New Year, New Birds, New Friends - Lincoln CBC

It was a gorgeous day for birding here on the Oregon coast - January 1st 2012 was the selected day for the Lincoln county CBC, it was sunny with great visibility, minimal winds and moderate temperatures. 

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

It our first experience doing a CBC - the coordinator put us with some real pros - it was great traveling with an experienced (and patient) team! I have to admit I was so interested in the birds and the information that I took very few photos.

Black Oystercatchers

We spent three hours at Yaquina Head, two of our team took the seawatch while the rest of hiked around Quarry Cove and Communication Hill. We saw several BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS and even a WHIMBREL! New birds for me were RED THROATED LOON and RHINOCEROS AUKLET.

 

Black Capped Chickadee

Next stop was the Big Creek Park area, where we wandered through neighborhoods before driving up the Big Creek Road. One of the homes had 3 hummingbird feeders and numerous ANNA'S HUMMINGBIRDS filled the air - the homeowner came out on the porch and greeted us, asking how were were doing on our count! New bird for me here were two VIRGINIA RAIL calling to each other from either side of the road. 

From there we went to 73rd and Avery, near the landfill.  In a waterlogged field, our team quickly flushed 3 WILSON'S SNIPE - another new bird for me!  

Yellow Rumped Warbler (Myrtle)

Wandering back toward town, we stopped at a beach across from Yaquina Head to get a better look at the raft of SCOTERS. One of our team stayed to get a count of the Scoters while the rest of us wandered through the neighborhood.We  found a little swail between houses with tons of SPARROWS and JUNCOS. 

When we got back to the beach, our spotter had found a beautiful male LONG TAILED DUCK amongst the SURF and BLACK SCOTERS. We all got to take good looks through his scope.  My fifth new bird on the day!

Common Loon

We drove south to hit the North Jetty before high tide hoping to get some Rock Sandpipers. No luck with the Sandpipers, but saw numerous other birds including a flock of about a hundred SANDERLING that whizzed right over our heads! 

A COMMON LOON floated nearly close enough to touch.

I was hoping to see the BARROW'S GOLDENEYE that had been reported in the area, but thought I was out of luck -- however, my hubby and I had dinner at the Brewery, and voila, a wonderful male Barrow's Goldeneye swam into view below us and entertained us for almost our entire meal -- and ended a glorious New Year's day with my sixth new life bird on the day!