So, What's a Pelagic Trip?

Parasitic Jaeger

The emphasis this week has been on sea birds primarily because I spent two days last week seeking them out. There many families of birds that spend all or almost all of their life at sea. They tend to live longer than most land birds and spend a lot of time with their young which often only number one or two chicks. Some species nest a fair distance from land yet they are built to dive for fish so they must travel some distances for the food to feed their young. An example of an Oregon bird that fits this category is the Marbled Murlet. They fly inland on the coastal range in old growth forest, seeking huge conifers with large branches to nest on. They then travel back and forth to the ocean to get the food to feed their young. Another Oregon Pelagic bird that everyone loves is the Tufted Puffin that nest on Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach.

Sea birds are often refereed to as Pelagic birds which simply means birds that seek open Oceans for their habitat and food. Each year throughout the world, expert sea birders organize pelagic birding trips that specialize in plying the ocean waters in search of these wonderful birds. Some of these trips only go off shore a short distance and return in four or five hours where others travel 40 to 60 miles off shore and last all day or sometimes two days. Many of these birds do not come near land except in their nesting grounds so this would be the only way to see them.

Pelagic Bird trip on the Quaddy Link Whale Watch boat

Last weekend, I went on a five hour Pelagic trip out of the port of St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. The trip was operated by a Whale Watch Company but was organized to search for sea birds. We went out into the Bay of Fundy and around Deer Island and also near Campabello Island. We saw large flocks of Gulls and this is the list of Pelagic birds That I saw.

 

Razorbill

Greater Shearwater

Sometimes you get lucky and get a whale, this is a Minke Whale

Herring Gull

Black Guillemot

Surf Scoter

White-winged Scoter

Double Crested Cormorant

Great Cormorant

Ring-billed Gull

Little Gull, this was a life bird for me, one I had never seen

Greater Black-backed Gull

Bonaparte's Gull

Common Eider

Parasitic Jaeger

Black-legged Kittiwake

Common Tern

Now, for this week's update on the Amazing Bird Race list.

142 Swamp Sparrow, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada

143 Blue-headed Vireo, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada

144 Black Guillemot, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada

145 Surf Scoter, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada

146 Spruce Grouse, Topsfield, Maine

147 Gray Jay, Topsfield, Maine

148 Brown Creeper, Topsfield Maine

149 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

150 Red-eyed Viero, St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

151 Black-bellied Plover, St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

152 Lincoln's Sparrow, St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

153 Golden-crowned Kinglet, St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada

154 Great Shearwater, Grand Manan Ferry, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

155 Northern Gannett, Grand Manan Ferry, Charlotte County, New Brunswick, Canada

156 Red-breasted Merganser, Grand Manan Island, Charlotte County, New Burnswick Canada

157 Ruffed Grouse, Grand Manan Island, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

158 Semipalmated Plover, Grand Manan Island, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

159 Sanderling, Grand Manan Island, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

160 White-winged Scoter, Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

161 Great Cormorant, Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

162 Parasitic Jaeger, Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

163 Little Gull, (life bird)Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

164 Black-legged Kittiwake, Bay of Fundy, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

165 Razorbill, Whitehead Island Ferry, Charlotte County, New Brunswick Canada

166 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, St Stevens, New Brunswick, Canada

Little Gull, another life bird

Black-legged Kittiwake

Molting and Bird of the Week Number 5

Five males and one female in flight

Female

Bird feathers are made of a substance very similar to your fingernails. Feathers are constantly wearing out and must be replaced and most birds are constantly replacing some feathers and this process is known as molting. Molting occurs in response to a mixture of hormonal changes brought about by seasonal changes. The entire process is complex and many questions remain regarding how the process is controlled. It takes a lot of energy to build new feathers. Molting is, therefore, often timed to coincide with periods of less strenuous demands, such as after nesting or just before migration.

When Do Birds Molt?
Most birds molt but once per year. Several, though have two molts every year. Some birds experience more wear and tear on their feathers - whether it is from long migrations or foraging through trees and brush - and require that extra molt to keep their feathers in shape.

