Trip to Wheeler County, Oregon and John Day Fossil Beds

Date: June 7, 2008
Location: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Wheeler County, Oregon
Low temperature: 34 degrees fahrenheit
High temperature: 75 degrees fahrenheit
Wind direction: W
Prevailing wind speed: 6-11 km/h gusting to: 20-28 km/h
Percentage of sky covered by clouds: 20%
Precipitation: none

We took a nice weekend trip to Wheeler County from Portland. Traveledall over the country including all three units of John Day Fossil Beds.
Nothing extradordinary, but we lucked out with a hint of warmweather on Sunday.

Birds seen (in taxonomic order):
Canada Goose
Mallard
Chukar
Blue Grouse [1]
California Quail
Great Blue Heron
Turkey VultureOsprey [2]
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk [3]
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer [4]
Common Snipe [5]
California Gull
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove [6]
Band-tailed Pigeon
Common Nighthawk [7]
Vaux's Swift
White-throated Swift [8]
Rufous Hummingbird
Red-naped Sapsucker
Northern Flicker
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher [9]
Say's Phoebe
Western Kingbird [10]
Loggerhead Shrike [11]
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub-Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow [12]
Cliff Swallow
Barn Swallow
Mountain Chickadee
Brown Creeper
Mountain Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Western Tanager
Green-tailed Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Brewer's Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch
House Finch
Pine Siskin
Lesser Goldfinch
American Goldfinch


House Sparrow
Footnotes:
[1] lots of sign at Bear Hollow County Park, did not see
[2] 5 in the Gorge on the drive in
[3] two total at two different locations
[4] nesting with lots of dramatic distraction behavior (including collapsing and twitching on the ground) at the IOOF Cemetary in Fossil
[5] Heard only
[6] not on the checklist, but lots of Band-tailed Pigeons in Fossil
[7] Very common, foraging at noon in Painted Hills
[8] saw a dranatuc in-flight copulation at Blue Canyon
[9] Just one at Rock Creek/John Day River
[10] lots of them all over
[11] one bird
[12] big nest colony on the road into Painted Hills Unit

Total number of species seen: 69