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Tag: Ryan Terrill

Experience Bear Divide

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Trips & Events.

Klamath Bird Observatory is going back to Bear Divide! Last April we took 10 people for the first time to Bear Divide to experience bird migration in a new way. This trip is led by Dr. Ryan Terrill KBO’s Science Director. As a postdoc at Occidental College Ryan helped establish the monitoring happening at Bear Divide. Even though he is now at KBO this place still calls him back.

“Personally, I really think it’s one of the best birding spots in the world,” Ryan Terrill

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.

At Bear Divide sits a banding station run by graduate students and volunteers. Volunteers come from all over to contribute to the science and experience the wonder that is Bear Divide. KBO donates a portion of the proceeds from this fundraising trip to support the banding station.

Trip Details:

  • Dates: April 23rd – April 26th, 2025
  • On Wednesday evening at Hotel Lexen, we will have a small group get-together to discuss the week. There will be time to mingle with refreshments.
  • The group will leave for Bear Divide by van from Hotel Lexen Newhall in downtown Santa Clarita at 5:30 am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. We plan to stay there for several hours or until migration slows.
  • Optional birding excursions will be offered in the afternoons, or you can explore the area at your leisure. A highlight from last year was visiting and learning about the Pasadena parrot population.
  • A special presentation by Dr. Ryan Terrill is planned for Thursday evening with a provided dinner
  • Included: breakfast and lunch, transportation to Bear Divide, dinner Thursday night, and optional excursions
  • Not included: airfare, airport transfers, hotel, most dinners
  • Trip Cost: $1500 per person
  • Flights: We recommend flying into Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), significantly closer to Hotel Lexen than LAX.

Read more about Bear Divide in these articles:
https://californiacurated.com/2024/02/27/feathers-on-the-flyway-unraveling-avian-mysteries-at-bear-divide-with-the-moore-lab/
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/13/1250248970/birds-migration-la-bear-divide-california-science-environment 

Suggested hotel: Hotel Lexen

Registration: 2025 Bear Divide

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Price: $1,500.00

Bear Divide Trip Registration and Details

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Birds & Birding, Trips & Events.

Klamath Bird Observatory is going on a 4-day trip to Burbank, California, where we will explore the wonders of Bear Divide led by Dr. Ryan Terrill, April 24th – 27th, 2024. There are only a handful of places in the United States where you get to experience bird migration in a new way. 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 really is overwhelming to stand on the road and have 5,000 birds of 80 species fly by your knees in a morning,” Dr. Ryan Terrill said.

It’s also one of the only morning “flight spots” on the West Coast (out of very few in the entire world), offering learning opportunities, 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.

Trip Details:

Wednesday evening at Hotel Lexen, we will have a small group get-together to go over the week and have time to mingle. The group will leave for Bear Divide by van from Hotel Lexen Newhall in downtown Santa Clarita at 5:30 am on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. We plan to stay there for several hours or until migration slows.  Optional additional birding excursions will be offered in the afternoons, or you can explore the area at your leisure. A special presentation by Dr. Ryan Terrill is planned for Thursday evening.

Included: breakfast and lunch, transportation to Bear Divide, and optional excursions

Not included: airfare, airport transfers, hotel, dinners.

Trip Cost: $1500 per person.

Travel arrangement notes:

Flights: We recommend flying into Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), which is significantly closer to Hotel Lexen than LAX. Please note that ultra-low-cost carrier Avelo Airlines offers direct flights from Medford to Burbank on Wednesday, April 24th, and back on Saturday, April 27th. (KBO does not endorse Avelo or any other airline.)

Hotel: KBO has reserved a block of rooms at Hotel Lexen (24219 Railroad Ave, Santa Clarita, CA) for participants. You will provide payment to the hotel on your arrival Wednesday. The cost of a reserved room is $550. You can call and reserve your own room at Hotel Lexen or another hotel nearby if you want.

Save the Date – Bear Divide Trip with Dr. Ryan Terrill

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, Birds & Birding, Trips & Events.

Join KBO’s Science Director for an avian awe-inspiring experience, a spectacle of spring bird migration that is on full display at Bear Divide in the western San Gabriel Mountains. Bear Divide’s topography is a funnel for long-distance migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. Visitors and scientists can see and study migratory birds up close and personal.

