okaugust

Good news, a Glaucous Gull was spotted today west of Tillamook. Bad news, it's a first year/cycle, so it looks like every other gull. I don't think I saw it. But I was looking for things that don't look like other things, focusing on lighter primaries and so on. Of course end up with what are probably all Glaucous-winged or Western, or of course the most likely Olympic (Herring x Glaucous-winged). How can different birds all look the same, but the same species all look so different. So here goes...all photos from today 12/31/2022 1. Seaside Cove, OR 2. Nehalem Meadows, which is an pasture area just south of Nehalem, OR that currently has a lot of seasonal ephemeral water. The remaining are from where the Glaucous was report, Fraser Rd x Old Fraser Rd, just west of Tillamook and east of Netarts, OR 3. 4. Initially looking at the bird in the foreground, but the pinkish bill on the second from the rear was intriguing. 5. 6. Bird on the left I know, this is my rock star life. Trying to ID gulls on New Year's Eve. High point though, two Peregrine Falcon's today, the last bird I saw in 2022. So I got that going for me.

Thanks! I was 99% sure but I think the angle was throwing me off, appreciate the help!

Thanks everyone for the confirms!

Another for my CBC 12/18 Chinook WA and along the Columbia River area. It was my first year on this route or having one out here after a move from WY, and I got a lot of great tips from the person who had this along with another before me. Still, it was a newish area (I know it, but haven't done a lot of birding in it) so I did a trial run on Saturday. These two yellowlegs gave me some pause Saturday as well, but Greater should be our go to here, and I decided it might just be the angle. Yesterday made me question that again. Then another 1 mile up the shore at the marina, about five minutes later, I don't think it was the same pair, they were moving east and we went west, but they also made me do a double take. While they are all likely Greater, I just wanted to be sure for the count again. Thank you! 12/17 Chinook County Park - one photo each of the pair 1. 2. 12/18 Same location, they were a little closer and the light was a little better. 3. 4. This pair was down by the Port of Chinook along the river beach also, a mile west a few minutes later. 5.

For my CBC area yesterday, so I'd like to be sure. Area is Chinook, WA 12/18/2022 This was on Lingenfelter Rd, which is a stretch that runs about a mile on my part of the count, with a couple of open field and marsh areas along it but woods mainly. This bird flew out of the heavy trees and across to a clearing where someone is building a pole barn/house, where it just sat for a couple of minutes, looking for mice in the wood pile I think. I put it down as a Cooper's. Initially I went with Sharp-shinned, but despite showing a lot of leg, the rounded tail and bulkier feet, lack of look of surprise I went back to Cooper's. This one we found after we came out and were back on 101 through the town of Chinook proper. It was about the size of a dove, but the upright posture so we turned around. I only got one shot before it took off across the highway and back into some city trees there and too much on private property to attempt to track. Can't see the eyes, but the smaller, skinnier talons and size overall I went with Sharp-shinned. Thank you!

Thanks sir. I just went with it. It's been fun anyway. 🙂

That's a great start! 😆 Seriously though, thank you! I do appreciate it.

Okay, you want more gulls? More gulls gulls gulls? I see you are folks who like good gulls. 1. 2017-11-12 Lake DeSmet, WY - this one got reviewed and bounced around a lot, and was determined to be unidentifiable, if you like a real puzzler. 2. 2020 07 25 Bowdoin NWR, MT 3. 2020 07 25 Bowdoin NWR, MT 4. 2020 03 20 Astoria River Walk, OR (probably more Olympics coming right up) 5. 2020 07 25 Bowdoin NWR, MT 6. 2021 03 20 Western Gull? Astoria River WA, OR 7. 2020 07 25 Bowdoin NWR, MT (sorry, it uploaded out of date order) 8. 2021 03 21 Astoria River Walk, OR 9. 2021 07 04 Tillamook Bay Barview Jetty OR (you might be able to tell, but my enthusiasm for gulls was falling apart by this time. 10. 2021 07 04 Tillamook Bay Barview Jetty OR 11. 2021 07 04 Garibaldi Marina OR 12. 2021 07 04 Garibaldi Marina, OR - great, this one is really different! Oh, it's probably a washed out Olympic... 13. 2021 07 05 Ft Stevens State Park, OR If it helps, I just deleted about seven more that I figure are all Olympics. Sigh. Hey, have fun, and don't say I didn't get you anything for Christmas! This year...puzzling gulls for everyone!

