As a birder who enjoys keeping track of how many birds I see over the course of each year, January 1 is as invigorating a day as I can find on the calendar. Last year is in the books. All the numbers reset. The blank slate begs for a hint of color. Even without any particular goals in mind, the listing impulse dies hard. So, off I went on the first day of the year.
I had no way of knowing what was in store for the first month of 2021. I was certain this would be a year without birding goals and aimed to keep things casual from the outset.
Things are far from casual now. I guess you could blame the birds.
January 1:
After a cup of coffee and breakfast with the family the morning of the first, I joined up with my good friend Andrew Aldrich for some county birding in Linn. I took back roads on the way to meet him and came upon a very obliging Prairie Falcon, a great bird to get the juices flowing. Minutes later I found a Say's Phoebe flitting down a fence, an overdue Linn County bird for me, and my second quality bird before even getting to the day's target.
I pulled on to Falk Rd to find Andrew, who already had the Long-billed Curlews in view - a fantastic county bird, and actually my first encounter with this species in Western Oregon!
Long-billed Curlew
Linn County
The Willamette Valley offers endlessly entertaining winter birding. Over the next couple hours we were treated to fields full of thousands of swans, geese, and gulls, a steady diet of raptors, and one of the silly little Burrowing Owls that considers the valley's muddy ditches a nice winter getaway.
Partially-burrowed Owl
Linn County
We had some time to spare so we popped up to Corvallis and, after a few minutes of searching, got the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker that had been found a few days prior. All in all a great outing, a nice kickstart to the year.
Yellow-bellied Sapscuker
Benton County
As I pulled away from Corvallis the word began to emerge: a Yellow-billed Loon at Hagg Lake in Washington County. I didn't have any desire to chase the bird in that moment, but it did nestle itself into the back of mind.
January 2:
After a quiet day at home, I did some late afternoon birding in Lane. I watched a Merlin chase a passerine in the pouring rain, and dipped on some Short-eared Owls. On the way home I stopped by Kirk Pond to see if I could get a glimpse of the Snowy Egret that came in each night to roost there. After 20 minutes of standing in the driving rain, seeing just a few Great Egrets, and repeatedly asking myself what I was doing there, I admitted defeat and turned to take my sopping wet self home. Birders know that this is often the moment that something interesting happens. Sure enough, before I even planted my second step on the walk to the car, a group of 20 egrets appeared in the sky, and with them came a half-sized edition. I got a quick look at the Snowy Egret before its slender form dropped down behind some branches to a perch out of sight.
January 3:
I'm honestly not exactly sure what happened, but I awoke on the third day of the year with a batch of intentions I simply did not have on the first. The Yellow-billed Loon showed well all day Saturday, and the thought of a chase for a quality state lifer didn't seem so crazy. But that would have to wait until the afternoon.
Mason and I were off to Delta Ponds in the morning, the local spot we frequent a couple times a week. Since the pandemic hit, Jen and I have been in a rhythm of trading off times with the little man so the other can have some time to themselves. It's been a sanity booster for both of us.
While I chased Mason on his strider around the paths at the ponds (this used to involve a quick walk; it now requires a full on sprint), the Heyerlys reported an easy-to-see Barred Owl in a nearby neighborhood. On our way home we stopped by and got great looks:
Barred Owl
Eugene
This was Mason's first good look at an owl perched this close, and his face the moment he saw it is something I will never forget. I didn't get that exact moment, but I did capture this shot a few seconds later. He was absolutely taken with the large fluff ball up in the tree.
It took a little while for the Yellow-billed Loon to appear, but before too long a group of birders was enjoying scope views of the bird from the Eagle Point Rec Area. The overall lighter, browner plumage was quite striking compared to the Common Loon in the area, and there was no mistaking that pale bill, ever pointed upwards. Score.
