I heard my first frog of the season at the Lonesome Duck today, 3/29/2011. It was at our pond at the Eagle's Nest cabin. I probably mistook the noise I made, anything will do, as a female in the area. It was probably a tree frog. They are abundant here. Yet, from the sound alone I don't know for sure. There are several of these medium sized species that are in the area, some quiet rare. (There is even a frog with a tail that lives within Crater Lake National Park.) I would be interesting to get a good look. The true frogs include some that breed very early in the spring, some while there is still ice(!) on the, usually shallow water bodies were they mate. Indeed, cold-blooded creatures!

The Lonesome Duck was full Monday eve, including a couple from near Frankfort, Germany. All three groups took at least one trip to Crater Lake. The snow was beautiful as were the views of the lake.

A loss of 10,000 Snow Geese and other waterfowl is being reported in areas of Lower Klamath Lake and Tule Lake National Wildlife refuges. The direct cause is avian cholera, rarely a threat to humans. The real cause is the lack of water in the refuges which concentrates the birds to unhealthy level. It looks like it is going to be a dry year. We hope there will be some water to spare for the refuges.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I fished the Klamath Canyon just below the J.C. Boyle dam. My partner was Robert West; he really knows how to fish this type of situation. It was windy with flurries but the pocket-water fishing with nymphs was good. The fish run mostly 10-14" and are beautifully colored this time of year. There were Dippers in the Canyon; strange birds that like fast mountain streams. They are related to the wrens, seemingly not very aquatic, with fairly normal feet. Not like a duck. Yet, they swim easily when they need to, but most of the time they dive under water and swim with their wings or cling and crawl on the underwater rocks with the sharp little claws on their feet. They are roughly the size of a robin but plumper. They are also known for hiding their nests behind the curtain of water at waterfalls, large and small.

There was a Rough-legged Hawk on an irrigation wheel on the Algoma flat along US 97 north of Klamath Falls as I drove to town. They are a bird of the tundra but overwinter in the Klamath Basin in large numbers. Most have left so this was a late bird. Small bills and legs for their size reflect one of their main prey up north, lemmings! I was attending another OHV (Off Highway Vehicle) U S Forest Service committee meeting in the eve in Klamath Falls. We have some spectacular areas nearby and do not want to mess them up.

Now we have 3 pairs of Wood Ducks coming to the feeders between our cabin and the Williamson River in the mornings. They were a little slow arriving this morning, probably due to the very stormy weather. Some say they are the most beautiful waterfowl in the world (although they have lots of beautiful competition): Wood Duck images. The females are protective earth-tones, and as many of such protectively colored birds, when you get very close you will see that they are marvelously and intricately marked and colored too.

Lots of wind whistling up the river; there's even whitecaps on the river. There's just a little snow in the air now but no accumulation yet at this elevation. We may get 5-8 inches says Weather.com. All the birds coming to the feeders are in storm mode, staying close, frequently dropping down to the feeders and filling up, then going back to the trees and saving energy.

The Williamson River coming up some, but has a ways to go before reaching average for this time of year. A few Buffleheads have been diving in the river in front of the cabin. It's a rainy day here at the ranch but snowing in the mountains all around. The Ponderosa's around the cabin are all a twitter with finches and Evening Grosbeaks. Some Lesser Goldfinch have shown up in full spring colors to the 5 feet from the living room window. Wow! go the colors!

