WEATHER: Light rain until 7 am; partly cloudy with occasional sun and occasional drizzle, no wind. Slightly hazy but good visibility. Temp. 46 degrees at 5 am, 52 degrees at 1 pm.
OBSERVATIONS: The total of 140 species ties our record established in 1998 and repeated in 2000. A Say’s phoebe seen the day before and the day after the count couldn’t be located on count day to provide us with a new record. We could probably find another 10 species if we had someone to take a good sea birder out to the reef and could pick up another “super birder” to join Tim, Don and Terry. Access through private land to get to the Grouslous and White Mountain area is difficult if not impossible to obtain.
The Harlequin Duck flock that had been seen at Rocky Point for the past decades seems to have disappeared. We haven’t seen any there for the past 4 years after having recorded as many as 20 there in 1980. We only found 2 this year and they were at Blacklock (good job Al and Joan). Their numbers have clearly fallen off.
We’ve had an over-wintering Osprey since 1996. These summer nesting residents
usually head for southern California and Mexico in September.
The Gyrfalcon located by Don Munson at the end of Cape Blanco was a first for the Port Orford CBC. This was presumably the same one first observed on October 21 near Floras Lake by Tim Rodenkirk et al.
Amazing numbers of Herring Gulls (1505) were wintering at the mouth of Sixes River as well as lesser numbers elsewhere along the coast for a total of 1588 from Port Orford to New River. One can normally find a dozen or two along this stretch in winter.
Barred Owls first showed up in Curry County in the early 90’s and have been found on the CBC the last three years.
The Acorn Weedpeckers were again found in the Grassy Knob Road snag patch. Five were found on the 1981 CBC, but none had been seen until last year. Good job Sharyn!
Twice as many Brown-headed Cowbirds (2) spent the winter in North Curry as did last year.