Towheeblog

Cedar Waxwing, Two mornings in a row there was a single waxwing sitting in the same place on this same overhead wire. The lush salal underbrush here is covered with a rich harvest of dark berries so perhaps that is what’s attracting the waxwings.

Red-necked Phalarope foraging in the surf, Heceta Beach.
Douglas aster, one the few wildflowers still in bloom here in late summer.

looking like baby birds, three Semipalmated Plovers, “playing in the surf.”

This great Blue Heron was hunting along the Siuslaw River beneath the handsome old Hwy 101 Bridge in Old Town Florence.

Glaucous-winged Gull working Heceta Beach.
This is apparently what is called “Olympic Gull,” a hybrid of some mix of Western and Glaucous-winged Gull genetic material. It has dark mantle but lacks truly black wing-tips. Glaucous-winged, of course, are pale mantled and have equally pale gray wing tips while Westerns have pure black wing-tips. It is typical of gulls, Mallards and their kin, oaks and other “species” to ignore human biology texts and go for the reproduction with whatever genetic partner fits. Along this section of coast it may be nearly impossible to find what would be a pure Western or Glaucous-winged Gull in textbook terms. The further south you go the more “Western” the gulls tend to be in breeding season, the further north, the more “glaucous-winged” until they start to cline into the actual “glaucous.” Just one more reason we can enjoy gulls because they don’t follow clear-cut manmade rules. Watching a large flock and trying to sort their “type” can make your brain itch.

Osprey fishing along Heceta Beach. I saw at least one successful dive and the Osprey carried the fish inland.

Western Gull in the Siuslaw River.
Two American Crows, unconcerned about high waves or tsunamis or any of those other mundane human worries. Black Oystercatcher and Glaucous-winged Gull along coast near Yachats, OR.
Cluster of Brandt’s Cormorant seen from cliff top near Heceta Head Lighthouse overlook.

LANDMARKS ALONG THE COAST

Wind-shaped Sitka spruce.

Devil’s Churn, south of Yachats. Apparently the surf churns mightily when the tide is high and waves roar into the narrow chute between the faces of the cleft rock.

Heceta Lighthouse from the south.