Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!   I hope all is well with all of you.  May God Bless you during this season and into the New Year.

For Russ Morgan

12/12/19

I headed over to Lincoln County today to try and see the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker which has been coming to Chuck Philo’s suet feeder, and quite consistently of late.  When I was just coming into Toledo where he lives, he called me to say it has been sleeping just under his suet feeder for about 35 minutes, and told me to approach his house from the church just next door.

When I got there I viewed him once, and then he took off.  I went inside and we waited for about 1/2 hour.  My hope was to get good pictures of him, but since the weather had cleared, I decided to head to the North Jetty where up to 25 Snow Buntings have been hanging out for a number of weeks.  Plus, I wanted to best my last photos of them on Mary’s Peak a few weeks ago as well.  They were decent, but we always try to “one up” our best ones.

As I neared the base of the jetty, I could see a few in the grassy dunes, so knew I was in luck.  To my vision a few flew around the far end of one of the dunes, so I figured I’d sneak slowly around the far side hoping to catch one on the ground, where I always see them.  But as I was rounding it, I noticed one in the tall grass not 5 feet from me.  I was also surprised I did not scare him off.  I am not accustomed to seeing them at eye level eating grass seeds, and was not sure my lens would even focus that close, so I flipped the switch to under 10 feet and took a dozen or so, and the close up of the more brown one is the best result.

I stalked them around the dunes for a while, and the other shots are the rest of my best ones, and I’d say these turned out better than my ones on Mary’s Peak, so am happy about that.  

It was back to Chuck’s next.  He had seen the bird come and go a couple times, so it was just a matter of time.  He finally showed after an hour or so.  However, the situation was such that the sun was low right in back of him, and I could only get decent shots of him eating suet, so these will have to do, for now.  

I decided to dedicate these shots to my friend Russ Morgan who is recovering from a very recent hip replacement, which can’t be any fun.  He’ll be down for a little while, but I’m sure it is just temporary.  He’ll be back photographing birds before we know it.  I figure these shots of the bunting, which are of a difficult to get bird, should be an uplift to him.  They may even speed up the healing process, because Snow Buntings are really “hip” birds - pun intended.  

This is the one which was about 5 feet away.  Pretty Cool!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Gyrfalcon

There is one word that best describes the Gyrfalcon - MAJESTIC!  I was assisting Paul Sullivan on the Gilliam County raptor run, and we chanced upon this gray phase Gyr.  (Likely the same one Paul saw last month about 7.6 miles from this location)   It was sitting on a rock jack and we slowed and then stopped about 100 feet away and were able to view it for about a minute. She was nervous and fidgety, shifting positions a couple of times.  Unfortunately I was only able to get a few pics through the windshield, and these are blurry.  The final two are of the bird after she (we think because of the size it was a female) about 3/4 mile away.  

Because they are such rare winter visitors, seeing one can be a unique experience that won’t happen very often in Oregon.  This is only the 7th time I’ve seen one in the state.  You can tell this is a gyr because of the long broad tail in proportion to the wing tips, and also the fine white barring on the tail.  This bird has just eaten as can be seen from the super large crop.  

Too bad the close pics are blurry or you could also see only a mustache rather than the helmet of the peregrine, and a fine white superciliary line.  She was as large as any red-tailed hawk.  This bird was fairly whitish on the breast/chest area giving way to many darker spots lower down.

Gyrfalcon:  Broad long tail can be seen here

The fine barring can be seen here, as well as the huge crop

A long shot after she flew

The same image heavily cropped

Ruffed Grouse Encounter

11/17/19

Hi All,

On the slim chance that the Rosy Finch I found a few days ago might still be on Bald Mountain, Don Berg and I headed up there this morning with hopes of relocating him.  On the way there we saw a Ruffed Grouse on the side of the logging road.  There was an abandoned car pushed off the bank on the other side, and he acted like this was his territory, strutting around like a property owner checking out trespassers.  Or maybe more like a soldier guarding his turf. 

I used to hunt these birds as a teenager, and it is always great to find one.  I understand that their population varies from highs to lows in some kind of cycles, so sometimes you can go for years without seeing one.  The Indians used to have a name for them, “ruffly” translated to “Loony Bird.”  I would suspect that the reason is because they are known to be quite tame, even attacking people or vehicles.  I once saw a movie clip of one flying into the soft snow for the night for the added cover of insulation.  They are so named for the “ruff,”which is a group elongated feathers on each side of the lower neck.  They can really fan then out, especially the males during breeding season when they are displaying.  You can see these in a few pics. 

