Oregon Birds The quarterly journal of Oregon field ornithology Volume 29, Number 1, Spring 2003 Members Gallery Special Color Edition Part 1.......................................................1 A Message from Your President Oregons First Mary Anne Sohlstrom..............................3 Memories with LeRoy Fish: the Man Who Did Blue-footed Booby! Not Fit in a Box Matthew G. Hunter...................................4 Oregons First Blue-footed Booby Eric Horvath.........................................6 2002 Oregon Listing Results Jamie Simmons........................................8 Brown Creepers Nest in a Manuctured Creeper House Noah Strycker........................................17 Black Phoebe Nesting at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge John Lundsten........................................18 Site Guide: Siltcoos Estuary Area, Lane County Alan Contreras......................................19 Birds in the Hand: 2002 Banders Field Season Photographs...........................................21 Supplement to Taxonomic Comments on Selected Species of Birds from the Pacific Northwest M. Ralph Browning................................24 Vagrancy of Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) from Washington to Baja California, with Notes on Identification of Juveniles Steven G. Mlodinow...............................27 Albinistic Male Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) Discovered Along the Walla Walla River, Umatilla Co., Oregon Mike Denny...........................................31 Site Guide: Rough and Ready Botanical Wayside, Josephine County Dennis Vroman......................................32 Short Notes ............................................................36 Field Notes: Western Oregon, Fall 2002 Alan Contreras.......................................39 Field Notes: Eastern Oregon, Fall 2002 Ray Korpi.............................................55 Birds of theUpper Trout Creek Basin, Harney County Stephen Dowlan.....................................62 Members Gallery Special Color Edition Part 2.....................................................66 MEMBERS GALLERY Special color edition Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, 22 Oct, Fernhill Wetlands, Washington Co. Photo/Ruth Sullivan. Swamp Sparrow, 28 Nov, Baker Beach Swamp, Lane Co./Photo/Noah Strycker Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, 30 October, Mary's Peak, Benton Co. Photo/Sylvia Maulding Oregon Birds 29(1): 1, Spring 2003 Oregon Birds is looking for material in Oregon Birds these categories: The quarterly journal of Oregon Field Ornithology News Briefs on things of temporal P.O. Box 10373, Eugene, Oregon 97440 importance, such as meetings, birding trips, www.oregonbirds.org announcements, news items, etc. Oregon Birds is a quarterly publication of Oregon Field Ornithologists (OFO), an Oregon not-for-profit corporation. Articles deal with identification, distribution, Membership in OFO includes a subscription to Oregon Birds. ecology, management , conservation, ISSN 0890-2313 taxonomy, behavior, biology, and historical aspects of ornithology and birding in Editor: Stephen Dowlan Oregon. Articles cite references (if any) at Associate Editor: Don DeWitt the end of the article. Names and addresses Board of Editors: Alan Contreras, Matt Hunter, Dave Irons, of authors typically appear at the beginning Terry Murray, Mike Patterson, Ray Korpi of the article. Short Notes are shorter contributions that Officers and Board of Directors deal with the same subjects as articles. Short Notes typically cite no references, or President: Mary Anne Sohlstrom, Salem (2003) at most a few in parentheses in the text. [email protected] Names and address of authors appear at the Secretary: Tom Love, Durham (2003) end of the Short Note. [email protected] Treasurer: Jeff Harding, Lebanon (2003) Bird Finding Guides where to find a [email protected] ________ in Oregon (for some of the rarer Directors: Joel Geier, Monmouth (2004) birds) and where to find birds in the ____ [email protected] area (for some of the better spots). David Tracy, Bend (2004) [email protected] Reviews for published material on Oregon Stephen Dowlan, Mehama (2003) birds or of interest to Oregon birders. [email protected] Photographs of birds, especially photos Dennis Vroman, Grants Pass (2003) [email protected] taken recently in Oregon. Color slide duplicates are preferred. Please label all Committees photos with photographers name and address, bird identification, date and location Publications: Open - Contact the President if interested of photo. Photos will be returned if requested. Archivist: Open - Contact the President if interested Deadline for Next Issue of Oregon Birds, Membership: Anne Heyerly [email protected] OB 29(2), Summer 2003 is May 15, 2003. (541) 485-0880 Please send material directly to the Editor, Steve Dowlan, P.O. Box 220, Mehama, OFO Bookcase: Lucy Biggs, [email protected] OR, 97384 503-859-3691 [email protected] OFO Birding Ray Korpi , [email protected] Weekends: 12611 N.E. 99th St.,Apt. DD-214, Cover photo: Blue-footed Booby , 7-9 Sep Vancouver, WA 98682 360-604-0122 2002, Yaquina Head,Lincoln Co. Photo/Eric Horvath Oregon Bird Records Secretary, Harry B. Nehls, Printed on Committee: [email protected], 2736 SE 20th Ave., Recycled Paper Portland, OR 97202. 