Bird Notes - Early Fall, 2006
by Jim Rogers

Sharyn Becker observed a Red-breasted Sapsucker ferociously battling several Steller’s Jays for grapes. I looked it up and sure enough, sapsuckers do eat fruit as well as insects (especially ants).

On October 26 a rare female Hooded Oriole showed up at Lois Miller’s hummingbird feeders north of Port Orford. It returned to the feeders about every 15 minutes for two days then was never seen again. At first she thought it was an Orchard Oriole, but she photographed it and the curved bill gave it away. This species is known to nest on the northern California coast. Most likely this was one that ventured north during the beautiful fall weather we had.

A Slate-colored Junco spent that same week at Lois’. For the novice birders reading this, there used to be several junco species; the East had the Slate Colored Junco and the West had the Oregon Junco – the only bird named after our fair state. But the California birders didn’t want any birds named after Oregon so they lumped them into Dark-eyed Junco (just kidding, actually they lumped them because they were so obviously separate species).

Terry Wahl has had several Say’s Phoebes thru the fall on the family ranch near the mouth of Elk River. One or two Yellow-headed Blackbirds have been with the huge blackbird flocks on the ranch thru August, September and October.

Don Munson reports that a pair of White-tailed Kites apparently nested near Oceanview Drive south of Harbor and raised up a couple of offspring. They were first observed by Sheila Chambers in the spring “court shipping.”

There were White-throated Sparrows scattered around the county during October, and a few Palm Warblers as well.

The mouth of Euchre Creek has been sanded in for the past few weeks, so Lois Miller and I went down there on November 1 to see what birds were on the flooded bottom lands. There were scores of mid-size dark geese, most with a white collar at the base of the neck. I believe these were Aleutian Canada Geese. There were also several of the much larger silvery-breasted Western Canada Geese. There were scores of Wilson’s Snipe flying around in small groups and grazing the wet pastureland with the geese. A flock of at least 16 Wood Ducks, a dozen or so Shovelers, and lots of Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Buffleheads, American Wigeons, Pied-billed grebes, American Coots, Virginia Rails, Marsh Wrens singing like it’s spring, etc. showed why this is one of the best birding spots in Curry County. To park here, watch for a bright pink post on the west side of 101, near the south end of the Euchre Creek dike. About 20 feet south of the post there is a barely visible place to park. There’s room to park 2 cars. From here you can see a lot of the marsh and across the highway there’s a flat place to stand or scope where you’re not right on the edge of the highway.

From Euchre Creek we went on down to the mouth of the Rogue where we saw 3 Snow Geese and about a dozen White-fronted Geese. Also lots of coots, Western Gulls, California Gulls, Glaucous-winged Gulls, Mew Gulls, a dozen or so Heermann’s Gulls, a flock of Brown Pelicans wisely heading south, etc.

Phone or fax me at 541-332-2555 or write to 95187 Elk River Rd., Port Orford OR 97465.