Eurasian Wigeon and Coot photo taken by Frank Lospalluto
*Our Save the Date had reported the wrong dates, apologies*
Hawks and Ducks sounds like a title for a family-friendly board game, but early March is that time of year when both waterfowl and wintering raptors are present in the Klamath Basin. Please join KBO board members Amanda Alford and Dick Ashford for an all-day outing on March 8th, when we’ll look at everything “the basin” has to offer. We will follow a route that maximizes our chances of seeing the varied birdlife for which the Klamath Basin is famous. And we’ll have lots of fun doing it! This trip will be limited to just 11 attendees, and we will carpool (a must!) in 4 vehicles of 4 people each, with each car driven by one of our A+ hawk team co-leaders.
Please be sure to dress comfortably and bring lunch and liquids. Much of our birding will be from the roadside, and walking will be minimal.
Because this outing is so popular, early signup is recommended. Your seat will be confirmed upon receipt of your non-refundable, tax-deductible contribution of $50 per person. Register below, we ask that each person register individually.
Join us on February 24th at 6 pm.Rescheduled to March 3rd at 6 pm. Virtual Only. for a presentation on Bear Divide by KBO’s Science Director Dr. Ryan Terrill. Bear Divide is a recently discovered migratory bird concentration point near Los Angeles, CA. It is one of the only places in the western United States where you can see bird migration during daylight hours. Calling Bear Divide a migratory hot spot would be an understatement. Every year — roughly between March 15 and June 15, with peak migration between April 10 and May 20 — thousands of birds funnel through the narrow pass. It offers a unique learning opportunity, such as how timing, weather, climate, sex, age, and other factors affect migratory patterns. The area attracts as many as 13,000 tanagers, orioles, buntings, grosbeaks, and warblers on a single day. One of the fascinating aspects of Bear Divide is the sheer variety of bird species it attracts. From the diminutive hummingbirds to the impressive birds of prey, each species adds a unique dimension to the study of migration. Dr. Ryan Terrill will discuss the discovery, implications, and ongoing research at this fascinating and unique hotspot for bird migration.
This is a free event hosted via Zoom. Register below.
Did you know KBO is taking a trip to see this migration in action from April 23rd to April 26th, 2025? You can learn more about this vacation for the birds trip here: https://klamathbird.org/callnote/experience-bear-divide/
Join the Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) to celebrate International Women in Science Day. We will host a presentation by Luiza Figueira, the founder and Executive Director of the Mantiqueira Bird Observatory (OAMa), on February 10th, from 5:30 pm to 7 pm.
Luiza will be sharing her journey in developing the bird observatory, their success, and the organization’s future. Many of you may recognize Luiza. She was a KBO intern and research scholar from 2015- 2017 after which she started OAMa. One of KBO’s goals with our banding training program is that our interns will take what they have learned and start their bird research program, and that is what Luiza has done! Now, OAMa and KBO have an international internship exchange program, Banders Beyond Borders, that is looking to expand the professional development of our interns’ experience by having both organizations host and train them. Giving those interns a unique and invaluable experience.
We want to share that experience with you! Luiza will also be discussing the joint OAMa and KBO 10-day Birding Conservation Trip to Southeastern Brazil, August 13th – 22nd, 2025. Luiza will be present over Zoom, but in person, we will have KBO’s Director of Conservation Jaime Stephens and Board President Shannon Rio to help answer questions about the trip. Shannon is excited to share her experience from the trip when she went in 2023, so much so she is going again this year.
This presentation is for anyone interested in supporting women in science, learning about bird and habitat conservation in Brazil, or learning more about the international trip. We have moved to this presentation to all virtual. There will be a social from 5:30 – 5:45 and the presentation will start at 5:45 p.m.
