Subject: Pacific City, Oregon
Date: Sep 7 07:10:39 2004
From: Nancy - nelrjb at comcast.net


Hi Tweets,
We visited Clay Myers State Natural Area at Whalen Island and saw our first Great Egrets. There were about 6 of them along with 4-5 Great Blue Herons, about 15 American Crows (or were they Northwest Crows?) some Double-crested Cormorants and many gulls, enjoying the vast low tidal beach.

I still had trouble with gull identification despite my "Handy Dandy Gull Identifyer". They only ones I think I positively identified were Western Gulls and Herring Gulls.

I was surprised to see there were many swallows along the coast. We saw Barn Swallows, Tree Swallows and Cliff Swallows.

Other birds of note:
Kingfishers- 4
Brown Pelicans- 3
Turkey Vultures- 3
White Crowned Sparrows- 10-15

I expected to see more Sandpipers. We saw 1 group of about 50 (not sure what you call a "group" of Sandpipers? Anyone know?) I think they were Western Sandpipers, but they could have been Bairds or even a combination. A few had redish wings but mostly they were spotted with white underparts.

We saw several hawklike birds and I failed to positively identify any of them in flight. Another area that needs work.
Driving, we saw a small short tailed hawklike bird on a wire but could not stop to look. I wondered if it was a Kestral but did not see the reddish or bluish color. Could it have been a Merlin? Somehow after meeting David Drummond, I doubt it.

Once again, I realized how difficult it is to identify shorebirds.
But, how fun to be down on the coast with beautiful sunshine making the effort to identify birds.

Home again to an empty feeder.
Nancy
Renton, WA.
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