Our bird strutted right up to our car, circled around back, then back to the front, all in about 10 minutes time.  I have to admit we were ambivalent to the time because of the experience.  I also was oblivious to how many pictures I was taking (Sound familiar?).  I figured I probably took 100-125 pics, but my estimate was low as the tally turned out to be 225.  At least this was not as bad as the 650 of the Rosy Finch a few days ago. We were able to get out of the car and take pics at our leisure.  He was not in attack mode, but not in retreat mode either.  When you have to back off on the zoom lens, you know you are close enough for good pics.  Am sure you will enjoy these. 

And big bonus was that it was a county bird for Don.  Our birding companion Brandon only saw his first county ruffed grouse last month, and he has been birding in the county for over 10 years. Come to think of it, I saw my first Ruffed Grouse on Christmas of 1980 just 100 yards from my present dwelling.  I’ve never seen one again on or near the property.  On the way back to my house, we brainstormed taking more pics of him, but he was a no show.  And, by the way,  we did not find the Rosy Finch today.  

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch

The date was 11/8/1994.  Roy Gerig and I were headed to Sugarloaf Mountain in western Polk County.  There is an old article in Oregon Birds (which I wrote) about this location as it provided some rare sightings such as Swainson’s Hawk, Nutcrackers, Brewer’s Sparrow, migrating Goshawks, Golden Eagles and a few others.  I don't remember any specific conversation between us, but I surmise that we reasoned that if Rosy Finches visited Mary's Peak almost every fall, at least some must pass through Polk County.

There is an open area on the top of Sugarloaf about the size of a basketball court, and when we got there we spied our first county Snow Bunting.  A few minutes later, while we were enjoying our find, 2 birds flew in not more than 25 feet away, which turned out to be Gray-crowned Rosy Finches.  These were a county first, and we were quite ecstatic.

Later in the day we drove over to Ankeny NWR and saw the Gyrfalcon which had shown up there a day or two before, and relayed our Sugarloaf experience to John Lundsten, (who has since passed away.)

That was 25 years ago, almost to the day.  I’ve been waiting that long to see them again here in Polk, and it finally happened today, 11/13/2019.  But it was not on Sugarloaf, but Bald Mountain, some 20 miles SE of Sugarloaf.  I’ve been going up Bald Mountain each fall for about 10 years hoping for something rare, and have struck out until today.  Sugarloaf has grown over quite a bit, and I don’t think it is as attractive to such migrants anymore, and one cannot get there anyway since the gates have been installed around 20 years ago.

And recently the gates have impeded access to Bald Mountain, making it so you now have to walk 2.5 miles to the top.  However, I figured I could shave a mile off of that by approaching it from the north side where an old logging  road for non motorized vehicles skirts the base, and from there it is a steep hike up to another logging road of about 300 yards through 10 year old reprod.  

I finally made it up to that logging road, and on up toward the top where there is some kind of radar installation.  On the largest patch of gravel I saw the minor movement of a small bird, and my initial impression was that it was probably a junco.  But when I got the bins on it - ROSY FINCH!   Thank you Jesus.  Finally all my efforts hiking up here paid off.

I snapped a few pics and thought, “This will be good enough for eBird.”  This was at a distance of about 75 feet. Naturally wanting better pics, I moved closer, hugging the cyclone fence to my right.  I halved that distance, getting better pics every few feet.  

Now on the other side of the patch of gravel was a stretch of grass, and my clothes were a better blend with that, so I figured I’d retreat and get on the other side for hopefully better pics.   As I neared the gravel I could see the bird still there, all the while crawling on my belly.  I was now about 15 feet away from him and dared not press my luck, and reached out to press down what grass lay just in front of me.  

