Kicking Around Campus

Yesterday (Saturday) Maureen had to work for a little while. With nothing better to do, and since we could head over to Finley NWR right after, I commuted down to Corvallis with her, and spent a couple of hours lugging her camera with me all across campus. There's nothing terribly exciting to see here, but I also didn't want these photos to just go to waste, so here you go!

I'd actually planned on reading while I waited (The Wilderness Warrior, by Douglas Brinkley), but a pair of Spotted Towhees started cavorting around me as soon as I was about settle on a bench. Once I actually grabbed the camera, though, I ditched the Towhees in favor of an Anna's Hummingbird that perched right in front of my face. Such a prima donna.

By the time the hummer and I had finished with one another, the Towhees had flown out toward the street. This time it was a White-breasted Nuthatch that stole my attention away. Overhead was a flock of Cedar Waxwings, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to admire them more closely than most sightings generally allow.

Trying to relocate the Towhees, I saw a whole lot of activity in a nearby parking lot, so I wandered over to investigate. A couple dozen Dark-eyed Juncos had invaded a bush chockablock with bright red berries and were gorging themselves silly. Even though the Towhees had started the whole series of events, I never actually got a decent shot of them.

At Finley NWR, we headed straight for the prairie overlook, where some good birds had been reported recently. Our main target was White-tailed Kite, which we hadn't seen since a day-trip we'd taken to Galveston, TX in December, 2010. In the interim, we'd worked up quite an appetite for them. Maureen eventually spotted one just as we were about to give up and walk back to the car. The other raptors weren't quite as shy: Northern Harriers, Rough-legged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Bald Eagle, and American Kestrels who all made an appearance over our nearly two hours at the overlook. Distant raptors on an overcast day doesn't make for great photography, but I'll leave you with a this Golden-crowned Sparrow that was more than happy for a chance in the spotlight.

The Chase is On! – Winter Wings Festival, Day 3

For our last official day of the Winter Wings Festival, we selected to partake in the “Chase Tour” to search for some target species and rarities. Two of the birds on the list were species we had already found on our first day out – Trumpeter Swan and Eurasian Wigeon.

Sunrise

A group of fourteen birders headed out early on a large white school bus to start the chase. First stop was Putnam’s Point in search of California Towhees and Red-Breasted Merganser. No luck finding either bird, but we found plenty of RBME’s cousin, Common Merganser. And we got some great looks at Common and Barrow’s Goldeneyes. We first noticed a pair of Barrows Goldeneyes swimming by. We were so excited to see this handsome male with his bright white comma on his face, but the female was in a weird position, and she didn’t move from that position for what seemed like a couple of minutes. We briefly had the horrible thought that maybe she was dead and floating with her head just sitting above water. And then we were even more horrified when the male proceeded to nip her behind the neck and mate with her. Ahhh! But then she snapped up after “the deed” and sat up like normal. Phew! We laughed at ourselves, but were gladly relieved that she was not dead, not a victim of necrophilia, and she had been just "presenting" herself.

Onward we went to Moore Park to seek Red-Naped Sapsucker and Oak Titmouse. There was the very, very slight chance of getting the extremely similar-looking Juniper Titmouse as their ranges can overlap a bit in this area. We dipped on those species, but did pick up a Red-Breasted Sapsucker. We wished we could have spent a little more time in this area to do more searching, but the trip leader was trying to get us to some other spots before the end of the day. 

We then went up to Upper Klamath Lake to relocate the Trumpeter Swan and Eurasion Wigeon we had found on Day 1. As finding that first Trumpeter was already a needle in a haystack situation, we did not have the same fortune this time. But we did luck out in finding three Eurasion Wigeon – 2 more than we had found the first day! That was certainly a nice treat to spot these cinammony heads popping out amongst the brownish-grey and green heads of the American Wigeons.

Our next stop is one in which we spent a good chunk of our time – Running Y Ranch. This is a resort area with a golf course and big fancy residential homes set in a woodsy, natural area with great hilltop views of the Klamath basin. A nice adult Bald Eagle was kind enough to pose for photos as we all scooted to one side of the parked bus to bask in its majesty. CORRECTION: What I thought was foot of a prey bird is actually the eagle's own foot dangling. Maybe he got a foot cramp. Haha. =P

As we wondered the neighborhood trying not to be too invasive in people’s yards (although most homes seemed like temporarily empty vacation homes), we spotted a few nice passerines, including Cassin’s Finch, Western Bluebirds, White-Breasted Nuthatch, and adorable Pygmy Nuthatches. 

White-Breasted Nuthatch

Cassin's Finch

We were given permission to hang out on the deck of one of the homeowners at Running Y Ranch, and what a deck it was. I wish I could just camp out for a week on that upstairs deck that bumped up against a huge cedar tree right at the center that was stringing about a dozen very active bird feeders. It was a dream! 

We didn’t have luck finding the Barred Owl that was supposed to live in the yard, but we got quite a spectacular, up-close and personal show of Pine Siskins, Mountain Chickadees, White-Breasted Nuthatches, and the prized bird of the yard – Evening Grosbeaks. 

