Black Turnstone

A Black Turnstone at Seal Rock State Park this past December 31. Evidently, the name Turnstone comes from fact that they often use their beaks to overturn stones as they forage for food. I've never observed this, but now that I am aware of it I will looking for it.

Sanderling

I find Sanderlings to be great fun. If you are patient they can be quite tolerant of your presence allowing for interesting observations and photographs. They feed on small aquatic invertebrates, probing the sand with their beak, their heads in almost constant motion.

One of their classic behaviors is racing just ahead of the waves as they roll in, then, as the waves recede, they take advantage of any prey that may be left on the beach.
At one point I found myself just a few feet from them, taking pictures as they were feeding, when a large wave came rolling in. Just before we were about to get wet, both the Sanderlings and I made a beeline inland, literally running side by side. It was a hoot.

One of the more interesting Sanderling I saw was the one above. At first I thought it had some type of eye infection, but the more I look at it the more it looks like a wound from a predator. It's not unusual to see birds with some type of injury or infection. Interestingly enough, many of them still seem able to take of themselves.

Harlequin Duck

One of the great things about Seal Rock State Park is that you can regularly get close views of Harlequin Ducks during the winter. I suppose one reason is that it has classic Harlequin habitat; rocky coastlines with strong wave action.
While they will swim in right next to the shore, they are quite shy and make a beeline for more open water when they see you approaching. But with a little patience, I was able to get some reasonably good pictures.

The skies were clear for the first hour and a half during my visit, but then the clouds starting rolling in, cloaking the wonderful morning sunlight that the beaches enjoy. Unfortunately this was when I got my closest shots of the ducks. For some reason, I have trouble getting sharp looking pictures of males. It maybe have to the its dark coloring, but I'm not sure.
In the images above, this male is being tossed around a bit as it navigates the waves crashing in between the shore's rocks. I've noticed that both Harlequins and Surf Scoters tend to dive under water whenever it gets very rough. I'm not sure if that is to avoid the waves or if the agitated water stirs up better food harvesting opportunities.

This female caught a small green fish. Not sure what it is. I've never seen a fish quite that green.

Surf Scoter

A Surf Scoter from my trip to Seal Rock on Dec 31.
These birds have the craziest beaks. Not only in shape, but in color. It would be fascinating to be able to trace its evolutionary path through history to see what circumstances brought about such a formation.
There were two males and a female swimming on the ocean side of the volcanic rocks that protrude out of the sand on the beach at Seal Rock. It was great fun to watch them as they dodged the rocks as the frothy waves smashed into the rocks, dragging them in closer.

Rock Sandpiper

I ended the year well.
I made my second trip ever yesterday to Seal Rock State Park. The weather was fantastic until about 10:30 AM when clouds started rolling in, but even then it was pleasant.
Best of all, I was successful in finding all my target birds, with the prize being my first sighting of a Rock Sandpiper. There were at least two on the beach as I saw two together during one sighting and then had sightings of a single bird throughout the morning.
Some time had passed after my sighting of the first Rock Sandpiper when I spied a Surfbird. This started me questioning whether I had correctly identified the Rock Sandpiper as they look somewhat similar. A Rock Sandpiper was my primary target at Seal Rock and when your mind is set on seeing a certain bird, you can sometimes misidentify a bird that closely resembles it.

Luckily I had more sightings of Rock Sandpipers throughout the morning and at one point I saw one next to a Surfbird as seen in the image above. The sandpiper (on the right) is clearly smaller and has more defined feathers on its back, along with more spots on its breast and belly.
Other target birds that I successfully saw were Harlequin Ducks (I hadn't seen any yet this year), Black Turnstones and Black Oystercatchers. Nice additions were close views of Surf Scoters and Sanderlings.
On my way back home, I stopped at Newport's South Jetty and saw Red-breasted Mergansers, large numbers of Common Loons, large numbers of Horned Grebes and a male Barrow's Goldeye (my first Oregon sighting). I'll post images of some of these birds in the coming days.

Black Oystercatcher

My last post of 2010, just before the big ball drops on Times Square (or at least timed delayed for us on the West coast).

A few images of the Black Oystercatchers I saw along with the Black Turnstone at Seal Rock State Park last Monday. I had a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks, trying to stay dry as the waves came splashing in. All-in-all it was a good trip that resulted in some satisfying pictures.

Black Turnstone

The weather has been awful. Lots of rain. None-the-less I decided to take a trip to the coast yesterday. I had heard that there are commonly Harlequin Ducks at Seal Rock State Park and I was itching to go see. I did see some Harlequins and in much closer than those I saw at Yaquina Head last week.
The stars of the day though were a couple of Black Oystercatchers and a Black Turnstone.
There are a lot of small to large volcanic rocks sticking out of the sand on the beach. These rocks are covered with Barnacles and Mussels and provided a plentiful food source for these three birds. I followed them around the the rocks for a couple hours on and off, taking pictures as they climbed about looking for food.
Unfortunately, it was rather cloudy and the rain slowly intensified as the morning progressed causing the pictures to be a bit soft, but I was able to get in rather close which helped offset the gloomy lighting.
An interesting thing about the the Black Turnstone is that while at rest, they are rather dark colored with a white under belly. But when they fly, their open wings and tail reveal splashes of white. Try as I might, I could not get a descent photo of it in flight, but I decided to include the best image to reveal this trait.