Ellmaker SP | Philomath Sewage Ponds |Marys River Park 8/5--Cinnamon Teal, California Quail, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Black Phoebe, CASSIN'S VIREO, PACIFIC WREN

Nothing like getting a life bird at a rest stop. After a few hours on the road, we pulled into Ellmaker SP just to use the facilities. The woods surrounding the parking lot looked promising to Dave, so the group followed him in on a little path. With some pishing and hooting he called out a PACIFIC WREN. It looks very much like a Winter Wren; in fact, it once was a Winter Wren, but got split a number of years ago. Their songs are completely different. The bird came in very close to us but stayed in the middle of a bush. Everyone got decent to good looks at it, which is not easy in the close confines of a brushy area. Pacific Wren was one of my target birds, so getting a lifer as the first bird of the day seemed a present from the birding gods. 

California Quail

No birding tour is complete without a trip to a wastewater facility, and this one was no exception, as our next stop was the Philomath Sewage Ponds. It was here that we got our first significant duckage, including a couple of Cinnamon Teal. We also ticked off Black Phoebe and, as we headed toward the exit, a very cooperative California Quail. It's the kind of place you can spend a lot of time in, 4 not-too-smelly ponds to drive around. If it was my local spot, I could see myself walking around it, scope on shoulder. For the hour and a half we spent there, we listed 29 species. 

Wood Duck  11
Cinnamon Teal  2
Northern Shoveler  1
Gadwall  12
Mallard  25
Northern Pintail  2
Ring-necked Duck  1
California Quail  1
Pied-billed Grebe  1
Vaux's Swift  3
Least Sandpiper  4
Red-necked Phalarope  5
Spotted Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Ring-billed Gull  1
Turkey Vulture  8
Northern Harrier  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  1
Red-tailed Hawk  1
American Kestrel  1
Black Phoebe  1
American Crow  1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Tree Swallow  1
Violet-green Swallow  5
Barn Swallow  30
American Goldfinch  1
Savannah Sparrow  12
Brewer's Blackbird  150

However, places to go, birds to see. Our next stop wasn't really on the schedule, but Dave had intel that a nearby park had easy-to-see Wrentits. While we already had Wrentit on the list, it was a "heard only" bird up along the Forest Service Roads. Plus, Marys River Park was a good place to eat lunch. 

We found the Wrentits fairly easily in bushes on the banks of the Marys River, really good looks, and since Shari & I hadn't seen one since we were in California 12 years ago, practically a life bird. The group then walked down a path, checking out the trees. A Red-breasted Sapsucker was making itself extremely difficult to see, flying back and forth over the path, then, as woodpeckers tend to do, staying on the opposite side of the tree facing you. There was also a CASSIN'S VIREO in the vicinity that I had missed. But while looking for the sapsucker, which I eventually caught a decent glimpse of, I saw the vireo perched on a branch. Later, checking our life list, I was surprised to see that Cassin's was a lifer for us. Another species that used to be lumped, the Solitary Vireo became a trio of Cassin's Plumbeous, and Blue-heaed, so I now have that trifecta. 

After that, it was a long drive to Central Oregon to the town of Sisters, where a local ordinance demands that all store-fronts look as if they were built in the 1880's. So, imagine the streets of Deadwood crowded with SUVs.