Towheeblog

Coming to the OBA meeting out here later this week? I am leading a Klamath Bird Observatory field trip and we arrived at Malheur Field Station this afternoon. We had Lewis’s Woodpecker, Fox Sparrow, Warbling Vireo and Yellow Warbler plus one Great Horned Owl at Malheur NWR headquarters. Lone Sanderling at The Narrows. Many Sage Thrashers still about and thousands of White-crowned Sparrows. There are Sage Thrasher galore…they must’ve had a good breeding season. There were many ibis along Greenhouse Road south of Burns. Tree and Barn Swallows were in the air. In the pond in near Christmas Valley city park there was an Eared Grebe still carrying chicks on her back today. One newly mown alfalfa field south of CV had no fewer than six Ferruginous Hawks plus dozens of Ravens, some Red-tails and a Prairie Falcon. On Christmas Valley Road east of town we had a third year Golden Eagle. Tomorrow we chase the Long-eared Owl.
Ducks we’ve seen bwtween Ashland and Malheur: Canvasback, Ruddy, Gadwall, wigeon, pintail, Green-winged and Cinnamon Teal and Common Merganser
Yesterday our best bird at Rocky Point on Klamath Lake was a chat amongst 100 or more Yellow-rumps. There also had been many Yellow-rumps along Dead Indian Road in the Cascades between Ashland and Klamath Lake. St Howard Prairie Lake in Jackson County there were clouds of Vesper Sparrows, especially at Lily Glen Canpground. In Antelope Flat east of Klamath Marsh the leaking water tank had attracted several Say’s Phoebe, a score of Mountain Bluebirds and some Lark Sparrows.
The Belding’s ground squirrels are taking one of their prolonged underground naps, but we’ve had Douglas squirrel, mule deer, many pronghorn, coyote, golden-mantled ground squirrel, least chipmunk, Nuttall’s cottontail and jackrabbit. It always warms the blood to listen to the local coyote pack serenade the setting sun.