Subject: Birding at Tillamook and Cape Lookout
Date: Aug 5 22:55:52 2003
From: Paul Webster - paul.webster at comcast.net


Tillamook Bay and Cape Lookout

August 2-3, 2003

Paul & Barbara Webster



On Saturday Barbara and I joined an Oregon Field Ornithologists outing at
Tillamook Bay led by Ray Corpi. Sunday we went to Cape Lookout State Park.
We had partly sunny weather both days with temperatures in the sixties; a
stiff breeze blew nearly all day Saturday, but Sunday was calm. Total
species count: 60.



We began at Cape Meares with good views of the local cormorants, alcids, and
a pair of Peregrine Falcons that have nested there for several years; a
local said they had raised four eyasses this year:



Brandt's Cormorant, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Brown
Pelican, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon (2 adults), Black
Oystercatcher, Heermann's Gull, Western Gull, Caspian Tern, Common Murre,
Pigeon Guillemot, Tufted Puffin (seen over the water from our motel in
Oceanside), Rufous Hummingbird, Steller's Jay, American Crow, Cedar Waxwing
(several eating berries), Swainson's Thrush (good views of two birds),
Golden-crowned Kinglet, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, House Sparrow (at motel),
American Goldfinch, House Finch (at motel), Red Crossbill (one seen, several
heard), Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow.



We drove south and checked Netarts Marina, then continued down the bay to
the road into Tillamook. Behind the Fred Meyer store a White-tailed Kite
hovered over a field. We headed north to a jam-packed Bayview Jetty County
Park (Birding here was mediocre due to crowding and heavy boat traffic in
the channel; Ray returned an exhausted and hungry young Common Murre to the
water), then we stopped in Bay City at the oyster plant where the Purple
Martins were still feeding nestlings. After ice cream at the Tillamook
cheese factory we went to Bayocean Spit and waited for high tide to force
the shorebirds up close to us. There were good numbers of Western and Least
Sandpipers, a half-dozen Semi-palmated Plovers, and our leader got brief
glimpses of a Baird's and a Semi-palmated Sandpiper. After the group broke
up for the day Barb and I went back to Cape Meares hoping for a different
alcid or two, but fog made the effort problematic. Still one Wrentit turned
up and we heard a second one calling:



Pied-billed Grebe, cormorants, Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron, Turkey
Vulture, Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, Ring-billed Gull, California
Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, Western Gull, Caspian Tern, alcids, Rock Dove,
crow, American Robin, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Wrentit,
House Finch, Orange-crowned Warbler, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow,
Savannah Sparrow, Brewer's Blackbird.



We missed our rendezvous with the OFO group at Bayocean Spit the next
morning due to a dead alarm clock. So after breakfast, thinking that we
weren't likely to pick up more shorebirds at Bayocean Spit, we headed south
to Cape Lookout, which is heavily forested with fir, spruce, hemlock, and
alder, and affords good views out onto the ocean during the 2.4 mile walk
out to the cape; songbirds were pretty good here in the woods, and there
were lots of birds on the ocean below. As we left Tillamook to drive home
we stopped beside Highway 6 to watch a Peregrine stoop at a dove but miss:



cormorants, Brown Pelican, Surf Scoter, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture,
Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, gulls, Caspian Tern, alcids,
Rock Dove, Band-tailed Pigeon, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, silent
empidonax flycatcher, Steller's Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, Cedar
Waxwing, Varied Thrush, Swainson's Thrush, American Robin, starling, Barn
Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Bewick's Wren, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Wrentit,
Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Orange-crowned Warbler, Townsend's Warbler,
Wilson's Warbler, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Spotted Towhee.



Paul Webster

Seattle

Paul.webster at comcast.net