A Cassin's Finch showed up with the others. Some times of the year they outnumber the other two near look alikes here. They all kind of look like sparrows with red wine poured over their heads. This one raised his bright crimson crown, so there was no mistaking him from the others. For a good comparison and to tell them apart see this page on Cornell's Tricky Birds:
http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/AboutBirdsandFeeding/finchIDtable.html

Nice break, now back to making sure my Uncle Sam doesn't run a smidgen as far into debt. :)

Yesterday George LeDoux and I did the last survey of hawks, falcons, and owls of the season for the Sprague River Valley. I was not expecting so many birds, figuring many of the over wintering raptors were gone, however, still lots of Redtails and Northern Harriers. Below is my report:

Sprague River, Klamath County, US-OR
Mar 23, 2012 10:30 AM - 2:50 PM
Protocol: Traveling
87.6 miles (150 miles r/t from home)
Comments:     This was a Winter Raptor Survey for the East Cascade Audubon Society. Time does not include 1hr 10min lunch "break" in Bly. Spring migration was showing, I was surprised by the good numbers of RTHA's - many of them pairs, 1 nesting; the GHOW was nesting (as it was last month); at least 3 pairs of Sandhill Cranes had staked out territories; at least 10 Turkey Vultures on the route; lots of Meadowlarks and Mountain Bluebirds. The wind became quite strong and made some of the ID's tough with swirling birds quickly going by or out of range. On the way from the route start at the town of Sprague River, along Sprague River Road, we observed 2 more adult Bald Eagles, another Redtail Hawk, and 2 Northern Harriers. Weather: Temps low 30's-upper 40'sF.; started at ~60% cumulus snow-cloud cover to ~15% cumulus; light flurries; calm wind to strong; unlimited visibility; ~1" of spotty old snow cover in a few places. Observers: Marshal A. Moser, Jr. and Geroge LeDoux

9 species surveyed:
Turkey Vulture  10
Bald Eagle  9
Northern Harrier  14
Red-tailed Hawk  42     One on nest.
Golden Eagle  1
American Kestrel  2
Prairie Falcon  2
Sandhill Crane  6
Great Horned Owl  1     On nest

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

Spring!?

Went to a meeting today with the Klamath Watershed Partnership today. It was a small committee that is trying to restore beaver in the Klamath Basin. It is mostly for the mountains around us but some of the landowners are interested in having them too. Others are having problems with beaver so we are gearing up to show them some neat tricks, e.g., "Beaver Deceivers", to alleviate most of the problems. In some cases we will need beaver to put into the back-country where beaver have all kinds of good impacts on water tables, fish and wildlife, etc. Problem beaver at the lower elevations can be the source of needed beaver for restocking areas. It has turned out to be a very interesting project.

Lots of hawks and Eagles, including Golden, along Klamath Lake today.

Great meeting of Klamath Country Fly Casters club last night at the Dynasty Restaurant in Klamath Falls last night. It was a big crowd attracted by Bill Tinniswood, fisheries biologist with ODFW. He updated us on what is happening with fish in the many lakes and streams from the Cascades to the Alvord Desert in the high desert country to the east called the Oregon Outback. The Klamath Country Fly Casters meet there for dinner at 6pm before the membership meetings at 7pm every third Tuesday, except during the height of fishing season.  :)

Had a flock of Red Crossbills stop by our riverside cabin this morning by to feed on the cones of the Ponderosa Pines. Sometimes they come down to the feeders on the deck or in the yard. Not yet this time. They are an interesting bird and do have crossed bills, very specialized for feeding on pine cones. They are permanent residents in the mountains all around us. They often fly by but you will usually not know they are flying by or even in the trees around you until you learn their call. Then you realize they are more common than often thought.

It's been cool but comfortable that past couple of days. No news on the wildlife front; things have been about the same. I attended two natural resource related meetings today. One was on how to manage and protect some of the huge stands of old growth Ponderosa and Sugar Pine forests in the area. The other meeting was in Klamath Falls and had a component about preserving some of the great vistas this area has. That's almost an understatement! It's big scenic country...

This is Modoc Rim in the summer. And that's Klamath Lake below, the 1st or 2nd largest natural freshwater lake west of the Rockies, depending on whether Agency Lake, the wetlands, and the delta of the Williamson River is included. It is amazing how uncluttered it is; that's partly due to the richness of the waters and the very abundant native insect life. That's also why the Redband Trout that come up the Wood River, the river by the Lonesome Duck, and the other springs and streams in the area get so big. They really are landlocked Steelhead Trout and act like it being highly migratory, podding up, etc. Guests often get the biggest trout of their lives here.

