Late
report for South Coast 9-10-15
Just
an update and clarification of yesterday. My wife and I spend the
night at Gold Beach and in the morning about 0800 or so I went down
to the beach. The wind was really blowing. One of the first birds
I saw was the BV Shearwater just beyong the breakers. Amazingly
there were, to the best I could count, 4 Parasitic Jaegers – 3 of
which were dark phase, 1 Pomarine Jaeger, 1 Fulmar and plenty of
Elegant Terns, which I thought were heading south, but am not so sure
now.
After
breakfast we went to the North Jetty where there were another 2
Parasitic Jaegers and one Franklin's Gull. It was still quite windy,
to the point of my scope lense getting sand blasted. It was just not
pleasant being in the wind (my wife was along) so we headed to
Brookings – Chetco Point.
At
Chetco Point there was only a breeze, quite a difference from some 30
miles to the north at Gold Beach. I had never been there, and Russ
thought it was a good bet for seeing BV Shearwaters. Got there
just before 10:00 and stayed until about 12:45. It was quite slow
with only a few Sooties passing in small groups for 2 hours. The
bulk were at quite a distance, pretty much the limit of observation.
I did see one flash white underneath, and another flapping its wings,
but was not able to see those features on the same bird. About noon
things picked up and the sooties were pretty much always in site, and
I finally picked one out that was flapping and showed white
underneath, so am pretty realistic about seeing another BV. I have
no experience with such, but it seems like the logical choice here.
We
planned on making it back home by day's end, driving back up the
coast, but as soon as we left Brookings, it started raining, We
stopped in Gold Beach for lunch and I talked my wife into heading
over to Grant's Pass as it would likely not be raining and the
scenery would be better (and, of course, I might be able to add a few
birds to my Josephine County list.... which I did) Got home at 9:45.
Was it worth it? Of course!
Bill Tice: Birding - The best excuse for getting outdoors, and avoiding chores.
