In February we headed south to Klamath Falls for our second annual trip to the Winter Wings Festival. We were looking forward to revisiting all the hotspots that had treated us so well on our last visit, but the main reason we wanted to get back was the overnight owl prowl we booked in hopes of finding a Great Gray Owl.
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Night-heron roost. There were dozens in just these couple of trees, and none anywhere else in town.
We met up with guides Harry and Kevin in the afternoon, along with our celebrity tagalong, James Currie. Currie was in town as the festival's keynote, but he was also filming an episode of his show Birding Adventures TV, with his trusty cameraman Jeff trying to capture footage of his "golden bird" (new episodes air on Destination America, but older episodes are available here).
James Currie
We would spend the night in a bungalow at the Klamath Marsh NWR headquarters. This was the same day the armed occupation of Malheur NWR finally ended, and we want to give credit here to USFWS who were prepared for the worst, not least because the refuge lies along one of the main routes to Burns, OR. By all accounts, the field trip was touch-and-go for a while, and you can bet that we would have been devastated had our plans been scuppered by a bunch of militant scumbags.
Our target: Great Gray Owl. This one was mounted in the building where we bunked for the night.
Spotted Owl wouldn't be a bad bird, either.
On our drive in to the refuge we had a steady stream of Rough-legged Hawks fly alongside the road, and perched in nearby trees. Later that night, this same road was where we'd flush half-a-dozen or more Short-eared Owls who were laying in wait for any voles foolish enough to leave snow tunnels.
Rough-legged Hawk
We haven't got any photos to share from our nocturnal prowlings, but the night started with a single toot from a Northern Pygmy-owl. A heard-only Northern Saw-whet Owl called much more persistently, but too far off to consider tracking down. And our target bird? Great Gray Owls make a repeating "woo, woo, woo" call… of which we heard only one "woo". A single woo, in fact, followed immediately by a Great Horned Owl. It all happened so fast, that we decided not to count it. When we finally do see/hear a Great Gray Owl, I want to FEEL that I was in the presence of greatness.
We were up well before dawn broke the next morning, hoping to turn up any last-minute owls while they were still active. A calling Pygmy-owl lured us into a meadow, leading to an exhausting quarter mile hike through foot-and-a-half-deep snow. We weren't able to pinpoint it, and settled for decent looks at a Clark's Nutcracker.
We didn't see any owls, but the sunrise alone was worth waking up for
On the way back into Klamath, we stopped at Collier State Park. We were all quite taken with an active pair of American Dippers that we'd missed when we checked in briefly the day before. They seemed right at home under the bridge, and someone said they saw a nest, but I don't think they ever visited it while we were there.
Williamson River runs through Collier State Park. That's the same Williamson as in Williamson's Sapsucker
Not sure what type of moth this is, but they were everywhere
American Dipper
Of course our attention broke away from the Dippers as soon as Harry called out a Northern Pygmy-owl he watched fly in across the stream. We'd already heard a couple call on this trip, but this was the first we'd seen. We were all impressed with how cooperative it was, unobstructed and out in the sunlight -- of course that was nothing compared with the one Maureen and I would find in Ashland three days later.
Northern Pygmy-owl - perhaps look for this future celebrity on a future episode of Birding Adventures?
Although we haven’t been in the Pacific Northwest very long, we somehow had already acquired some nemesis birds. One in particular isn’t necessarily a difficult bird to get, but it eluded us a number of times. We would see reports of a Black Phoebe in an area we had just birded, or we’d go to that area after a report with no results. What was particularly irksome for Nick was that he *swore* he saw one once at Ankeny NWR, but it quickly disappeared before I got a glimpse of it, never to be seen again.
Red-Breasted Sapsucker
Golden-Crowned Kinglet (by Nicholas)
Male Dark-Eyed Junco (by Nicholas)
Female Dark-Eyed Junco
Ankeny NWR has also hosted a regular Rough-Legged Hawk that we couldn’t quite seem to get. We tried a couple of times to look for it with no luck. And another time we super scrutinized a distant raptor sitting in the grass for about 15 minutes hoping that it was a RLHA, but it turned out to be a Northern Harrier. Wah wah. So when a recent report for Finley NWR listed these two nemeses, we knew we had to give it a chance to get the most bang for our buck, so to speak.
Brown-Creeper - Not a nemesis bird, but a nemesis photography subject. Nailed it!
Male Spotted Towhee
False Turkey Tail fungus (by Nicholas)
We had our doubts about how the day would turn out when we drove through a thick blanket of fog that stretched from just south of our apartment for about 35+ miles down all the way down to Finley. We eased into our day with a few ducks here and there in some of the ponds created by the winter rains.
Fox Sparrow
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
Purple Finch… But not purple!
What perked us up was a group of 11 California Quail. Usually when we see any quail, they run for cover and vanish into the brush as soon as we see them. But this group seemed to feel they were at a comfortable distance, and they pecked for food as we watched them for a while munching and then running back and forth from one side of the road to the other.
A bevy of California Quail
These round little footballs are super adorable and a joy to watch. They look like balloons that could pop at any moment. And I love how they know how to quickly run across the street in contrast to their somewhat leisurely pace along the edge of the brush/grass. I giggled each time one of them would inch up to the edge of the road, assess the safety of their surroundings, and then quickly scoot across, lengthening their bodies.
We pushed on and drove to the nature center as we were on a mission to find those nemeses. The first attempt was in a pond just behind the main building. There we sought and succeeded in finding a new lifer: the Black Phoebe! Huzzah! I took one pass when we first got there, not sure if this was the right pond as there was another across the street. After we took some time to snap some photos of the well-behaved birds at the feeder, we went back over to the pond, and immediately found success as the Black Phoebe flew passed us and continued to flycatch amongst the reeds.
Black Phoebe
Lovely pair of Spotted Towhees by the feeder (by Nicholas)
Next we headed to the long stretch of road with large open fields sprinkled with ponds of ducks. We were first greeted with only our second sighting of a Golden Eagle. He was one amongst half a dozen Bald Eagles we had already seen that day. We watched him perched for a few minutes until he unsuccessfully hunted for a goose. And then, as if a heavenly door opened up in the sky, a Rough-Legged Hawk swooped across the sky. There was no mistaking this one with its black belly and black “wrists.” It landed in the treetops and we were still jumping for joy when a second one soared right above us. AAAA-mazing!
Digiscoped photo of a Rough-Legged Hawk
Immature Bald Eagle
This dreary day turned out to be quite rewarding, indeed. And just when we thought it couldn’t be any better, we were delighted by some bonus sightings. A group of Tundra Swans were feeding super close to the road that allowed for nice close shots. But the cherry on top of this awesome day was something I didn’t even know existed – a Storm Wigeon. What’s that you say?!? Check out Seagull Steve’s blog post about them. This is a rare form of an American Wigeon that has that butter color on most of its face, not just on the top of its head.
Tundra Swan
I shouted, “What’s wrong with that Wigeon?” And Nick knew just what it was after reading Seagull Steve’s post. It was really cool to see it side by side with a regular American Wigeon. I would have never expected to see one, especially since I didn’t know of its existence. Haha. But what a treat it was after conquering two nemeses and having great views of other great birds.
Storm Wigeon = An extra buttery American Wigeon
Compare a normal American Wigeon to a Storm Wigeon
Ebony and Ivory, live together in perfect harmony...
