My July-August 2019 Trip Report for Trip to
Oregon for Pelagic Tours
July 28, 2019 I left the Black Hills
a few days ago. Made it to Billings. MT where I stayed in a Walmart Parking lot
overnight. Never do that again. Very noisy. Anyway, I had a campground site
reserved south of Red Lodge, which will be my base while I explore the Beartooth
Mountains area. I have a target bird here, the Black Rosy-Finch, which will be a
life bird. There are lots of other things to look for too. My destination on
this trip is Newport, Oregon where I have reserved two pelagic tours for
seabirds. One is August 18 and the other is August 25. The latter is a twelve
hour tour that goes about 50 miles out. I expect to get quite a few life birds
on these trips but what I really want to see and photograph is an albatross,
most likely it will be Black-footed Albatross but a Laysan Albatross is possible
too.
July 29, 2019 I'm in the Parkside Campground, a nice, quiet place
and only $9.00 a night with my Senior Pass. It is twelve miles up to Beartooth
Pass from here. If anyone reading this has never been to Beartooth Pass, all I
can say is, go, sometime. It is spectacular. Photos don't do it justice. I found
my Black Rosy-Finch right away but it took awhile to get any decent photos. The
adults are in molt and kind of scruffy looking. I put some photos at this
LINK.
July 30, 2019 Today was butterfly day. It takes awhile to warm up
enough for the butterflies get active at this elevation and by then the wind is
usually blowing. Still, I had pretty good luck, finding three life species and
getting some good photos of others too. I find that at this elevation, I can't
run after the fast flyers very far, so I have to let them go. I put some new
images at the LINK.
August 5, 2019 I've been camping up in the Gravelly Range, south of
Ennis, Montana since last Friday. More remote than the other places I've been to
on this trip and no phone or internet. It was quiet up there. I picked up
another bird on my want list and some lifer butterflies too. Currently I'm at
Ennis Lake and tomorrow will be in Missoula. I posted some new photos at the
LINK.
August 7, 2019 Currently staying with Jeff and Cara south of
Missoula. They have a nice place in the pines with lots of wildlife around. This
morning I finally got a nice photo of an Evening Grosbeak, long overdue. I used
to see them by the hundreds at my feeder in Spearfish when I was going to
college but I have never been able to get a single photo of the species since I
started bird photography. The most unexpected bird was a Great Gray Owl that has
been seen around the area and we saw it last evening. I put some new photos at
the LINK.
August 9, 2019 I am currently in a BLM campground outside of Orofino,
Idaho. Last night I stayed in a campground high in the Bitterroot Mountains. The
highway I traveled is Highway 12 and it follows part of the route of Lewis and
Clark through the Bitterroot Mountains, where they nearly starved. I have eight
days to get to my destination at Newport, Oregon for the first of my pelagic
birding trips. I can take my time and explore on the way. Yesterday I realized I
was in the limited range of the Red-tailed Chipmunk and in the right habitat,
high elevation spruce forest. So I went out to find some and had no problem with
that, but the species is arboreal and somewhat difficult to photograph well. I
put a few new images at the LINK.
August 18, 2019 It has been awhile since I posted anything at all. I've
been camping in places with either no cell phone service or not enough to get
good internet. So here is an update. I'm in Waldport, Oregon and this morning
went out on the first pelagic sea bird trip. It was really great and I got nine
life birds including two species of albatross. I'm too tired to do much tonight
but I will post some photos at the LINK. There
will be more!!!
August 19, 2019 More photos from the pelagic trip. It is interesting to
think about the birds seen out on the ocean. A few facts:
Sooty Shearwaters (and other shearwaters) nest on islands in the south Pacific
and migrate north in their winter to summer here in the north Pacific.
Laysan Albatross has 16 nesting sites across the north Pacific, but most nest in
the northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Small populations are found near Japan and
the bird has begun to colonize islands off Mexico. When away from the breeding
areas, they range widely from Japan to the Bering Sea and south to 15°N. A
female Laysan Albatross named Wisdom is the oldest known wild bird in the
northern hemisphere. Wisdom was banded by a U.S. Geological Survey researcher in
1956, and in December 2016, she was seen rearing a new chick on Midway Atoll.
Because Laysan Albatross cannot breed until they are 5 years old, as of 2016,
Wisdom was estimated to be at least 66 years old.