As far as the actual timing of the molt, there is much variation from one species to another, and even within individual species. The exact dynamics and mechanics of the process are still not fully known; what is known is that molting does tax a bird’s energy. Therefore, it always takes place during a relatively uneventful time of the year.

Ducks go through their first molt of the year in early summer. Male ducks, or drakes, molt first. Females, or hens, molt later, when their ducklings are older. Many times, drakes get together in large groups to molt. They pick a safe place to stay, usually a large wetland. Molting is a dangerous time for ducks. They can't fly while their new wing feathers are growing in. So, molting ducks spend most of their time hiding in tall grass or floating out in deeper waters.

So, this brings us to the bird of the week. Some clues are that this is a sea duck and they do not range in Oregon. I went on a pelagic trip out into the Bay of Fundy off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada this past week and we came across several rafts of these ducks. This time of year the males and females separate and we came across some rafts of each. The males had already molted and were flying. The females were still in molt so they could not fly, and as the boat approached  they had to swim really fast to get away from us. The video is a bit shakier than usual due to the movement of the boat but you can see the birds fairly well.   It was an awesome site to see them.

http://youtu.be/NnGvz-Z0s0Q

The Annual Hawk Watch

Todd Watts is in charge of the Hawk Watch on Greenlaw Mountain in Charlotte County, NB Canada.  Here he is scanning the ridges and hills for migrating hawks.  550 hawks, primarily Broad-winged Hawks came by on this day. 

A little over a dozen birders made the trek up the mountain to help put eyes in the sky and pick out the migrating hawks.

It's Hawk watch season once again and the students at Three Sisters School are in for a treat this week. Every fall, several million hawks leave their northern breeding grounds and move south, many to South America. As soon as this migration begins, an army of scientists, Ornithologists, birders and other interested people assemble at locations along the migratory pathways, to observe, identify, and count the numbers of birds as they migrate south. Hawk watching was established to conserve our environment through education, long-term monitoring, and scientific research on raptors as indicators of ecosystem health. You will be going to Greenridge, the hawk watch location in central Oregon. My friend Mr Kimdel Owen and possibly a couple other of our birding friends will be accompanying you and they will have a wealth of information to tell you about how to watch and identify hawks and why it is so important to continue to monitor them.

Sharp-shined Hawk

Broad-winged Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

I am lucky to be really close to a hawk watch location while visiting my sister here in New Brunswick, Canada.   Migrating hawks are looking for places where the air temperature provides air currents called thermals that allow them to get easy lift and gain altitude so they can cruise for hours following the ridges of mountains and the coast line of the oceans. Most hawk watch sites are on an elevated position usually at the front of a ridge so birds traveling up the valleys can be observed as they seek the ridge to get best advantage of the thermal air currents. The location here is on Greenlaw Mountain with a great view of the St Croix River and the hills and ridges of the province of New Brunswick. The day I was up there we saw about 550 birds of Prey and this is the list of birds that came by

Broad-winged Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

Sharp-shined Hawk

Merlin

American Kestrel

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Osprey

Turkey Vulture

Most hawk watch locations have a garden owl sculpture erected on a pole to draw in the occasional hawk.  Hawks view owls as the enemy and will aggressively attack them if they see them.  This Sharp-shined Hawk just took a dive at the "bait"

Have a great hawk watch on Thursday and I will be interested in seeing what your list will be from Greenridge

Here is the Big Year list update:

131 American Black Duck, St Andrews, NB, Canada

132 Green-winged Teal, St Andrews, NB, Canada

133 Common Eider, St Andrews, NB, Canada

134 Wimbrel, St Andrews, NB, Canada – this was a fun bird because it was the first one my brother-in-law has seen in this county having lived here twenty years.

135 Herring Gull, St Andrews, NB, Canada

136 Greater Black-backed Gull, St Andrews, NB, Canada

137 Northern Parula, St Andrews, NB, Canada

138 Black-throated Green Warbler, St Andrews, NB, Canada

139 Purple Finch, St Andrews, NB, Canada

Wimbrel, found in St Andrews NB, Canada.  My brother-in-law, a birder, has lived in this town for 20 years and this was his first Wimbrel in the county. 

and a couple of stragglers that I forgot to put on the list previously.

