Jeff Nordstrom and I did an Oregon Big Week from May 15-21. We started
in Newport, spent some time in the mid-Willamette Valley, spent 2+ days
in Central Oregon and concluded our journey in Harney County. The
weather was pretty cooperative until the last two days where we were
sent scrambling to avoid, heavy rain, wind, sleet, snow, lightning,
thunder, pestilence, frogs falling from the sky and water turning to blood.
We really only found one rare species. In Fields on the morning of the
6th day and between rain storms, we were able to locate a INDIGO BUNTING
in with a bunch of Lazuli Buntings. We may also have been the first to
see BOBOLINKS in the flooded fields near Diamond.
Our Best Birds:
1. Ross Geese - Several scattered around the farm fields of Burns.
Some appeared injured. One succumbed to eagle feast while we watched.
2. Snow Goose - One bird continues at Houston Lake in Central Oregon
3. Cackling Geese - One at Philomath SP and several at Ankeny.
4. Trumpeter Swan - Several nesting at Malheur. One at Benson and
three in unnamed water on the Diamond Road.
5. Black Scoters - Newport 68th St and at Seal Rock
6. Red-breasted Merganser - Yaquina Bay on the way to Toledo
7. Greater Sage Grouse - Millican Sage Grouse Lek east of Bend - At
least 3 males and 5 females still lekking.
8. Mountain Quail - East Cascades Audubon Society Green Ridge Hawk
Watch location NW of Sisters.
9. Sooty Shearwater - Offshore at Seal Rock
10. Green Heron - 2 gave us a surprise flyby in Philomath.
11. Black Turnstone - Seal Rock I think.
12. Sanderling - From the balcony at the Shilo Inn Newport.
13. Marbled Murrelet - Boiler Bay and Yaquina Head Lighthouse
14. Ancient Murrelet - Boiler Bay
15. Long-eared Owl - Near Skull Hollow at the foot of Gray Butte in
Jefferson County.
16. INDIGO BUNTING - Fields Oasis.
17. Bobolink - Diamond Road.
18. Tricolored Blackbird - Elliott Road (not to be confused with Elliott
Lane which is their normal spot) NW of Prineville.
Biggest Misses:
1. Brant - Most had migrated out.
2. Tundra Swan - One was found in Bend just a couple of days after we
were there.
3. Long-tailed Duck - Missed the Bend bird by 6 hours.
4. Common Goldeneye- Most have migrated out.
5. Ruffed Grouse - Visited one known drumming log but no activity. No
time to check another known location.
6. Dusky Grouse - Decision was made that it wasn't worth our time to
spend a morning searching for this bird.
7. Red-throated Loon- Most have migrated out. One was seen by other
birders while we were on the coast.
8. Snowy Egret - Always tough anywhere in Oregon away from Klamath.
9. White-tailed Kite - Too far away from our route
10. Red-shouldered Hawk - Seen the day before we arrived in Bend. We
looked but failed to locate.
11. California Gull - Maybe the most painful. We did not see any in
Central Oregon but didn't press it because we thought we would see
them in Harney. Wrong!!
12. Anna's Hummingbird - Ok, this was the most painful. We saw several
probables in the coast range but all the perched birds we found were
Rufous. Couldn't find one during our times in Central OR or the
Willamette Valley refuges. A real fumble.
13. Flammulated Owl - Decision was made that it wasn't worth our time to
spend a night searching for this bird. None have been located in CO
yet this year.
14. Black Swift - They seem to have reached plague proportions in
Rodenkirk Country but we didn't see any.
15. Pileated WP - Another big miss. We didn't press it on the coast or
in the valley because I had a slam dunk spot in CO. Then, of course,
we got slam dunked ourselves when the bird could not be found.
16. Eastern Kingbird - None had yet arrived as of our visit to Malheur.
17. Varied Thrush - Just never heard one in the western Cascades or the
Coast Range.
18. Black-throated Sparrow - Jake Schas found a breeding group just
about a mile from where we tried for them. This was NW of Fields.
19. Golden-crowned Sparrow- Most had migrated out.
So the possibility of reaching 250 is a reality but will be very
difficult. I can't even guess what the Hinkles and Em would do if you
gave them 7 days!! We'll try again next year.
Thanks to everyone who gave us advice and help.
--
It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for
sure that just ain't so.
Mark Twain
Chuck Gates
541-280-4957
Powell Butte,
Central Oregon
Oregon Birding Site Guide
http://www.ecaudubon.org/#!birding-locations/clvb
Oregon County Checklists
http://www.ecaudubon.org/#!county-checklists/c1s34
