Sauvie Island CBC

My second Christmas Bird Count (CBC) of the year was the Sauvie Island count in Columbia county Oregon on December 21, 2014. . The atmospheric river (What is that?) that has been over Oregon was supposed to dump more rain on me during the count.  The weather turned out overcast and threatened rain but I made it through the count without any raindrops.  

The idea of a CBC is simply to identify and count all the birds in your assigned area.  One of my favorite areas is north of Rentenaar Road. I have surveyed this area for the past few years.   The area is bordered by a dike to the west and north, Rentenaar Road to the south and the Columbia River to the east.  Some of it is private, so not accessible.  However most is wildlife refuge. We are given permission to access the area by the refuge manager for this count.  Usually all except Rentenaar Road is closed during the winter to protect the waterfowl.

The shaded area is where I surveyed.

My camera allows me to take movies as well. I need to practice using this feature so I can post videos from my upcoming pelagic trips.  For some reason my view finder does not work on the movie setting.   I need to hold camera out in front of me and look at the screen.  Here are some dancing Sandhill Cranes.  I can use my 500 mm zoom lens while taking movies, which you would think should get me some great videos..

I will need to get much better at holding the camera still if I want to take a video on a bouncing boat! 

A Peregrine Falcon was keeping an eye on all the ducks in the area.

Lincoln Sparrow's are one of my favorites.  Hard to get a good photo of one.  

Here is my complete bird list for the area.

Greater White-fronted Goose  1

Cackling Goose  1600
Canada Goose  120
Canada Goose (occidentalis/fulva)  150
Cackling/Canada Goose  200
Tundra Swan  130
American Wigeon  12
Mallard  43
Northern Shoveler  25
Northern Pintail  110
Green-winged Teal  10
Canvasback  14
Ring-necked Duck  250
Bufflehead  12
Common Merganser  5
Double-crested Cormorant  4
Great Blue Heron  3
Great Egret  3
Northern Harrier  4
Sharp-shinned Hawk  1
Bald Eagle  3
Red-tailed Hawk  2
American Coot  190
Sandhill Crane  220
Greater Yellowlegs  32
Herring Gull  1
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)  5
Eurasian Collared-Dove  4
Mourning Dove  26
Belted Kingfisher  1
Downy Woodpecker  1
Northern Flicker  8
American Kestrel  3
Peregrine Falcon  1
Western Scrub-Jay  7
American Crow  9
Black-capped Chickadee  12
Brown Creeper  3
Pacific Wren  1
Marsh Wren  3
Bewick's Wren  4
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  5
American Robin  2
European Starling  90
Spotted Towhee  5
Savannah Sparrow  6
Fox Sparrow  4
Song Sparrow  30
Lincoln's Sparrow  7
Golden-crowned Sparrow  41
Dark-eyed Junco  35
Red-winged Blackbird  150
Western Meadowlark  6
Brewer's Blackbird  100
House Finch  15

Thanks much for visiting and have a great day!

Columbia Estuary CBC Sandpiper

Today (12/14/14)  I went down to Seaside to participate in the Columbia Estuary Christmas Bird Count.  I was looking forward to birding the south jetty of the Columbia River.  Below is a map of the area I covered.  I walked the woods and beaches from Parking Lot B to D.  The weather was clear but very windy.  Gusts in the area were in the 25-30 knot range.  That was enough to kick up lots of sand and knock my tripod over with my scope on it. No damage done, but I had to be careful walking on the jetty with the wind pushing me around.

While I was walking along the river beach I saw this sandpiper.  I have not cropped the picture at all.

It is a bit to the left of center behind the seaweed on the beach.  This is through my full zoom lens, so with my digital camera , that is about 750 mm effective zoom, or I think that makes it 13x.  You need to appreciate how hard the wind was blowing.  Blasts of sand are coming across the beach.  I can barely see through my spotting scope and I am hunkered down on my knees behind a stump to get out of the direct wind.  The reason the bird caught my eye was that it appeared a bit bigger than the other Dunlins on the beach in comparison to the gulls that were nearby.  The bill seemed to have a distinct even curve to it. I was fighting the wind to see the bird, I figured I might have better luck taking some pictures then cropping the heck out of them to see what it was.  After I took these pictures I went back to trying to hold my scope steady so I could see the bird.  At that point the gulls flushed the bird.  I tried to get back up on my feet to track the bird, the shorebird that I saw fly by had a very bright white wing stripe and seemed to have extensive white on rump but I would not say rump was entire white.  In my notes I said it showed a lot of white on  upper side compared to other Dunlin.  Of course I was using my 10 power binoculars at this time and was looking at a flying object perpendicular to the wind,  my eyes were watery and I was being pushed around by the wind. I lost sight of the bird and could not find it, or I should say all that I did find were Dunlin.  Below are a few of the photos I took cropped in get a better view.  The first shows the curved bill, it seemed more curved than this shows.  I could be the angle.  All the birds had to sit straight into the wind.  Any poor little Sanderling trying to feed was quickly pushed down the beach. So the bird never really moved and I could not view it other than straight down wind.  I did  not see a brighter supercilium and the bird seemed to be  light brown, lighter than a dowitcher.  The darkness of the breast was hard to judge. I would not call it chunky.

I was thinking I had a Curlew Sandpiper, but I decided, barring better views , it was a Dunlin with a more evenly curved bill.  I would like to see it again.

Otherwise it was a fun hunt but no great finds, I did flush a Short-eared Owl at the ponds near Parking Lot C .  And a Peregirne Falcon was doing its best to catch a phalarope there as well.  I thought it was an interesting strategy by the Red Phalarope to survive.  Rather than fly away and let the falcon give chase, the phalarope hovered in mid-air and just dodged the swoops by the falcon.

Here is a nice brown-backed,  clean-sided Dunlin. They were in a mixed Sanderling flock on the ocean beach.

Ruddy Duck at Parking Lot C.