surprised and shared my bins with everyone so they all got to look at the
pretty harlequin looking sparrow which was very cooperative. Seems like it
could have been excellent breeding habitat? Not a bird on my Douglas County
list before yesterday.
The loop we did include a section where the trail was overgrown with poison
oak. We managed to get through it OK. Many obnoxious grasses in seed too
including a little hordeum that liked to stick into your socks. However,
the trail was very birder with many wildflowers lots of oaks, madrones and
scattered pondo pine and incense cedar up higher. Gorgeous area managed by
BLM.
Wish I had better details on location but I was just mostly letting friends
lead while I enjoyed the scenery. Also I heard what sounded like a titmouse
at one point but never stopped to visually ID it.
Now to see if a certain warbler is still around!
Happy birding,
Tim R
Coos Bay
