I spent a little time at the Siltcoos mouth first thing this morning. Not much
happening; a Western Sandpiper was hanging with about ten Dunlin along the
river. The river has a heavy sandbar right now and the north slough was
completely full.
Then went out into the deflation plain with Stephan Nance, Becky Waterman and
Nick Paget. Huge swarms of yellowrumps along the dike. The DP was pretty slow,
a few killdeer and geese (two cacklers and maybe 25 canadas) , one huge adult
peregrine and three grudging pipits. One odd sight was a towhee crossing the
entire open expanse at one of its widest points from the pines on the west to
the willow patch on the east. I checked a map; this was about 150 yards of open
ground, which is probably my personal record for towhee visibility.
Becky and crew found a little wad of grebes in the cove south of the crabbing
pier. There were at least five Eared and two or three Horned in the area;
that’s a lot of Eared for Florence.
The most fun was when I stopped at Waite Ranch on the way upriver. There were
two Black Phoebes near the gate, some Hooded Mergs and dowitchers in the slough
(and a flyby Virginia Rail), a White-tailed Kite out over the grassland along
with a harrier and kestrel, and most noteworthy an enormous flock of pipits.
There were at least 275 birds in one flock, and I had the impression of some
small groups in the distance. Pipits were lining up like swallows on the
overhead wires, flying in all directions and making a racket. I got good looks
at the main flock as it went by in front of me a couple of times; I saw and
heard only AMPIs, no larks, longspurs or other exotica. This area is not open
to the public but there is space to pull off near the gate and scope into the
slough and pastures. This is ok as long as you don’t block the gate. The
pipit action was easily seen from the gate.
By the way, the Mountain Chickadee that arrived at my feeder about two weeks
back never left; it is here every day eating and using the bird bath. It may
have settled for the season.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
