Fly into your New Year resolutions by shopping at the Medford Co-op in January. To start off the year Klamath Bird Observatory will be the Positive Change recipient at the co-op. All you need to do is shop at the co-op and tell your checker you want to round up for KBO.
The Positive Change program raises money for local non-profit organizations working to better our community. The Medford Co-op believes in the power of change and the power of community.
Thank you to the KBO community for your continued support!
Join us for a delightful evening with KBO and Mantiqueira Bird Observatory (OAMa) at a potluck on November 30th from 4 to 7 pm. Discover the incredible work OAMa is accomplishing in Brazil for bird conservation as founder Luiza Figueira shares the importance of international partnerships. Engage in lively conversations with KBO staff and board members, and be the first to learn about the exciting 2023 fundraising trip to Brazil and the plans for 2024.
And there’s more! Look forward to a special guest appearance by the neighborhood screech-owl. This is a free, in-person event located at 114 Granite St., Ashland, OR. Come savor delicious food, make new friends, and immerse yourself in captivating stories. We can’t wait to share this enriching experience with you!
Schedule:
4 pm: Meet the neighborhood screech owl, plus enjoy refreshments and food
5 pm: Presentation by Luiza and stories from Brazil
As the seasons shift and daylight wanes, we are excited to share with you some of the extraordinary work Klamath Bird Observatory has been involved in this past year throughout the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion and beyond! We also write to ask for your continued support — birds link us together across borders as we all share delight in their beauty and concern for their decline. With help from our supporters, KBO will continue building unique partnerships that strengthen our ability to advance bird and habitat conservation and address our collective concerns.
KBO staff work hard to understand what birds tell us about the natural world, and we use this knowledge to foster healthier habitats and a more sustainable future. For example, the Klamath-Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON) is a regional collaboration working to conserve oak habitats that serve as a vital resource for bird populations. Under KBO’s leadership, KSON’s Upper Rogue Oak Initiative is bringing together over 15 partners to restore over 3,000 acres of private and public lands. Working with partners strengthens our work on behalf of birds, and in-turn, our collaborative restoration work is also focused on ensuring greater water and fire security for our surrounding communities.
This year, we welcomed our first intern through KBO’s Birds and Banders Beyond Borders exchange program with Mantiquiera Bird Observatory in Brazil. Otavio, a young professional, spent six months with KBO, receiving his trainer certification and getting him many steps closer to starting a bird observatory in Brazil. Your donations have helped make this possible.
Your generous donations have contributed to bringing these new projects to fruition. Together, we are fostering positive change for birds, ecosystems, and people across the Western Hemisphere. Your continued support ensures progress in our shared efforts to protect birds and their habitats. We extend our heartfelt gratitude for your donation to the Klamath Bird Observatory.
Join us on November 30th from 4-7 pm for a dinner party potluck-style with the past attendees of the fundraising Brazil trip at a home in Ashland, OR. They are eager to share their personal stories and photos. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the upcoming August 20th-29, 2024 trip. This is a free potluck-style dinner with food provided by past trip attendees.
The 2023 banding season is over, and our staff have had time to breathe. Meet our new Banding Program Manager, Lucinda, and Martin, Lead Bander, to learn about KBO’s international banding program and internships. Plus, we will have some surprise intern Zoom pop-ins who will tell us their stories. Come learn about why bird banding is such an important tool for bird conservation and the amazing people who do this work.
Join us on November 30th from 4-7 pm for a dinner party potluck-style with the past attendees of the fundraising Brazil trip at a home in Ashland, OR. They are eager to share their personal stories and photos. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the upcoming trip on August 20th-29, 2024. This is a potluck-style dinner with food provided by past trip attendees.
Exposure to the beauty of the land of Brazil along with contributing to conservation made this a trip of a lifetime. Each Brazilian person we met was an inspiration in terms of their commitment to birding and protection of birds and landscape. – Shannon Rio
Sarah Rockwell checking nest boxes with the box remover tool (c) Sam Webb
This spring marked the 4th year of our Purple Martin project. Klamath Bird Observatory has partnered with USFS and USGS to learn more about the western subspecies of Purple Martin. Our goal this year was to place GPS tags on 8 adult Purple Martins in order to track their migration routes and learn more about where they spend the winter.
Prior to banding, our crew boated out to check the nest boxes at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) Fern Ridge Reservoir to determine which were being used by Purple Martins. We checked each box for nesting activity so that we knew which ones were the most likely to have an adult Purple Martin roosting in it for the night.
Purple Martins naturally nest in cavities or old nest holes in snags or dying trees originally created by woodpeckers. Nesting locations become limited when snags are removed, or other bird species outcompete for nesting areas. The nest poles and boxes at Fern Ridge were made by USACE to provide Purple Martins with structures to roost and build their nests in. Designed to be removed with a unique tool, these nest boxes allow us to carefully bring them down, check for eggs or chicks, and catch adults.
