Oregon Birds
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Oregon Birds Journal of Oregon Birding and Field Ornithology Volume 35 2009 Contents of Oregon Birds Volume 35 Birding Oregon I.D. Note: Storms and Wrecked Phalaropes Dave Irons 7 Local News and Notes Don Munson, Forrest English, Alan Contreras, Hendrik Herlyn 3 New Generations: Oregon's Young Birders Karl Fairchild 4 Field Notes: Summer 2008-Dec. 2009 South Coast - Tim Rodenkirk 11 North Coast - Wink Cross 18 Portland Metro - Christopher and Adrian Hinkle 23 Willamette Valley - Tom Mickel 28 Rogue-Umpqua - selected photos 31 Central Oregon - Chuck Gates 33 Klamath-Lake - Kevin Spencer 39 Harney-Malheur - selected photos 43 Umatilla - Aaron Skirvin 45 Aberrant leucistic plover: three photos by Anne Heyerly 1 7 Oregon listing report for 2009 compiled by Paul Sullivan 50 Recent Research Use of Himalayan Blackberry Patches by Wintering Birds in Western Oregon Noah K. Strycker, Jonathan V. Boydston, Jasmine D. Graves, Laci L. Bristow, Bruce D. Dugger 57 Lewis's Woodpecker Nesting Study in Central Oregon Kirk Hardie 61 A Brief History of Seabird Research on Southern Oregon's Saddle Rock Annie Pollard 67 A Note on the Feeding Behaviors of Wintering Mergansers Ron Larson 74 Front Cover: Cedar Waxwings. Photo by Knute Andersson (Langlois) Back Cover: Red-naped Sapsucker. Photo by Rowan Heglie (Ashland) Contact OB Editor Alan Contreras at [email protected] Coming in Oregon Birds 36(1) - deadline July 1, 2010 Motorless birding by Vjera Thompson Site Guide: Chukar Park by David Smith A Truly Big Year in Coos County by Tim Rodenkirk Oregon's First Record of White-eyed Vireo by Alan Contreras and Graham Floyd and more.... Coming in Oregon Birds 36(2) - deadline October 1, 2010 Overwintering Pelicans on the CBC Range Bayer Oregon CBC Schedule and more.... deadline for general submissions for Oregon Birds Volume 37: February I, 2011 OFO Annual Meeting September 24-26, 2010 at Newport Keynote Speaker: Jon Dunn Information will be sent to OFO members in summer, 2010 The molting juv. Red Phalarope in the image above right was photographed at Bastendorff Beach, Coos Co. on 6 November 2009. Notice how this bird still retains much of its juvenal plumage. It is not as far along in its molt as the bird shown in the images below. It still has a fairly solid dark crown, extensive dark feathering on the hind neck and wing coverts, and is also still showing quite a bit of reddish brown wash on the throat and foreneck. The molt pattern on the back creates "stripes" that make this plumage the most often confused with the more slender-billed Red-necked Phalarope (inset left, photo 9 Sep. 2006 at Florence, courtesy Graham Floyd). Every fall season in the Pacific Northwest seems to be marked by at least one major November storm that rolls in off of the Pacific Ocean. Along the outer coast, these events are characterized by sustained gale force winds out of the south or southeast, peak gusts that approach triple digit velocities, huge surf, and storm tides that never seem to go out. Inland areas experience blustery winds with occasional 40-50mph gusts, torrential rains, and storm drains clogged by the season's last major shedding of leafy foliage. In the aftermath, nearly leafless deciduous trees remind us that winter is just around the corner. Downed trees are most likely to be Douglas-firs. When the soil becomes sodden around their comparatively small root wads, they fall like dominoes in high winds, particularly in areas where formerly contiguous forests have been fragmented by development or clear-cutting. In a conifer forest, there is safety in numbers and stand density. During the first week of November 2009, a major storm wracked the Oregon and Washington coasts. Wind gusts of up to 90 mph were recorded on some headlands and up to five inches of rain fell in places. On 5 November swells of up to 25 feet were reported off the southern Oregon coast. During and after this onslaught thousands of birds flooded into the sheltered estuaries or rode out the storm grounded on beaches. Birders tend to measure the intensity of these storms by the numbers of birds "wrecked" along the outer coast. Even modest storms deposit large numbers of gulls and lingering Brown Pelicans along Oregon's beaches. However, it usually takes a big blow before the Red Phalaropes show up onshore and even stronger systems to carry them farther inland. Not quite the size of a Killdeer, the Red Phalarope is a somewhat plump-bodied, small- Oregon Birds Volume 35 1 headed shorebird with a rather thin medium length bill. At first glance, it would not seem to be the sort of bird that would be capable of surviving much of the year far from land bobbing in the ocean and yet, Red Phalaropes are highly pelagic. Outside of the breeding season, inshore visits are rare and hardly voluntary. They are borne shoreward on high winds, often arriving