Bullards Beach State Park May 15th - 18th, 2012

 

This is a picture of Elk Creek Falls taken by Sue, as I had left my camera in the truck.

Date: May 15, 2012

Location: Bullard’s Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

Weather: Overcast before 10 AM but, sunny after that

Temperature today’s Low: 48º

Temperature today’s High: 52º

Bird List: Double-crested Cormorant,Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Canada Goose, Mallard,Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Bald Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, California Quail, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Anna's Hummingbird, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Western Wood-Pewee, Violet-green Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Dipper, Pacific Wren, Marsh Wren, American Robin, Steller's Jay, American Crow, Common Raven, European Starling, Cassin's Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Black-throated Gray Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, House Sparrow

Wildlife Count: Roosevelt Elk

Last Wednesday when we went to the Audubon meeting in Coos Bay, before the main program started, there was an announcement for the Field Trip that would be on Sunday to the town of Powers, Oregon. We couldn’t go as we had Lighthouse duty and John and Sue couldn’t go because they had “Plover People” duty on Sunday. However, if the locals think this place is worth an hour’s drive, then we thought we should check it out as well. Sue emailed the Leader of the Field Trip and explained why we couldn’t go on the field trip, bot asked for some guidance as to where we should look for birds when we went to Powers by ourselves. He sent her several suggestions on places to tryout.

So this morning we got an early start (7 AM) and headed to Powers.

A picture that Sue took of us at Elk Creek Falls

Date: May 16, 2012

Location: Bullard’s Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

Weather: Steady wind all day

Temperature today’s Low: 46º

Temperature today’s High: 51º

Bird List: Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Brown Pelican, Turkey Vulture, Pacific Loon, American Crow, Western Gull, Song Sparrow

Wildlife Count: Harbor Seal

We are working the 2 PM to 5 PM “late shift” at the Lighthouse this week. Kathy said that we couldn’t put off doing the laundry any longer,  so before work we went into Bandon to do the Laundry.

We got back had a quick lunch and went out to the Lighthouse. Don and Karen said they had a light day for visitors. With it being mid-week and with a steady wind blowing we didn’t expect many visitors either. During our shift we only had 24 visitors. I checked our log entry in the Lighthouse log for the same day last year. This year we had almost twice as many visitors! On May 16th last year we only had 13 visitors.

After work we attended the first Volunteer’s Potluck of the year. Even after these 3 weeks there were still a few volunteers that we hadn’t met before.

No Bird Walk or walks around the campground loops today.

Date: May 17, 2012

Location: Bullard’s Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

Weather:  Sunny, cool and windy

Temperature today’s Low: 46º

Temperature today’s High: 51º

Bird List:  Pacific Loon, Western Grebe, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Canada Goose,  Western Gull, Violet-green Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Robin, American Crow, Steller's Jay, European Starling, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow

Wildlife Count: Squirrel

Today we walked the campground loops and went to the boat ramp looking for birds. it wasn’t a very productive day for birds as they were installing the floating docks for the season at the boat ramp and we found too many people to stop and chat with during our walk.

Due to the wind, visitation to the Lighthouse was only 34 visitors.

Date: May 18,2012

Location: Bullard’s Beach State Park, Bandon, Oregon

Weather: Sunny, cool and windy

Temperature today’s Low: 42º

Temperature today’s High: 49º

Bird List: Pacific Loon, Western Grebe, Brown Pelican, Double-crested Cormorant, Pelagic Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Canada Goose, California Quail, Western Gull, Violet-green Swallow, Barn Swallow, American Robin, American Crow, Spotted Towhee, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Steller's Jay, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Song Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Brewer's Blackbird

Wildlife Count: none

We started the day getting groceries. When we arrived back at the the campground we found out there had been an attempted break in to the lighthouse overnight. Fortunately, they weren’t able to get in to the Lighthouse and only one window was broken.

Since we had time before our afternoon shift at the Lighthouse we went to the boat ramp looking for birds. The installation of the floating docks was completed yesterday so the area around the boat ramp was much quieter. Unfortunately, we were there as high tide was coming in.  With the strong current there weren’t many birds about.

The high winds continued today and visitation to the Lighthouse was even less than yesterday with only 18 visitors.

New blog format:

I have given this new blog format a 3 week trial, but I don’t think it is working out. I am certainly writing and posting more often. However, most of the entries are repetitious because we do the same things from week to week and bird most of the same places.

I am going to try a weekly summary format for the next few weeks to see how that works out.