{"id":5740,"date":"2016-04-09T16:53:15","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T20:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=5740"},"modified":"2016-04-09T16:53:15","modified_gmt":"2016-04-09T20:53:15","slug":"oregon-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/?p=5740","title":{"rendered":"Oregon 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

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~I was very excited to locate\u00a0a pair of\u00a0BUSHTITS<\/strong> at Summerlake Park in Tigard, OR 4\/4\/16. This one is the female, the pale eye gives it away.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All birders know that one of the best things about traveling to a new area for the first time is the possibility of seeing some new birds. It is very exciting knowing that at any turn you may see a bird for your first time ever. This is true even when birding is not your primary objective, as was the case for me last weekend when Tricia and I flew to Portland, Oregon to attend her cousin Rob’s wedding. It was a great weekend and it was awesome to get to know Rob’s wife Monica a little bit better and to meet her family. The wedding itself was beautiful and the food was just incredible. But most importantly,\u00a0I picked up 14 life birds and 2 new sub-species over the long weekend.<\/p>\n

I got out two times specifically to do some birding – I went to Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge<\/a> one morning with Tricia and her brother Kevin and then I got up early one\u00a0morning and went to\u00a0Summerlake Park<\/a>, which is an eBird hotspot and\u00a0only a few minutes from the hotel. Tualitin River NWR was a super birding spot that has a nice trail to walk. I added 4 life birds and one new sub-species during our walk: Anna’s Hummingbird<\/strong>, Western Scrub-jay<\/strong>, Orange-crowned Warbler<\/strong>, Golden-crowned Sparrow<\/strong> and the sub-species Pacific Cackling Goose<\/strong>. Unfortunately we were there midday which made for harsh lighting and not many of my photos turned out well. The next morning, I got out early to Summerlake Park and added BUSHTIT<\/strong> and Bewick’s Wren<\/strong> to my life list, and conditions for photos were much better.<\/p>\n

The day after the wedding, Tricia, Kevin, and I drove out to the coast to go to the beach and take a hike. It was my first time ever at the Pacific Ocean, and the Cannon Beach<\/a> with the gorgeous Haystack Rock was a dramatic introduction to it. The day ended up being very bird-centric (can you imagine?!?), and for not planning it, it was incredible how many great birds we had that day. It started off at Cannon Beach, where we quickly noticed that there were puffins flying around Haystack Rock – they were TUFTED PUFFINS<\/strong>! I spent some time on the beach while Tricia and Kevin toured the town and I added Pelagic Cormorant<\/strong>, Black Oystercatcher<\/strong>, Western Gull<\/strong>, and Glaucous-winged Gull<\/strong>. Afterwards, we headed to Oswald West State Park <\/a>and took a long, amazing hike out to Cape Falcon<\/a>. We had many Pacific Wrens on our walk, but for me the bird of the hike was certainly the pair of WRENTITS I found skulking around in the underbrush just off the trail.<\/p>\n

I really did not want to leave Oregon. It was so gorgeous out there; I was struck at how lush it was and at how many huge evergreen trees there are. It was a really great extended weekend for many reasons and good birding was certainly one.<\/p>\n

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~A TUFTED PUFFIN flies alongside\u00a0Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Pretty heavy crop here. Tufted Puffin in flight at Cannon Beach, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~This was definitely one of my favorite birds of the trip – a Wrentit skulks around in the underbrush during our hike to Cape Falcon at Oswald West State Park, 4\/5\/16. It was pretty dark on the trail, especially where these birds were found; this photo was shot at ISO 8000!~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~My first life bird of the trip – a Spotted Towhee in the parking lot of our hotel in Tigard, OR 4\/2\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I think Orange-crowned Warblers are pretty common where we were. This one was at Cape Falcon on the coast of Oregon, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~This is the male Bushtit, Summerlake\u00a0Park in Tigard, OR 4\/4\/16. Notice the dark eyes.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Oregon Dark-eyed Junco at Crescent Grove Cemetery and Mausoleum, which was located across the street from our hotel, 4\/3\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Bewick’s Wren at Summerlake Park , 4\/4\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Golden-crowned Sparrows at Tualitin River NWR, 4\/3\/16. We were at the refuge at midday, which made for some harsh lighting and tough photos.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I have this as a Glaucous-winged Gull at Cannon Beach, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I like this shot. Black Oystercatcher flies over the waves at Cannon Beach, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~I’m pretty sure this is a Pacific Cackling Goose. And I’m also pretty sure I saw this sub-species for the first time on this trip; I think the Cackling Geese (rarities!)\u00a0we get in our area are typically Richardson’s. This was shot at Summerlake Park, 4\/4\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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~Western Gull at Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast, 4\/5\/16.~<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

New Life Birds:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pelagic Cormorant
\nBlack Oystercatcher
\nTufted Puffin
\nWestern Gull
\nGlaucous-winged Gull
\nAnna\u2019s Hummingbird
\nWestern Scrub-jay
\nBushtit
\nBewick\u2019s Wren
\nPacific Wren
\nWrentit
\nOrange-crowned Warbler
\nSpotted Towhee
\nGolden-crowned Sparrow<\/p>\n

New Sub-species:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pacific Cackling Goose
\nOregon Dark-eyed Junco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  All birders know that one of the best things about traveling to a new area for the first time is the possibility of seeing some new birds. It is very exciting knowing that at any turn you may see a bird for your first time ever. This is true even when birding is not … Continue reading “Oregon 2016”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photos"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5i3kT-1uA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5740"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5764,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5740\/revisions\/5764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orangebirding.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}