January 4:
Yellow-billed Loon
Hagg Lake, Washington County
And then it was off to the corn stubble. I arrived at the location Chris described to find a few birders already looking for it - Kayla McCurry, Leonard Barrett, and Tom Meyers are the ones I recall. A couple hundred blackbirds and starlings flew across the field and then back and forth between trees and then back to the field. As I was just starting to get acclimated to the scene, Kayla spotted it in her scope. We all scrambled over to get a quick look. For the next half hour or so, we repeated the process: one of us would spot the bird, and the others would scurry over to get another look at it, then the flock would disperse and we'd all go back to our scopes until the next person got eyes on it. It's a comical scene in retrospect. Perfectly choreographed flocks darting across the tree-lined cornfield, taking off at a moment's notice for some reason not readily apparent to us. And the birds were probably thinking the same thing about us as we humanoids scampered from scope to scope at bewildering intervals.
I got close to a decent photo once, but then the flock took to the sky again and I only captured it flying away. Oh well. Two state lifers in two hours is pretty hard to beat!
Rusty Blackbird
Washington County
After work on the first Monday of the year I made a quick trip out to the coast to see a couple birds that were hanging around and got a couple others thrown in. At the Crab Docks this Long-tailed Duck was one of a couple that have been lingering this winter.
Long-tailed Duck
Siuslaw South Jetty Crab Docks, Lane County
Black-legged Kittiwake
Siuslaw South Jetty, Lane County
Northern Mockingbird
Siuslaw South Jetty, Lane County
I returned home after the whirlwind trip and realized I had already seen four species of birds that I did not get in 2020. Interesting.
January 5-6:
I made a quick trip up to look for the Gyrfalcon in Polk County after work on Tuesday. I didn't see the bird, but I did manage to avoid the recliner that fell out of the truck in front of me on my way north on Highway 99W. Some days the win is a rare bird. Some days it's coming back with your life and vehicle all in one piece.
The next day I picked Mason up from Montessori and we stopped by the Lane Community College ponds, where the most reliable Eurasian Wigeons imaginable like to hang out. An easy #115 for the year.
January 7:
Nice weather and some high quality birds made for a perfect excuse to flex some hours at work and take the morning off. I met up with Andrew for the quick tour of cooperative Portland rarities:
Orchard Oriole
Clay-colored Sparrow
Great-tailed McGrackle
January 8:
Several winters in a row now the Lehman Dairy has hosted a couple Tricolored Blackbirds. With the pair of Trumpeter Swans just a few miles down the road, it made for a quick and easy loop to pick up a couple nice birds in the home county on the final day of the work week.
Tricolored Blackbird with cowbirds and starlings
And then things started getting a little nutty.
On the second Saturday of the year I was on the road well before 5:00 am en route to meet Andrew in Seaside by daybreak. I arrived there by 7:30 am and was met with a rather brisk wind. I reached back to grab my coat from the backseat, but my coat was not in the backseat. Nor in the front. Nor was it in the trunk. I texted Jen to confirm I was the idiot who did not bring a coat for a day of birding the coast in January. Indeed, she found it on the hook at home. Thankfully it did not rain that day.
Our target bird at Seaside was a Rock Sandpiper that had been there off and on recently. We came on an off day.
The next stop was more productive as we snagged quick looks at the stunning Hooded Oriole in Nehalem, already my third state lifer of the year!
Hooded Oriole
Next we picked up Snowy Plover for Andrew's state list at Nehalem Bay State Park before heading to Tillamook, where the highlight was this White-tailed Kite, which gave great, prolonged views perched and in flight. These birds are noticeably harder to come by now than when we moved here in 2015, so I try not to take any encounter for granted.
White-tailed Kite
I said goodbye to Andrew (who was busy the rest of the month finding all kinds of good birds in Portland and beyond) and started the journey south, which included a quick swipe through Basket Slough NWR that counted for my second unsuccessful trip for the Gyr.
When I arrived at the Philomath Sewage Ponds, the word was not positive. Apparently the rare duck had not been seen for a couple hours. I didn't let the news get me down though, and instead focused my search on a different pond. Bam. The tuft wasn't fully developed, but it was still evident, and the rest of the plumage on the bird was simply immaculate. This was my third time encountering Tufted Duck in Benton in the last year!
