Saturday's eBird synopsis includes multiple detections of NOPA(going and
coming) by Tyler Hallman and Whitney Fleming on the Warrior Point Trail at
Sauvie Island. This is a much shorter chase for many of us than the bird at
Coos North Spit. I don't know if " vagrant" is the proper descriptor of
Northern Parulas in coastal Baja Oregon anymore. There was a singing NOPA on
the Coos N Spit in summer another year not long ago, and multiple such records
in Del Norte County. Despite spending two thirds of my life in the Portland
area l have never walked the Warrior Point Trail. It starts at the end of
Reeder Road(the east/ Columbia coast of Sauvie) . Warrior Point is the northern
tip of the island, the northern end of the Multnomah Channel and hence the
bitter end of the Willamette River. The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS)is a US
Fish and Wildlife Service program. At one point it was the only comprehensive
effort by USF&WS to monitor songbird populations. One route exists for each
rectangle defined by a degree of latitude and longitude. A three minute point
count is made every half mile for 25 miles. I did the Scio route described by
Joel in 1981. At the Union Hill Cemetary l detected Western Kingbird. I have
detected the species within 5-10 miles of there in June/July repeatedly over
the decades. 1977 was the first time. My visits to Marion County are few so the
species must be fairly regular there in summer. On the 1981 survey l saw a
Townsend's Warbler singing on top of an oak where the highway goes under the
powerline a few stops south of Mehama. The next stop , on the grade descending
to Mehama , yielded a Red-eyed Vireo. The western foothills of the Cascades
receive very little attention from birders. My own very limited efforts have
always been highly rewarding.Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