503-233-3976 Oregon Birds 29(1): 2, Spring 2003 A Message from your President Mary Anne Sohlstrom, President, 4792 Lancaster Drive NE #108, Salem, OR 97305, [email protected] So, who are these Oregon Field Ornithologists? This question arose in recent board meetings as the board began thinking about and discussing whether OFO should work more pro-actively in the area of conservation, especially as it relates to birds and their habitat. We realized that we, the board, were not exactly sure just who our members are and how they view OFO as an organization. To answer these questions we decided to take advantage of our connection to the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Linfield College to develop the first ever membership survey. Our thanks to Tom Love and especially to Jeff Peterson, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Sociology, and his Social Research Methods class. And, our thanks to the 230 OFO members who took the time to respond to the survey! What are we learning? The board has not received the final report which we hope to publish in a future issue of Oregon Birds. There is strong agreement that OFO is doing a pretty good job with our core activities and strong agreement that we should include conservation issues in our future plans. The board is looking forward to the complete report that will help to shape our policy discussions and decisions over the next several years. OFO is also pleased to represent the Oregon Birding Community in recognizing and thanking our neighbors who have the great good luck to have a rare bird visit their yard and who then welcome birders to visit their homes and neighborhoods to enjoy these rare visitors. Pamela Johnston <[email protected]> has volunteered to coordinate nominations of people who deserve recognition for graciously welcoming birders to their homes and yards. If you know someone who deserves recognition, please send Pam a note, providing information -- name and address or phone number and any special remarks you would like to see highlighted in the thank you certificate. Also, let Pam know if you have a good photo of the bird that you would like to share to be used on the certificate. Our thanks to Pam for volunteering. OFO is nothing except for the volunteers who keep it going. Here are a few more folks who help make OFO strong: Good-host nominations: Pamela Johnston; OFO Birding Weekends: Ray Korpi ([email protected]); OFO Bookcase: Lucy Biggs ([email protected]); OREGON BIRDS: Production & Distribution: Sylvia Maulding ([email protected]), Anne Heyerly ([email protected]) and Don DeWitt ([email protected]); Editors: Steve Dowlan ([email protected]), Don DeWitt and Laura Graves; Membership: Anne Heyerly Yes, some of these folks are doing double duty! There's always room for more volunteers, so let us know if you'd like to help. Our thanks to everyone who cheerfully volunteers their time to help OFO succeed! Oregon Birds 29(1): 3, Spring 2003 Memories with LeRoy Fish: the man who did not fit in a box Matthew G. Hunter, 2205 NW 13th St. Corvallis, OR 97330, [email protected], 541-752-4604 LeRoy Fish died at home, on the morning of Wednesday, March 20, 2002. He just went out to the barn to do chores and his wife Jackie found him a while later in the shop. He was being treated for congestive heart failure. Many intellectual endeavors of man seek to put reality in a box. We even foolishly attempt to put our fellow sojourners in such boxes. I am tickled to say that not only was LeRoy Fish too big of a man to fit into most physical boxes, so also was he nearly impossible to put into any conceptual box. LeRoy Fish was a man who did not fit in any box. I will miss him. I want to tell you of some memories of events that I experienced with LeRoy on a trip that he and I took to southeastern Oregon in June 1999. It was the last year of the Oregon Breeding Bird Atlas Project. Through LeRoy Fish, fall 1997. Photo/S. Shunk the course of normal conversation LeRoy and I decided that we would try to cover some of the most remote around in proud rocking-horse motion, setting over the Oregon Canyon hexagons in southeastern Oregon, his long black mane tossing in the Mountains and Steens Mountain. It where Nevada and Idaho seem only wind, and stopped and stared at us was an unbeatable performance with a stones throw away. OBBA grant some more. It kept this up, so that it which to end the evening and head money (for gas) was a plus because completely circled us in a period of back to camp to sleep the night away. it was a long drive. about 5 minutes, keeping about a 200- A couple days later we tried I asked LeRoy about having yard distance. When the stallion again to work our way north to Three Forks. extra gas along with us. He said he neared its herd it called to them and On the plateau just south of the deep had a 5-gallon can ready. I asked him they all raced off together.