Talk: Learn about this fascinating bird that lives in our bioregional backyard – what they eat, their nests, the challenges of being a baby owl, and the places they like to live and hunt. The program concludes with a stunning video of the owls taken by a local photographer.
October 5th Wednesday 6:30PM – 8:00PM
GREAT GRAY OWL OUTING
Walk: This expedition will focus on where and how to look for the largest-sized owl of North America. Early departure time gives us a chance to perhaps see this great beast and grand phantom of the forest.
October 8th Saturday 6:30AM – NOON
Leaders: Lee French, Mel Clements, and Shannon Rio
By all accounts and in every way, the just-returned Malheur in Fall birding expedition was a resounding success! Bird guide author, wildlife photographer, and birding extraordinaire Harry Fuller led bird explorers 15 strong into the wilds of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Steens Mountain (Cooperative Management and Protection Area), and the surrounding area. Over four days and nights, based at the Malheur Field Station, the wide and wild western landscape revealed inspiring views, fantastic bird sightings (including the elusive Long-eared Owl), and a heartening natural history lesson none of us were too young or too old to embrace. Our group moved gently through the good days and nights with care and appreciation for each other and the birds.
Talk: This presentation will prepare you for the Hawk Watch outing where we will sit at the top of Modoc Rim which borders Upper Klamath Lake and watch hawks fly overhead in their fall migration.
September 28th Wednesday 6:30pm-8:00pm
Walk: Hawk Watch Outing – experience viewing and identifying hawks and other raptors on their migratory journey south from a key flyway observation point.
October 1st Saturday 8:00am-4:00pm
Leader: Karl Schneck
Cost: $25 (or $50 makes you a member of Klamath Bird Observatory). To sign up or if you have questions, contact shannonrio@aol.com.
Talk: Learn about this fascinating bird that lives in our bioregional backyard – what they eat, their nests, the challenges of being a baby owl, and the places they like to live and hunt. The program concludes with a stunning video of the owls taken by a local photographer.
October 5th Wednesday 6:30PM – 8:00PM
GREAT GRAY OWL OUTING
Walk: This expedition will focus on where and how to look for the largest-sized owl of North America. Early departure time gives us a chance to perhaps see this great beast and grand phantom of the forest.
October 8th Saturday 6:30AM – NOON
Leaders: Lee French, Mel Clements, and Shannon Rio
WINTERING BIRDS OF THE ROGUE VALLEY
Talk: Because of our rich biodiversity, we have many birds that love the Rogue Valley at least for some part of the year … and for some all the year round. In this program, you’ll get to know these local birds and where best to find them through their life histories, stories, poems, photos, and bird sounds.
November 2nd Wednesday 6:30PM – 8:00PM
BIRDING THE ROGUE VALLEY
Walk: We follow up with an excursion visiting a variety of local hot spots to see the birds talked about in the presentation.
November 5th Saturday 8:30AM – 1PM
Leaders: Lee French and Shannon Rio
Cost: $25 for each talk and walk (or $50 makes you a member of KBO). To sign up or if you have questions, contact shannonrio@aol.com.
Carpooling (taking the fewest cars) is requested for the safety of the outing and ensures everyone sees the most birds.
The Hermit Thrush is very well named. One might not know of its presence but for a soft quoit call or a brownish blur rushing into the base of a bush. They are a quiet, skulking, and reclusive species. This is a good reason for trying to catch them in nets to quickly place a band on their leg, figure out their age and sex, assess their physical condition, and release them on their way. Researchers attempting to learn more about Hermit Thrushes usually capture many more of them than are heard or seen. And with a brief examination in the hand we learn so much more than could be learned from a passing encounter using non-capture monitoring methods.
