skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I can’t imagine asking for anything more than the day we just had. We spent the morning checking out three different National Wildlife Refuges in the Bandon Area. The first one we stumbled on by accident, the Ni-les‘tun Unit of the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, which is brand new and has so much potential in the years to come I guarantee you will be returning there again.(check out the Trip Journal) The second one was the Bandon Unit of the BMNWR. We were aware of this one and have stopped before, but we enjoyed spotting birds here and counting. The last of our morning adventure was at Coquille Point a part of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. Here the scenery is spectacular and we enjoyed seeing hundreds if not thousands of Brown Pelicans on the rock islands. After lunch we drove on down the coast amazed at the warm weather and great views of the coastline. Now this evening we are tucked into this quaint site at the Port of Brookings Harbor Beachside RV Park. As I write the sun is still shinning, it’s warm, our windows are all open, and we are serenaded by the waves breaking on the beach.
Our second night stay is at Bullard’s Beach State Park. This afternoon we went out and visited the Coquille River Lighthouse. That’s Jeanette and Buster sitting in the sun at the base of the lighthouse. As you can see from the photo the weather is fantastic. I think it was 70 degrees in Coos Bay today. I also got some photos of Surf Scoters and a Double-crested Cormorant in the Coquille River estuary. We have given ourselves permission to take a leisurely route to the wedding, and so far it’s working.
We are beginning a small journey that will take us down the coast of Oregon and Northern California to the San Francisco area and back. The purpose for our trip is to attend the wedding of Jeanette’s son Tony on Oct 22st in San Rafael. Our first stop is in this sunny campsite in Eel Creek Campground about 10 miles south of Reedsport. We can’t believe our luck, we are the only campers here, and with my Senior Pass it’s only ten dollars for the night. However it’s always a little hard to choose a campsite when you have so many choices. In the end we just picked a sunny one. It’s a great start for our little journey. (check the Trip Journal for more--)
This Lesser Goldfinch (as well as some American Goldfinches) is one of the birds we have been seeing again at our feeder in good numbers for the first time since last spring. We have also been noticing during our daily walks a good number of American Robins and large numbers of Dark-eyed Juncos that evidently have migrated down from higher elevations. Canada Geese can also be heard daily as their flocks fly over. However, equally noticeable are the birds that have left, the noisy Ospreys, swooping Violet-green Swallows and circling Turkey Vultures, all are gone, migrating south. It is for sure a time of change in the bird populations we watch here in Elkton.
This time of year we daily see Steller’s Jays and Western Scrub Jays flying off with oak acorns in their mouths busily harvesting. Today we were caught off guard when a Red-tailed Hawk flew up in front of us carrying something. We watched him perched on a limb for some time, and eventually came to the conclusion that he had a squirrel in his talons. I imagine it went something like this, --- a squirrel busy harvesting acorns failed to notice an approaching Red-tail and became harvested himself.
Today the weather is a little iffy, and we are still suffering from our colds, so we were standing at our front window doing a little “birding” watching our bird feeder. I set down my binoculars and my bird book in a chair and went to get my camera. When I came back I found Buster in this position with the book and binoculars. Birding paraphernalia always means a walk to him.
A single sunflower seed from our feeder makes a mouthful for this Black-capped Chickadee. The last four days have seen a dramatic increase in the number birds we see at our feeder and on our daily walks. Some are grouping up and migrating as was the case with the 103 Turkey Vultures we saw two days ago, but I also have the impression that there is a sense of urgency in the feeding that is going on particularly with the resident birds. With the change in the air to fall it is probably well timed to add as much fat as possible.