Or sometimes when I'm sitting in Seaside Cove eating Grizzly Tuna and munching on fries with some gull watching me from the hood of the car, I like to say "HEY, FLOCK OF SEAGULLS!"

I have chased five rare or state count birds in the last 36 hours, and I got to see four of them, including a lifer. Is that enough? No, I fanned on the shrike and wish I could cough cough call in sick tomorrow, but I won't. Cough. Darn it.

Thanks!

August 28th, 2022, Pintail Marsh at Ankey NWR, OR, looking for and not finding a Ruff (for the umpteenth time). A lot of looking through a scope with heat shimmer and trying to snap every bird just in case. I was thinking Baird's owing to what I think are two dark legs that aren't very clear here. Doesn't seem...rotund enough for Western, but non-breeding plumage peeps in locations I'm not that familiar with always make me doubt everything I know about peeps. There are two in the first picture, center and left, and one in the second, center. Thank you!

Well, funny enough what goes through mine when I say that is...I went to college at the University of Oklahoma back from 1991-1996, and going up and down Sooner Rd to get to the OKC metro area, there was a tawdry bar and strip club along the way, and the sign always said "Girls, Girls, Girls! You bet we do!" So now when I see gulls, miles and miles of gulls, I think..."Gulls, Gulls, Gulls, you bet we do.... 😁 I have some more from other locations going farther back if anyone wants to keep playing?

Plus now I owe each of you $5......

Alas, it is as expected. Hybrids that all look the same and different. Sigh. Thanks all!

I never ask for much help IDing gulls because I just feel bad about it. I have a huge mental block with them. I always think when people show me bird characteristics, it goes into my mental lists and helps me later, but I don't seem to retain a darn thing about gulls. The birds I'm fairly confident about, Heermann's, Ring-billed, Short-billed, Laughing, Franklin's, Bonaparte's and now Kittiwakes, and sort of kind of California, Western and Glaucous-winged (as long as they aren't teenager birds) I just look at these fields and beaches full of gulls, sigh, and give up most of the time. And to quote a friend in WY before I moved to OR, "just give up, they're all hybrids..." Sometimes I find one that has just great coloring or markings and think, "I can DO THIS! I'm going to go home, and pour over ID traits and figure this out!" Then I get home and give up again. I was even conjuring up if someone came up with a website where for $1 they would ID a gull for you, I would gladly pay it....because I am just not wired to learn the subtle nuances. Maybe when I retire. So, apologies and thanks in advance but I snapped some shots and while they are probably mostly Olympic Gulls (Hybrid Glaucous-winged x Western Gulls), I couldn't take it anymore and had to ask. 1. Garibaldi Marina, Garibaldi, OR 12/11/2022 2. Garibaldi Marina, Garibaldi, OR 12/11/2022 3. Shipwreck Point, WA, off the Straight of Juan de Fuca 11/25/2022 4. Westport Marina Nov 5, 2022 - Short-billed Gull? 5. Ft Stevens State Park, OR, just east of the South Jetty, where the Pacific comes into the Columbia. Nov 21, 2022 (this guy likes my idea for a pay for ID website, as I just dreamed it up while looking at him.)

Thank you, I'll give that a go!

42 days?!?! What is this madness?! Get out there!

🤦‍♀️That's it, I'm giving up birding. Thank you!

