I took a long weekend and dashed down to the Klamath Basin. While
this was a "tail-end of winter" excursion, signs of an early spring
were all around.

Still a lot of baldies around - photographing them being one focus
of my trip, of course.

I was somewhat startled to run across two American avocet on Miller
Island (just south of Klamath Falls) on Friday, March 15th. I've
not been to the Klamath Basin in March before, usually going in
mid-winter or later in April, but I'm sure this is an early date.
CD Littlefield, in his "Birds of Malheur", gives March 27th as
the average arrival date for this species at that refuge (with the
earliest recorded arrival being March 11th).

These avocet were just molting out of winter plummage, being at the
"dirt behind the ears" stage of getting their reddish-brown heads.

There were also reports of ibis and stilts around. Ibis would really
be unusual this early - Littlefield gives the earliest arrival date
at Malheur as April 7th, but the average being May 3rd. I have been
to Malheur several times in April, though primarily to view/photograph
sage grouse well away from the heart the refuge proper, but have never
seen ibis there at that time of year.

There was also a single Say's pheobe singing, and meadowlark were
singing all over the place. Temperature was warm, I spent a couple
of hours hiking around Lava Beds NM and wished for shorts - more
typical of May than March at that altitude east of the Cascades!

As a final sign of spring, I returned with about a dozen mosquito
bites - I was so unprepared, emotionally, for skeets being about
that I forgot to swat at the first few that got me!

Oh, there were a few tree swallows around Ft. Klamath, as well.

There were three pair of crane at Klamath Forest NWR, presumably
greaters as they were acting as though they're in serious housekeeping
mode, rather than flocked together like migratory lessers.

I didn't do any real birding (didn't even take my binoculars), as
bird photography was the focus of my trip, so I don't have an
exhaustive report to file. If I'd known it was going to be so
springlike I'd've come prepared to get a bit more serious about
it.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
Nature photos, on-line guides, more *died* as site ate its disk