While we were out checking nest boxes in the daytime, we took the opportunity to band any chicks that were old enough with a red band that had three easy-to-read numbers and an aluminum federal band. This will allow us to resight those individuals next year and learn more about the return rate of young Purple Martins or learn where else they might return to for their first breeding season.
Collaborator Joan Hagar of USGS banding a Purple Martin nestling (c) Sam Webb
After determining which nest boxes were likely to have adult Purple Martins roosting in them that night, we returned at dusk to try to catch and band the adults. We did this by floating quietly up to the poles and standing in the bow platform to quickly block as many cavity entrances as we could reach without the adults escaping. Once we caught an adult, we carefully took it out of the box and banded it using an aluminum federal band and the 3-numbered red band. We took additional measurements, looking at the health and size of the adult before choosing an appropriately sized GPS tag.
Sarah Rockwell and Sam Webb banding adult Purple Martin (c) Daniel Farrar
We fitted the GPS tag on the adult by slipping one loop of a harness made of stretchy jewelry cord around each of its legs and placing the tag on its back, similar to wearing a backpack. After the adult was banded and received its GPS tag, we double-checked the harness fit, carefully placed the martin back in its nest box, and set it back into position.
Adult male Purple Martin with its GPS tag (c) Sarah Rockwell
The following day, we paddled out once more to resight the adults that we banded the previous night. We spent time at each nest box to confirm that the adults still had their tags from the previous night and were comfortably delivering food to their young as usual.
These GPS tags that each Purple Martin received will take a location point every few days for up to the next year (depending on battery life) while the individual migrates to and from its wintering grounds. Due to its lightweight and compact size, the GPS tag is only able to collect location coordinates but not send them. Next year, we will return to find the adults with tags and catch them to retrieve the tags and data. Little is known about the migration route of the west coast population of Purple Martins or where they spend the winter. These data are critical for understanding their complete life cycle and for informing conservation efforts across their entire range. To read more about our first returnee and where she went, click here!
Our 2023 field efforts were supported by the Greenfield Hartline Habitat Conservation Fund and the Purple Martin Conservation Association.
November (December) can be a great time of year to enjoy raptor viewing in the picturesque Klamath Basin! Please join KBO board members Amanda Alford and Dick Ashford on Saturday, December 9th, for a fun, day-long hawk-watching outing to Butte Valley and the lower Klamath Basin. We’ll look for resident and early-wintering hawks, falcons, eagles, and harriers (and there are possibilities for an owl or two 😊). We’ll depart Ashland at 8 AM and return around 5ish. Limited to 14 attendees, $40 per person. This will allow us to carpool (a must!) in 4 vehicles. We’re looking forward to seeing you in the Field Of Wonder!
Instructor & Trip Leader
Dick Ashford served on the KBO Board from 2005-2014, with two terms as Board President (2007-2009, 2010-2013). He also served on the board of the American Birding Association from 2007-2013 (Chair 2009-2010).
Dick describes himself as a continuing student of birds and birding. He gives raptor presentations to community groups in both Oregon and California and volunteers as a birding tour leader for several organizations. He especially enjoys leading hawk-watching trips to Oregon’s Klamath Basin and is the originator of the San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival’s famous “Hawk Heaven” outings. He has taught a Hawk ID Workshop at the annual Winter Wings Festival in Klamath Falls for over 10 years.
Klamath Bird Observatory follows CDC guidelines. KBO events are being offered with COVID-19 safety as KBO’s primary concern. Proof of vaccination will be required for all in-person participants. All individuals attending an event must also fill out the Waiver of Liability form. Please do not attend the event if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Masks are not required but wear based on comfortability.
Each spring, KBO conducts a large-scale point count surveying effort to collect data on abundance, habitat use, and bird communities. Many species can only be surveyed during their breeding season when they establish territories and are easily detected by their unique songs. To take advantage of this, our point count surveys take place within a narrow window during the spring breeding season. With the help of a fantastic team of seasonal point count technicians, KBO completed another successful season of surveys this year.
This spring, our surveyors conducted a total of 2101 point counts over 214 survey days. Much of this work was related to long-term monitoring of avian populations and ecological restoration projects. These projects align with KBO’s goals to understand changes to bird communities and to provide conservation relevant science to resource managers.