140 Warbling Vireo, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Ohio

141 Marsh Wren, Sumerset County, Maine

Bird of the Week, Number 4

Female on the nest

Hello Three Sisters Students, I am now in the middle of the third week of the Amazing Bird Race. I hope you are enjoying my progress. I have more birds to add to the list and I will post them Tuesday or Wednesday when I post about hawk watching. One thing I do not remember is weather or not you have Canada on the bulletin board map. I hope you do because I will be in the province of New Brunswick, Canada where my sister lives. We plan to be here for about ten more days and I will be going on several birding adventures. The first was a hawk watch that is held nearby and I will talk more about this in the next post.

Since this is the week you go on your hawk watch, I have chosen a raptor as bird of the week. This Hawk is a western hawk that nests in Oregon but by now will be on it's way to Central and South America for the winter. There is a slight possibility that you could see one on the hawk watch this week as they could be migrating from Southern Canada, which is the northern limit of their range. Another thing to mention concerning this bird, it is in the Buteo family and several of the hawks in this family have light and dark plumage. Good luck with this beautiful bird. I photographed him in Burns, at the farm of a friend of mine. These birds had built a nest in a large pine right in their yard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqbg922M0Qw   

Ohio Birding

American Golden Plover

 We arrived in Ohio on September 12 and I decided to go to a wildlife area called Killdeer Plains that I knew about from our six months in Columbus back in 2004. There were lots of shorebirds and waders but they were very far away and I did not bring my telescope so I was at a disadvantage. I did find what I am pretty sure is an American Golden Plover. The winter Plumage of the American Golden Plover and the Black-bellied Plover are very similar. I think it is a Golden Plover based on the prominent dot behind the eye that should be almost non existent in the Black-bellied. Some other birders that saw this bird the next day thought it was a Black-bellied but I am sticking to my ID for now.

I then chased the Reddish Egret on Saturday Afternoon and Sunday morning we drove across Ohio and stopped in at shore of Lake Erie at Headland Dunes State Park and found the reported Northern Wheatear, which was a life bird for me. 

Northern Wheatear

Here is the list update as the big year continues...

115 American Golden Plover, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Ohio

116 Acadian Flycatcher, Hardin County, Ohio

117 Carolina Chickadee, Hardin County, Ohio

118 House Wren, Hardin County, Ohio

119 Tennessee Warbler, Hardin County, Ohio

120 American Redstart, Hardin County, Ohio

121 Chestnut-sided Warbler, Hardin County, Ohio

122 Brown-headed Cowbird, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Ohio

123 Red-shouldered Hawk, along Hwy 30 Eastern Ohio

124 Pectoral Sandpiper, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Ohio

125 Northern Mockingbird, Killdeer Plains Wildlife Area, Ohio

126 Reddish Egret, Delaware County, Ohio

127 Bonaparte's Gull, Headland Dunes State Park, Ohio

128 Northern Wheatear, Headland Dunes State Park, Ohio

129 Yellow Warbler, Headland Dunes State Park, Ohio

130 Palm Warbler, Headland Dunes State Park, Ohio

Bird of the Week 3

For the Bird of the week this week I present you with an interesting challenge. This bird does range in part of North America but it does not range in Ohio where I found it. I think this is the second or third record for Ohio. Another clue is that this plumage is uncommon and the other plumage is what this bird is know for. See what you can find out about the interesting feeding behavior of this bird.

Here is a short video of the bird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89rXiF8oBII&feature=youtu.be

Where In The World Is Don Sutherland?

In The Big Woods at Quincy Bluffs County Park

In the big woods.  For the past two days I have been hiking trails in the big woods of the heartland in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This morning we spent about two hours in a county park in central Wisconsin.  There are still plenty of forest birds around and warbler migration is in full swing.  Pictures of warblers are hard to come by because they spend all their time foraging for insects on the leaves of the upper canopy and are usually twenty to thirty feet above hopping about in the leaves which makes it hard to see them.  I had my first eastern warblers of the trip today and actully got lucky with this Blackburnian Warbler even though it is the underside and behind branches.  Also today was the first sighting of one of my favorite birds, the Red-headed Woodpecker

