We have 80F weather about once or twice a year along the Coos coast, with a
t least one day in April most years during an east wind event. Sometimes
this produces some unusual birds on the coast, I didn't see any yesterday
nor was I expecting the east winds. Temps hit 81F on the east side of Coos
Bay before the west winds brought a cool breeze and a quick drop of temps
back to around 70F. The warmth lasted until about 2PM. I was at Floras
Lake, Curry early on for the heat. The most abundant species was
ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER, I saw a few hundred. The willows were crawling
with them. There were tens of WILSON'S WARBLERS and YELLOW-RUMPS (most of
the Yewllow-rumps past through mid-April, often in the many hundreds, I
remember this from point count days at New River). The numbers of SAVANNAH
SPARROWS was real impressive, with flocks of 5 to 10 seemingly everywhere
out in the grasslands north of the lake. I saw a few hundred in not a very
large area. Anyhow, I was not expecting the heat or east winds, it was a
nice surprise. Coos Bay officially only hit 79F, way below the record of
88 but still a nice day!
After todays wet AM the north winds are forecasted to return and should be
around through the weekend, no doubt kicking up the migration numbers which
can be truly spectacular this time of year. A recent for instance was 2 May
2006 when Dave Lauten and Kathy Castelein counted ~ 400,000 shorebirds
moving north during their day of Snowy Plover monitoring near Bandon. Most
birds were W. Sandpipers of course, and they usually are moving, but it is
still an awesome spectacle if you hit it on the big day! Numbers typically
drop off to a trickle after the peak movement which may only be a day or
two.
Merry migration!
Tim R
Coos Bay