KBO has banded a great many Hermit Thrushes over decades of monitoring at several study sites in our monitoring network. They are consistently in the top ten most numerously captured species each year. This species is present throughout the year in our Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion. And so it was mid-September a couple years ago at a study site along the western shore of Upper Klamath Lake …
The Odessa Creek Campground, within Fremont-Winema National Forest and about 22 miles west of Klamath Falls, Oregon, is the location of a KBO long-term monitoring station operated each year since the fall of 1996. The campground is well-known as a hot birding spot and as a “vagrant trap” – that is, as a place where bird species show up far away from their usual range of distribution. This has made the station an exciting one to operate over the years with several species captured that might be considered out-of-place like American Redstart, Black-and-White Warbler, Gray Catbird, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Ovenbird, and others. But the real value of the study site is its usual richness of birdlife during the nesting season and fall migration. The habitat is mixed with a fairly mature conifer forest adjacent to an expansive riparian forest and the great wetlands of Upper Klamath Lake. The mixed and rich nature of habitat equates to a mixed and rich bird community. There are many breeding species as well as large migration waves using the area.
On September 18, 2012 KBO biologists experienced a fairly big and busy day capturing 65 birds of 15 species, including flycatchers, jays, wrens, chickadees, thrushes, warblers, sparrows, and finches. One of these was a Hermit Thrush given the band number 2551-10469, a healthy youngster just hatched earlier that year. The following week, another busy day was had at Odessa Creek Campground with 76 captures, several of these already-banded, including our quiet and skulking acquaintance number 2551-10469. After that day, we had no further contact with Hermit Thrush number 2551-10469. That is, until earlier this year with the arrival of a report from the U.S. Geological Survey Bird Banding Laboratory that 2551-10469 had been captured and released by a banding operation at Cabrillo National Monument near San Diego, California on April 4, 2014!
But this hermit’s story doesn’t end there. Many chapters are yet to be uncovered — where was this bird hatched? What route has it used in its migrations? Where has it ultimately gone in its northern nesting and southern wintering destinations? The hermit’s tale has an exciting beginning with nine days in September at Odessa Creek Campground and a flashy appearance (with a shiny band) at Cabrillo National Monument a year and a half later, after three migrations of over 800 miles during each journey. What ribald and dashing adventures to be had, what dangers to be narrowly escaped, what sun and song filled summer mornings to come? We anxiously await the next installment … or as we say in biology, more study needed.
Over the past 19 years, Klamath Bird Observatory has hosted over 170 student volunteer interns from 16 countries and 23 of the US states. Our objective with each individual has been to create a safe and fun learning experience, with the hope that we impart some positive influence on their academic and professional careers. Certainly, we have enjoyed the company of some incredibly bright, energetic, and enthusiastic individuals.
Luis Morales of Mexico interned with KBO in 2012. At that time he was laying the foundation for a new bird observatory in his native San Pancho, Nayarit, located on the Pacific coast of Mexico. Luis mentored with KBO Executive Director John Alexander as part of his training. The San Pancho Bird Observatory is now a healthy and growing organization advancing bird conservation and education in western Mexico, where many of our nesting songbirds spend their winters.
Keith Larson of Washington interned with KBO in 2004 and 2005. He later completed a PhD at Lund University in Sweden studying songbird migration patterns. Keith is now a research ecologist with the Abisko Arctic Research Lab in northern Sweden, where he is examining the effects of climate change on Arctic ecosystems.
Viviana Cadeña Ruiz of Colombia interned with KBO in 2002 and 2003. She later completed her PhD at Brock University in Canada on the effects of high altitude acclimation on thermoregulation. Viviana is now an eco-physiologist. She recently commenced a three year postdoctoral research fellowship with the University of Melbourne in Australia, where she is researching the adaptive significance of color change in bearded dragon lizards.
These are just a few examples of KBO intern successes – former KBO interns making positive impacts in the world of science and conservation throughout the globe. Our hope, as always, is that their KBO experience has played some part in their accomplishments.
By Robert Frey, Klamath Bird Observatory Research Biologist
While the information collected from banding birds has many and varied values, what can really excite a bander is catching a bird with a band that looks odd or unfamiliar. The band might have a strange number, which makes you think the bird was banded far away, or it might be old and worn, suggesting a long-lived and maybe long-traveled individual.
Last week, KBO biologists banding at the Willow Wind Community Learning Center long-term mist netting station (along Bear Creek on the east end of Ashland, Oregon) caught a Swainson’s Thrush with an intriguing looking band on its right leg. The band was worn smooth along its edges and the numbers on it seemed vaguely familiar, or then again, perhaps not.
