July 18 to September 15, 1998
by Colin Dillingham

JS found a red-necked grebe at Cape Blanco on Aug 20. This is the second August record for Curry County, and either was a very early migrant, or perhaps a non-breeding individual that remained all summer. Large numbers of sooty shearwater migrate south in the fall past Curry County, but are usually well offshore. Therefore, 80 sooty shearwater seen from land as they flew past Cape Blanco on Sep 3 was exciting (DL,KC,CPD,TR). JS located 6 northern shoveler at the mouth of the Sixes River with pintails on Aug 23. This is the third mid-August record in the past 3 years which indicates they start to arrive earlier than I previously thought. Pull out your pen and amend the Curry County Bird Checklist and extend the seasonal occurrence of northern shoveler to mid-August. The best bird of the season was a Wilson’s plover found on Sept 10 on Bullard’s Beach, approximately ½ mile north of the North Jetty of the Coquille River. This is the first Wilson’s plover found in Oregon. JR and CR reported a long-billed curlew on the Wahl ranch on July 24. This is the 10th Curry record I have and the first July record.

Two immature Sabin’s gulls, rarely seen from land, were found this fall: the first at Cape Blanco on Sept 3 (CPD,TR,DL,KC); the second at the mouth of the Pistol River on Sept 13 (ADB). Elegant tern numbers at the mouth of the Rogue River peaked between August 3-8 at 40-60 birds (DB,DM,CPD,ALD). DL and KC also noted a late congregation of 33 elegant terns at the Rogue River mouth. Long-billed murrelets were sighted several times at Point St. George by ADB. TJW reported a tropical kingbird both in mid-July and mid-August at his lower Elk River ranch. These reports, if accepted by the Oregon Birds Record Committee, would be the first summer records in the Pacific Northwest. JS reported a kingbird on Aug 21 along the Cape Blanco road. He assumed it was a western kingbird, but after consultation with him, he said he didn’t rule out the possibility of a tropical kingbird. This may have been the same bird TJW saw on his ranch.

EH was doing extensive purple martin surveys this summer in Curry County. He surveyed several breeding sites and found 6 pairs at milepost 5.0 on the Gardner Ridge Road (the same site DM located previously), and 1 pair at each of two sites up Hunter Creek on BLM land, near the USFS boundary, including a new site near Red Flat. He didn’t see martins entering cavities at either site, but heard the dawn song adult male martins sing at nesting colonies.

CPD saw a single bank swallow at Jerry’s Flat on the Rogue River on Aug 13. Perhaps the bank swallows on the lower Rogue River in summer are from the Nesika Beach colony located by NW? The canyon wren heard July 7 in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness by MRS was actually at Dry Butte, not near Windy Camp as previously reported. ADB found a blackpoll warbler on Enderts Beach Road south of Crescent City on Sep 14. TJW, KC and DL saw 2 lark sparrows at the lower Elk River Sept 7-14. TJW reported he has seen 6 this fall, which doubles the county total. CPD saw a pine siskin feeding young at Jerry’s Flat on Aug 2, which is evidence of breeding at an unusually low elevation for this montane species. TJW reported that he also had breeding pine siskins near his home in Langlois this summer.

Observers: Colin Dillingham (CPD), Angie Dillingham (ALD), Jamie Simmons (JS), Terry Wahl (TJW), Mark Stevens (MRS), Alan Barron (ADB), Dave Lauten (DL), Tim Rodenkirk (TR), Kathy Castelein (KC), Eric Horvath (EH), Nathaniel Wander (NW), Don Munson (DM).