Sarah and I spent three days at the beach this weekend to spend time with her family, celebrate birthdays, and count dead birds.
The weather changed by the minute from snow to rain to hail to warm sun and back to snow again.
Andie was eager to hit the beach regardless of the weather!
We conduct volunteer beached bird surveys at two beaches near Pacific City. We walk a mile of each beach to count, identify, measure, and tag the birds we find. On Saturday, we were accompanied by Sarah's cousin Sydney and her friend Alex. They helped us find 19 dead northern fulmars, one common murre, two short-tailed shearwaters, and one fork-tailed storm petrel wing.
At the end of our mile, we found six bird in the same area, so we lined them up and processed them as fast as possible. Our exhausted assistant can be seen on the right edge of the photo.
Northern fulmars appear to be having a hard time surviving at sea, as they were washing up all over the place. An alternative explanation for the high body count is that fulmar populations have a constant mortality rate and a higher than normal number of birds are wintering off the coast, resulting in all the birds we find. This question arises each winter when large numbers of a seabird species are found washed up on Oregon beaches.
I found a few other interesting birds as well, including a horned grebe in transition plumage and a breeding plumaged pigeon guillemot.
The foot color of the guillemot was an indescribably intense orange-red.
We saw and heard plenty of live birds as well, most notably rufous hummingbirds that were buzzing around and nearly colliding with us everywhere we went. Other new arrivals include turkey vultures and violet-green swallows. Wintering cackling geese and buffleheads remained, adding to a great bird diversity and activity this time of the year.
The ground is still covered in snow here in western Oregon, and it is the snowiest December in 40 years.
We did not get much snow the last three years here, so Sarah and I have enjoyed playing with ice chunks and snowballs during our walks.
Today, ducks and geese had congregated in and around some open water at the park.
More snow is expected tomorrow, so we should get our second White Christmas in a row.
As expected, we received over ten inches of snow last night, which was capped off by a layer of freezing rain. It feels like walking on a giant creme brulee outside, as we break through the crust into the soft snow below. Few people are driving and Sarah had to cancel the first day of Winter Break Camp at Portland Audubon.
Ice has coated the branches of the trees and shrubs.
Luckily for us, the trees are not large enough to drop large branches on our houses or vehicles.
Ice has even coated fallen leaves on the snow.
We peeled the leaf away to reveal a nice ice casting.
Mourning doves have been riding out the weather on our porch.
Scrub Jays occasionally drop in to fight the doves for feeder supremacy.
On Saturday morning, the sea was whipped up into a frothy mix of huge waves and piles of foam.
The low tide was quite high due to the large swells, so we completed our survey in record time.
We played it safe by walking back on the river side of the dunes.
The large swells and unusually high tide swelled the Nestucca River beyond its banks.
The river flooded over the road and around a few houses, but finally receded as the tide went out.
We finished our last survey this morning and returned home to find Hillsboro covered with snow. This is the lightest, driest snow I have ever seen in Oregon due to the low temperatures. They are expected to stay below freezing for much of the next week, so the snow is not going anywhere for a while. At times like these, I am glad I work at home!
The weather changed by the minute from snow to rain to hail to warm sun and back to snow again.
Andie was eager to hit the beach regardless of the weather!
At the end of our mile, we found six bird in the same area, so we lined them up and processed them as fast as possible. Our exhausted assistant can be seen on the right edge of the photo.
The foot color of the guillemot was an indescribably intense orange-red.
