Sunday was a Port Orford CBC to remember, being close to a 10 for pretty
crappy weather on a scale of 1 to 10. Carrie Rogers said there was even
worse weather one time when they had wind and sleet! Winds were blowing
hard all night and all day. Pretty much 20-40 with gusts to 50mph+.
Probably higher on the Cape where Larry Standley lost his wool hat to the
winds. Dumping rain all day but for about a one hour period around noon.
There was a lot of sitting in vehicles, it was just to nasty to even think
of pulling out a scope most of the day. Three Black-capped Chickadees on
the entire count sums it up and one Fox Sparrow for me all day (and I
walked 6 miles).
There were 12 of us out, minus one who bailed early. One feeder watcher.
We ended up with 111 species which is about 20 below normal but an awesome
number given conditions. There were at least 8 species I had in my area
the two days before the count I could not refind and no one else did on
count day.
We had a lot of ones- one kingfisher, one Horned Grebe, one Western Grebe,
one oystercatcher, one Townsend's Warbler, etc. etc. So many low counts!
The only anomaly was a record high eight Cooper's Hawks but no Sharpies.
One new count species, a Nashville Warbler, coming to a suet feeder in
Langlois that Lars Norgren found. Jim and Carrie Rogers have a Selasphorus
hummer at their feeders still also. Off Agate Beach in Port Orford during
the tiny good weather window there were two or three Ancient Murrelets and
one Northern Fulmar. Several kittiwakes. Two Say's Phoebe. Only one Palm
Warbler. Seven Lapland Longspurs. Two Lesser Goldfinches. The Grassy Knob
crew came through with an Acorn Woodpecker otherwise we just had flickers
for woodpeckers. Two Orange-crowned Warblers. The only owls were in Terry
Wahl's big barn, a Barn and a Barred that like to snack on all the
collared-doves and blackbirds there. The nice weather window was short and
closed like an eye of a hurricane with nasty weather the rest of the PM.
The more miserable the more memorable- memories were definitely made. Fun
day overall because any day birding is awesome!
Happy CBCing all,
Tim Rodenkirk
Coos Bay