Led by Dr. Ryan Terrill, a collaborative group of scientists is counting thousands of birds each spring morning as they pass over a low saddle in the mountains on their way north. The Pacific Coast has previously lacked a place to monitor diurnal bird migration similar to well-known East Coast migration hotspots like Cape May, and the data we collect will help us understand how well birds are doing as they respond to changing habitats and climates.

You can watch a video of Ryan’s presentation to the Pasadena Audubon Society in 2022 here to learn more about Dear Divide. 

The trip will take place from April 24 to 28, 2024—price to be determined. Registration opens on February 5th.

Welcome KBO’s New Science Director Ryan Terrill

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in Klamath Call Note, KBO Family, Press Room.

Inti Tanager by Ryan Terrill

KBO is thrilled to introduce our new Science Director, Ryan Terill. Ryan grew up birding in the Santa Cruz mountains of central California and has a life-long interest in birds. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. in Biology from Louisiana State University, where his thesis focused on understanding how avian molt strategies interact with evolution over time. He has authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles in Ornithology and is an author of the Field Guide to the Birds of Bolivia. In addition to studying the ecology and evolution of avian molt, his research has also focused on the distribution and conservation of birds of the Americas. He was involved in discovering and describing a new species and genus of bird to science: The Inti Tanager (Heliothraupis onelilli) in Bolivia, and he continues to work to understand the population size, distribution, and risks for this species. His recent work has focused on understanding populations of Mexican birds over the 20th century from a framework of long-term distribution and occupancy trends, as well as the effects of climate change on the molting grounds of North American molt-migratory birds. He has served on various committees and boards, including the editorial boards of Western Birds and The Neotropical Naturalist journals, the California Bird Records Committee, and the Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World advisory committee.

As Science Director, Ryan will lead the development, design, and review of monitoring and research studies, including long-term monitoring, effectiveness monitoring, and theoretical research; oversee staff leading long-term bird banding (25+ year dataset), long-term monitoring, and applied ecology studies using point count methodology, and full-lifecycle limiting factors research focused on single species using multiple methodologies; advance KBO’s robust body of science focused on bird populations and their response to management and/or restoration of shrub-steppe, western forests, oak woodlands, riparian, and montane meadows of Oregon and northern California; and contribute to forest collaboratives, provide expertise specific to bird conservation and the application of birds as focal species to inform planning and evaluate success.

Ryan is thrilled to be joining like minds at the Klamath Bird Observatory. His scientific philosophy is that conservation, ecology, and evolution are integrally connected and are best informed by careful natural history study in the field combined with modern analytical tools. He joins KBO’s long tradition of just such work.

Ryan Terrill, PhD

Written by Elva Manquera on . Posted in KBO Staff.

Ryan Terrill grew up birding in the Santa Cruz mountains of central California and has a life-long interest in birds. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz and his Ph.D. in Biology from Louisiana State University, where his thesis focused on understanding how avian molt strategies interact with evolution over time. He has authored over 25 peer-reviewed articles in Ornithology and is an author of the Field Guide to the Birds of Bolivia. In addition to studying the ecology and evolution of avian molt, his research has also focused on the distribution and conservation of birds of the Americas. He was involved in discovering and describing a new species and genus of bird to science: The Inti Tanager (Heliothraupis onelilli) in Bolivia, and he continues to work to understand the population size, distribution, and risks for this species. His recent work has focused on understanding populations of Mexican birds over the 20th century from a framework of long-term distribution and occupancy trends, as well as the effects of climate change on the molting grounds of North American molt-migratory birds. He has served on various committees and boards, including the editorial boards of Western Birds and The Neotropical Naturalist journals, the California Bird Records Committee, and the Howard and Moore Checklist of the Birds of the World advisory committee.

As Science Director, Ryan will lead the development, design, and review of monitoring and research studies, including long-term monitoring, effectiveness monitoring, and theoretical research; oversee staff leading long-term bird banding (25+ year dataset), long-term monitoring, and applied ecology studies using point count methodology, and full-lifecycle limiting factors research focused on single species using multiple methodologies; advance KBO’s robust body of science focused on bird populations and their response to management and/or restoration of shrub-steppe, western forests, oak woodlands, riparian, and montane meadows of Oregon and northern California; and contribute to forest collaboratives, provide expertise specific to bird conservation and the application of birds as focal species to inform planning and evaluate success.

Click HERE to Contact Ryan