exhausted and hungry. At times they seem to dot every available body of water. They may be found in small puddles, rainpools, drainage ditches and anywhere else that standing water has collected. Most of the Red Phalaropes that appear inshore during late fall are hatch-year birds. These birds are still molting, thus their plumage can be highly varied. A sampling of their different looks is presented here. By November, most juveniles are already displaying a fairly uniform pale gray back like the bird at left. The reddish-brown wash on the throat is barely visible and it is not yet showing yellow at the base of the bill (shown by adults). The back is mostly gray with just a few remaining dark feathers and the forecrown is mottled white and blackish. In flight, the broad white wing stripe of a Red Phalarope (below left) is suggestive of the more expected Sanderling. However, the large black eye patch and black feathering running up the nape and onto the crown identifies this bird as a hatch-year Red Phalarope. J^BirdFell ow This article originally appeared on Birdfellow, November 14, 2009. It is reprinted here by permission of the author and Birdfellow. A new social networking site for people interested in field observation of birds, Birdfellow was established in 2008. It contains a wide variety of articles on birding, identification and ecology of birds. Its URL is http://www.birdfellow.com. A slightly longer version of this article with more photos appears on Birdfellow Among the hundreds of Red Phalaropes our group saw on 6 November 2009, only a few were adults. The image at left shows a basic-plumaged ("non-breeding") adult with a completely white crown, a uniform pale gray back, and no darker feathering at the base of the hind neck or on the wing coverts. It also has a pristine white throat and foreneck with no hint of reddish-brown wash. In their weakened state wrecked phalaropes may be easy prey. Examination of pellets regurgitated by a Snowy Owl that spent much of the winter of 2005-06 near the mouth of the Columbia River, Clatsop County, Oregon revealed that Red Phalaropes comprised a sizeable portion of that owl's diet. See http://home.pacifier.com/ ~neawanna/SNOW/SNOW_peIlets.html for an interesting discussion with graphics. It is likely that other raptors and terrestrial predators take wrecked phalaropes as well. Oregon Birds Volume 35 2 A trip to the coast either during or immediately after a big blow is rarely dull. One can expect to see gulls and pelicans by the thousands in November and seawatches typically produce sightings of Northern Fulmars and Black- legged Kittiwakes, sometimes into the hundreds. These storms offer perhaps the best opportunity to see and study basic and juvenal-plumaged Red Phalaropes at close range, especially if you are one who does not do well on offshore boat trips. I'll conclude with a word of caution. During such events, do your birding from high ground. Resist any temptation to go out onto open beaches or walk out jetties. Rogue waves can wash you off the top of a jetty in an instant or race all the way up the beach to the foredune, leaving you suddenly knee or waist deep in extremely cold, fast-moving water with no means of escape. From those I've talked to who have found themselves in these situations, it is not fun. Dave Irons, 740 Foothill Dr. Eugene, Oregon 97405. [email protected] Local News and Notes The latest edition of A Checklist to the Birds of Curry County, Oregon (bar graphs, maps, site guides) is available on line at http://www.kalmiopsisaudubon.org/resources . Or if you are visiting the county printed copies are available at numerous outlets, a few of which include Crissey Field Welcome Center, Words and Pictures and A Wildbird and Backyard General Store in Brookings and the Forest Service office in Gold Beach. — Don Munson A revised 2009 edition of the checklist Birds of Jackson County: distribution and abundance is now available from the Rogue Valley Audubon Society. Order from RVAS at PO Box 8597, Medford OR 97504 or from www.roguevalleyaudubon.org. Rogue Valley & Klamath-Siskiyou Birds is a discussion of birds observed in the Rogue Valley and adjacent Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion in Southern Oregon and Northern California. The easiest way to post to the list is by sending an email to [email protected]. — Forrest English Kessinger Publishing has issued inexpensive quality reprints of many historic publications, including western ornithology. Recent titles include Anthony's Birds Of San Pedro Martir, Lower California (1893), Merrill's Notes on the Birds of Fort Klamath, Oregon (1888), Woodcock's 1902 Oregon bird list, Swarth's Birds Of The Papago Saguaro National Monument And The Neighboring Region, Arizona, Maillard's Notes on the Birds and Mammals of Siskiyou County, California (1921) and even larger items such as Coues's Birds of the Colorado Valley.