Chat

On Monday, Cali and I took the Goldfinch-Pliskin route on our morning walk.

As we entered the McDonald Forest path at the west end of Goldfinch, I heard a series of calls, whistles and other noises that I hadn't heard before. For some reason, I thought of the description I'd heard of a Yellow-Breasted Chat. To be sure, I listened to the Chat vocal on my iPhone Peterson app. I was right! As a bonus, the Chat popped out of the bushes and talked to us for a minute or so before going into hiding again.

I first identified a Yellow-Breasted Chat at Finley in 1977, but I really don't remember seeing or hearing it since then. Now I have a new sound to be listening for.

June Walks

In the first half of 2012, Cali and I went on 174 walks for a total of 225.27 miles in 80:47:23.

Now that I'll be leaving HP in two months, my travel will be rare. We'll get in more walks and miles. Being a professor at OSU has more than one big plus.

May Numbers

May was another really good month for birding. Overall, I saw 117 species (27 FOY). I added three lifers: Aplomado Falcon in Campinas, Brasil, Glittering-throated Emerald in Porto Alegre, Brasil, and Eastern Phoebe in Polk County, OR. I saw 105 species in Oregon (25 FOY), 46 with Cali (18 FOY), 27 at home (9 FOY) and 74 at Finley WLR (15 FOY).

May was also a good month for walking. It's fairly common now to get in three walks a day with Cali. Even though I was in Brasil for a week, we managed to walk 33 times for 48.45 miles in 17:05:45. The mean walk was 1.47 miles in 31:05 at a 21:10/mile pace.

Gyrfalcon

OK, so it has taken a new addition to my life list to wake me up and get me posting again. Since the last post, I've been busy birding in Oregon, California,and Brasil. I've been busy helping with auditions and rehearsals for the Crescent Valley High School production of Cinderella. We've had two house guests, Magic and Ginger. Life is very full.

The new bird on my life list is a Gyrfalcon. It was discovered on a routine raptor count by a local expert birder. I had to wait to return from Brasil to see it, but I DID see it yesterday. The location is on McFarland Road south of Finley WLR. It's not very close to the road, so viewing is at a distance. But it's an obvious ID with a scope.

Here's a photo of the general situation.

I haven't yet seen a great photo of the bird. But it's fun to watch it hunt and fend off birds like Northern Harriers that want to harass it. Birds are SO territorial right now.

This is another rare bird that has attracted a lot of attention. When I went to the site yesterday, there were about a dozen cars with birders from Portland, Salem, Corvallis, and Eugene. A few of them ended up in a photo posted on our email list.

2011 with Cali

After starting to log distance and times for walks with Cali in September, we went on 80 walks for a total of 96.05 miles in 35 hours and 51 minutes. Extrapolating, we probably went on about 240 walks and nearly 300 miles in 2011. We should get a full year of data in 2012.

The Owl and the Plover

This week has been exciting for Oregon birders with a Snowy Owl hanging around the Mennonite Village in south Albany and with a Mountain Plover on Llewelyn Road south of Corvallis. The Snowy Owl attracted enough attention for a story in our newspaper. I went to see both birds on Monday morning. Both were lifers for me, so this was pretty exciting. There was a birder from Portland watching the Snowy Owl with me. Here's one of his photos. This owl is not yet an adult. But it was amazing to watch it hunt.

The cold and fog this week have made birding a bit tough. I did go out in the sunshine yesterday to see a group of Wilson's Snipes near Rickreall. I hadn't seen one since 1977!

On Tuesday, a Sharp-shinned Hawk swooped onto our fence and then quickly grabbed a Dark-eyed Junco under one of our feeders. Today, a Cooper's Hawk perched for about 30 minutes in our ash tree before leaving "empty handed" when Cali chased it off.

November 2011

November was an interesting month.

Advent began early (27 Nov). For about the 10th year, I played my version of the David Lanz version of O Come O Come Emmanuel at communion. It's Martha's favorite, and I get more requests for it than anything else each year.

Cali and I went on 25 walks for a total of 32.8 miles over 11 hours and 52 minutes. It's getting colder and wetter, so we take advantage of the nice days!

