Tillamook and Polk County Migration Counts

On Sunday, Sept. 21, friend Joy and I roamed through the closest areas of Tillamook and Polk Counties for their respective migration counts. Mostly, for the Tillamook count, I crawled under bridges looking for Dippers on the Little Nestucca River. And found five of them.

But at the first bridge, I found something I wasn't expecting. Dead salmon. Lots of them. There is a fairly new program in Oregon (and other west coast states) to place dead salmon from hatcheries, fish that would otherwise go to landfills, into coastal rivers to replenish nutrients. In spite of years of efforts to restore salmon stocks, they have not bounced back. It is hoped that giving back some of the nutrients that the thousands of dead spawned-out salmon would have historically returned to the river each fall will help the wild stocks recover. (Both male and female salmon die after spawning.)

The rest of our Tillamook county trip was fish-less and Dipper-full. Here is one of the bridges near where I found a Dipper. They nest under bridges and then declare their territory to be about one-half mile upstream and one-half mile downstream of their nest. And they defend those territories noisily against other Dippers. We witnessed one such chase along the stream on this count day.

Dippers are such cool birds. They are the only songbirds that swim. They also walk on the bottom of fast-moving streams. But mostly they stand on rocks or wade, looking for tiny water creatures to eat, then go underwater to catch them. They are very efficient hunters.

To keep their feathers water repellent, they spend a lot of time preening.

Since I spent most of my time under bridges while Joy, on her first birding outing, stayed near the car scanning the sky, we found a total of only 13 species. But Joy saw her first American Dipper, which she had never even heard of before, plus a beautiful adult Bald Eagle and some mighty pretty scenery.

After returning to the Grand Ronde area, we drove into Polk county and stopped at a few sites to find birds. We didn't spend much time searching but we did find a couple species that I knew the rest of the county might not find: White-tailed Kites and a Rough-legged Hawk, both birds that Joy had never heard of before, much less seen. But I took no photos in Polk county that day.

However, on Monday, the Polk county coordinator put out a plea for count week birds that were missed on Count Day. That list included American Dippers. I'll use any excuse to go looking for Dippers... and I did. On the way to pick up Johnny at the Amtrak station in Salem on Tuesday, I drove up Mill Creek Rd. and stopped at every access point to scramble down the bank and look for Dippers. Finally, at the end of the public portion of the road, I found this one...

Since there was still time before the train arrived, I drove through Baskett Slough to see what might be there. I had no idea what birds were still needed for the Polk county count (and still don't) but I thought this Greater Yellowlegs deserved a photo... along with his tall pal...

Then two White Pelicans flew in. Cool!

The train was due in shortly so I hurried onward to Salem and the Amtrak station. Turned out the train was late and I had plenty of time to stroll back and forth beside the tracks. I noticed a bird in a distant bare branched tree. With binoculars, it turned into an Osprey... with a fish in talons.

Amtrak station and parking lot with bare tree housing Osprey in center of photo.

Not as odd as it seems because a large creek runs through town just on the other side of the station. I have no idea if Marion County "needed" an Osprey for its count week but here was one.

 Johnny and train finally arrived and we headed home... but he spotted a large black bird alongside the highway... on the Polk County side of the Willamette River. A Bald Eagle! We spotted another eagle on the Marion County side of the river.

 Soon Polk County flew to join Marion County and we drove on.

The North American Migration Count is such a nice excuse to go birding. The addition of "Count Week" birds makes the fun last even longer. It is only a matter of time before migration counts everywhere join Oregon in spreading out the fun for a whole week.

  

Count Day!

Almost the first bird I saw this morning of Count Day was the elusive Green Heron! It flew out from our little creek, across the field, and out of sight. I was so excited to see it, I forgot to try to get a photo.

I didn't take many photos today since I was trying to count all the birds I saw, not just sit around and snap photos. I did get some easy ones like the starlings that took over the big snag, looking colorful in their fall garb.

The Red-breasted Nuthatches I've been hearing constantly for weeks were happy to pose for photos, although far above. They seem to be finding lots to eat in our cone-heavy trees.

This one had taken a seed (or something) to a dead tree nearby and hammered it.

Since I keep track of the Dipper nests on a six mile stretch of Agency Creek, starting with our place, Dippers are special to me. I was happy to find a Dipper on our creek for the migration count. These photos of a different Dipper were taken upstream a few miles.

At the end of a long day birding our farm and nearby areas, I checked on the Barn Owl youngsters in our barn loft nest. One peeked out at me as I climbed the ladder into the loft. It has three fuzzy companions that I could see when I climbed up the viewing ladder.

It has been fun trying to document the highlights of migration count week on our farm in photos.

Maybe next year, I'll manage to get a photo of that elusive Green Heron.