Meadow Lark by Frank Lospalluto
Our long-term monitoring projects include partnerships with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Park Service (NPS). Our partnership with the BLM includes ongoing surveys within the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southern Oregon and large-scale monitoring of bird populations in eastern Oregon as a part of the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program. With over 1,000 detections, Western Meadowlarks continue to be one of our most frequently observed species on our IMBCR surveys. Other notable species include Horned Lark, Sagebrush Sparrow, and Gray Flycatcher, each of which was detected several hundred times on our surveys.
Pinyon Jay by Eric Gropp
In partnership with the NPS, we also completed our 15th year of point count surveys in national parks of the Klamath-Siskiyou region. Our surveyors visited the Lava Beds National Monument and Redwoods National and State Parks in northern California. At Redwoods National and State Parks, our most commonly detected species were the Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Western Flycatcher) and the Pacific Wren. Notably, in Lava Beds National Monument, our surveyors had several Pinyon Jay detections. These birds, which are under federal review for listing under the Endangered Species Act, are known for foraging on the seeds of the eponymous pinyon pine and are currently suffering a dramatic population decline. The Pinyon jay’s decline is thought to be the result of a loss of suitable pinyon-juniper habitat.
Veery by Frank Lospalluto
This year, our restoration surveying work took our technicians across Oregon and into Northern California. One of our largest restoration projects in the Northern Blues Mountains included surveys across the Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman National Forests of Northeastern Oregon in partnership with the United States Forest Service (USFS). Our surveyors also visited regions of Northern California, southern Oregon, and Portland to survey oak, riparian, and aspen restoration sites. Notably, this year marked the initiation of an oak restoration monitoring project as part of an ongoing partnership with the Upper Rogue Oak Initiative. This partnership is focused on restoring and maintaining healthy oak woodlands within the region. With more than 500 detections each, Western Tanagers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and American Robins were the most frequently seen species on our restoration projects. Our surveyors also had several exciting encounters with more uncommon species, including the American Three-toed Woodpecker, Northern Goshawk (American Goshawk), and Veery.
We’d like to give a big shout-out to our fantastic team of point count surveyors this year. They worked tirelessly to collect high-quality data about our bird communities while navigating life in the field. Our science team is happy to have another successful point count season on the books, and we are looking forward to learning more from the data we have collected.
Please join KBO board members Dick Ashford and Amanda Alford for a hawk-finding outing to beautiful Scott Valley, CA! October should show the early signs of raptor migration in the area; we will search for newly arrived migrants, birds just passing through, and local residents.
We’ll learn about and identify the raptors we see along our route, taking us from just north of Fort Jones south to Etna, crisscrossing the valley as we go. The tour will be conducted at a leisurely pace with time to watch individual raptors and (hopefully) enjoy observing behavior, such as hunting, feeding, and inter and intra-specific interactions. There are no guarantees (it’s a natural show), but Dick will have scouted the area beforehand to locate the best spots. The image above is that of a bird Dick observed south of Fort Jones. Can you guess its ID?
Please be sure to dress comfortably and bring lunch and liquids. Most of our birding will be from the roadside, and walking will be minimal. And, as is our custom, we will not have a formal lunch stop but will eat as the birds do – all day long!
We’ll depart Ashland at 8 AM and return around 5-ish. Because of the narrow farm roads, we are limiting this trip to just 10 attendees. We will carpool (a must!) in 3 vehicles.
Cost: $40 per person
Date: October 21st
We’re looking forward to seeing you in the Field Of Wonder!
Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) follows Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and as such, KBO events are offered with COVID-19 safety as a primary concern. Proof of “up-to-date” vaccination will be required for all in-person participants. Upon registration, all individuals attending an in-person event must also fill out KBO’s COVID Release Form and Waiver of Liability. Paper copies may also be available at an event upon advanced request. Please do not attend the event if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
Fly into your New Year resolutions by shopping at the Medford Co-op in January. To start off the year Klamath Bird Observatory will be the Positive Change recipient at the co-op. All you need to do is shop at the co-op and tell your checker you want to round up for KBO.
Join us for a delightful evening with KBO and Mantiqueira Bird Observatory (OAMa) at a potluck on November 30th from 4 to 7 pm. Discover the incredible work OAMa is accomplishing in Brazil for bird conservation as founder Luiza Figueira shares the importance of international partnerships. Engage in lively conversations with KBO staff and board members, and be the first to learn about the exciting 2023 fundraising trip to Brazil and the 
Join us on November 30th from 4-7 pm for a dinner party potluck-style with the past attendees of the fundraising Brazil trip at a home in Ashland, OR. They are eager to share their personal stories and photos. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the upcoming August 20th-29, 2024 trip. This is a free potluck-style dinner with food provided by past trip attendees.
Dick Ashford served on the KBO Board from 2005-2014, with two terms as Board President (2007-2009, 2010-2013). He also served on the board of the American Birding Association from 2007-2013 (Chair 2009-2010).
