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Birdwatching in Cannon Beach

Tips and Resources from Local Birders

Birds are everywhere - join the millions of other birders or birdwatchers and start looking for them!  Getting started can be tricky: where do you go?  What do you need? What am I looking at?  Fortunately, there are many resources to help you on your way!  The most important thing is to get out there and get started looking!

 

Here are a few things to help your birding journey

Gear - To start, all you need is a guide!  But many people prefer to use binoculars, cameras, or spotting scopes to get a close-up view of the birds.  You can purchase many options for optics in all ranges of prices.  BH Photo Video is a great place to look for optic and photography gear.  Most birders start with a pair of binoculars 8X42 (referring to magnification and objective), but there are many different options.

Reference Guides - Many reference guides can help you on your birding journey.  Some books you may look at purchasing are:

There are some great free resources, as well.  Merlin and Audubon offer great apps to help you identify what you see.  These apps have much information about the range, facts, and calls for species.

Community Science - You can use your birding to do good!  Submit your lists to eBird and your photos to iNaturalist.  Your bird list and images can provide valuable data to scientists and researchers who may use that data to learn more about birds and our world! 

Also, both eBird and iNaturalist are great tools for tracking your sightings.  They can help you figure out where to go to see birds, what birds you need for your lists, and more. 

Of course, these things are just suggestions.  The beautiful thing about birding is that you can do it any way you want.  You can build your list, enjoy backyard birds, or travel worldwide searching for rarities! 

Silver Point

Seasonal Changes

Many birds on the Oregon Coast come and go with the seasons; some migrate here in the winter, others migrate away, and then some stick around year-round. 

Winter - Although it can be cold and rainy on the Oregon Coast during the winter, it can be an excellent time for birds!  Offshore storms drive rare species closer to shore, so there is potential for Red Phalaropes, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and more.  This is also migratory duck season, so check out some sheltered ponds to see what is hanging out for the winter.

Spring - This is the time that birds get ready to start breeding.  The Tufted Puffins, cormorants, and others return to Haystack Rock.  American Robins return to the fields and parks, and Red-winged Blackbirds, the Bird of Cannon Beach, fill the wetlands with their harsh song and flash the red badges on their shoulders.

Summer - Summer is a great time to visit the forests looking for Western Tanagers, Evening Grosbeaks, and Hermit Warblers.  Cool off at the beach to see fluffy Black Oystercatcher chicks, Tufted Puffins, and Common Murres flapping at impressive speeds around Haystack Rock.  You may see Brown Pelicans soaring in line over the waves in late summer.  Swainson’s Thrush and Varied Thrush calls fill the streets and tree-filled areas of town.

Fall - The fall shorebird migration allows you to work on your “peeps” sea ducks begin to move back through, and sea watching from bluffs can be rewarded with Sooty Shearwaters.  Search for Greater White-fronted Geese, American Coots, and Townsend’s Warblers at the Cannon Beach Settling Ponds.

Resources

Birdwatching Locations: Check out these Good Spots
Near Tillamook Head
Volunteer Opportunities

The Portland Audubon offers some fun and educational community science projects that you can participate in if you are in Cannon Beach at the right time of year.  Be aware that many of them do require some training.

Suppose you are visiting in late December or early January. In that case, you may be able to participate in the annual Christmas Bird Count, America's longest-running and most extensive community science project.  The National Audubon Society organizes this project. While Cannon Beach does not have a circle of its own, at this time, the mouth of the Columbia River is the center of a habitat-rich, fun-to-bird Christmas Bird Count circle.  Be sure to register early!

If educating visitors at Haystack Rock is your idea of a low tide well spent, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program could use your help teaching visitors about the abundance of tidal life and helping to protect this iconic monolith for future generations.

Learn More

There are lots of ways to learn more about birding. Cornell Lab of Ornithology provides incredible information about birds and exciting tips for birding. 

Additionally, there are a variety of podcasts about the subject, including Hannah and Erik Go Birding, a show by our local Cannon Beach couple that covers birding topics that span the world. Feel free to stop by their hotel, the Sea Breeze Court, with any birding questions!

You can check out the Oregon Birding Trails website to find more locations around Oregon Birding Trails website. There is a lot to see and do...the first step is to get outside!

 

Writer Bio

Hannah's birding origin story happened during a required college course at Oregon State University and being stumped at the question on the midterm: how does a Dark-eyed Junco fly?  She and Erik, high school sweethearts, went out on their first birding outing that weekend to figure out what a Dark-eyed Junco is and hasn't stopped since.  This has led to careers as park rangers, biologists, and educators in Oregon, Texas, and Florida before returning home to Cannon Beach to run the family motel, the Sea Breeze Court.  They travel around the world to look at birds, compete in birding competitions, and guide and speak at birding festivals.  

While driving around Florida from site to site, Hannah and Erik would listen to birding podcasts.  But they never really heard anyone talk about the excitement and adventure of birding, where to go, and what is really going on in the birding community...so they decided to do it.  In the time since their first episode was released in June 2018, they've had some fun experiences, talked to interesting people, and traveled to incredible places.  They feel that birding is about the places you go, people you meet, and birds you see.  Anyone can go birding and you can do it your own way, but the first step is to give it a try.

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