Day Three of Migration Count Week

The juvenile Cooper's hawk that hangs around here hunting rodents instead of birds was sitting in the dead tree in front of the barn this morning, overseeing the area where I throw grain for the birds. I thought perhaps it had reformed and was going to hunt birds instead of rodents.

But later in the day, it went back to what seems to be its favorite hunting strategy...

When this resulted in no success, the hawk jumped up onto the corner post of the pig pen to survey the ground from a bit higher.

To get the full effect of the hawk's perch, here is the pig pen, complete with pig, and the hawk.

When not watching the Cooper's, it was fun to watch the Steller's Jay attempt to get the last of the suet out of one of the suet holders.

Hah! Success!

But, alas, as of this third day of count week, there was still no sign of the Green Heron. I wondered if it would show up tomorrow, count day.

Migration Count Week Day Two

No Acorn Woodpecker showed up on Thursday, Sept. 18, the second day of NAMC week. Nor did the Green Heron that each year skips Count Day although it is here before and after. I hoped that by having a whole week to watch for it, I would surely get it at least one of those days.

 But a Pileated Woodpecker flew over calling plus 27 Band-tailed Pigeons. Alas, I did not get photos of any of them. Since I was off the farm most of this day, I only got photos of a few of the regulars... Well, the Golden-crowned Sparrows only returned yesterday but they are regular now.

                                                   

Song Sparrow

Scrub Jay

Steller's Jay

White-crowned Sparrow (juvenile)

Golden-crowned Sparrow

House Sparrow, surprisingly hard to catch on camera. They never stop moving.

California Quail, we have about 30 of them right now

Two Mourning Doves, sleeping in a tree

Turkey Vulture high overhead

Maybe tomorrow the Green Heron will show up...

Acorn Woodpecker Surprise

Today is the first day of the North American Migration Count just-for-fun "count week". We can tally birds we see three days before and three days after the official count, in case we miss them on count day. So I decided to take my binoculars and camera with me while I did chores this morning. I thought it would be fun to get photos each day of count week of birds that I might also get on the official day, Saturday. It was a good decision.

On my way back to the goat barn after turning the horses out for the day, a woodpecker flew up to the big snag.

I raised my binoculars to look and was amazed to see an Acorn Woodpecker... the first we have ever seen on our farm. We have a few oaks but they seldom produce acorns. There are other oaks in the neighborhood but mostly we have Big Leaf Maples and conifers. This is, after all, the edge of the Coast Range. But this woodpecker had an acorn in its mouth from somewhere which it deposited on top of the big part of the snag and proceeded to hammer at it. I took a million photos to catch the bird when its head was up and visible. After all, I wanted to document Farm Bird #148.

After hammering away for some minutes, the woodpecker flew to the skinny upright next to it and  preened.

Then things got more interesting. Our resident American Kestrel flew to the top of the skinny stick that the woodpecker was clinging to. The little falcon looked down and appeared startled by the strange bird below and immediately flew off. I was snapping photos constantly and caught it before it flew.

Cropped and lightened, you can see the Kestrel's reaction.

The Kestrel then circled the stick, screaming constantly, and made diving moves at the woodpecker... who totally ignored it. The Kestrel never came very close to the woodpecker, as though a bit afraid of this stranger in the neighborhood. It screamed and circled and dove over and over. The woodpecker continued to preen. Eventually, getting no reaction, the Kestrel flew off.

After a bit more preening, the woodpecker flew back and resumed hammering on its acorn. When it disappeared to the other side of the snag for a time, a Steller's Jay, which had been in a nearby tree watching, flew to the snag and pecked at the acorn. The jay must have managed to get a piece as it flew off with something in its bill. The woodpecker reappeared soon and hammered some more. At some point it disappeared again.

My goats were waiting to be milked so I quit watching, reluctantly, for the woodpecker to return. From the milk room window I can see that snag but I did not see the woodpecker again.


The Kestrel, by the way, did return a bit later and perched atop the skinny snag, which, apparently, he thinks he owns. Later still, he perched on a dead tree near the house where I took these photos.

 

Today was an exciting... and curious... start to my migration count week.

Farm Bird #147: Great Egret

Walking toward the dam to turn the horses out on the morning of Sept. 2, I was astonished to see a tall white bird standing on the dam. So I retreated to the goat barn and called Johnny to bring the camera from the house. He did and handed it over to me behind the barn, out of view of the Egret. I managed to take a couple photos from out the side door. (My milk room windows were too dirty.)

But the excitement didn't last long as our big white dog came trotting up in front of the barn. Apparently, big white birds don't like big white dogs. Johnny snapped a shot with his camera from the path by the garden as the Great Egret flew out of sight. This is the first time we've seen one here on the farm, or anywhere close for that matter.

Great Egret became bird number 147 on my list of birds seen on our farm since we moved here in 1977.