Join the Redwood Region Audubon Society on Thursday, January 16 at 7:00 p.m. for a program entitled “To Southern California, Brazil, and Back: First GPS Tracking of Oregon Vesper Sparrow and Western Purple Martin Migration” by Sarah Rockwell. One of the biggest challenges in identifying ways to help migratory birds is that we don’t know where they are most of the year. Without this basic information, it is challenging to identify and prioritize conservation actions. Archival, lightweight GPS tags placed on small songbirds have been available for about a decade, and they are revolutionizing our understanding of bird migration and migratory connectivity. The Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO), along with partners at USFS, USGS, Cape Arago Audubon, and Avifauna Northwest, is using these GPS tags to track the migratory routes and overwintering locations of both Oregon Vesper Sparrow and Western Purple Martin, two imperiled subspecies unique to the Pacific Northwest. These are the first studies with these subspecies—the first to track them with GPS technology year-round! These birds have returned with fascinating information, revealing discoveries about their incredible journeys, including unexpected lengthy fall stopovers, and for Purple Martins, winters on the beach in southeastern Brazil. In this talk, Sarah will share photos and maps from this research, and give a peek into the amazing window we now have into the incredible voyages these birds undertake.
Dr. Sarah Rockwell is a Senior Research Biologist at KBO, where she manages several research programs studying the ecology of bird species of conservation concern, and monitoring birds at riparian, oak, and coniferous restoration sites. Sarah manages KBO’s Oregon Vesper Sparrow research program, studying nest success, survival, and habitat needs to better understand the causes of their decline and potential conservation actions. Sarah joined KBO in 2013 after completing her PhD at the University of Maryland and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, where she studied the ecology of the then-endangered Kirtland’s Warbler in her home state of Michigan. She earned her BA in Biology in 2002 from Kalamazoo College, where she fell in love with birds during her study abroad experience in Ecuador. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, with her husband and four-year-old daughter.
Programs are held at Six Rivers Masonic Lodge, 251 Bayside Road, Arcata, or via the Zoom link. Drinks and goodies are served at 7:00 p.m., the program begins at 7:30.
This presentation will acquaint you with how to go to the refuge and what you might see when you get there. Maps of the refuge will be provided. A book will be featured that invites you to take some young person (or any age person) to the refuge to learn about the wonders of the waterfowl refuge. Klamath Refuge was designated the first waterfowl refuge in 1908. The presentation is hybrid and will be held on January 28th at 5:30 pm in the KBO office in Ashland.
You are also invited to join Shannon Rio on an all day outing to the Klamath Refuge on Sunday, February 2nd. The outing is limited to 14 people.
Common Waterbirds of the Klamath Basin is a book of photos with light-hearted script. It will be for sale for $25 and is meant to be a guide to identify and learn about the unique waterfowl that visit this magical refuge.
We will also introduce you to one of the most successful conservation programs ever created: the Federal Duck Stamp. The purchase of the Duck Stamp provides funds for the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund, which supports the National Wildlife Refuge System. To support all birds, the Klamath Bird Observatory has been producing a Conservation Science Stamp that is sold with the Duck Stamp to raise funds to conserve all species. The stamps are for sale online here, or you can purchase one during the event.
Courtesy rates are available now at the historic Ashland Springs Hotel in downtown Ashland. Our group is being offered the prevailing government per diem rate (currently $110). This rate is available on a first come first served basis and is secured for February 17th – 21st by requesting “Klamath Bird Observatory” group rate over the phone. Please book a room as soon as you can to take advantage of current room availability and our group’s rates.
Schedule and Agenda
The schedule and agenda are yet to be determined, but will include discussions around:
If you love tropical birds and hiking in the mountains, listen closely. Over the course of ten days, you will be exploring wildlife and natural landscape, birding with local ornithologists, visiting national and state parks, and getting involved with local conservation efforts to protect birds and habitats at Atlantic Forest. If that wasn’t enough, the cost of this special trip will help fund the intern exchange program between KBO and OAMa and support the continuation of the bird monitoring program on the Mantiqueira Highlands in Southeast Brazil!
