Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival Birding - Catch up Tour (Day 4 of 4)

Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival Shirt Artwork

Brewers Sparrow

[***
Editors Note:
This Sisters Oregon Woodpecker Posting is part of a 4-part series on my June 2014 trip
Day 1: Arrival & self guided touring
Day 2: Ochocos Tour 
Day 3: Black Butte Tour 
Day 4: Catch up Tour - Dry Creek Burn  ***]

The last of my three day Woodpecker Festival featured a "Catch up Tour" where festival participants requested various birds they were hoping to get. Most birders wanted to go where we went on Saturday, so we re-united with our guides from the previous day and had some fun exploring different areas. Some target species were mountain grouse, Hermit Warblers, Lewis's Woodpecker, and Pileated Woodpeckers. With those two woodpeckers, my total woodpecker species for this festival would hit the maximum 11 species mark.

Our first stop was an old burn that had now become a brushy field. Brewer's Sparrow and White crowned Sparrows were present. We noted the slight difference in Western White crowned Sparrows (see above), whose eye line is from the eye back. The western species essentially has white lores while the eastern species has a complete black eyeline! [compare]

Steller's Jay

We then continued on into some forest stopping at various spots seeing what was around. We found a Townsend's Warbler with a white belly, hinting that it was an "intergrade" - having traits from Hermit Warbler. Below, you will see a Hermit Warbler, which should have a white belly - having a yellow belly - showing features that Townsends Warbler may have passed on with some interbreeding. Common nighthawks were seen flying overhead as well.

Townsend's Warbler - Should have a yellowish breast

We saw our first Hermit Warbler - I was really happy to see this. This was one of the few lifers I had on my fourth day in Oregon. Very exciting to get all four target warblers!

Hermit Warbler

The Dry Creek Burn area had several Lewis's Flycatchers easily seen. When we were there, they were very active, flycatching and moving from snag to snag. These were not life birds, but still, breathtaking to see. Only nature could have come up with such a colour combination! Lazuli Buntings and Olive sided Flycatchers were singing and easily seen in the area as well. I saw several Stellar's Jays as well, but they were a little camera shy.

One last stop at Suttle Lake made one last try at seeing Pileated Woodpeckers - Mission Accomplished! We also saw more Hermit Warblers! The Hermit Warbler shown below has a yellowish breast - hinting of some genetic traits from Townsend's Warbler.

Hermit Warbler - with yellowish breast of a Townsend's Warbler

Hermit Warbler - My only lifer on day 4!

Red Crossbills (Type 2 – Ponderosa Pine Crossbill ) were seen almost daily on this trip

On Sunday afternoon, I was anxious about getting back to Portland to prepare for returning back to Detroit. I went to the Best Western Hotel in Sisters which sometimes hosts the local flock of Pinyon Jays but came up short. I also attempted to find Barrows Goldeneye, American Dipper and Vaux's Swifts while driving back but no luck!

The last four postings really detailed my Oregon trip and my personal birding highlights. I had a great trip and wanted to document what happened photographically and through my blog so that I would not forget about it and also to share the experience with my blog readers. Its expensive to travel, not just financially but environmentally, time not with family, opportunity costs abound ... so the least I can do is document my trip. I like knowing I can at any time go back and look at this trip, my old Florida trips, or my trip out to BC two years ago and easily re-live the highlights of those trips. This concludes my Oregon Trip to the Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival. If I had to rate this trip I would rate it.... 11 out of 11 Woodpeckers! ;-)

MacGillivray's Warbler at Black Butte Swamp

Rufous Hummingbird at Cold Springs Campground

Good Birding!
Dwaynejava

Life List Summary based on my 50 target birds (crossed out birds were missed):

1 American Dipper

2 Canyon Wren (#351)

3 Townsend's Solitaire (#352)

4 Sage Thrasher

5 Black-throated Gray Warbler (#353)

6 Townsend's Warbler (#354)

7 Hermit Warbler (#355)

8 MacGillivray's Warbler (#356)

9 Western Tanager (#357)

10 Green-tailed Towhee (#358)

11 Brewer's Sparrow (#359)

12 Sage Sparrow

13 Black-headed Grosbeak (#360)

14 Tricolored Blackbird (#361)

15 Bullocks Oriole(#362)

16 Cassin's Finch(#363)

17 Red Crossbill(#364)

18 Lesser Goldfinch

19 Cassin's Vireo(#365)

20 Pinyon Jay

21 Steller's Jay(#366)

22 Western Scrub-Jay(#367 - Seen while driving through Prineville)

24 Pygmy Nuthatch (#368)

25 Rock Wren(#369)

26 Northern Pygmy-Owl (#370)

27 Common Poorwill

28 Vaux's Swift

29 Anna's Hummingbird

30 Calliope Hummingbird (#371)

31 Gray Jay

32 Williamson's Sapsucker (#372)

33 Red-naped Sapsucker (#373)

34 Red-breasted Sapsucker(#374)

35 White-headed Woodpecker(#375)

36 Hammond's Flycatcher(#376)

37 Gray Flycatcher(#377)

38 Dusky Flycatcher(#378)

40 Ferruginous Hawk

41 Prairie Falcon

42 Snowy Plover

44 Cinnamon Teal (#379)

45 Barrows Goldeneye

46 Sooty Grouse

47 Clark’s Grebe (#380)

48 Ruffed Grouse

49 western screech

50 White throated swift (#381)

51-Barn Owl(#382)
52-Band tailed Pigeon (#383)
53- American Three toed Woodpecker (#383)


Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival Websites:

http://www.ecbcbirds.org
http://www.ecaudubon.org

PS: I photographed and attempted to identify some butterflies while in the Sisters Oregon area. The eight or so species below were photographed in Central Oregon.

