Lincoln City/County recently

Time to catch up on birds and things out at the coast, starting with our local lake of devils.  There are several main access points to the lake:  Holmes Road Park (close to our house), Regatta Park, East Devils Lake State Recreation Area, Sand Point Park, Devils Lake Campground, and D River Open Space.  Every time we visit the birds are different which keeps things interesting. 

Weird birds, East Devils Lake (10/4/19)

Clark's Grebe, Holmes Road Park (10/4/19)



 Long-tailed Duck with scaup, Devils Lake Campground (10/13/19)



 Black Phoebe on someone's back porch, Holmes Road Park (10/26/19)

The dogs like the lake too. 

A few weeks ago we went up to the clearcuts in our future 5MR and found some good birds, starting with my county Canada Jays. 


 A small herd of elk crossed the logging road in front of us.

Elk butts disappearing into the trees

A Sharpie appeared, keeping all the birds out of sight.


 A couple of county Wilson's Snipes started flying around which felt real weird in a clearcut.


At the top of a ridge we flushed a 5MR Lapland Longspur that had been on the edge of the road in the grass.  Goose migration was in full swing at this time and a flock of Cackling Geese was followed by a flock of county Snow Geese.


The filter for Snow Goose on eBird is set to 7 or something really low here and these birds have still not been confirmed.

This weekend I went out to Lincoln City to work on our sunroom walls, adding texture to hopefully conceal the weird lattice pattern left behind when Jacob tore the actual lattice off the walls.


Since it takes 24 hours to dry I had plenty of time to bird.  At the sewage ponds I picked up Peregrine Falcon for the 5MR and Gadwall for the county.


Oh yeah, and that was the day eBird was down which was embarrassingly aggravating.


I made more stops at Schooner Creek, D River Open Space, and the 15th Street beach access.

My second future 5MR Barred Owl

 It did not care about me.

Back at the house the weather was gorgeous and I decided to walk each dog individually.  On my walk with Rexi I noticed some sparrows under a bush, including my 5MR White-throated Sparrow!  Not the easiest Lincoln County sparrow.

Digi-binned record shot

The next morning I was able to paint the walls though while the paint was wet it made the lattice pattern stand out even more.  We do not understand why that happened, but it mostly disappeared once dry.


On Saturday we planned a big birding morning down in Newport, starting with a search for the Snow Buntings that had been seen earlier in the week at the North Jetty.


 This is a really fun area for birding because many birds in the water are fairly close, and there are far fewer people to deal with than on the South Jetty. 

 Common Loon

Harlequin Ducks

 Random Common Yellowthroat popped up when I pished

As we passed an opening in the grass with a view of the rocks below a flash of white alerted us to two Snow Buntings.  So easy!




This was a lifer for Jacob and a county bird for me.  It was awesome to be able to sit with them for a bit and have them not care much.  Along the jetty more birds were easy to look at.

 Pacific Loon

 Rhino Auklet

Mew Gull

 Weird bird, part two

Surf Scoter

After the jetty we picked up some snacks and headed to Hatfield Marine Science Center, stopping for some Greater White-fronted Geese and their Cackling friend.




At the science center nature trail I was happy to get decent looks at a White-winged Scoter.





Counting ducks is not a thing I enjoy. 


 But I try to do it anyway because eBird does not let you enter "shit tons."

Brandt's Cormorants

We made a couple of quick stops at the South Jetty and the fishing pier before heading back to Lincoln City.  My favorite thing was these Common and Barrow's Goldeneyes hanging out together.




It's been awesome spending so much time in Lincoln County and my future Lincoln City 5MR is shaping up well.  I have seen almost as many birds in it this year as my regular 5MR, which is crazy but not really.

Good times!!! 

And in case you're wondering, the sunroom walls look great now.


Comments

  1. I counted those ducks, there are X of them. Cool Goldeneye comparison, too!

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    1. Ha, I've really made an effort to stop using X which unfortunately means trying to actually count stuff.

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  2. Wow, so many cools things! Those Snow Buntings sure are pretty! I love the weird birds and you got amazing photos of the Owl and Common Loon.

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  3. Sorry it took me so long to get over here I saw the notation in my email, but my mind was scattered. Super job on the painting and I love the color you picked too! Your new homestead is in a very diverse area, your future will be full of great discoveries! Great snow buntings shots , the best I've seen posted in any blog! Have a great week.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Sondra! The (bio)diversity of the area was a major reason we wanted to find a home here.

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