Blackburnian Warbler

Red-headed Woodpecker

Bird list update:

103 Red-bellied Woodpecker, Round Lake Mimmesota
104 Blue Jay, Round Lake Mimmesota
105 Northern Cardinal, Round Lake Mimmesota
106 Wood Duck, Round Lake Mimmesota
107 Wild Turkey, on Interstate 94, central Wisconsin
108 Eastern Bluebird, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
109 Red-headed Woodpecker, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
110 Eastern Wood Peewee, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
111 Blackburnian Warbler, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
112 Black and White Warbler, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
113 Broad-winged Hawk, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin
114 Eastern Towhee, Quincey Bluff County Park, Adams County, Wisconsin

Principles of Bird Identification

Good morning Three Sisters students and welcome to another Amazing Bird Race blog post. When I see a bird there are seven things that I use to determine what it is.

Size

Shape

Call or song

What's known as field marks

Behavior

Habitat

Range, where it normally lives in the world

Size is pretty self explanatory but it can be difficult to judge size if you are looking at a single bird.

Shape is probably one of the first things you use to determine the species of bird. As soon as you see a bird you get the sense of its shape. There are experienced birders that only need shape to differentiate many bird species.

Often, a bird is heard well before it is seen. Experienced birders know the individual bird songs and in many instances, this is the only way you can be sure of the ID Some species look so much alike, you need to hear their call or song to tell them apart.

Field marks are what most people think of first when they want to try to identify a bird. Such things as color, markings, the size and shape of the bill, and wing projection are some of the main field marks used to tell one species from another

How a bird behaves can go a long way to separating one bird from another. I count how they fly as a behavior and sometimes that is all you need to see to at least determine what family it is in. If it is hovering around your face checking out your red shirt, it is probably a hummingbird.

Some birds are very specific to what type of habitat they occupy and others will fly around in different habitats but during breeding season, all birds are usually found in their preferred habitat.

Some birds can be found all over the world but most birds have specific areas of the globe that they prefer and knowing the range of the bird helps eliminate some species from the list of possibilities. You always have to be aware however that they do have wings, and sometimes birds stray far from their normal range.

By now, I trust you have studied the bird of the week. Congratulations on the correct ID.  In North America there are two small woodpeckers that occupy the same range which is most of the continent, and they present a bit of an ID challenge. The Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. They are the same color, black and white with the males having a red spot on the top back side of the the head. They are pretty close in size, the Downy being slightly smaller. They occupy the same habitat and forage for food in the same way.

The first field mark and in fact the best field mark to tell the difference between Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers is bill size. The smaller Downy has a much smaller and shorter bill compared to the longer thicker bill of the Hairy. After you see a few of them it becomes easy to see the difference. I happen to have a video of a Hairy Woodpecker that I shot earlier this summer and if you compare this with the Bird of the Week video, I think you will see the difference in bill size easily. One other field mark to look for with these two birds is the edge of the tail. It's not always visible but there are two black dots on the edge of the white on the Downy's tail that are absent on the Hairy. The bird of the week video shows these black dots well.

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Here is a video of a Hairy Woodpecker that I took earlier this summer at Jacks Creek.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEa9Pe3REoI

In subsequent posts we will discuss in greater detail some of these identification tools. So, I am off to find the bird of the week for next week.   

The Adventure Continues

Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

Today was a day to make miles. We are headed to visit my cousins in Minnesota the state of my birth. I lived here for the first ten years of my life and many of my relatives still live here. So it was pretty much a break from birding today although I always have one eye out for birds. We did see two Tundra Swans on a pond as we flew by on I 94 .

11 striped ground squirrel

For my Three Sisters School students, I hope you enjoyed the bird of the week. I will be posting some bird identification notes on the next few blogs and the first one will include this weeks bird of the week so stay tuned.

