I spent most of today birding around Florence. I only covered three areas,
south jetty road, Baker Beach road and the port of Florence and Old Town area.
S Jetty Rd. Most unusual bird was an apparent slaty form FOX Sparrow. I’m
not sure I have seen one on the coast before. Photos to eBird. If you’d like
to make sure you have it on your Lane County list, it is hanging out in the
open scrub pines just west of the big stony mound at the north end of the
gravel pans, adjacent to the final potholed parking area. I was actually up on
the mound pishing down into the pines, which is probably the easiest way to see
it. Also along s jetty road was a crisp adult N SHRIKE (the one I had a couple
of weeks back was a brown imm), an imm RED-shouldered Hawk and quite a heavy
movement of yellow-rumps. They were in the sky constantly as well as in the
shrubbery. The only shorbs at the cove were two Dunlin.
Baker Beach. The swamp had the usual BLACK Phoebe but not many small birds,
perhaps because a MERLIN was patrolling the snags. The patch of deciduous
trees at the horse parking at the end of the road was stuffed with MYRTLE warbs
and one Audubon’s. I did not go out to the Gorsewest Passage. May do that
this weekend. One slightly odd sight was a mixed flock of Canada and Cackling
geese coming in very high from the northwest, conceivably passage migrants.
The cacklers and Canadas were randomly mixed; I don’t see that a lot. I saw
what looked like the same flock later feeding behind the sewage plant west of
Old Town.
The Port. There was a single WESTERN Sandpiper with about forty Least and a
Spotted on the log booms with the tide half in. The walking trail around the
east end of the “point” gave good views of the bay including the first flock of
Bufflehead I have seen this fall. Only about 20. In a week there will be
hundreds in there. Also in that area on the north side were a Lincoln’s
Sparrow, Savannah, nine meadowlarks and an apparent migrant group of five
flickers in one tree, one of which had yellow wings. I guess they could have
just found something really yummy in that tree, but five seems excessive. A
peregrine was loosening the duck flocks a bit. According to Port staff it is
ok to bird that trail. It is only usable at lower tides. Access is from the
east end of the RV parking on the south side or from the fenced area with the
odd wooden boxy things in it on the north side.
Those of you who bird that are, do you know what those wooden boxes are? I
speculate that they are backdrops for archery, a place to park horses or
perhaps a place where feral cats can be discreetly slaughtered.
I had the impression that California Gull numbers were about half of what they
have been most of October.
I’m morally certain that I heard a Palm Warbler chip a couple of times in the
bushes around the 7-11 at the junction but I could never find it.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
“Nostalgic for Nixon"
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