For the next 45 minutes he kept right on eating (you can see the purple grass buds in some pics) some seeds of some kind of low grass on the gravel.  And, to my surprise and luck, little by little, he kept edging closer.  At times I would have to move slightly so as to reposition myself to get better pics, often waiting for him to move enough away from a bunch of grass in to the open.  He seemed to be more weary at those times and I was careful not to move to fast and spook him. This went on and on, until at one point he was 5 feet away!   Amazing! How lucky I was to be so close to see one of my favorite birds.  I just don't live where they are common and they may not be reliable even in places in the state where they are.  The downside was that when he was at his closest, there was grass in between us, so I had to wait for him to reposition himself before I could resume getting pics.  

All of a sudden he scurried off, running about 10 feet away from me, only to grab a small grasshopper.  I figured that was my cue to slink away, assuming I had enough pics by now.   I returned to my day pack and binocs, and headed out to the viewpoint where one can see the Cascades all the way to Rainier in one direction, and the ocean in the other, and made sure not to disturb the guest of honor in doing so.   Once there I texted Brandon Wagner and Don Berg.  We’ve had a label for a while which goes like, “The curse of Bald Mountain,”  because no rare birds have been found here.  So my first line was, “Well men, the curse has been lifted,”  with a following line about the Rosy Finch.   Then I called Chuck Philo who has been looking on Euchre Mountain for Rosy Finches in Lincoln County, without success as yet.  

After one last look at the bird, I headed back down the mountain.  It was sure easier going down than coming up.  Plus, there was a certain spring in my step causing me to go a little faster than I normally would.  

Once back home I downloaded my pics onto the PC.  I figured I had taken maybe 300 shots, possibly 350, but they kept coming and coming, and, well, I guess I got carried away because the final tally was 650!  What can I say?  Only a photographer would understand.  Since this is one of my favorite birds, and I don’t get to see them very often, and I really wanted to get something quality, and, well, you get the idea.  An added bonus is that my wife carries the same first name as this bird, so I knew she would excuse me for taking so many.  At lunch I sheepishly let it be known that I took 650 shots of just one bird, to which my mother in law simply said, “WOW.”  

For any of you county listers, this is a difficult bird to find in Polk County, obviously.  But if you want to try for this bird, in the slim chance it will stay put, I’ll give you the easiest route to get there.  Be forewarned, this is not for the faint of heart, nor for an old fart.  You have to walk 2.5 miles and most of that is uphill.

From the hamlet of Pedee, keep going west on the Kings Valley Hwy for about a mile and go Right on Pedee Creek Road to the North.  In about 2.5 miles you cross a small bridge and shortly, next to a recently logged off area on the Left, you take the next Left.  In about a half mile you go through a gate and stay on this road for about 4 miles until you come to a junction.  Stay straight, uphill and around to the Left where you will shortly come to a gate and a wide place to park.  Then you walk 1.5 miles to another gate on your right, and this is obviously the road UP to the top of the mountain, and the steepest part of the jaunt.  The Rosy Finch was at the very top, next to the enclosure for the radar installation.
   

If per chance you get lost going this way, let me know and I can give you more confusing directions from Falls City.

Once off Pedee Creek Road you are on logging roads.  You do not need a 4WD or a high clearance vehicle.  I get up there with my old beater ‘98 Honda Civic.  My undercarriage is quite polished from such jaunts, and my wife would sure be happy if the rest of the car looked as shiny.  

Well, guess I did not get any chores done today.  Maybe tomorrow. My smart phone indicates I walked 11,773 steps, or,  5.3 miles, as well as ascended 41 flights of stairs.  Not sure how accurate those figures are.  So not sure if I shaved a mile off the former figure or if the other figures is off?  But one of my birding comrades walked this way last fall and being the young tech person he is, he relayed that the directions given are 2.5 miles one way, to the top.  But the "upside" is that upon returning it is all downhill.........

Campout to Eastern Oregon

Hi All,

On Friday, Sept 13, Rosie and I took off for a week vacation in our truck and camper.  We had started out 2 days earlier, but sprang a leak in one of our power steering lines.  We were heading to the south coast and southern Oregon, but were able to return home where Rosie’s brother fixed the problem.   Then we were faced with a decision on where to go as a huge weather system was coming off the ocean affecting much of the state.  We decided to head up into the mountains to start with and camped at Big Lake, which is straight east at the summit of the Cascades.  The lake is probably a mile long and half mile wide, with Mt Washington easily seen towering over the north side. 

