Our annual theatre/birding trip was from 8/17 to 8/21. We bird mornings
and evenings before the theatre in the Ashland/Medford area, and save an
entire day for the Lower Klamath NWR (LK) which lies on the
Oregon/California border just south of Klamath Falls.

The 73 species we saw this year is about two dozen lower than usual, due
to drought conditions at LK, which border on disastrous for the birds.
There is water in a few of the ponds south of Stateline Rd, but it is so
shallow in many places that Black- necked Stilts and even Long-billed
Dowitchers can wade around in them. All the rest of LK is dry. There
is still some water in the original Tule Lake (TL), about a tenth of the
huge expanse of water that we always called Tule Lake, but the rest is
dry. The Clear Lake unit 20-odd miles east of TL is likewise dry.

It's not usually helpful to report negative results, but the utter
absence of
Redwinged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds at Lower Klamath was startling,
the marsh opposite the headquarters building is completely dry, too. The
migratory waterfowl that arrives in October/November won't find enough
water to set down on, so they'll presumably continue down to
California's Sacramento Valley and start eating unharvested crops, which
will cause conflict with the farmers there.

In addition to the habitat destruction that continues unabated in the
Ashland/ Medford area, we were depressed at the public mood, if one can
call it that, around Klamath Falls. The state of LK shows that water in
the area is a scarce resource, yet farmers who irrigate their crops
plant signs in their yards that flay the USFWS for playing God. (Some
water is supposed to run in the river to save the fish.) Their yards
feature 1/2 acre lawns that are greener than most golf courses, they run
water during the day when evaporation rates are highest, and some of the
places we observed had standing puddles from overwatering. People wore
T-shirts emblazoned with "We're going to take it [the water] back!" And
the local sportsman's park near Keno had around 200 carloads of
"sportsmen" practicing with their firearms when we passed by on Sunday.
Do they envision a shootout with federal marshals? What surprised us
was the sense of absolute entitlement these people feel about this
scarce resource -- which is heavily subsidized by taxpayers outside
Klamath Falls. All of this seems to spell trouble for birds in
particular and wildlife in general in south-central Oregon. We were
tempted stop to do a rain dance on the way out, but things were so eerie
there that we just left.

Species seen (73):

Pied-billed Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Canada Goose
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Blue-winged Teal
Snowy Egret
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night Heron
White-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk (two near Medford)
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
Prairie Falcon (two aloft at LK)
California Quail
Virginia Rail (four crossing Stateline Rd.)
Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher
Black-necked Stilt
Killdeer
Ring-billed Gull
Caspian Tern (over the reservoir near Keno)
Forster's Tern
Rock Dove
Mourning Dove
Common Nighthawk
Rufous Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher (c. 15 individuals along Bear Creek & the Rogue River)

Acorn Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Western Woodpewee (c. 12 individuals along Bear Creek)
Steller's Jay
Western Scrub Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Cedar Waxwing (at least 50 at TouVelle Park)
Western Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
American Robin
Northern Mockingbird (1 south of Keno on road to US 97)
European Starling
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Violet-green Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Black-capped Chickadee
Mountain Chickadee
Oak Titmouse
House Sparrow
American Goldfinch (some with young near Ashland & Medford)
Lesser Goldfinch
Yellow Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Song Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
California Towhee
Western Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird (only 1 near Ashland)
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird


Paul Webster
PWebst25 at concentric.net