Subject: [Tweeters] FWD: Massive numbers of birds at Abert Lake and Rim (SE
Date: Jul 30 17:07:55 2008
From: Khanh Tran - fsprucegrouse at yahoo.com


Hi Tweeters,

If you are looking for a new place to explore, here is one of my favorite spots to bird in Oregon (Top 3 choice). Right now there are impressive and MASSIVE numbers of water birds around Abert Lake and Rim.

The landscape is austere but very beautiful. I highly recommend the area. Juniper Titmouse, Green Tailed Towhees, and Blue gray Gnatcatchers and other desert, sagebrush loving species are also found.

Here is the LINK and recent BIRD REPORT by Dave Irons.

http://www.lakecountychamber.org/

Bird Report:

After being inspired by Steve Dougill's report, I made an impromptu trip to southern Lake Co. over the past day and a half. I left mid-afternoon on Monday and had enough time to check out the tour loop at Summer Lake WMA on Monday evening. There was a nice assortment of shorebirds including about 800 adult Long-billed Dowitchers, the same flock (presumably) of 18 Black-bellied Plovers reported by Steve, a few Greater Yellowlegs, one Lesser Yellowlegs, and a smattering of Least and Western Sandpipers. There were the expected hordes of Black-necked Stilts (at least 1000) and American Avocets (probably about 1500). There are also a lot of White-faced Ibis on the refuge.

I camped at Goose Lake State Rec. Area s. of Lakeview. The campground and surrounding park looks to have pretty good potential as a migrant /vagrant trap. Apparently Purple Finches are breeding nearby. I had one fly over calling and there was a fresh juv. coming to a bird feeder in the campground (at the park host's site). I spent the morning in the Adel area, where Eurasian Collared Doves are nearly as common as Mourning Doves. I scoured the area where Judy Meredith and others had Juniper Titmice a few weeks ago and saw about 100 Brewer's Sparrows and about 40 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers for my efforts. Hard to believe given their reports, but I saw no titmice. I'm going back in a couple weeks...

This afternoon I spent about four hours birding the shores of L. Abert. As Steve's report suggests, this spectacle is must see. I walked out on the mostly dried alkali/mudflat (easily accessible from Hwy 395, but watch out for occasional soft spots) at the extreme south end of the lake. There were at least 20,000 phalaropes at this site alone and the mix was about 60% Wilson's and 40% Red-necked. There were also hundreds of Avocets and a few Willets. I found a few peeps that included about 35 Westerns, including six juvs, 6-8 Least Sandpipers and one juv. Semipalmated Sandpiper. I also walked right up to two Snowy Plover (almost didn't see them) on the dry alkali flat. There was nice mix of gulls, mostly Cals, a few Franklin's and about 6 Bonaparte's that totaled maybe 500 birds.

>From there I drove up the east side of the lake along Hwy 395, stopping at nearly every pullout I came to. For the first ten miles the east lakeshore was nearly carpeted with birds. I estimated that there were about 3000-5000 gulls per mile, about half that many Avocets per mile, and about 100-200 White-faced Ibis per mile. The phalarope numbers were tough to guestimate and I applaud the efforts of Steve, Dean Hale, and Peter Low for trying to count them. There were lots of modest flocks 100-300 birds all along the shore, small flocks (10-25 birds) flying both north and south almost any direction you looked out over the lake and there were thousands of widely scattered birds on the water beyond 100 meters from shore. The winds were out of the west and all the birds were feeding on some sort of black flies that were stacking up along the east shore. Watching phalaropes, particularly the juveniles, chase these rolling swarms of flies was quite comical.
The breakdown of gulls was mostly California, with a mix of Ring-billeds and Franklin's about half way up the east side. After about ten miles, the gull numbers dropped off, but there continued to be small (100+) flocks of Avocets and phalaropes. Once I left the south end of the lake, nearly every phalarope I saw was a Wilson's.

When I arrived at the extreme n. end of the lake, where Steve et al. had most of their birds, I was just pure amazed. In fact I think I said aloud (talking to myself again) something to the effect of holy #%$& that is a lot of birds. There were at least 20,000 gulls, another 20-25,000 phalaropes (nearly all Wilson's that I could tell), and about 15-20,000 Am. Avocets.

All told, I would say that I saw the following numbers of the most abundant species.

Wilson's Phalarope -- no fewer than 100,000
California Gull -- no fewer than 70,000
American Avocet -- 50,000
Red-necked Phalarope -- 12,000+
Franklin's Gull -- 2500+
White-faced Ibis -- 1500-2000

In addition to these birds, I saw lots of Eared Grebes (at least 800) and I was making no particular effort to count them. This lake usually gets high counts into the 10's of thousands later in the season.

Lake Abert is arguably the most under-appreciated birding site in Oregon. It is a bit of a drive, but it is worth the trip. If you have friend who you think might be interested in birds, take them along, they'll be hooked. Given the numbers of birds and the size of this lake, almost any non-pelagic waterbird would seem a possibility, kind of like our version of the Salton Sea. Who knows how many Sabine's Gulls and jaegers this lake gets each fall. Obviously, covering the shoreline would take at least a full day. It is impossible to effectively scan more than about 25% of lakes surface from shore and in the afternoon you are looking into the sun. The mudflat at the south end was actually quite easy to cover, but the mudflat at the north end measures into square miles. Today, however, all the birds were on the east side of the lake. There were no visible birds on the mudflat beyond about a half mile from the road. Diane Pettey and I are going back over
to this area in two weeks and I plan to make at least one more two-day trip in September sometime. I really want to check out Goose Lake S.R.A. during vagrant season.

Dave Irons
Eugene, OR