Tufted Duck
Benton County, Oregon's TUDU magnet
Ferruginous Hawk
Benton County, my newest Oregon county with 150 species
I stayed local over the next few days. The semester began here at Bushnell University, which meant that my full time work would now be accompanied by a class on the book of Psalms that I'm teaching as an adjunct. Though this makes the days busier, the energy I get from being in the classroom makes it a net positive for my overall wellbeing. Even with the challenges of being masked and socially distanced, getting to teach a small batch of students is an immense privilege.
In my brief outings that week I picked up one of Tye Jeske's Short-eared Owls on Cantrell Road (which brought Mason's owl list to two), an American Dipper and Barrow's Goldeneye near Dexter, and a Redhead up on Meadowview Road.
On January 14 my year list was up to 151. The 15th was the first day of the year that I didn't add a new species.
January 16:
Circumstances worked out just right at the last minute for me to get to bird with Nolan Clements on the third Saturday of the month. Nolan is a spark of energy more effective than a shot of caffeine, though we did also have coffee in hand on this early morning outing. The annoyance of missing the Polk Gyrfalcon again was offset by the fact that we got looks at a Lapland Longspur along Livermore Road, and picked up a couple other nice county birds like Say's Phoebe and Eurasian Wigeon. From there we were off to the coast.
The folks around us at Devil's Punchbowl were curious as to why we were exchanging high fives within out first thirty seconds of arriving. Rock Sandpipers are always a cause for celebration, particularly when they are the drive up variety. They can be quite tricky to track down, so we were quite relieved to see these two nestled in among a flock of Black Turnstones and Surfbirds. All three species are pictured here, poorly:
Rock Sandpiper, the rare drive-up subspecies
Snow Bunting digiscope because I brilliantly left my camera in the car
The wintering flock of Marbled Godwits and Whimbrel were close to the boardwalk at Hatfield. It felt like a good day to find a Palm Warbler, but we had no such luck.
Marbled Godwits and Whimbrel
All in all it was an outstanding day that resulted in over a hundred species. And then, in keeping with the rest of January, news of another rare bird popped up before I even got home: a Mountain Plover in Lane.
January 17:
The weather looked great the next day, so it was not difficult to talk the family into a beach day at Siltcoos. We climbed over the dune and settled in to a spot on the sand. I pointed my scope to the north and the first bird I saw was the Mountain Plover! It was a little too far for decent photos, so I picked up my scope to get closer, but before I got far it started flying south, landed right in front of me for a few seconds, then took off towards the mouth of the river, not to be seen for another a couple of hours.
This was yet another of Daniel Farrar's great finds along this stretch of beach, and Lane County's first record for the species!
Mountain Plover!!
Mason doing his best Sanderling impression while momma bird watches
post-plover / beach day happiness
January 18:
The Snow and Ross's Geese cooperated along American Drive in Linn County, where the two year birds were also county ticks! The sheer number of birds here was staggering, one of those winter spectacles that the valley provides here and there.
January 20:
I was getting ready to wrap up my work day and go pick up Mason from school when a text came through from Nolan:
Vermillion Flycatcher!
January 24:
Another weekend, another early departure. I left at 4:30 and picked Nolan up in Florence by 5:30. On our way down 101 we pondered Big Day strategy for later in the year while waiting for the morning's coffee to kick in, and before we knew it we were in Coos Bay picking up 2018 ABA Big Year birder, Nicole Koeltzow.
At our first stop a River Otter poked its head out of the water a few times to look at us and make a sound that indicated it was making fun of us, or that it wanted us to leave. It was quite humorous, though our sleep-deprived selves were probably not the best judge of true comedy that early in the day.
The southern terminus of our route for the day was the Winchuck River Mouth, just a stone's throw from the California border. Remarkably, we were there by 9:00 am. We arrived to a steady drizzle, ready to walk the streets of Winchuck for a few hours if we needed to. Fifteen minutes later we were watching our target bird on the feeder:
The rest of the day was quite the adventure. It rained off and on the entire time, but we still snagged the continuing Northern Mockingbird for Curry County. We came upon a parking lot full of blackbirds and gulls in Bandon, and the moment we pulled off the road Nolan and I let out a synchronized "WHOA!" In the midst of the gull wad was the bird we had been talking about much of the day: a Glaucous Gull!