Black-footed Albatross has a similar distribution to the Laysan but is much less
numerous globally. Albatross generally mate for life.
More photos at the LINK.
August 20, 2019 Today I drove north of Newport and checked out some
new places, including Seal Rocks and Yaquina Head Lighthouse, where there are
rocky shorelines. I was happy to find some Harlequin Ducks although they are no
longer in breeding colors, so they are kind of drab. Forecast for tomorrow is
rain. Some new images at the LINK.
August 23, 2019 Tomorrow is my 2nd pelagic trip. Weather looks good
for it. The past few days I have been exploring the area but not finding much
new. I have been seeing all the expected birds, including some Black
Oystercatchers that I haven't been able to get close to until today. For the
most part, photography is difficult, birds are too far out and light is poor,
but once in awhile I get some good ones. A few new images at the
LINK, including a few from my trip across Oregon.
August 25, 2019 The 2nd pelagic trip is over and I picked up two more
life birds, South Polar Skua (2) and Hawaiian Petrel (1). There were quite a few
veteran pelagic birders on this trip, and I learned that they were going on the
chance of seeing any species of Pterodroma, a group of seabirds known as
gadfly petrels. Pterodroma species are not abundant and only come to
shore to nest, usually on remote islands. Hawaiian Petrel is one of these. It
was a happy group of birders! The boat was a bit crowded with 31 passengers. We
also had a sighting of a species of beaked whale which is rare enough in itself,
but I don't know if we will ever be sure which species. I put some new images at
the LINK.
August 28, 2019 I'm currently in a Forest Service campground about
60 miles southeast of Eugene, OR. It is not a very nice one, very noisy with a
busy highway close by and there is no water. But, it is close to the Salt Creek
Falls where I wanted to look for Black Swifts. I have not seen any though, I
think I got here too late. The swifts nested at the falls this summer but
apparently have left. Tomorrow I will have to leave and head south, I don't know
where I will wind up. A few new images at this LINK.
August 31, 2019 Now I'm in a Forest Service campground in the Modoc
National Forest, northeast California. It is a quiet place and only $6 a night
with my senior pass. This looks like a good place to find Mountain Quail but so
far I haven't seen any. There are bear tracks on the trails, haven't seen any of
those yet either. I'm going to stay here for the Labor Day weekend, the official
end of the tourist season, then I can travel without the roads packed with
tourists and shouldn't have to worry any more about finding a campground that
isn't full. Should be a good time to visit places like the Grand Canyon and
other parks. I put a few new images at the LINK.
September 5, 2019 I've been traveling and stopping in a couple of
places in Nevada. Two nights in the Bob Scott Campground near Austin and right
now I'm at the Great Basin National Park east of Ely. Very remote here, no phone
service or internet anywhere around here. So, it will be tomorrow or maybe even
Saturday before I get this update published. Great Basin National Park is pretty
nice, Wheeler Peak is the dominant feature, at over 13,000 ft elevation. There
is a paved road up to nearly 11,000 ft. then a long hike to get to the summit. I
won't try it on this trip, the weather has been kind of rainy and cool. I plan
to be in Arizona and the Grand Canyon area by the weekend. Some photos at the
LINK.
September 6, 2019 I made it to the Dixie National Forest and am
camped in a Forest Service campground about 10 miles east of Cedar City. Besides
driving, I got the oil changed in the truck and stocked up at Walmart. I will
probably stay over the weekend then head for the Grand Canyon area. On the way
out of Great Basin National Park this morning, I ran into a flock of Pinyon Jays
and got a few shots. I added one photo to yesterday's
LINK.
September 7, 2019 Today I went to Cedar Breaks National Monument to
check up on an Ebird report of California Condors. For a few hours I watched
from an overlook and I did see a couple, but from a great distance, and took
some photos that were at least identifiable. Then I stopped at an overlook by
the visitor center and was talking to a Park employee who told me that about 20
condors had been seen roosting on Forest Service land nearby. I went up there
and watched for a couple more hours when suddenly I saw four condors flying and
landing on a tower, then two more landed in the trees. They aren't afraid of
people and I could walk up as close as I liked. I had to deal with clouds and
poor light but I got some in nicer light too. I put some photos at the
LINK. These are far better than I was hoping for,
mostly photos that I see are taken from great distances so I feel pretty
fortunate. California Condor is my 600th species of bird in North America.