Becker's White - Seen at Smith Rock State Park

Nelson's Hairstreak?

California Tortoiseshell

Pale Swallowtail - Common around Sisters Oregon

Hoary Comma

Great Arctic

Two banded Checkered Skipper

Ancilla dotted Blue - Smith Rock State Park

Birding Sisters Oregon - A Trip Report (Day 1 of 4)

[***
Editors Note:
This Sisters Oregon Woodpecker Posting is part of a 4-part series on my June 2014 trip
Day 1: Arrival & self guided touring
Day 2: Ochocos Tour 
Day 3: Black Butte Tour 
Day 4: Catch up Tour - Dry Creek Burn  ***]

Two years ago, I came across a blog from the west coast of a birder who birds in Oregon and I could not help but be blown away at one of her postings in which she detailed things she saw while camping in Sisters Oregon. I did a little research on the area and realized that they have a birding festival - The Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival - in late June. For the last year or two, I wanted to go but either tried booking too late for the festival or too late to get decent prices for airfare. This year, I registered on the first day that they opened the festival for booking and bought direct flight tickets from Detroit to Portland (3 hours from Sisters) well in advance.

The reason the local Audubon Society has a Woodpecker Festival in Sisters is because they have 11 species of woodpeckers within a small radius of that town!

I was lucky enough to see all 11 species of woodpeckers very well. The 11 species of Woodpeckers that can be found in Sister's Oregon are:

1. Downy Woodpecker
2. Hairy Woodpecker
3. Northern Flicker
4. Red naped Sapsucker (life bird)
5. Red breasted Sapsucker (life bird)
6. Williamson's Sapsucker (life bird)
7. White headed Woodpecker (life bird)
8. Black backed Woodpecker
9. American three toed Woodpecker (life bird)
10. Lewis's Woodpecker
11. Pileated Woodpecker

I spent four days birding the area as follows:

Day 1: Arrival, self guided touring (the focus of this posting)
Day 2: Ochocos Tour
Day 3: Black Butte Tour
Day 4: Catch up Tour - Dry Creek Burn

Had I not gone to BC two years ago, I probably would have gotten over 50-60 life birds on this trip. I got about 35 or so life birds during this trip. Those will be the focus of this series of trip reports!

On my first day in Oregon, I drove from Portland to Sisters, driving along a highway that ran parallel to beautiful rapids. I stopped many times along the way, sometimes to look for American Dippers in the rapids. At one point, I stopped near the Hoodoo Ski Area along the Santiam Highway and immediately noticed several new birds to me: Red breasted Sapsucker, Slate colored Fox Sparrow, Western Tanager, and of course, Oregon Dark eyed Juncos!

As I arrived near Sisters, I tried to go to a campground called Cold Springs Campground, which was really nice. On the way, I stopped again several times in the area and found a White-headed Woodpecker nest, Rufous Hummingbird, Townsends Solitaire, Pygmy Nuthatch, Western Bluebirds, Hammonds Flycatcher, Downy Woodpeckers (rare in this area) and Northern Flickers.

I then went to an area called Trout Creek Swamp and saw many great birds again! Red naped Sapsucker, Olive sided Flycatcher, Stellars Jay, Western Tanager, Pygmy -Red breasted - White breasted Nuthatches, Townsends Warbler, Hairy Woodpeckers and several other birds that I will list out into Ebird. I found out as my trip went on that Red naped Sapsuckers are not as easy to find as they once were. Several people I spoke to did not even get this bird during the festival so I was lucky to find one on my own.

Red naped Sapsucker

As the afternoon wore on, I drove through park of the town looking for Pinyon Jays as well as stopped off at two locations that are great for birding: Calliope Crossing and Indian Ford Campground. Both were great spots with a few new lifers mixed in: Green tailed Towhee, Black headed Grosbeak and some unidentified flycatchers.

In the evening, I went east from Sisters to Redmond Oregon in anticipation for the next days tour that I was partaking in: the Ochocos Tour. I stopped off at a park called Smith Rock State Park which was gorgeous and hosts two wren species that I was looking for: Rock and Canyon Wrens. Golden Eagles and Prairie Falcons can be found here as well.  I missed both on my short walk but had found some great butterflies! Amazingly, the most common bird that I noticed was (wait for it).... American Robins!

So this was a summary of my first day in Oregon, just poking around at a few hotspots. It was beautiful. The weather for all four days of my trip was sunny and 80 degrees (F). The air in Oregon (funny as it may sound) was so clean and clear. There is this nice smell of Ponderosa Pine and Sage. One of my trip leaders encouraged me to actually smell the bark on a Ponderosa Pine and it smelled a little like vanilla - perhaps this was what I was sensing in the air. Travelling and birding are exciting because so many things are new. It felt so nice to experience this unique area along the west coast where the ecosystem still seems to be intact. You are completely surrounded by Pine Forests, meadows, pastures, sagebrush scrub, rapids, streams and the occasional waterfall. So beautiful!

Good Birding!

Band tailed Pigeon on the way into Sisters