Shorebird Festival - Pelagic Trip 8.25.12

My first Pelagic trip ever!  Lets get right to it!

Near shore - Red-Necked Phalaropes.  Much further in we saw Red Phalaropes (no pics, unfortunately).

The end of the jetty.  (had to add some color in all the grey-ness :)

A big splash.  It was hard to hold the camera still, we were rocking so hard the whole time.  My sides are still sore and I fell down at one point.

I'm hoping this is a Marbled Murrelet.  We saw one, but we also saw numerous Common Murre.

A trio of.... some stuff... Shearwaters, other..? Do'h! 

Sooty Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Northern Fulmar 

A shearwater and juvenile gull compete for center stage.  As you can see, a wave behind them won out, as it's the only thing in focus. hehe.

Black-Footed Albatross!!! It's 7 foot wingspan was dwarfed by the expansive ocean.

Black-Footed Albatross.

And again! :D

Fork-Tailed Storm-Petrel!  This guy was so fast, small and flying around like a mad man, I cannot believe I caught him.

Twice! Yay!

Juvenile Gull - either Western or California, I think... 

A frenzy of feeding back near the shore.

Brandt's Cormorant. 

Not mentioned:

• Western Gulls 
• Double-Crested Cormorants
• American Crows
• Pigeon Guillemots 
• Common Loon
• Rhinoceros Auklet
• Black Scoter
• Cassin's Auklet*
• Pink-Footed Shearwaters*
• Parasitic Jaeger* 
• Pelagic Cormorants
• Pomarine Jaeger*
• Black Turnstones
• Brown Pelicans
• Pacific Loon*
• Sabine's Gull*

*Lifers! Soooo many.

Coos Bay - Bandon Port 8.26.12

Who:  Cousin Brandon, Elvira, the shorebird festival group, including super expert guides, myself.

• Black Turnstones
• Eared Grebes
• Barn Swallows
• Double-Crested Cormorants
• Pelagic Cormorants
• Wandering Tattler*
• Peregrine Falcon
• Pigeon Guillemot
• Brown Pelican
• Purple Martins*
• Killdeer
• Belted Kingfisher - female
• Caspian Tern
• Red-Necked Phalaropes
• Ruddy Turnstones*
• Turkey Vulture
• Glaucous-Winged Gull
• House Sparrows
• Mew Gull - juv*
• Canada Geese
• Cooper's Hawk

Wandering Tattler with his Black Turnstone buddies.  (I know, best picture ever! ;))

Purple Martins

Ruddy Turnstone (back) and Black Turnstone (front) both in non-breeding plumage.

Glaucous-Winged Gull (back), Western Gull (middle) and juvenile.

Everyone went running when the Ruddy Turnstone showed up. Several more not pictured.

Near Bandon Port, Bandon Pond:

• American Wigeon - non-breeding plumage
• Snowy Egret
• Great Blue Heron
• Mallards
• Osprey
• American Goldfinch - male
• Spotted Sandpiper
• Pied-Billed Grebe
• Wrentit - by call only.  I looked and looked but never saw it, so I'm not counting it as a lifer.  I know many would, but at least for the first time, I would rather see it.  Maybe if I was one of those super ear birders, like The Big Year character, Greg Miller, then I would count it. :)  

Near Bandon Pond, Bandon Marsh:

• Band-Tailed Pigeons
• Cedar Waxwing
• Black-Belled Plover - breeding plumage - The first time I've seen them like that!
• Short-Billed Dowitchers
• Semipalmated Plovers
• Red Knot* - non-breeding plumage
• Western Sandpipers
• Least Sandpipers
• Northern Harrier
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Red Shouldered Hawk

Lots-O-Peepers.

Black-Belled Plover in breeding plumage.

Next was the Jetty:

• Brewer's Blackbirds
• Brown-Headed Cowbirds
• European Starlings
• Snowy Egret
• Wimbrels*
• Peregrine Falcon

Jetty

Jetty

Camera hog Gull.  

Snowy Egret

Wimbrels

Peregrine Falcon

And Coquille Point:

• Surf Scoters
• Brandt's Cormorants

Last stop: China Creek Beach to see the Snowy Plovers.

• Snowy Plovers*

Best I could get of a Snowy Plover, just happy I got to see them! 

*Lifers-lots!

Coos Bay - OIMB - where we stayed 8.24.12-8.26.12

• Rufous Hummingbird
• Black Phoebe*
• Song Sparrow
• House Finch

*Lifer!

Near our dorms, where we saw the Black Phoebe (photo thanks to Elvira :))

Florence - N. Jetty of the Siuslaw 8.24.12

Another stop on our way to Coos Bay.  Nothing groundbreaking, it was nearing siesta time for the birds.

• American Crows
• Brown-Headed Cowbirds - juvs.  My recent confusion with these guys came in quite handy.
• Pelagic Cormorants
• Western Gulls
• Brown Pelican
• Mallard
• Sanderlings
• Red-Necked Phalarope

Juvenile Brown-Headed Cowbirds foraging among trash.

Fern Ridge 8.24.12 - On our way to Coos Bay

Day one of our epic trip to Coos Bay.
Who:  Cousin Brandon, Elvira and myself.
We stopped for a bit in Eugune at Fern Ridge.  There we ran into a couple really awesome birders, one of which we birded with and learned a lot from.

• Great Blue Heron
• Violet-Green Swallows
• Red-Winged Blackbird - male
• Turkey Vultures
• Barn Swallows
• Greater Yellowlegs
• Cedar Waxwing
• Pied-Billed Grebe
• Mallards
• Least Sandpipers
• Green Heron
• Song Sparrow
• American Coots
• Great Egret
• Western Grebe
• Prairie Falcon**
• Ring-Billed Gull*
• Red-Necked Phalarope
• Lesser Yellowlegs*
• American White Pelicans
• Black-Bellied Plovers - in non-breeding plumage
• Canada Geese
• Semipalmated Plovers
• Northern Harrier

*Lifers!!

**My 200th bird!!

Also, I'd like to point out that I came so very close to having the Ring-Billed Gull for my 200th bird (a much less impressive bird, in my opinion), seeing it just a moment after, And what is hilarious about that, is when my cousin got his 200th bird, the Rhinoceros Ackulet, a moment later we saw a Heermann's Gull, and he came ridiculously close to having a Gull for his 200th bird as well.

A Turkey Vulture came pretty close to us.

An excellent lesson to show the difference between Greater Yellowlegs (middle) and Lesser Yellowlegs (sides).

The wonders of Sauvie Island

I just got done birding at Sauvie Island with my dad and uncle.  There were several things that showed up too briefly to identify.  One of them, I actually got a couple pictures of.

It seems like a Song Sparrow, but it has no tail.  My uncle saw 2 of them.  I just saw this one.  Anyone have any ideas?

We also saw:

• Osprey
• Double-Crested Cormorant
• American Crow
• American Robins
• Western Scrub-Jay
• Barn Swallows
• Great Egret
• Cedar Waxwings
• Song Sparrows
• Orange-Crowned Warblers
• Yellow Warblers
• Downy Woodpeckers
• Mallards
• Black-Capped Chickadee
• American Coots
• Red-Winged Blackbirds
• American Goldfinches
• Violet-Green Swallows
• House Finches
• Turkey Vultures
• Purple Finch
• Great Blue Herons
• Brewer's Blackbird
• White-Crowned Sparrow
• Snow Geese

Congratulations...

 to my cousin for his 200th bird!!!  The Rhinoceros Aucklet!