Tag: Mountain Bird Festival

KBO’s Mountain Bird Festival Takes a Working Time-out

Written by KBO on December 10, 2016. Posted in Klamath Call Note, Trips & Events.

We are grateful for the generous support we have received for our Mountain Bird Festival over the last three years. The Mountain Bird Festival is a valuable conservation education event that has measurable benefits for KBO, our local community, the birding community, and bird and habitat conservation. Your support and participation has been instrumental in the success of this unique conservation event.

We want our Festival participants and partners to be the first to know that Klamath Bird Observatory will be postponing the 2017 Mountain Bird Festival. After careful reflection on our 1st three years of putting on the Festival, we believe a hiatus will be help us to take steps that will markedly improve the Festival and ensure that its benefits continue to increase for all involved.

During this furlough KBO will continue to advance the mission of the Festival, Citizens and Science Advancing Bird Conservation through our Community Education Program. With the spirit of this mission in mind we will be planning a Mountain Bird Night for 2017, with a keynote speaker, possible field trips, and the unveiling of our 2017 Conservation Stamp Set, including the 2017 Klamath Bird Observatory Conservation Science Stamp and the 2017-18 Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation [Duck] Stamp. This event will be open to the public with the purchase of the Conservation Stamp Set, the proceeds of which will go directly to advancing conservation locally and nationally. Stay tuned for more details.

Klamath Bird Observatory’s Community Education Program will also continue to remain active. We will be participating in other community celebrations, such as Rogue Valley Bird Day. Additionally, our Talks and Walks program continues to offer a variety of conservation education activities. As in past years, we will also be providing other special events and trips.

We appreciate your faithful support and understanding as we take this time to enhance our yearly event. We are certain our next Festival will be well worth the wait.

KBO’s 2015 Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award Goes to Sandy Jilton

Written by Caitlyn Gillespie on June 1, 2015. Posted in Klamath Call Note, Birds & Birding, Conservation, KBO Family, Press Room.

*** NEWS RELEASE — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ***

June 1, 2015

Contact: Marcella Rose Sciotto, admin@klamathbird.org, 541-201-0866

Klamath Bird Observatory is proud to announce that Sandy Jilton is the first recipient of our new
Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award.

This award has been established to recognize individuals who demonstrate outstanding service as volunteers helping Klamath Bird Observatory fulfill its mission to advance bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships. Sandy Jilton is being recognized as the recipient of the Bullock’s Rose Oriole for her efforts to help make the Klamath Bird Observatory’s 2nd annual Mountain Bird Festival a success.

The Mountain Bird Festival is a community education event designed to foster the stewardship ethic needed to ensure thriving landscapes for humans and wildlife. This Festival represents a significant volunteer effort with nearly 50 community members chipping in over 1,200 volunteer hours to help put the event on. These volunteers help Klamath Bird Observatory staff with field trips, registration, vendors, planning, and much more.

Klamath Bird Observatory recognizes Sandy Jilton with the first Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award

for her volunteer work that was essential to the success of this year’s Festival. Sandy worked tirelessly

to coordinate our food and drink vendors. She spent hours to find the right vendors who best

represented our region’s food and beverage culture. She then worked with them to ensure their

participation benefitted their businesses while also helping us to meet the conservation oriented goals

of the Festival. In addition to this core aspect of her volunteer role, Sandy was always eager to help out

in any way that she could. Her endless enthusiasm, good cheer, and skillful execution made her a

delight to work with.

Over the past two years bird enthusiasts from all over the U.S. have flocked to Ashland, Oregon for

Klamath Bird Observatory’s award winning Mountain Bird Festival. The Festival is designed to raise funds

for bird conservation while celebrating the role citizens play in conservation as well as the glory of the

birds and wildlife of southern Oregon and northern California. The Festival offers more than 35 field

trips that explore portions of the Cascade and Siskiyou Mountains, as well as the Klamath Basin, Shasta

Valley, the Klamath River, the Rogue watershed, and birding hotspots in and around Ashland and

Medford. Each year, more than 120 participants, many of which traveling from out of the area, come to

see some of southern Oregon’s unique bird species, and to contribute to bird conservation. In addition

to these contributions, participants spend an estimated $70,000 on lodging, meals, entertainment, and

more, demonstrating that birding means business and that the Mountain Bird Festival offers significant

economic benefits to our region.