A little feeder squabble between a Pine Siskin and an Evening Grosbeak.

Our final hours of our chase tour took us to Lower Klamath Lake and the border of Oregon and California. Here, we were on the lookout for raptors. And that’s exactly what we got! Our first stop along the road that winded through large farm fields led us to a cliff where we spotted three Golden Eagles soaring high above. Here we learned that a pair of Golden Eagles can build about half a dozen satellite or decoy nests. All along the road, Red-Tailed Hawks appeared regularly almost every half a mile. We got some amazing close looks at curious juvenile Red-Tail who put on a short, low to the ground flight display.

Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk

Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk in flight.

Other highlights were lots of Snow and Ross's Geese, a DOZEN Rough-Legged Hawks, which were recent lifers for us and still super awesome to see, and a Great-Horned Owl sitting on a nest. All I could see were its little “ear” tufts peaking out amongst the bare branches. And we also picked up a life mammal – Muskrat. We watched one swim in one of the channels alongside the road, moving its laterally compressed, eel-like tail in a serpentine manner to propel itself in the water. Cool and a little icky at the same time. 

Ross's Geese seen along the OR-CA border.

Look closely for the Great Horned Owls "ear" tufts. 

Muskrat smimming

Once we got back from our field trip, Nick and I wanted to still use up some of the precious remaining daylight to see if we could find some of those birds we dipped on – Oak Titmouse and California Towhee. We did not succeed in finding them that day, but we still ended the festival happy at all of the awesome things we had seen in the Klamath Basin this trip. We’ll definitely come back to Klamath Falls, especially since they are known to have dancing grebes there – a spectacle I long to see.

As you can see from this little mural on a random utility box, the dancing Western Grebes are a source of local pride.

Sunset

Into the Mountains, Part 1

Mountains! That’s what we’ve been missing in our lives. We’d seen them in the distance, but hadn’t hadn’t actually explored the mountains themselves until we made a camping expedition out of the long Labor Day weekend. Our ultimate destination on Saturday was Prineville Reservoir State Park, but we left ourselves ample birding time on the way up, spending several hours in a town called Sisters.

White-breasted Nuthatch was part of the nuthatch trifecta we accomplished in Sisters

Sisters was a quaint little stop, with the heart of the town’s activity running right alongside Deschutes National Forest. Even without pushing deep into the forest, we turned up some great birds in unconventional places. Our first stop was actually at a Best Western hotel, Ponderosa Lodge, that we’d read can attract a number of incredible mountain species to its feeders. At first it was all Golden-mantled Squirrels and penned-up llamas (this was an unconventional place!), but before long the party really got started.

Either a Least or a Yellow Pine Chipmunk

Golden-mantled Squirrel

It had been overcast all morning, and they were pretty high up, but Pygmy Nuthatches soon arrived at the very tops of the pines. It was far from an ideal look, but here was our first lifer of the trip, and we were plenty excited about it. Things picked up quickly, though, once they dropped all the way down to the ground, and their numbers suddenly multiplied. We were swimming in Pygmy Nuthatches now.

Pygmy Nuthatch

The nuthatches were joined by Mountain Chickadees, and the two species danced frenetically all around us. These were our first Mountain Chickadees, too, and I was glad to see they lacked none of the energy or sociality of their eastern cousins. They even look like a Carolina or Black-capped Chickadee, albeit one that’s cultivating a tough-guy image. A chickadee that’s joined a motorcycle gang, with an added touch of rugged sensuality in its voice, Barry White-style.

Mountain Chickadee

There are so many incredible woodpecker species in this part of the country, and picids made up a good portion of our target list. We knew we’d have to locate recently burned areas for some, but others we just hoped we would stumble into. Fortunately, we found ourselves in White-headed Woodpecker territory, and a first-year bird was ready to introduce himself. He mostly hung around the feeders, but we found another, later in the afternoon as we explored a Sisters campsite.

White-headed Woodpecker

A drive down a rough dirt road turned up a family a mule deer. We were pulled over to take some pictures, when a another car drove up to see what we were looking at. I noticed they were hunters, and the passenger had a quiver of arrows in his lap. I was mortified at the thought that our curiosity might indirectly have cost a deer its life, but the hunters were only in spectator mode, same as us.

Mule Deer 

Most of our trip I’ll leave for another post, but we did pass through Sisters again on the way home. Pinyon Jay was one of the species we’d previously looked for at the feeders at Best Western, but without luck. We intended to have go back for another look, but first, it was imperative that we stop for ice cream cones. I still had my bins on while we waited in line, thankfully, so when I spotted a jay way high up and across the street, we were able to ID it confidently.

Juvenile Western Bluebird

We definitely could have used a much better look, so, after we’d had our ice cream fix we headed on over with the rest of our equipment. There was no Pinyon Jay anymore, but we can’t complain about the consolation prize. Instead we got to spend some quality time with a Townsend’s Solitaire. It was everything a life bird should be, but almost never is: perfectly abiding, and only leaving just before we would have turned away ourselves. We racked up some other great birds during trip, but this was one of the more satisfying.

Townsend's Solitaire