BIRD NOTES
by Jim Rogers
Jim Rogers has been birding and compiling bird count records in Curry County for over 30 years. He regularly shares his observations with KAS members in the Bird Notes column of the Storm Petrel.
Click here for archived notes, or here for the Christmas Bird Counts
Late Winter/Early Spring 2012
First a correction : On Nov. 9 Don Munson found an Eastern Phoebe at Lone Ranch, not an Eastern Kingbird as I erroneously stated!Jan. 29 – Tim Rodenkirk noted that the Jot’s Resort Northern Mockingbird was present in its usual over-wintering location in Gold Beach. Tim continued birding in the Gold Beach area and spotted 3 White-fronted Geese, a Common Goldeneye, a White-throated Sparrow, 6+ western Scrub Jays, a Red-breasted Sapsucker, an Orange-crowned Warbler, and 20 Wild Turkeys.
Feb. 1 – Buzz Stewart saw about a dozen Brown Pelicans flying north off Chetco Point.
Feb. 3 – Knute Andersson reported Palm Warblers everywhere on private ranch lands near Langlois. One of the ranchers had 55 White-fronted Geese & 100Aleutian Cackling Geese over-wintering on his ranch. The number of Aleutians went up to 600 today as the first migrants arrived. The over-wintering Burrowing Owls were still present on a ranch in the Floras Lake area.
Feb. 4 – Tim R made it to the top of Mt. Bolivar (usually buried under several feet of snow) and found an over-wintering Townsend’s Solitaire! Knute saw a Turkey Vulture in northern Curry Co.
Feb. 10 – Don Munson reported his first male Rufous Hummingbird for the season on the Chetco.
Feb. 11 – Tim Rodenkirk & Knute Andersson spotted a Prairie Falcon near Floras Lake, a very rare bird in Curry County and Tim’s 300th species in Curry Co.! They also found the over-wintering Lapland Longspur plus several other noteworthy species: WEBL, PAWA, SAPH,WITU, & TUVU.
Feb. 11 – Terry Wahl reports an over-wintering Snow Goose on his ranch near the mouth of Elk River. The Dickcissel that was on the ranch through early winter has not been seen lately.
Feb. 20 – Al Collinet last saw the Hermit Warbler that had been over-wintering at his place in Brookings since Jan. 16.
Mar. 2 – The Elk River Fish Hatchery reported the first Tree/Violet Green Swallow “scouts.”
Mar. 8 – Sheila Chambers reported her first Tree Swallow scouts south of Brookings. Sheila has an amazing number of species visiting her feeders. I’ll list what she currently has using the 4 letter code: FOSP, WCSP, GCSP, SOSP, WTSP, LISP, SCJA, STJA, OCWA, BRBL, RWBL, ORJU, EUST, PISI, BCCH, CBCH, HOSP, EUCD, & ANHU. (Four letter codes typically refer to the first two letters of the first word and of the second --so FOSP = Fox Sparrow.)
Mar. 17 – Knute found a breeding plumaged Red Phalarope in a flock of regular gray ones. We usually see these plain gray phalaropes in the December storms and don’t get to see them in their gorgeous breeding plumage! There were many phalaropes in the flooded pastures. A birding group from Coos Bay got to see a male Rufous & a male Allen’s Hummingbird at the same time and heard an Annas also, near Floras Lake . They observed quite a few Bald Eagles and Turkey Vultures in the pastures. Knute saw a Golden Eagle after the group departed.
Mar. 17 – Rick McKenzie reports seeing a kingbird during the past week on his ranch near the north county line that could have been either a Western or Tropical Kingbird.
Mar. 18 – There were a lot of phalarope “wrecks” along the south coast. A wreck is when a large number of dead birds of one species are found along a beach.
Mar. 19 – Sheila Chambers reports a very red Fox Sparrow that she believed may be a Taiga Fox Sparrow. She still has an impressive collection of species at her feeders.
Mar. 19 – Al Collinet in Brookings was visited by a Harris’s Sparrow and a female Bullock’s Oriole.
Mar. 23 – Tim Rodenkirk observed 2 Caspian Terns circling around Floras Lake. Tim notes that the Tree & Violet-green Swallows are now present throughout the county.
Mar. 25 – Sheila reports the return of her first Band-tailed Pigeon accompanied by a White-throated Sparrow. She still has “the usual suspects.”
Mar. 29 – A very stormy day. Tim Palmer and I found 2 Brown Pelicans hunkered down, facing the gale at the head of Oregon Street in Port Orford. Both were adults. We decided not to try to move them to shelter, but to leave them undisturbed. That same day, Eric Carlson was visiting P.O. and found 2 adult pelicans in Battle Rock Park. also facing the driving wind. He photographed them – both were adults and one was in breeding plumage with a yellow head. He likewise left them undisturbed.
Please e-mail your bird observations to: chlaparl@wildblue.net
Last updated April 5, 2012
created: 2012-04-05