It is estimated that only 3,000 individuals of this declining subspecies remain. The small population size of the Oregon Vesper Sparrow is well-documented, but the causes of its at-risk status are not. As with all migratory birds, population trends may be caused by factors on their breeding grounds, wintering grounds, or migration stopover areas.
Since 2018 Klamath Bird Observatory has been trying to understand the cause of this subspecies’ decline. Getting a snapshot of how many of these birds there are in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument – and where they are – is important baseline data. This information will be especially important if the Oregon Vesper Sparrow is listed as federally endangered or threatened – it is currently in review with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for potential listing under the Endangered Species Act.
How many Oregon Vesper Sparrows live in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument?
This past summer, it was KBO’s goal to find out. Armed with paper maps, Avenza maps, GPS units, and binoculars, we bumped down endless back roads and completed the most rigorous inventory in the Monument to date. This included >7000 acres of potential montane meadow habitat, including some sizeable meadows that had never before been surveyed for Oregon Vesper Sparrows. We were interested in the bird’s abundance and distribution, and recording which meadows were occupied by this declining, at-risk subspecies. KBO surveyors spent many hours this summer hiking in steep terrain, getting our boots wet in the dewy grass, counting sparrows on transect surveys, and recording their locations on maps.
A picture of one of the field sites on the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument taken by field technician Lin Stern.
We surveyed 54 montane meadows in the Monument, mostly on public lands, and counted 140 Oregon Vesper Sparrows in 27 of them. Because this survey method is most likely to detect singing males (and most of those males will have mates), and there are also meadows on private property within the Monument that we could not survey, this number is almost certainly an underestimate. A striking finding was that there were more Oregon Vesper Sparrows than we thought, with many in quite small subpopulations scattered across meadows of varying sizes (some as small as 17 acres) all throughout the Monument. Only five meadows had 10 or more individuals detected; 75% of occupied sites had only 1-5 individuals. This is in addition to the three big meadows with the highest abundance of Oregon Vesper Sparrows just outside of the Monument – Owen’s Meadow, Lower Vesper Meadow, and Lily Glen – which have 30-50 pairs each. We now know that the Monument supports a substantial number of Oregon Vesper Sparrows, probably at least 10% of the global population which is estimated to be about 3,000 individuals.
We enjoyed the opportunity to visit all of these remote corners of our local Monument! It’s a wonderful resource to have in our collective “backyard” with a considerable diversity of habitats, including the montane meadows that support Oregon Vesper Sparrows and other grassland creatures. We are currently writing up a report to share our findings, and their conservation implications, with local BLM staff tasked with managing the Monument.
Editor’s Note: Funding for 2024 research activities was provided by the BLM National Conservation Lands Management Studies Support Program and Oregon Wildlife Foundation. KBO Field Technicians Lin Stern, Elijah Hayes, and Nate Trimble, and staff Sarah Rockwell and Sam Webb conducted surveys in the field.
January is a great time of year to enjoy raptor viewing in the picturesque Klamath Basin! Please join KBO board members Amanda Alford and Dick Ashford, who will share their enthusiasm and knowledge during an informative (and fun!) Hawk ID workshop.
On Jan 16th, we’ll enjoy a 6-8:30 PM lecture in the KBO “Spa” at 2425 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland. To afford everyone the best possible experience, attendance is strictly limited to 22 attendees. This will allow half the class to enjoy a day-long outing to the Klamath Basin on Jan 18th, while the other half will be in the field on Jan 25th. In each case, we’ll depart Ashland at 8 AM and return around 5-ish. We will carpool (a must!) in 4 vehicles of 4 people each.
Please be sure to dress comfortably and bring lunch and liquids. Much of our birding will be from the roadside, and walking will be minimal.
Because this outing is so popular (hawks have charisma!), early signup is recommended. Your seat will be confirmed upon receipt of your non-refundable, tax-deductible contribution of $65 per person. We’re looking forward to seeing you in the Field Of Wonder!
