Oregon - November 2025 - The Coast

This was the point late in the year where I managed to spend three consecutive weekends away from home. I love home. I like nothing better than to mooch around the house doing small jobs and getting in the way. But I also like to travel, and for reasons unknown I had managed to book three in a row. The first two were OK. The third, like the first also to Italy, was a real drag but of course I went anyway and had a lovely time. I do this about once every two years, forgetting how annoying I find it even though it is entirely my fault.

This particular trip was a real indulgence. Aren’t they all? Oregon. Detractors should stop reading now as I went for the weekend which writing this in the cold light of day does seem ridiculous but there you have it. There are so many places I want to visit and I cannot possibly fit them in unless I do stupid do things like this. So, Friday afternoon to Sunday evening then, sounds like a plan. What could I fit in? As ever, a lot.

I landed in Portland late on Friday afternoon with about an hour of daylight remaining. Picking up hire cars in the US is simplicity itself and so this left me with just enough time to visit a pond near the airport to get the list off to a small start. For this was of course the entire point of this trip – Oregon was a new State. Well, that’s not quite true. Back in 1986 as part of an immense family road trip we had driven up the Oregon coast, State line to State line, and then onwards through Washington into British Columbia. But this was as a child in the time before eBird. I had scoured family photo albums in vain hoping to find a Gull in the background of a beach shot but it was not to be. There was nothing for it, I had to go again. And in fact this was no bad thing as there were a number of ABA targets on the coast that I could try for over the weekend. And as if I needed convincing Oregon also happens to make a fair bit of wine – Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, essentially my favourites. I was on my way.

With the list off to a small start, the all-important segment of the map inked in after nearly 30 years, I pointed the car west and headed though the Willamette to the Pacific Ocean that I had not dipped a toe in since 2023. I found the drive extremely difficult, very tiring indeed, I may need to reconsider my strategy for future long-haul trips. Back in the day I would think nothing of time differences and just get on with it, but in my sixth decade I don’t have the stamina I once had. I made it of course, and once I heard the ocean crashing against the rocks at Depoe Bay I felt sufficiently invigorated to saunter into a shoreside restaurant for a piece of grilled halibut preceded by a negroni. I had no trouble sleeping.

Boiler Bay

I also had no trouble waking up….I was pacing the room well before dawn, itching to get going. Coffee was sourced at a local gas station and less than a ten minute drive up the road I arrived at Boiler Bay State Wayside Park, a site identified some months ago as one likely to deliver a good selection of seabirds. Of course the meaty storm that had pushed all my ABA targets within sight of land had blown itself out a few days before and on what was a perfectly clear day the horizon was about ten miles distant. It was unlikely to be a classic seawatch, but having come so far I felt compelled to give it a go. I might not be getting Shearwaters and rare Auks, but there were a couple of Gulls on offer at least. The first of these did not take long, Short-billed Gull is very common here, and two flew flew past during the first hour (I would later see many more). I also managed to get a Kittiwake, long missing from my American list. The first part of the plan was going well. Also notable were lots of Surf Scoters and White-winged Scoters, lots and lots of Red-throated Divers heading south, and a smaller number of Pacific Divers that I was gradually able to work out. I stuck it out for longer than I should before driving north to the next spot, Siletz Bay, where I’d noted that Golden-crowned Sparrow was being consistently reported on the edge of a golf course. I found these immediately, or rather Merlin did and I then homed in. Simple. Honestly, what a great tool. in the pines here there were also Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Wrentit and Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Glaucous-winged Gull

Brewer's Blackbird

I spent the rest of the morning birding quietly up the coast. At Josephine Young Park I got a proper look at Short-billed Gull as a flock were sat out on the sand. This was a decent little spot, the park itself is miniscule but still had a Hermit Thrush, White-crowned Sparrow and a vocal pair of Spotted Towhee, whilst the bay is teeming with birds and I added Grey Plover, Dunlin, California Gull, and Red-breasted Merganser. As is my normal strategy I had researched eBird extensively in the days leading up to the trip and had a good number of pins saved down which I simply worked south to north. Of note were tremendous numbers of ducks, Pintail and Bufflehead in particular were absolutely everywhere. At D River Open Space a short boardwalk was extremely productive with Anna's Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Flicker, Fox Sparrow, Yellowthroat and several Steller's Jay. I also visited Regatta Park and Schooner Creek Pullout. 

When I reached the last one I turned round and retraced my route past where I started to Devil's Punchbowl State Park where I hoped to find a Rock Sandpiper. The eBird lists that are the most helpful are those that include either habitat shots or written descriptions of exactly where a given bird was. Rock Sandpiper, which is quite like a Purple Sandpiper, must be one of those reasonably hard to find birds that encourage people to write something down and so I knew exactly where to look, which was vertically below the footpath onto a mussel-covered ledge that was constantly awash with incoming waves. In the infrequent gaps where the rock and molluscs were exposed a small number of waders would scuttle out from an area that couldn’t be seen and feed frenetically before the next wave would send them back up the ledge. About half a dozen Black Turnstones made up most of the birds with a smaller number of Surfbirds, and in amongst them was a single Rock Sandpiper for the win. I love it when a plan hatched thousands of miles away actually delivers. There were also Harlequin Ducks here, and Slavonian and Western Grebes on the sea. And Bald Eagles!

Bald Eagle

This was the last new bird possible on the coast so I switched into State listing mode, after all everything here was a new bird for Oregon. I carried on south to Newport and Yaquina Bay, and dumping the car above the vast beach made my way down onto the sand. The coast here is wild and bleak, it reminded of me of La Push further north in Washington state. Immense logs are piled up as if matchsticks, the thunder of the surf is neverending, the sense of space almost overwhelming. I had the beach entirely to myself, there might have a few dogwalkers about a mile and half further up, but I felt completely alone, in a different world. Up in the town of Newport behind the bluff there were no doubt people, but down here looking west there were no people for a thousand miles. Taking advantage of this isolation a group of Snowy Plover sheltered in the slightly deeper sand, with them a lone Killdeer. From the breakwater I counted six Red-necked Grebe, two Slavonian Grebe, two Great Northern Divers, six Red-throated Divers, two Pacific Divers and a Barrow's Goldeneye all taking advantage of the calmer water between the jetties.

Yaquina, north shore

I took the bridge over the harbour entrance to South Beach and around to the Yaquina Bay Estuary Trail, another site that I had marked down. I forget now exactly what I was looking for, but in the sheltered sound I found hundreds of ducks and waders. American Wigeon, Pintail, Green-winged Teal, Bufflehead, three Hudsonian Whimbrel and a load of Dunlin. Once again I was alone, this is the land of the car. If you leave it behind you leave humanity behind. A few boats puttered across the sound, fishermen coming home, but other than that it was just me and the birds.

With the daylight that remained I drove down the south side of the breakwater to look at the Pacific for one last time. If anything the beach this side was larger and wilder still. A mother and child were doing the same thing as me, looking wistfully out in awe. Leaving my tripod behind I chanced it and ran down to the surf to feel the water. Bending down I had a quick splash, allowing the sand to furrow around my fingers as the water receded before I had to beat a rapid retreat.

Inland to McMinnville some two hours distant and much of the way back to Portland. Before retiring I went to the HiFi wine bar, owned by Evan Martin of Martin Woods Winery. I’d been to a masterclass when he’d been in London, a tutored tasting of his latest wines. The Pinots were delectable and I’d bought a number of them. He’d mentioned the place then, and said drop in if I was ever in the area. He wasn’t there of course, I had not expected him to be, but I had a glass of his wine to confirm its greatness and a small bite to eat. What a great day!