By name, Klamath Bird Observatory’s new Bullock’s Rose Oriole Volunteer Award honors Stephanie

Bullock, the Festival’s 1st Volunteer Coordinator, and Marcella Rose Sciotto, the Mountain Bird Festival

Coordinator, who has made this Festival a successful volunteer-driven event.

Click here to read Talent’s News & Review profile and article on Sandy and her accomplishments.

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Featured Artists – 2015 Mountain Bird Festival

Written by KBO on May 27, 2015. Posted in Klamath Call Note, KBO Education, KBO Partners, Trips & Events.

Klamath Bird Observatory and the 2015 Mountain Bird Festival welcome three featured artists – Dan Elster, Katrina Elise Meister, and Stefan Savides. These artists, all from the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion, will be setting up galleries during this year’s Friday (May 29) and Saturday (May 30) Mountain Bird Festival socials from 5:00pm to 7:00pm at ScienceWorks Hands-on Museum in Ashland, Oregon. These generous artists are donating a portion of gallery sales to support Klamath Bird Observatory’s efforts to advance bird and habitat conservation through science, education, and partnerships.

2015 Mountain Bird Festival Art Galleries, open to the public, Friday (May 29) and Saturday (May 30), 5:00pm to 7:00pm, at SceinceWorks Hands on Museum.

DAN ELSTER

Dan was born in Chicago, 1971. In his old life he was the manager of his brother’s food distribution business on the west side of Chicago. A few years ago Dan and his wife (Patty) took a leap of faith … they quit their jobs, sold their home and hit the road. Patty took a job as a travel nurse, while Dan pursued a dream career in wildlife photography. After a few years of nomadic living, they now call Ashland, Oregon home. While Dan has always loved wildlife, he never had much interest in photography growing up. He is mostly self-taught. His subjects are completely wild (no captive or “staged” shots) and it’s important to him that people know that. Capturing behavior and the inclusion of habitat also helps to define his style. It’s the drama in nature that inspires Dan. In the wild every day is a struggle to survive. This is the story he aims to tell. Dan also hopes his work serves as a reminder that we don’t own the earth, we share it. Click here to learn more about Dan.

KATRINA ELISE MEISTER

Katrina has been drawing as long as she can remember. She paints with watercolors, oil paints, acrylics, pen and ink, and block prints. Most of her work ends up on Katrina’s Cards and Gifts, her popular line of note cards and gift items. A sixth generation Oregonian, Katrina received a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Bachelors of Psychology from the University of Oregon, as well at receiving a degree from the U of O Honors College. Her paintings have exhibited in galleries and corporate offices and many regional art festivals. Katrina’s Cards and Gifts are available in select stores throughout the Northwest. Her work is in several private and corporate collections. She lives with her husband Michael, and their two children in Southern Oregon. Click here to learn more about Katrina.

STEFAN SAVIDES

Stefan has made birds his passion, and he has followed that passion from day one. His avian taxidermy has earned him an international reputation; however this multi-talented artist has painted, carved, raised and sculpted birds throughout his life. Sculpting in bronze is a natural progression from taxidermy as it provides Savides a lasting medium in which to express his knowledge of avian anatomy and design. A lifetime of study, coupled with the quest for simplistic design, has lead Savides to sculpt in a manner that captures the essence of his subjects without distracting detail. He is truly a multi-talented artist who has proven himself in a variety of mediums. Savides is an elected member of the National Sculpture society and a signature member of the Society of Animal Artists. Click here to learn more about Stefan.