We ask that you attend the classroom session and one field trip. No “outing-only” signups, please.
This event is full email Elva at ejm@klamathbird.org if you would like to be added to the waitlist.
Klamath Bird Observatory is seeking seasonal field technicians for the 2025 breeding season to complete avian point count surveys from April 28th through July 18th, throughout the ecologically diverse and beautiful regions of southern Oregon, eastern Oregon, and/or northern California. Technicians will conduct work related to multiple projects including monitoring effects of oak and conifer forest restoration on species distributions and long-term monitoring on both private and public lands. Surveyors will work in northeastern Oregon conifer forests, eastern Oregon sagebrush habitat, Lassen Volcanic National Park, Oregon Caves National Monument and/or Crater Lake National Park. Applicants should be able to identify a wide variety of western bird species as they may be working in various habitats including coniferous forests, subalpine, oak woodlands, and shrub-steppe. Primary responsibilities will include conducting multispecies avian point count surveys, vegetation sampling along off-road transects following standard protocols, and associated data entry.
2024 Point counters training at Lower Table Rock. Photo by KBO.
This last spring, Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) completed its 24th point count season. With the help of a fantastic crew of seasonal technicians under the guidance of KBO staff Tom McLaren and Samantha Webb, we were able to complete over 3,000 point count surveys between May and July as part of our ongoing large-scale surveying effort. Through this program, we are working to collect data and monitor trends in bird populations, understand the effects of restoration on birds and their habitats, and with this data help to inform management decisions to restore healthy ecosystems across the region.
In order to gather data to support these objectives, surveyors visited sites throughout Oregon, northern California, and Washington to gather data to support these objectives. To conduct surveys, technicians typically drive out to their site the evening before to start surveying at dawn the next morning, covering anywhere from 6 to 25 points per route. At each point, all birds heard and seen within a set number of minutes are noted, and observers estimate the distance to each bird. This allows us to calculate the probability that a bird is detected and account for birds that remain silent or hidden during our counts. Surveys are conducted during the peak of the breeding season when birds have arrived from their wintering grounds and are establishing territories and singing loudly, making them easier to detect and identify.
Long-term Monitoring
Many of our surveys are part of long-term monitoring projects conducted with a variety of partners. One such partner is the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and our partnership with them includes surveys in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, post-fire monitoring at the Quartz wildfire, and large-scale monitoring throughout eastern Oregon as part of the Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) project. Surveys in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument are designed to monitor long-term trends in bird populations and communities, and this year Lazuli Bunting was the most common species detected, continuing the trend from the inception of the project. However, getting out to visit remote sites like these can result in some more unexpected observations – this year, California Thrasher, a rare species in Oregon, was found on surveys for the second year in a row.
Another of our long-term monitoring projects is located within the footprint of the 2001 Quartz wildfire, providing a unique opportunity to study post-fire restoration and recovery. KBO conducted surveys at this site for 10 years following the fire, and this visit was the first return to the route in 14 years. This year, Black-headed Grosbeak, Nashville Warbler, and Steller’s Jay were the three most often seen species.
Sage thrasher, photo taken by Frank Lospalluto.
With 56 IMBCR routes covered across bird conservation regions in Eastern Oregon, KBO is contributing to one of the largest breeding bird monitoring programs in North America. Observers on these routes recorded over 1,000 Western Meadowlarks, Horned Larks, and Brewer’s Sparrows as well as three species of owls. A variety of sagebrush-reliant species were also detected on surveys, including Sagebrush Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, and Gray Flycatcher, each was observed a couple hundred times. The sagebrush ecosystem is facing many threats, including habitat fragmentation, changing fire regimes, and the encroachment of invasive grasses. This has led to major declines in many species that rely on this habitat and makes these annual monitoring efforts increasingly important.
