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Showing posts from 2019

More from Lincoln City.

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As we chip away at all the work that needs to be done on the new house we try to fit in some time for exploring the new area.  Last month we did our first hike in the area through Grassy Knoll Open Space to God's Thumb, a point that offers excellent views.


The trail was lovely with wildflowers and bird songs for company.

Iris tenax, I assume

Corn lily (Veratrum californicum)

Birds along the trail included Swainson's Thrushes, Wilson's Warblers, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Band-tailed Pigeons, and a Hairy Woodpecker.

The Hairy had a sweet view 

View of Lincoln City and Devils Lake to the south

After weaving back in and out of forest we found our first views of God's Thumb.


That rock in the water on the left is smothered with cormorants and murres.


Once at the top of the thumb Jacob noticed a few gray whales were hanging out just left of that rock.


Now that's a nice 5MR bird!  All around the thumb were wildflowers including the very showy Hairy-stemmed checker-mallow (Sid…
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Bar charts!

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Back in December when a birder mentioned one of their goals for 2019 was filling in the gaps in eBird bar charts for their local hotspots it really stuck with me.  It's been a focus for me this year and I've filled in quite a few for the places I value most in my 5MR.  For example, here's how the bar charts looked at my patch, Meadowbrook Marsh, before 2019:


The gray bars represent weeks without complete checklists.  After 6 months of only birding the gray weeks it looks like this:


Yesss.  This pleases me.

As you can see, July is the grayest month, and not just at my patch but at other local hotspots also.   Marine Park, which is the best hotspot in my 5MR based on number of species seen there, had not been birded much outside of winter.  Here is how it looked pre-2019:


And after birding it hard all spring and finding more breeding birds than anywhere else in my 5MR:


Progress!  There's more to Marine Park than just winter ducks and gulls.  Filling in these gaps is ridi…
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