Mid-January 2008 Update

I made it through the first week of winter term. I spent seven hours studying chemistry on Saturday, while the in-laws popped up for a visit. They delivered a late Christmas gift - a fancy new KitchenAid mixer - from Grandma Sawyer.

Keith's parents left early on Sunday morning, and then Keith and I drove out to Brownsmead, which is just half an hour east of Astoria, on the Oregon Coast. What's in Brownsmead, you ask? Not much really. Except a single Arctic Loon that has been reported hanging out there for the past few weeks. It's an incredibly rare bird. No one knows what it's doing in Oregon, but I'm glad it was there, because we got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it. And fairly up-close, too! We took several photos of it, and just gazed at it for a while as it meandered up and down the river, fishing and preening. Keith and I, and about eight other birders, walked along the banks of the river, following the famous bird, gawking at the rarity with our binoculars and scopes.

It's so funny to be a part of this counter-culture. Birders are a strange bunch, willing to drive several hours to a random spot just to see a single bird. I took a few photos where the loon seemed to be glancing over its shoulder like, "Quit staring at me!" There was another photographer there with a really nice camera, so I will share his photos, since they are far better than my own.

We also saw a Red-Throated Loon, which was another "lifer" for me. It's another fairly uncommon bird to see, but not nearly as rare as the Arctic Loon.

After our little bird-nerd excursion, Keith and I had lunch in Astoria at The Cannery, which has large windows facing out to where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. We spotted a seal (which was my goal before we could leave), and then we headed back home, and I did three more hours of chemistry study and homework. That loon saved my weekend from being really lame. And it was an unusually beautiful day on the coast, too! Perfectly sunny and warm. I didn't even need a coat. I couldn't have asked for a better day for birding. My only regret is that we didn't spend more time trying to find the black phoebe that was also reported to be hanging out in the area. We just didn't have good directions to find it and gave up because we were a bit pressed to get back home.

In case you're curious, these are photos, taken by another birder that day, of the actual birds that we were all looking at while we were in Brownsmead.

http://www.birdphotographique.com/Temp/index.htm

And this lucky guy found the Black Phoebe and took some really great shots of it, too!

http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/