It was clear on Saturday and we went for a long walk on a trail.  I had misunderstood just how long it was, and we made the mistake of hiking 9+ miles, way too far for us anymore.  We were quite sore for the next day or two.  In the afternoon a Golden Eagle flew over the lake as well as our campsite, providing an addition to my Linn County list.

Big Lake with Mt Washington in the background at 7677 feet elevation

There are huge dragonflies in the Cascades

A Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel

This one likes my grapes

The next day was cool and cloudy and we were faced with another decision - where to go to escape the coming rain.  We wanted to continue east down the eastern flank to Bend and then go south, but it was looking too wet that direction, so we decided to keep heading east to 130 miles to Burns, and then south to the Malhuer NWR.  We had camped at the south end of the refuge, another 60 miles, many times in the 80s and 90s, so the particular campground would certainly bring back memories.  

But before we would ever reach there, every birder must stop at HQs.  The place is at the south side of Malhuer Lake and contains many trees of various sorts, providing a much needed stopping place in the desert for migrating birds.  Plus, there was a huge bonus to sidetrack here: the states 3rd record of a Broad-billed Hummer had been here for a few days and would be a wonderful addition to my state list.  I also ran into Nolan Clements, a young birder now attending OSU, with his dad and mom.

Sure enough, the hummer was still there and came to the feeder right after I located it.  Photographers prefer to photograph birds in a more natural setting, but I had to settle for getting him on the feeder.  At least you can see how beautiful he is.  Also present was a young Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  These types of places in the desert are also great spots for Great-horned Owls, and this one allowed a close approach. 

Broad-billed Hummer

Great-horned Owl

About a mile south of Frenchglen in the junipers

A small juniper tree

Juniper Berries

While heading south we heard from Nolan that the campground was full, so we stopped at the small town of Frenchglen and went into the hotel to ask for advice for where to head to park our truck for the night.  The owner said if we headed up the hill for a mile there were some short side roads to accommodate us, so we did just that.  We were now in juniper country, and many trees were full of berries. 

In the morning we meandered back to Frenchglen and walked up and down the main street birding, and then headed over to Page Springs to see if it cleared out a little.  It did, so we found a space to camp for the next 3 nights.  There had been many “improvements” made since we were last here.  I think some time in the past there was no fee, but now it was $10.00 per night.  But now that I am a senior and have a senior pass, all the governmental campgrounds are half price.

We missed the rain until the last night here when it poured pretty good.  However, the weather was fairly decent otherwise.  We walked around the area often just enjoying the scenery and reminiscing of former times there. It turned out that Nolan did not go home with his parents, but linked up with Russ Morgan, a birder and photographer from LaGrande where they both live.  Russ has been a great help to me in learning photography, taking the next step.  And they arrived at Page Springs late in our first day there.  The shot of the Plumbeous Vireo was taken with the camera steadied on Russ’ shoulder.  These shots are around the campground. 

Plumbeous Vireo.  A pair bred at Page Springs.  These are  very rare in the state,
so it was great to actually photograph one.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Warbling Vireo

A young mule deer

The deer are almost tame here. 

Grazing in the grass

It was looking like the next day, Tuesday the 16th, was to be the best day weatherwise, so we made plans to head up Steens Mountain, or a geologist would say “Massif.”  Any trip to the area in the fall is incomplete without a trip up to the summit.  It is considered a fault-block mountain and stretches some 50 miles from north to south and reaches a hight of 9733 feet, and then the east side simply drops off down to the Alvord Desert, a mile below or so.   It is set aside as a wilderness and so no cattle graze there, at least not very high up.  One has to wait until the snow has melted enough to drive the 20+ miles to the top, which is usually sometime in July.  

For the birder, the star of the show is the Black Rosy Finch.  Steens is the only place in Oregon where they are consistently seen.  They prefer the cliff faces, of which there are many, and birders were reporting them almost 100% of the time.  Turns out Russ and Nolan left before dawn as they had a long day ahead of them.  It was nice to have cell service with them.  A couple hours later Nolan said it was 25 degrees and the wind was really blowing, making it “brutal,”  and that there was a little crust of snow up there.  

