Birding a new (but close) area!

Today I met with a small group to inspect a new area managed by the National Wildlife Refuge system in the Klamath Basin. The host was Mike Johnson, Manager for the Klamath Marsh and the Upper Klamath National Wildlife Refuges. I was invited by Seth Anthony, Dennis Taugher, and Kyra Eberle of the Klamath Trails Alliance. They are interested in developing hiking trails across the north end of the Klamath Basin. The refuge system sees this as an opportunity to open a large new area to the public for low key use, i.e., birding, hiking, biking, horseback, etc. I was the bird watcher representative, specifically for the Klamath Basin Audubon Society.

The area is basically the marshes and diked areas to the west and southwest of the Wood River Wetland. Below are the bird species and estimates of numbers observed there today. As you can figure I registered the count on eBird and emailed it to myself. The count was good, especially since the weather was not real good and we were actually moving faster than I normally do when counting birds:

USFWS Barnes Agency property, Klamath, US-OR May 26, 2012 10:20 AM - 1:20 PM

Protocol: Traveling

Comments:     We were driven out by Mike Johnson, the USFWS Refuge Manager, to the starting point about 3 miles SW of the Wood River bridge, and 4 of us walked back, with one diversion down and back a dike, for a total one way of about 4 miles. Weather was broken heavy clouds with some sun breaking through, yet sprinkles, windy, and temperatures in the upper 40's to low 50's.

Total of 49 species:

Canada Goose  30

Gadwall  15

Mallard  25

Cinnamon Teal  6

Northern Shoveler  4

Redhead  4

Ring-necked Duck  8

Eared Grebe  10

Western Grebe  4

Clark's Grebe  8

Double-crested Cormorant  12

American White Pelican  8

Great Blue Heron  1     Notable due to scarcity; one seen flying over while I was driving away.

Great Egret  2

Black-crowned Night-Heron  4

White-faced Ibis  8

Turkey Vulture  6

Osprey  1

Bald Eagle  3

Red-tailed Hawk  1

American Coot  10

Killdeer  4

Black-necked Stilt  10

Black Tern  10

Forster's Tern  30

Mourning Dove  2

Downy Woodpecker  1

Western Wood-Pewee  3

Black-billed Magpie  3

Common Raven  2

Tree Swallow  25

Bank Swallow  30

Barn Swallow  4

Marsh Wren  25     Estimated count by ear, some seen.

American Robin  2

European Starling  2

Cedar Waxwing  6

Common Yellowthroat  1

Yellow Warbler  10

Savannah Sparrow  10

Song Sparrow  4

Lincoln's Sparrow  2

Red-winged Blackbird  40

Western Meadowlark  2

Yellow-headed Blackbird  20

Brewer's Blackbird  6

Brown-headed Cowbird  10

Bullock's Oriole  1

American Goldfinch  1

This report was generated automatically by eBird v3 (http://ebird.org )