We recorded the band number and determined that this thrush was at least one year old, having hatched during a previous year’s breeding season. We then released the bird, allowing it to continue on its way.
Later in the day, with curiosity piqued, we searched for the band number in KBO’s banding database and—lo and behold—there it was.
KBO initially captured and banded this Swainson’s Thrush in early August 2011 at the Willow Wind station (in a net some 60 feet from the net it was captured in last week). During this first encounter, it was determined that the thrush hatched during the 2011 breeding season.
Swainson’s Thrushes are not known to nest in the Rogue Valley, although they commonly nest in the surrounding mountains. When we initially encountered our thrush in 2011, it was likely just beginning its first migratory journey to its eventual winter home in Mexico or Central or South America. Since that first fall migration, this thrush has made two continental return flights to its North America nesting location in southern Oregon, or farther north in the Pacific Northwest. When we encountered this bird last week, it was beginning its third journey to the Neotropics. We hope to see it again … this long-lived world traveler. ¡Buen viaje amigo emplumado! (Safe journey feathered friend!)
Klamath Bird Observatory has enjoyed and benefited from the efforts of a long string of volunteer student interns since our very beginnings in 1996. Over 170 individuals, representing 18 different countries, have participated as interns in various KBO projects. Very often, our interns are early in their careers, many just recently completing their undergraduate studies. They come to KBO for practical professional experience in preparation for graduate studies or for taking on leadership roles on various projects, mostly involving Conservation Biology.
A maxim we impart to interns from the outset is this: if they succeed, KBO succeeds. Thus, we are deeply invested in their achievements following their time with KBO. One way we measure our interns’ success is to watch as they seek higher academic degrees. More than 35 former Klamath Bird Observatory interns have earned or are now pursuing advanced degrees in the natural sciences. Specifically, 22 have earned Master of Science degrees, four hold doctorates, and nine are currently enrolled in graduate programs.
Another exciting way we measure success is to follow the accomplishments of our international interns, many of whom have gone on to make significant contributions to bird conservation outside of the United States. To date, we have hosted student interns from Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Holland, Hungary, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Perú, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and United Kingdom. Of the 36 international interns we have hosted, 18 are active banding trainers internationally and most are working with increased responsibility and impact for conservation organizations. Some have even established their own bird monitoring and research programs in their home countries.
We endeavor to impart a positive learning experience for every intern, and for their part, our interns oblige us through their considerable and wonderful contributions that help us advance bird and habitat conservation. As we follow the developing careers of these dynamic scientists and educators, their success is truly our success as well.
This article appears in KBO’s Summer 2013 Newsletter.
KBO biologists captured, banded, and released an Ovenbird today at our Upper Klamath Lake field station – a species rarely encountered in Oregon. It was determined to be an after-hatching year bird (hatched in 2012 or before), age and sex unknown. The Ovenbird is considered a regular transient in Oregon (that is, the species is encountered at least once a year somewhere in the state). KBO has banded and released two other Ovenbirds – one in 1997 and another in 2004. Cool bird!
Migrating birds met migrating biologists in the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion as Klamath Bird Observatory (KBO) engaged community members on International Migratory Bird Day on May 11th. Tatiana Straatman of Brazil and Liberato Pop of Belize were among the KBO biologists demonstrating bird banding and survey methods used to monitor bird populations and inform conservation efforts.
KBO has an international capacity building program that is dedicated to empowering biologists to use standard monitoring techniques throughout the summer, migration, and wintering ranges of the migratory birds that are shared among the countries of North, Central, and South America. Through hemisphere-wide monitoring efforts we can untangle the threats that birds face throughout their life-cycles and use what we learn to protect the habitats and ecosystems that these birds depend on.
With support from the US Forest Service’s Wings Across the Americas Programs, Southern Oregon University’s International Programs, and the Rotary Club of Ashland, KBO has hosted and provided training to 35 international interns from 17 countries outside the United States. We have hosted students from Argentina, Australia, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Holland, Hungary, Jamaica, Mexico, New Zealand, Perú, Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, and United Kingdom.
