My wife and I spent the Thanksgiving break around Bandon, Oregon; it's
moderately far south on the Oregon coast. The goal was not birding,
but we did take our binocs. As it turned out, given the desultory
nature of our birding, we did quite well, but I have a couple of
specific questions.

First, on Thanksgiving itself, at Bullards Beach, we saw either a HUGE
peregrine or a gyrfalcon. I've never gotten a solid ID on a gyr, so
I've been trying to talk myself into it, but I just can't - this bird
was certainly as big as the ubiquitous Western Gulls, and I didn't get
a look at the face, but it was very lightly marked on the underside,
if at all....any votes out there either way?

Second, at the Southern Slough off Coos Bay we saw a large (about 30)
flock of wrentits, being very active. I knew they extend the range up
into Oregon, though I've only seen them in CA previously, but are they
common up there? They were among the tamest wild birds I've ever
encountered, flittering around within inches of us, and making that
peculiar rattling chirrr sound they make - like a wren's scolding
slowed down about 3x. Very neat.

Other fun birds:

One snipe,
a flock of about 20 black oystercatchers,
4 black turnstones, with one ruddy turnstone, and
mountain chickadees outside our motel room. Zowee.

Not to mention the hundreds of sealions.

Cheers,

Josh Hayes
josh at pogo.cqs.washington.edu