NFR Bird Watching for Beginners?

Non-fishing related
Kilchis - I thought of the shrike.

We had quite a few varied thrushes in the yard when the temps dropped. They are pretty birds. Have some yellow rumped warblers hanging around.
 
Scott Salzer said:
The owls should be calling now or very soon.
Click to expand...
Just heard one the other night when I was taking the trash out at around midnight. Was kind of a kick to pull out the phone, open the Merlin app, and say "Hey - great horned owl. Cool." Probably also why I've seen fewer bunnies around the neighborhood lately....
 
Another idea is a twofer- the gray whales are in Puget sound right now, there are whale watches out of Seattle and I think Edmonds, there are tons of waterfowl lurking behind the whales, and then the whales themselves are just cool to see. Also at the Everett Boatramp, there is a Great Blue Heron rookery, tucked up back along Marine Drive near the boat store, that should be a good site to go with binoculars, there are tons of them there right now. There is also a big Eagle Nest in the Legion Golf Club in Everett, a mating pair is there, you can see it from Marine Drive but may be easier on the golf course itself, when the tree it is in begins leafing out it will be harder to see the nest
 
Made the trip - thanks again to everyone for their suggestions. We lucked out with the weather, which was pretty frosty at night but gloriously sunny and still during the day. Hell of a drive down there, but it made for a good excuse to meander through John Day country and take in the scenery on the way there and back. Saw even more of it than I planned to on the way back thanks to missing a turn, but scoped out the take-out for the NFJD and filed that away for future raft trips so in the final analysis the extra hour of driving seemed like a bonus.

Aside from starlings, mallards and canada geese, the cast of characters that we observed were trumpeter swans, sandhill cranes, house finches, a gajillion blackbirds, california quail, ringneck pheasants, song-sparrows, meadowlarks, buffleheads, common goldeneye, merganser of some sort or another, one says' phoebe, a nesting pair or red-tail hawks, a nesting bald eagle, one rough legged hawk, and (the highlight of the trip) a gaggle of cedar waxwings by the Page-Springs campground.

My daughter was undaunted by the 9 hour drive to and from the Malheur Wildlife area, was asking when we can go back so that feels like a huge win and I'm hoping that'll provide a convenient excuse for returning to Steens Mountain company, and maybe even an excuse to pack along a rod on the pretext that it might lead to an American Dipper sighting...
 
Wadin' Boot said:
Another idea is a twofer- the gray whales are in Puget sound right now, there are whale watches out of Seattle and I think Edmonds, there are tons of waterfowl lurking behind the whales, and then the whales themselves are just cool to see. Also at the Everett Boatramp, there is a Great Blue Heron rookery, tucked up back along Marine Drive near the boat store, that should be a good site to go with binoculars, there are tons of them there right now. There is also a big Eagle Nest in the Legion Golf Club in Everett, a mating pair is there, you can see it from Marine Drive but may be easier on the golf course itself, when the tree it is in begins leafing out it will be harder to see the nest
Click to expand...
Great ideas. I was pitching the idea of her coming along in the boat to look at seabirds this summer, but she got suspicious when I mentioned that she could help me identify a species of gull mentioned in Barry Thornton's book on fly-fishing for salmon in saltwater that's supposedly very often found swimming above feeding coho....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top