I spent the morning birding Tillamook with Wink and Becki. There was an
enormous number of ducks behind the high school - mostly Pintails and
Widgeon (with 4-5 male EURASIANs in the mix). We also found a SWAMP SPARROW
and O-C WARBLER there. In the afternoon, I headed over to Nehalem. The
sewage ponds had had the expected mix of ducks (LESSER SCAUP, SHOVELER,
RUDDY DUCK, G-W TEAL) in not particularly impressive numbers. There was one
male teal that lacked a vertical white stripe and had only a hint of a
horizontal one. A single gull sat on the dike - a first year GLAUCOUS GULL
(the bill pattern was pretty good, but not an absolutely straight line in
the cut-off between the black tip and the bright pink rest of the bill, so I
imagine a case for some intergrade could be made). The meadows are pretty
flooded and there are a scattering of flocks of geese, include one solid
flock of 12 SNOW GEESE. I couldn't find a close vantage point to the geese,
but could see them in the distance from the sewage ponds and then from the
SE corner of the meadows. I then took a quick pick at Nehalem State Park.
From the boat ramp, I spotted a distant female/imm. LONG-TAILED DUCK hanging
out with the Surf Scoters.
David Mandell
