Towheeblog

I birded several locations in the northwestern corner of Oregon today.  Even passed over a few sand dunes once encountered by the Lewis & Clark Expedition.  But songbirds feeding on the ground brought my best finds.

It was late afternoon, dark under the towering evergreens.  But there were a dozen Varied Thrush feeding on the verge of the road at the entrance to Fort Clatsop Park.  My camera kept asking me to use a flash but the birds were too far away.  This is my only recognizable image.

Fort Clatsop is where L&C spent their winter in Oregon, southwest of Astoria.  The latter is the oldest American-founded settlement west of the Rockies.  The Astor fur trading company came here in 1811. 

The sub-freezing clold must make it hard for insect eaters to find food.  So I found Ruby-crowned Kinglets feeding in the grass, warmed slightly by the sun.

As I watched this fellow, I got this lucky shot:

And out onthe lawn for the limited warmth was this bird, usually a denizen of shaded spots, Hermit Thrush:

I’ll be showing some visiting birders around this corner of Oregon next month.  They’ll be happy to see this guy, the chickadee showing off his chestnut-colored back.  This image shows he’s well-named.  This one was at Coffeeberry Lake in Fort Stevens Park.

The lake was sheltered from the wind so there was plenty going on.  This is a Douglas squirrel I believe.  Much smaller than the gray squirrel.

This guy is smaller yet:

A Winter Wren staring me down after I played the wren’s song on my iPod.  The Winter Wrens were abundant in the spruce and Douglas fir forest at Coffeeberry Lake.  I saw one Bewick’s Wren there as well.  Ducks included Gadwall, Hooded Merganser and the ubiquitous Bufflehead.

This Bufflehead was in a channel at Seaside, Oregon, right off Hiway 101.  And so was this male Common Goldeneye, larger cousin of the Bufflehead.

More photos and checklists posted tomorrow if I have the energy.  Another long day in the car and in the field as I head from Astoria toward Puget Sound at dawn.