But we figured that after the sun came up and warmed things up, it would not be so bad, so we started out.  The gravel road is really pretty good as it winds up and up and up.  About a mile from the east rim (where the birds usually are) we reached the snow and eventually the parking area.  Nolan and Russ arrived shortly after, having gone to another location looking for the birds.  After just a few minutes a flock of about 15 flew in.  They were all within about 40 feet of the crest where we were and were scouring the scree for food. 

It appeared they were working their way south, so Russ and I positioned ourselves accordingly and waited for them, which paid off quite well.  I hope you are viewing pics of them on the big screen as this is best to see the intricate coloring of them.  But as the wind was still strong and the temperature still low, our fingers were froze within short order.  I suspect I took some 150 pictures, and these are the best ones.  I have to admit I got carried away a little, but simply had to overdo it with hopes that some would turn out great.  The pic of the male, well, he was close enough so I had to back off on the zoom, so must have been under 10 feet from me.  What a morning!

These next shots are of the summit area and of Black Rosy Finches.

A young Black Rosy Finch

This young Rosy Finch is eating a grasshopper, which,
due to the temperature, must have been quite sluggish.

A young Black Rosy Finch

An adult male Black Rosy Finch

A young Black Rosy Finch

We saw this Mourning Dove en route back to the campground

After lunch we hiked up on the bluff overlooking Page Springs to take some pics, and then hiked up a ravine which takes off from the far end of the campground.  That would eventually lead us to higher ground where sagebrush and juniper dominated the landscape.  That night, our last night there, the heavens let loose and it rained and rained.  

From the bluff overlooking Page Springs Campground

A Great Blue Heron in the sage overlooking the marsh

A red-breasted Nuthatch at HQ on the way out of the refuge

A rabbit somewhere along the line

Not a great pic, but we saw a few White-faced Ibis on the way out as well

We were once again faced with the dilemma of where to go to avoid the rain, and ended up going north of Burns to a place called “Yellow Jacket Lake.”  One has to wonder how it got its name, but near the end of September we did not have to worry about getting stung.  We camped here back in ’84 with 2 young boys, Mark and Brian, who I’m sure remember that campout.  We did not remember much about the place.  It was “only” 35 years ago.  But it was remote and quiet, and I finally heard an owl at night, a Long-eared Owl, the first for this year.  

Before heading out the next day, we went for another long walk.  But this one was only some 5 miles or so, and we ended up going to a recent burn looking for woodpeckers,  so you can see dead trees in some of the pics.  It is nice when you have cell service way out in the middle of nowhere.  I brought up google maps and we found a shorter way back to the campground.

Yellow Jacket Lake

The next couple shots are of the burn area we ventured to.

Here are 2 more shots near the burn area.

Another shot of the lake

I planned to take the nearby connecting road north to the east-west hwy, but found that the road turn to gravel and washboard, so ended up turning around and going a different route.  So it took us much longer to get to Prineville where we planned to stay that night as a result, but the scenery could not be beat, unless you were on the Steens on a clear day.  

We ended up south of Prineville along the South Crooked River Hwy where along a river there were a string of BLM campsites.  The river was in a large ravine surrounded by rimrock, of which you can see in some of the pics.  We built a fire and roasted hot dogs, a nice way to close out our week of camping here and there.  

The next day we stopped at the Crooked River Wetlands, a newly created place quite attractive to shorebirds and waterfowl, and has already developed quite a good reputation for such.  There were 2 Red-necked Grebes here, which were a nice addition to my Crook County list.  

The rest of the trip was uneventful, chugging up the east slope and gliding down the west one.  While I was away, a friend of mine found a rare bird at the local refuge, so I went there and not only found that one, but another one which was new for me in my home county, a great way to end the trip. 

Here is where we stayed the last night.

Downy Woodpecker

Looks like this turned into a long blog with lots of pics.  A lot can transpire in one week.  I suppose a long blog could be written on the Steens experience alone.  Some go up there just to see the aspen trees in their yellow autumn color.  One advantage to going this late in the season is that there were hardly any mosquitos.  The desert can be loaded during summer and should be avoided unless one can deal with them, somehow.   Which reminds me, I was once at a weekend gathering at the refuge and on one evening there was a speaker who gave a wonderful dialogue of the history of the area.  Afterward, during the Q&A period, someone asked him how the Indians dealt with the mosquitos.  He kindly and tactfully explained that they were not affected due to their body odor.  So I guess that is something one can try if they feel so inclined…………