One of our longest-standing collaborations is with the National Park Service (NPS), conducting long-term monitoring of bird populations within six national parks in the Klamath bioregion. This is the 16th year of the partnership, and we surveyed Lassen Volcanic National Park and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Both of these parks have seen large-scale wildfires come through in recent years, with the Carr Fire burning over 97% of Whiskeytown in 2018 and the Dixie Fire burning 69% of Lassen Volcanic in 2021. Several of our routes within the parks were impacted by fires, which gives us a unique opportunity to study how bird communities have responded and will continue to respond to these changes. Spotted Towhee, Bewick’s Wren, and Mountain Quail were the most commonly detected species at Whiskeytown, and Dark-eyed Junco, American Robin, and Western Wood-Pewee were the most frequent detections at Lassen Volcanic.
Our final long-term monitoring site visited this year was the Salmon River, which we surveyed in partnership with the Salmon River Restoration Council (SRRC). SRRC is completing riparian restoration projects along the north and south forks of the river. Black-headed Grosbeaks and Steller’s Jays were common finds along these routes. Additionally, Yellow-breasted Chats – unique and charismatic birds who enjoy dense riparian habitats, and are also a focal species in riparian habitats and a species of special concern in California – were present in good numbers.
Ecological restoration
Northern pygmy owl sitting in an oak tree. Photo by Frank Lospalluto.
Outside of long-term monitoring, we also have several projects focused on ecological restoration and its effects on bird communities. This season included our second year of surveys monitoring bird responses to oak restoration as part of the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network’s Upper Rogue Oak Initiative (UROI). We are collecting pre-treatment data before the restoration of over 3,000 acres of oak habitat. As early as 2026, surveyors will return to collect post-treatment data, allowing us to monitor bird response to the restoration efforts in a ‘Before-After Control-Impact’ study. The effects on bird communities on treatment sites will be compared to the effects on ‘control sites’ that go untreated. Birds can act as indicators of restoration success, and changes in the presence or abundance of species that depend on healthy oak ecosystems, such as Acorn Woodpeckers, can provide valuable information about ecosystem response to treatment. In this year’s round of surveys, Lazuli Bunting, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Western Tanager were the most commonly detected species. Partners In Flight focal species such as White-breasted Nuthatch, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Acorn Woodpecker were detected in lower numbers. There was also a single recording of Northern Pygmy-Owl on surveys, another focal species that is not often detected due to its secretive habits.
This year also saw continued and new collaborations with the US Forest Service, including a new project to create species distribution models in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington. Surveyors in the area recorded hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Western Tanagers, and Chipping Sparrows, while also having encounters with unique species like the American Goshawk, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Red-eyed Vireo, American Redstart, and even a couple Spruce Grouse. Another new project set out to conduct baseline monitoring in Malheur National Forest and extend KBO’s recent work in the Northern Blue Mountains. Surveyors here were greeted by Mountain Chickadees, Western Tanagers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and Dusky Flycatchers. Finally, we continued working with the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest to conduct landscape-level baseline monitoring and conifer fuel reduction surveys. The top observed species on these projects were the Hermit Warbler, Hermit Thrush, and Western Tanager, and less common species such as the American Three-toed Woodpecker, Black-backed Woodpecker, and American Goshawk were exciting additions.
We are very thankful for our excellent point count crew this year, who put in an amazing effort to collect high-quality data throughout the region, while also navigating life in the field. In 2024 they recorded over 29,000 individuals of over 200 different species on surveys. At Klamath Bird Observatory, we are happy to have another successful season on the books and are looking forward to learning more from the data we have collected.
This presentation will acquaint you with how to go to the refuge and what you might see when you get there. Maps of the refuge will be provided. A book will be featured that invites you to take some young person (or any age person) to the refuge to learn about the wonders of the waterfowl refuge. Klamath Refuge was designated the first waterfowl refuge in 1908. The presentation is hybrid and will be held on January 28th at 5:30 pm in the KBO office in Ashland.
