6 Lincoln County Birds

One of my goals this year was to bring my Lincoln county species list from 194 to 200. This would be challenging as I’ve seen a lot of birds in this county (many from a boat) and it was early in the season for major migration, but I wanted to pay the ocean and my dad (a new resident of Newport) a visit. I needed to get out of the house and (bonus) the forecast promised sunny weather.

As per usual, the coast had other ideas and the day started off with drizzly fog. My dad and I wiped our binoculars (I dried my tears) and we carried on. We started in a clearcut with recent Mountain Quail reports (not a county bird, but always fun too look and listen for), but no “quarks” were heard. It was time for my backup plan already. We moved to another clearcut farther east where I heard my first Mountain Quail two years ago. The area was quiet and slow, but right after we’d given up (and before the logging trucks barreled through) we saw them!

There were three, two hurled themselves up the hillside, while one male stayed defending the roadside. So cool knowing they actually exist.

From here it started raining harder so we decided to look for ducks at Devil’s Lake State Recreation Area in Lincoln City. We walked the boardwalk to the boatramp and immediately saw one of my targets. Wood Duck! #195

This was one species I thought would be harder to find, but they were nice and cooperative. I waded through a huge puddle out to the end to scope for a Lesser Scaup or Gadwall, but none were around.

I ended up picking out a small brown swallow, later confirmed in photos as Northern Rough-winged Swallow #196. A nice reward for braving the puddles.

We continued looking for Eared Grebe at Boiler Bay, a (rare) Rough-legged Hawk at Siletz Bay, or anything new to add but we found more enjoyment from exploring new Lincoln County hotspots (like the Alder Island Nature Trail in Siletz Bay NWR) than having any luck finding new birds. By late afternoon, the sun finally came out so we decided to drive back to the originally rained out logging road spot.

We heard the same Wrentit, White-crowned Sparrows, and Orange-crowned Warblers as before, but just as we were about to leave the magic happened.

Time stopped and my brain melted as I stuttered “there’s a pygmy owl, there’s a pygmy owl, THERE’S A PYGMY OWL!” I backed away, but this Northern Pygmy-Owl (#197) did not care about us.

It sat perched looking around for a long while, barely glancing our direction before flying to another slightly farther spot very much alert scanning for a snack.

It was hard to leave, but eventually I pulled myself away. It would have been cool to watch it hunt, or see if it would call, but I felt lucky to just have seen it and left it to do its owl job. It was solid Mountain Quail-Pygmy Owl day and the trip was already worth it.

The next morning was even more encouraging with more sun, less rain, and we were excited to see what we’d find next. We tried a few new spots before succumbing to the clearcut again. No owls this time, but lo and behold were a pair of Western Bluebirds!

• 

• 

After this, we retried an earlier spot at S Gorton Rd recommended by Phil Pickering a local birder, where I found Wilson’s Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, and one Black-throated Gray Warbler #199! that did not want its photo taken, so here’s a White-throated Black-and-White cookie instead.

We made a few more stops; at the South Jetty we saw handsome Red-necked Grebes and Hatfield Marine Science Center Whimbrels and peeps flew over the bay, before I said my goodbyes and headed home. We’d done an excellent job at finding 91 species, including 5 new Lincoln County birds for me, and a few of life birds for my dad.

On my drive back to Portland, there was one more surprise in store. I stopped at the Van Duzer Rest Area (just inside the county boundary) and wished an American Dipper into existence!

I’d done it! I’d found 6 new Lincoln County birds in two days. Such an incredible time!

Tweets and chirps,

Audrey