Costa's Hummingbird!!
Curry County
We lingered in the neighborhood for a while and found a Sharp-shinned Hawk, a couple White-throated Sparrows, a pair of Peregrine Falcons, and a mind-blowing 45+ Anna's Hummingbirds. None of us had seen anything like it before!
yelp-warranting Glaucous Gull
Coos County
On the way back to solid ground the hail began to fly. This was no small annoyance given the wind gusts hurling it our way, pelting our faces like little pin pricks. When we made it back to the car I realized my car keys had been in my unzipped jacket pocket when I fell. Thankfully, miraculously, they were still there.
Once out of the hail and under the cover of the car for which I still had keys, Nicole broke out the celebratory chocolate bar, and on the drive home we reveled in the joys of one long, wild day of birding.
January 28:
We were four weeks in to the new year and I was tired of not having a Gyrfalcon on my list. After getting some work done early in morning I used a few personal hours to go give the Polk County bird a solid effort. The time invested paid off, as I was treated to some of the best views I've ever had of this glorious species. I watched it at close range for about a minute, then it turned its attention to the flock of Cackling Geese in a nearby field. The falcon dropped off the pole and flew just a few feet off the ground, covering about a quarter mile in a matter of seconds. It crested a rise in the field then disappeared. Moments later the flock of Cacklers exploded into the sky. The Gyr didn't snag one this time, but the blood stains on its feathers indicated it hadn't been too long since its previous meal. It's obviously eating well in this area this winter. Though it wasn't successful on this chase I still got an absolute thrill out of watching this incredible predator at work.
Gyrfalcon at work
A Pygmy Nuthatch in Eugene caused quite the excitement among Lane birders over the last few days of January. This is an extremely rare bird in the county and one I never really anticipated seeing in Western Oregon. After I picked up Mason from school we made our way over to the local park where it was hanging out. It took just a few minutes to find this big time bird with the little name.
Pygmy Nuthatch
I don't quite have words for this day just yet. Nolan and I birded Lincoln County all morning to see if the week's odd offshore winds blew in anything of note. The winds this day stayed mostly from the south, and while the birding was quality all day we found only the usual suspects. In the early afternoon we wrapped up our birding in Newport and I decided to get back home a little earlier than expected.
And a half hour later Nolan found a Ross's Gull with Idaho birder Carter Strope. By the time I made it back to Newport the one minute wonder was long gone, though a group of us searched the area for the next couple hours. I was rattled. I drove home with a pit in my stomach, trying to process the most gut wrenching moment that birding has ever dealt me. It was a brutal experience on my end, but that's just the way birding goes sometimes. After the month of rarities I'd just enjoyed, I was in no place to complain. On to the next.
Meanwhile, the legend of Nolan Clements grows. Just a few months after finding an Oriental Greenfinch he adds to his MEGA streak with a fleeting Ross's Gull. I think I'll keep birding with that guy.
***
The more I look at the numbers, the more amazed I become at just how wild January 2021 was. I saw 185 species without setting foot in Eastern Oregon a single time. With a total like that I've started wondering just where this year may be heading. Last Summer I started plotting out an Oregon year that could net 350 species and so land among the top ten all time Oregon Big Year results. By the time December rolled around I had talked myself out of trying it in 2021. But after this month I'm back following that plan, and I think 350 sounds a little tame.
On to the next.
An amazing January total Josh. My hats off to you. I'm in my 80's and still have the desire to do what you did in January, but only made it to 104 species. Still having fun though. Birding rocks. Painted Bunting was my birding highlight for today.
ReplyDeleteGreat story, I really enjoyed the stories about birding with Mason and I feel your pain on the miss of the Ross's Gull. Can't wait for February's log.
ReplyDeleteMy lifetime Oregon January list (24 years) is 189. I'm not a big chaser, can you tell? Will be fun to follow vicariously.
ReplyDelete