When we drove along Siletz Bay near mid-day the tide was out, the slick-wet mudflats extended in all directions, gleaming in the winter sun. Yes, blue skies today and it wasn’t even windy on the coast. When we got home just after 3PM there was our local Wild Turkey flock blocking traffic on our street.
We had picked this rainless day to look for whales…near the horizon line, west of Gleneden Beach we saw a pod, spouting spume. Gleneden Beach Park is losing its western cliff face to wave erosion so the park is retreating eastward. A time of rising sea levels will bring such adjustments to coastlines globally.
COAST-ING
TURKEY TROT
In the final two turkey pix the large bird with the feather hanging down from his chest is a maturing male. The adult males rarely mix with the hen/off-spring flocks in winter. This is likely a male born last spring but he is already the largest bird in this flock of hens and juveniles.
Baskett Slough NWR–Hwy 22 Overlook, Polk, Oregon, US
Jan 9, 2022
9 species
Cackling Goose 3000
Tundra Swan 120
Great Blue Heron X
Great Egret X
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
American Kestrel 1
Red-winged Blackbird X
Brewer’s Blackbird X
Siletz Bay NWR, Lincoln, Oregon, US
Jan 9, 2022
11 species
Canada Goose X
Bufflehead 20
Hooded Merganser 2
Red-breasted Merganser 1
Eared Grebe 1
Western Gull X
Glaucous-winged Gull X
Double-crested Cormorant X
Great Blue Heron 2
Great Egret 6
American Crow X
Boiler Bay State Wayside, Lincoln, Oregon, US
Jan 9, 2022
13 species (+1 other taxa)
Surf Scoter X
Black Oystercatcher 1
Common Murre 4
Western Gull X
Glaucous-winged Gull X
Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid) X
Red-throated Loon 1
Pacific Loon 1
Brandt’s Cormorant X
Pelagic Cormorant X
Double-crested Cormorant X
American Crow 15
European Starling 1
Brewer’s Blackbird 12
954 Ratcliff Drive SE, Marion, Oregon, US
Jan 9, 2022
12 species
Wild Turkey 14–no peacocks in this flock today
Mourning Dove X
Northern Flicker 1
Steller’s Jay X
California Scrub-Jay X
American Crow X
Bewick’s Wren 1
Pine Siskin X
American Goldfinch X
Fox Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco X
Golden-crowned Sparrow 1
Towheeblog 
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