Birds & Birding

November 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 Nov 4th 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 12 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!

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.

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.

You are not going to want to miss this month’s events. We have Harry Fuller joining us in the KBO office for a hybrid presentation on Great Grey Owls. His elusive Great Grey Owl book and newly published Birding Harney County will be available for purchase. This talk is happening September 22nd at 6 pm. Haven’t made it out to the banding station this year? We have one more outing to KBO’s Upper Klamath banding station on September 28th. Fall migration is in full swing giving us the opportunity to catch some fascinating migrants like golden crown and white crown sparrows, Wilson warblers, and Nashville warblers. The Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network quarterly meeting is on September 21st from 1 – 2:30 p.m. (virtual). It will feature a presentation by Wyatt Williams, Invasive Species Specialist with the Forest Health Unit of Oregon Department of Forestry. Wyatt will be presenting on the Mediterranean oak borer, a pest of oaks, and its arrival to Oregon.

Join us for this extraordinary final family-friendly bird banding outing of the year! This fundraiser for our renowned banding program includes an opportunity to meet and chat with KBO’s new Banding Program Manager, Lucinda Zawadski, PhD., Martín López Aguilar from Mexico, and the KBO interns. You will learn about the importance and unique contribution of bird banding to science and see some of Oregon’s birds up close. You will also get to experience one of our field stations on beautiful Upper Klamath Lake and observe science in action, including mist netting and data collection, AND interact with the biologists. After the field station visit, we have a unique opportunity to bird from the deck of Rocky Point Resort with Lucinda and Martín, with light refreshments provided by Rocky Point. WHEN: Thursday, September 28th, 6:30 a.m. to approximately 1 p.m. (inclusive of drive time to and from Ashland).

Join Shannon Rio for three weeks of classes, chatting about our local birds and ending with a field trip. Powerpoint presentations will include, for example, a deep dive into a specific group of birds like woodpeckers and learning fun bird factoids. We will explore the use of a variety of bird guides and info books. This class is collaborative and interactive and meant to be fun. We will meet at noon for 1 1/2 hours, so bring a sack lunch along with your curiosity. Please bring your favorite guidebook for referencing the species we are learning about and sharing with the group. The class will be capped off with an all-day outing to use what you have learned. The dates are September 11th, 18th, and 25th and the fee is $0-$100 donation.

 The Klamath Bird Observatory board members are excited to introduce our fall outreach and FUNdraising events. Open for registration now is Shannon’s Let’s Talk Birds series. These inperson presentation will be held in the KBO office Monday September 11th, 18th, and 25th wrapping up with a field trip on Saturday September 30th or Oct 1st. We are also announcing Save the Dates for a Great Grey Owl presentation by Harry Fuller, Ashland History walk’s with Jeff LaLande and several trips with Dick Ashford.

Join us on August 12th at 9 am for Bird Conmigo. Birding with friends and family is a great way to connect. We will be exploring Bear Creek Park. Many of the birds seen there you can find in your backyard. Klamath Bird Observatory will provide binoculars and Spanish/English guidebooks. This event is free and Spanish/English bilingual. 

Take a trip to the Upper Klamath to a KBO banding station on Friday, July 21st. There you will get to meet this year’s banding crew and learn about the importance of bird banding. The fee from this FUNdraiser helps pay for the cost of running our six banding stations. This event is a family-friendly event.

Whether you’re a newcomer to the region or an old-timer, participate in a fun- and information-filled auto tour led by a renowned birder and KBO board president Shannon Rio and historian/author Jeff LaLande. The car-pool route will include various “History Stops” (but relatively little actual walking) at such important places as Railroad Tunnel #13, the old Siskiyou Pass, Grouse Gap shelter (just past Mt. Ashland), the 1850s-1860s “Mountain House” stage stop, the 1846 Applegate Trail, the Hill-Dunn cemetery, and other spots – returning the “back way” (through the upper-most Bear Creek Valley) to Ashland by mid-afternoon.