Here is the list for the new birds seen in the past few days:

76 Canvasback, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

77 Buffelhead, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

78 Ring-necked Phasant, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

79 Sharp-tailed Grouse, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

80 Eared Grebe, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

81 Kildeer, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

82 Willet, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

83 Greater Yellowlegs,Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

84 Lesser Yellowlegs, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

85 Great Blue Heron, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

86 American White Pelican, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

87 California Gull, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

88 Common Tern, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

89 Horned Lark, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

90 Western Meadowlark, Bowdoin Lake National Wildlife Refuge

91 Red-winged Blackbird, Rt 2, North Dakota

92 Merlin, Rt 2, North Dakota

93 Lesser Scaup, Pond on Rt 8, North Dakota

94 Wilson's Snipe, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

95 Black-crowned Night Heron, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

96 Lark Bunting, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

97 Blue-winged Teal, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

98 Redhead, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

99 American Wigeon, Lostwood National Wildlife Refuge

100 Franklin's Gull, Audubon National Wildlife Refuge

101 Baird's Sparrow, Audubon National Wildlife Refuge

102 Tundra Swan, I94 pond, Minnesota

All About Great Scenery

I was exploring the side of this mountain with my binoculars when I found these Mountain Goats on the triangle shaped piece of snow to the right. 

Mountain Goats

Today we drove through Glacier National Park for the first time. This is one of the last national parks that we had never visited. We were wishing for more time but we only had today so we drove the 60 mile Going To The Sun Road through the park. There were very few places to pull off that were not already full of cars but we had lots of good views and found a side road to walk on for a while. Today was mostly about scenery and we did get a glimpse of Mountain Goats, a mother and her kid romping on a patch of snow, a loooong way away. I had the binoculars and I pushed the camera to 2400mm for this pretty grainy shot. Birds are not as easy to find in this habitat and many have left for the winter.

New birds for the List:

70 Pine Siskin, Glacier National Park

71 Common Redpole, Glacier National Park

72 Hairy Woodpecker, Glacier National Park

73 MacGillivray's Warbler, Glacier National Park

74 Northern Shovler, on a small pond along rt 2 Montana

75 Gadwell, on a small pond along rt 2 Montana

One of the Top Ten Days of the Year

Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Today was a truly glorious day. Sunny and 68 degrees with no wind.  We traveled across the northern section of Idaho from Coeur d'Alene to Sand Point and then East into Montana. Our major stop was at Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge. I have never been here but I am definitely coming back sometime in the spring. The refuge is about five miles west of Sandpoint, ID on the Kootenai River. There are three habitats on this refuge which is what makes it such a potential for a wide variety of birds come breeding season. There is the river with its riparian habitat, and the flooded areas in the fields provide marsh habitat while the surrounding mountains give mountain forests for yet another habitat. We first walked some trails for about an hour and then drove the five mile loop road through the heart of the refuge.

Cedar Waxwing on Elderberries

42 Canada Goose, Hwy 93 Idaho

43 Cinnamon Teal, Hwy 93 Idaho

44 Northern Pintail, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

45 Hooded Merganser, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

46 Common Merganser, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

47 Ruddy Duck, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

48 Common Loon, Loon Lake along Rt 2 in Montana

49 Pied-billed Grebe, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

50 Bald Eagle, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

51 Northern Harrier, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

52 Sharp-shinned Hawk, Rt 2 Montana

53 Golden Eagle, on a deer carcass on Rt 2 Montana

54 American Coot, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

55 Sandhill Crane, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

56 Caspian Tern, On the Columbia River near Boardman, Oregon, I forgot this on the list yesterday

57 Belted Kingfisher, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

58 Downy Woodpecker, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

59 Northern Flicker, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

60 White-crowned Sparrow, Warbler Woods, near Houston Texas

61 Eastern Kingbird, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

62 Violet Green Swallow, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

63 Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

64 Black-capped Chickadee, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

65 Swainson's Thrush, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

66 Common Yellowthroat, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

67 Song Sparrow, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

68 Savannah Sparrow, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

69 American Goldfinch, Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Beautiful dark Red-tailed Hawk

The Race Is On....

View of Mt Hood from North Central Oregon

Our first day on the road driving north across Oregon and Eastern Washington. Pleasant day but not that birdy. Stopped at Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge and found it very quiet with only seven Species of bird noted. The following are new additions to the list. My followers at Three Sisters School will see that in the beginning there will be lots of new birds as we tick off all the more common birds. The daily numbers will start to drop off once we have them added.  Tomorrow, Idaho.  