Nov 5, 2022 Westport Marina, Westport WA it's got a lot of white above the eye, do I entered it as Clark's, and it's never been reviewed or followed on. I am wondering if it's just a regular Western or possibly a hybrid? Jan 16, 2022 also at Westport Marina. I didn't get the best light on this one. I am stalling on ID for Eared, Horned or Red-necked. Thank you!

Seems like it's time for my annual check up, as I had several eBird reports that went to "unconfirmed" as someone flagged the photos but not a reviewer because no one reached out. So it's time to check my head as my basic bird ID skills seem to be misfiring. July 31, 2022, Originally at a glance put down as a Brown-headed Cowbird, female, someone flagged that. Reviewed, considered Brewer's Blackbird, female, due to the less conical bill. Just got flagged again. My next thought goes to Common Grackle, but they are rare up here. It doesn't have a blunt enough bill or enough streaking for a Red-headed Blackbird. Taken on Lynn Point Rd in the Nemah area of WA (area is off Willapa bay, with a slough, a few cow fields, a lot of little creeks, bogs, conifers to deciduous trees, it's a great mixed habit area). This bird was in the grass fields. Thank you,

Thanks 🙂

Here is a pretty pickle that a lot of really amazing birders out here have been playing with. We have a Rock Sandpiper with really orange bill and legs. Out West we have Rock Sandpipers. East has Purple Sandpipers. Guides say never the twain shall meet. Of course, that didn't stop the Purple Sandpiper that showed up at Dillon Reservoir in Frisco, CO back in December 2016. (that's at about 9000' feet in elevation in mid-winter at a ski resort for those of you playing along at home.) That bird happens to be the only Purple Sandpiper I've seen. I've seen Rock Sandpipers twice, so obviously my skill set to ID this bird is limited. I'm going to include my checklists for both just so you can see some differences from my own eyes. Purple Sandpiper 2016 https://ebird.org/checklist/S33183687 2022 Recent Rock Sandpiper at Seaside Cove, OR. As you can see, our Rock Sandpipers tend to have more yellow legs. https://ebird.org/checklist/S122043834 And 2021 in Westport, WA, they also have more yellow to the bills. https://ebird.org/checklist/S97210985 It's the orange in the new bird that has everyone all a twitter. https://ebird.org/checklist/S123458485 One of our local birders reached out to Michael O'Brian, author of The Shorebird Guide, and this was his reply. Also, there has been some discussion about subspecies, of which I don't have any depth on. As I like to say on the FB birding group I created and admin, "unlikely, but not impossible." So right now the general consensus is Rock Sandpiper. I thought maybe some of you might appreciate pitching in to the debate or enjoy seeing the bird. Honestly, if you saw this bird on the east coast, you would probably call it a Purple and no one would bat an eye.

Thank you!

No, not me, the birds. Well, okay, me too, but that's beside the point. Taken today 10/3/2022 at Nehalem Bay State Park, OR, walking the Pacific beach from the parking area 2.5 miles south to the jetty and back. I was really there for the Pacific Golden-plovers, but I was scanning the surf as well. That yielded up some nice birds as my attention was drawn to a charter fishing boat out beyond the surf, and saw seven Red-necked Grebes, and then I spent a lot more time looking out. Hard to get looks or shots because about the time the eyes focus on something, a wave comes up and and obscures it from view. (Should be good practice for my first pelagic boat trip next week, yes?) I've got these two shots, and I think I can rule out the grebes and move them into the loon category, but about the time I have myself talked into one loon I think of a trait that moves the needle back the other way. Of course, it looks like I've got two loons out there, so could be they are not the same, despite the whole birds of a feather thing. It was a little foggy here, and I've cropped about as much as I can for distance and light without losing any more definition, but did nothing to enhance color or contrast. The first one has a nicely delineated neck between front and back, and it looks like the bill is thicker. This guy I am thinking Red-throated due to the white facial markings and slightly smaller, upturned bill. But for all I can tell from way in on the beach, they could be the same bird, different angles. Thanks all!