Tufted Puffins - billing

Tufted Puffins on Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon 8/22/24. They are "billing" - a courtship display. They form long-lasting pair bonds, and both adults incubate their egg, then feed and protect their chick while it stays in the nest for 40-55 days until it fledges.

Tufted Puffin - Puffling

A young Tufted Puffin (which is called a Puffling) peeks out from inside the burrow while an adult stands outside, at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon in early August.

Pufflings spend about six weeks in the nest, being fed by their parents. Then they leave at night when it is safer from predators. The young birds are fully independent after leaving the nest, and will spend the next few years out at sea, only returning to the breeding colony when they are fully grown. -https://birdfact.com/articles/baby-puffins

Red Knots

When I arrived at Trestle Bay (Ft. Stevens, parking lot D), around 3:30pm, there was a lot of sand exposed, allowing me to walk almost all the way out to the trestles (below).

But an hour later, the water was quickly filling back in (below).

Here is the view looking back towards the bunker and parking area when I first arrived and walked out there (below).

The water started to quickly fill in about an hour later, perhaps driven by the west wind (below). No one photo captures all of the birds. I counted about 600 birds in this photo (plus David Bailey & daughters in the background).

Dowitchers

Long-billed Dowitcher
Adult in breeding plumage. Rufous belly; barred not spotted on sides of breast. White not running up as far on sides of lower covert feathers (compared to Short-billed Dowitcher). White fringe to feathers on breast and flanks

Short-billed Dowitchers
Adults in breeding plumage. White belly; spots on side of breast. More white running up sides of feathers on lower coverts (than on Long-billed Dowitcher).


Long-billed Dowitchers are a statewide migrant, and they also winter along the Oregon coast. Short-billed Dowitchers are seen during migration along the Oregon coast (and west of the Cascades) and they are rare in the rest of Oregon.

The birds in these photos were with a flock of about 70 dowitchers in Holbrook Slough, Warrenton, 5/8/21

Dowitcher Identification

Oregon Big Year

Christmas Bird Count

I participated in the Christmas Bird Count in Astoria yesterday, counting every bird I could find all day long, for a total of 59 different species and 1,290 individual birds.

Anna's Hummingbird

Townsend's Warbler

"Begun in 1900 as an alternative to the traditional hunts of anything that flew during Christmas Day, hundreds of Christmas Bird Counts are now conducted throughout the Western Hemisphere, and they continue to contribute valuable scientific data to the longest existing records of bird population trends." -Portland Audubon website

Lincoln's Sparrow

Spotted Sandpiper

Ecola Creek Forest Reserve

Northern Pygmy-Owl

White-throated Sparrow

Hermit Thrush