Turtles at Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

29- Cooper's Hawk Bend, Oregon

30 – Eurasian Collared Dove Bend, Oregon

31 – Morning Dove – Bend, Oregon

32 – American Kestrel Redmond, Oregon

33 – House Sparrow – Bend, Oregon

34 – Red-tailed Hawk – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

35 – Ring-billed Gull – Biggs, Oregon

36 – Black-billed Magpie – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

37 – Great Egret – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

38 – Double Crested Cormorant – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

39 – Barn Swallow – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

40 – House Finch – Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge

41 – Peregrine Falcon - flyby Hwy 395, Washington State

The Big Year Begins

For some reason I am intimidated by the deceleration of a big year. So much can happen in the course of two months let alone twelve. I don't have the resources to do a really big year so it almost seems anticlimactic to even call what I am doing a big year. But then if I see 475 species it will be a bigger year than I have ever had so the game is afoot.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Today was not really a day of birding but I knew I would be outside so anytime I am outside I am birding. My son and grandson were here for a short visit and we wanted to maximize the few hours we had with them. They are easy to please and since they have not been here before, they were pretty much satisfied going anywhere to see the beauties of Oregon. We were headed down to Lava Butte so they could see some volcanoes since they have never actually seen any active or not. I decided we had to take a side trip and at least try for an America Dipper since I had sort of said that it would be the first “Bird of the Year” for my friends at the Three Sister's School. Glenda managed to find one and the kids enjoyed exploring along the Deschutes River.

American Dipper

Female Western Tanager

When we arrived at the visitors center for Lava Lands National Monument, the Glenda took the kids inside and I of course perused the trees to see what was shaking. The rangers at the visitor's center have set up a water feature nearby and I soon realized it was very active. It was a great spot for pictures and the list started building. The boys had to leave in the afternoon so we said our goodbyes and I decided to relax before heading out this evening for a little more birding.

Female Lazuli Bunting

The Vaux's Swifts are migrating through and every year they seek out roosting places in the abandoned chimneys located along their route. The bird club I belong to have been monitoring this activity for years so I headed down to the old Library building in Downtown to watch as about two hundred birds came to roost at the end of the day. This is happening all around Oregon and in downtown Portland, there is a very large abandoned smoke stack at an old school that is host to many hundreds of swifts during migration. They start coming around about thirty to forty minutes before sunset and as darkness nears, it's like someone gives the signal and they begin to fly up in a funnel formation and swirl down the chimney to roost till morning.

Vaux's Swift coming to Roost in the Chimney

Three more Vaux's Swift coming in to roost

The List
1 Mallard, Bend- Oregon
2 Turkey Vulture- Bend, Oregon
3 Vaux's Swift- Bend, Oregon
4 Western Wood Peewee- Bend, Oregon
5 Steller's Jay- Bend, Oregon
6 Western Scrub Jay- Bend, Oregon
7 Clark's Nutcracker- Lava Butte
8 Raven- Lava Butte
9 Tree Swallow- Bend, Oregon
10 Mountain Chickadee- Lava Butte
11 Red-breasted Nuthatch- Lava Butte
12 White-breasted Nuthatch- Lava Butte
13 Pygmy Nuthatch- Lava Butte
14 American Dipper- Bend, Oregon
15 Cedar Waxwing- Bend, Oregon
16 European Starling- Bend, Oregon
17 Yellow-rumpped Warbler- Lava Butte
18 Green-tailed Towhee- Lava Butte
19 Chipping Sparrow- Lava Butte
20 Dark-eyed Junco- Lava Butte
21 Western Tanager- Lava Butte
22 Lazuli Bunting- Lava Butte
23 Red Crossbill-  Lava Butte
24 Osprey - Downtown Bend, Oregon
25 Rock Pigeon - Bend, Oregon
26 American Robin - Bend, Oregon
27 Brewer's Blackbird - Bend, Oregon
28 American Crow - Bend, Oregon

 Off to a good start, especially for a “non” birding day. Tomorrow is a big day of packing so very little birding going on. Wednesday we need to make some miles so we can get as close as possible to spend a day in Glacier National Park. More to come.