We're settling into the winter resident birding pattern in the Willamette Valley. The Cackling and Canada Geese are here in the tens of thousands. At home, I saw 17 species (compared to 15 in October). With Cali, I saw 22 species (23 in October). I started tracking Finley observations in November - 47 species. Overall, I saw 62 species in Oregon in November (57 in October) and 102 worldwide. My trip to Brasil included 23 species. Trips to San Luis Obispo and Palo Alto Wetlands produced 28 species in California.

October Numbers

This has been an interesting month with trips to the Bay Area, Porto Alegre, New York City, and Monterey/San Luis Obispo. Good for birding - not so good for walks with Cali.

Cali and I went on just 14 walks for a total of 16.9 miles in 6 hours and 36 minutes. But I was away from Corvallis 20 days in October. Martha and I walked over 34 miles in NYC this month (twice as much as walking with Cali).

During October, I saw a total of 106 species. There were 57 in Oregon (23 on walks with Cali, 15 at home), 52 in California, 19 in New York, and 19 in Brasil.

By comparison, I saw 78 species in September (55 in Oregon and 53 in California), 53 in August, 87 in July and 79 in June.

Since I rediscovered birding this year, I've identified 175 species in Oregon, California, Brasil, France, and Germany. (But I still haven't done any serious birding on the Oregon Coast - maybe in November.)

New York City

Martha and I spent this week in New York City. We walked about 34 miles in the five days we were here. We stayed at the Westin Times Square at 8th Avenue and 43rd St.

On Monday, we walked over nine miles. We wandered around Central Park. We walked five miles as we went from the south end at 59th St to the north end at 110th St. The park is 2.5 miles long, so we obviously didn't take a direct route.

Central Park has some interesting bird habitats.

We were there on a beautiful day, and I identified 19 species. Two were "lifers." I saw my first White-throated Sparrow and my first Great Black-backed Gull. I also saw a few eastern species that I hadn't seen in a long time (Blue Jay, Northern Cardinal). My life list is now at 320 species.

On Tuesday, we were treated to a great view from the top of the Empire State Building.

We also saw two fantastic Broadway musicals this week. Totally different but totally awesome!

Cali couldn't be with us (of course), but she would have like to eat a Pooch-ini.We saw a lot of dogs of all types and sizes on our walks around different parts of Manhattan.

Deer

This morning, Cali and I walked the Prince-Pliskin route in the clockwise direction. Between the point where the path heads back downhill at Prince's house (Prince is another dog.) and home, we (I) saw 13 deer - all females and young. We've been seeing scattered groups of 2-3 all summer. In fact, one doe and two fawns have been in our neighborhood for a couple of months. Today seemed more like what we see during the winter. It looks like things are changing ... also seeing weather that is pleasant but more moist and cooler.

Bald Hill Park

Cali and I added another route to our list of walks with the Bald Hill Park Loop.

We were walking there earlier this summer, but Cali seemed to have allergy problems. It's great to be able to walk there again - we like it a lot!

Walking with Cali

Cali has been with us for about 21 months now.

We've walked together every day that I have been in Corvallis - often twice a day. I'd estimate that we've waked at least 500 miles together.

Now, we'll measure our distance and walks accurately with a great app: Walkmeter.

We've already gone on three of our favorite routes: Goldfinch, Park Outer Loop, and Prince-Pliskin.

Now we can track distance and time for every walk!

August Arrives

We've been enjoying having Magic as a guest for the past couple of weeks. She and Cali get along very well. I feel like Ben Hur when I walk them.

For birders like me, a new month means a new chance to start monthly bird lists. Cali, Magic, and I took a long walk this morning on the Goldfinch Ave trail. It was a very quiet start to our monthly list on Cali walks - just 13 species.

This afternoon, I took Martha to Cabell Marsh at Finley Wildlife Preserve to see the American White Pelicans. These beauties have been hanging around for the past six weeks or so. But today, they decided to leave after we arrived.

No problem - we'll go back to see them again.

August 1 count: 23 species

After a summer of Swainson's Thrush singing (but no sightings), I've heard nothing from them in the past week.

Things are changing.

Cali

Cali is our golden retriever. She was born in November, 2009, and has filled a big hole in our lives. Cali is our fourth golden. I can't imagine a better friend and companion. When we got her, Martha made a point that she needs daily exercise. I think we've walked at least once every day that she's been part of our family.

Walking Cali was one of the main motivators to get me back into birding - more about that later.