Klamath Call Note

Join KBO board members Amanda Alford and Dick Ashford for an all-day outing on March 18th, where we’ll look at everything the Klamath Basin has to offer. Dick and Amanda will plan a route that will give us our best chances of seeing the varied birdlife for which “the basin” is famous. And, we’ll have lots of fun doing it!

KBO is looking to fill two positions Nest-Searching Technician and a Nest-Searching Intern for our Oregon Vesper Sparrow demography research program. We are contributing to a range-wide study to understand the causes of decline in this imperiled subspecies. Primary duties will include nest-searching and color-band resighting in meadows of the western Cascades and occasional data entry or other tasks based.

We are pleased to announce a new internship exchange program! Bird and Banders Beyond Borders between KBO and Mantiqueira Bird Observatory. After training in their home country, biologists will have the opportunity to visit and train at the other observatory. KBO will host a student from OAMa for three or six months each year, and OAMa will host a student from KBO for up to three months at their field station in Brazil, joining the local crew at the year-round bird monitoring on the Mantiqueira Highlands. We are excited to share the first two interns to participate in this program, Victor Gonzalez and Otávio Rocha! 

Join KBO’s dynamic duo Director of Conservation Jaime Stephens and Board President Shannon Rio for a memorable 9-day trip to Brazil, April 12th – 20th, 2023. This trip will be guided by past KBO intern and co-founder of Mantiqueira Bird Observatory (OAMa) Luiza Figueira. The cost of this trip includes hotels, food (breakfast, lunch, dinner), and transportation (to and from the airport and during the trip). The total cost of the trip is $5,000, $2500 to reserve your seat, and the total amount is due by February 10th. With 12 people attending, these funds will cover a FULL YEAR of OAMa’s banding program. It will also be used to help support a student intern that is participating in KBO OAMa’s intern exchange program. 

Looking for a New Years’ resolution? How about learning more about nature? Start by joining Dick Ashford for a talk and outing about hawks, some of nature’s most graceful creatures.  The talk will be hosted in person at the Klamath Bird Observatory office in Ashland, OR on January 5th, 6 pm – 8:30 pm.  Then, enjoy a day-long outing to the Klamath Basin on Jan 7th. We’ll depart Ashland at 8 AM and return around 5-ish. To afford everyone the best possible experience, attendance is limited. We will carpool (a must!) in 4 vehicles of 4 people each. Your seat will be confirmed upon receipt of your non-refundable, tax-deductible contribution of $75 per person. 

The Bear Creek Community Bird Survey (BCCBS) has been an ongoing community science project for the past two years, 2021-2022. This survey aims to measure riparian bird abundance along Bear Creek between Ashland and Central Point, OR. These surveys are completed year-round, but data collected during the breeding season are KBO’s current focus of analysis. The results of this effort will be combined with other metrics collected by RRWC or other partners (water quality parameters, fish abundance, fish habitat accessibility, affordable housing, air quality, etc.) to create a Rogue River Basin Report Card that will be useful for tracking watershed and community conditions, as well as for community outreach.

Join KBO for drinks on Tuesday, December 20th, 5 pm – 8 pm at Lune Cafe in Ashland, OR. $2 from every specialty cocktail or lemonade will be donated to KBO. You can also purchase tickets for a 50/50 raffle. It is the perfect way to have drinks with family and friends this holiday season and support a local conservation organization. Can’t make it on the 20th? This holiday fundraiser runs till December 31st. 

We are officially releasing the documentary for public viewing. Join Daniel and KBO on a journey to understand the ecology of the at-risk Oregon Vesper Sparrow and the causes of its decline. Daniel covers the life history of this handsome little brown bird and the field methods and new technology that KBO is employing to study its life cycle year-round. Through beautiful imagery and graphics, he tells the story of KBOs’ continuing research to understand the decline of the Oregon Vesper Sparrow, a subspecies of conservation concern unique to the Pacific Northwest, and look for solutions.

To align KBO’s staffing to meet this forest bird conservation need, we are developing a new conservation delivery program area to help us further focus and scale up our efforts to translate science into even more conservation action. This new program area is poised for success because Jaime Stephens, who has been a leader at KBO for over 20 years, will be taking on a new role as KBO’s first Director of Conservation. Jaime has served as KBO’s long-time Science Director for many years, leading our extensive monitoring and research efforts. As the Science Director, Jaime has worked tirelessly to develop the partnerships and deliver our science, helping to grow KBO’s direct involvement in on-the-ground conservation efforts. These efforts have reached a level that warrants the creation of this new position.

ODFW, in partnership with the Klamath Siskiyou Oak Network (KSON), received a $2.78 million federal grant from America the Beautiful Challenge program to conduct oak-prairie habitat restoration in the Upper Rogue watershed. The funding comes from multiple federal agencies and complements match funding from private donations designated for landscape-scale conservation work directed by the state, tribal, nonprofit, and working-lands partners. The federal grant will help support two ongoing oak restoration initiatives. The Upper Rogue Oak Initiative builds on a recently awarded $7 million investment from the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and $3 million matching funds to KSON’s Little Butte Oak Initiative. Support for both initiatives will create landscape resiliency and wildlife connectivity. The additional investment expands the initiatives’ geographic reach by restoring 800 acres of oak habitat using prescribed fire, ecological thinning to reduce conifer encroachment, noxious w…