A new yard bird starts off this gallery: Common Yellowthroat. This one was making a familiar low buzzing noise, so I went and grabbed my camera. It appeared to be a young one, who perhaps somehow ended up in the wrong place! I've seen plenty of these birds around here but never in a residential area. This one stayed hidden pretty well in our garden, and was only briefly visible when it moved out from under one plant to another. After waiting for a few minutes it finally made a brief appearance before flying away. It did return to the yard a short while later. A pretty cool yard bird!

Next, over a two day span I was fortunate to be able to bird both up in the mountains and then down at the coast.

On a nice quiet walk up at elevation I got two lifers: Sooty Grouse and American Three-toed Woodpecker. There wasn't a whole lot of obvious bird activity, but I walked really slowly and took plenty of time to listen. The first interesting birds I saw were some Sapsuckers. They appear to be some sort of hybrid Red-breasted/Red-naped Sapsuckers, which I think are somewhat common in this part of Oregon. 45 minutes later, I had stopped to listen to something else when I thought I heard a low grunt nearby. After a few more minutes I then a heard a very loud, low sound like a large heavy log hitting the ground. I thought it was either a Sooty Grouse or a bear!? I stayed silent for a while and kept my eye on the vegetation on the side of the path. I eventually spotted a Sooty Grouse! It was surprisingly large, and I had to zoom out a bit with my lens to fit it all in the frame. After a while it cautiously crept up toward the path, and suddenly flew away. I was luckily able to get a few photos.

Farther down the trail, I had again stopped to listen and heard very faint woodpecker drumming noises. I found the tree where the sound seemed to be coming from, but couldn't see it. As I waited there for a few minutes, I saw pieces of bark falling — but still couldn't see it. I walked up and down the path a little to try to peer around to different sides of the tree, but had no luck. Finally, a little dark woodpecker climbed up into view. The light wasn't great, so even with my binoculars and scope I couldn't tell exactly what I was looking at. The photos show clear white barring on the back and a yellow cap: American Three-toed Woodpecker!

Due to favorable weather conditions, I drove to the coast on the next day. The tops of some huge towering sea stacks held a few hundred Murres, Gulls, and Cormorants. Down below, there were some birds down closer to eye level too. I walked along the beach right up to the rocks. There were plenty of other people around (there always are) so I wasn't intruding upon the birds. The longer I stood there, with the waves running up to reach my boots, the more birds I saw. Some Pigeon Guillemot were resting on the rocks, and I took the opportunity to get my best-ever shots of them. A Black Oystercatcher was breifly visible. I noticed a smaller bird blending right into the rocks in front of me: Black Turnstone. After enjoying the atmosphere for a while, I was about to turn around and leave when I saw another pair of brownish wings flutter against the rocks. I thought it was probably another Black Turnstone but when I looked with my bincoulars it appeared to be a lifer Wandering Tattler! It was a bit far away, and hard to see, but I recognized its shape. The photos I got aren't great (better than I expected) but plenty good to confirm my sighting.

I then drove to a nearby spot on the coast and saw my first-ever stationary Whimbrels. All the other ones I've seen had been flying by, so it was a treat to watch them for a while. I also watched some Scoters diving among the waves, and I got some pictures of the scene I'm pretty happy with. I noticed what appeared to be two females on the rocks, so I snapped some shots of them. They turned out to be female Harlequin Ducks, a new county bird! Pretty cool to finally get them in the county.

These photos are © 2024 Phil Thompson, all rights reserved.

My "birds in review" collages can be found here.