Today those mountains if the background had snow clouds brooding over them all day. It was also very scenic though very different in mood and appearance than in the summer photo.

Ah! Sunshine and snow in Cascades. It's beautiful at Crater Lake National Park today. We could see on the Crater Cams that they were working with snow blowers and plows, as they usually attempt all year, to reopen the south entrance via St. Rt. 62. It will probably be open by this afternoon. We had a couple that are staying here as guests head up there just before noon. They wanted to see in they could catch the free natural history snowshoe tour that a park ranger leads every Saturday and Sunday at 1pm, weather allowing. The Park provides free snowshoes but it is best to get reservations if you are interested (541-594-3100 during business hours). Our guests took some of the extra snowshoes we have here, just in case they had to do their own expedition. :)

We received almost a full inch of the needed precipitation the past couple of days, mostly as rain but it changed back and forth. However, the mountains around us received much more precipitation mostly as snow. Just what we needed!

Here's the stats from the Park's website for the headquarters, which is about 6,100', still about 1,000' below the rim:
NEW SNOW 9"
DEPTH ON GROUND 95"
AVERAGE SNOW DEPTH THIS DATE 118.5"
PERCENT OF AVERAGE 80.2%
That's a significant increase toward what we need for the summer in the past week.

If you check the snow along the roads in the area at ODOT's road cams and TripCheck, keep in mind we are still below average, you will find such roadside snow depths as 100'" at the junctions of St Rts 138 and 230 near Diamond Lake, just north of the park, or, in the pass on SR 140 on the way to Medford there is 42 in.

An important site for monitering the snowpack in Oregon, and in the the Cascades and Fremont Mountains for us, is SNOTEL. A quick check of some of the higher sites around us show:
70" at COLD SPRINGS CAMP SNOTEL, Site Elevation: 5940 ft.
65" at FOURMILE LAKE SNOTEL, Site Elevation: 5970 ft.
52" at SWAN LAKE MTN SNOTEL, Site Elevation: 6830 ft.

There is also one of these automated stations near the high-point of the rim on the east edge of the Fremont Mountains overlooking the Great Basin called the SUMMER RIM SNOTEL. It is at an elevation 7080 ft. but I could not get the website to respond. :)

The Williamson River is starting to show a little "chocolate" in it now. It's good that the river is starting to come up, even though it is still low for this time of year. The discoloration is enough to remind me that a lot of stream restoration work is still needed, even though many people are making very positive efforts throughout the watershed.

We saw the male Wood Duck again yesterday. This time on the Williamson River adjacent to the main house, The Settlement. He still had no company of his own species. It's still early for them, especially on the east side of the Cascades at our 4,150'; but that first sighting was on March 7th! We have been given 8 more Wood Duck boxes by Ducks Unlimited to put up this year. We better get at it. The local chapter of DU is having their annual banquet in Klamath Falls this evening. We already have about 10 boxes up but last year we had 7 pairs of Wood Ducks visiting the feeders in the yard early nearly every morning after full spring weather set in.

However, lots of Buffleheads and Goldeneyes, and a few Common Mergansers have been using the Williamson river the past few days. The inclement weather brings them in to the relatively warn and open waters. I also could hear a Golden Eagle near the satellite nest on the mountain over us this morning. And there was has been a lone Belted Kingfisher hanging around all winter. Spring's coming!

I saw 1 immature and 2 adult Bald Eagles on the way to Klamath Falls yesterday evening. I'm not sure what they were driving.  :)   Actually, I was on my way to hear a couple of the local candidates for office speak, all parties welcome. The eagles were along U.S. Rt. 97 as it snakes along the base of Modoc Rim and the massive Klamath Lake (+140 square miles). It is one of the most scenic drives in the country, albeit rather narrow, busy, and dangerous. I would be for more pullouts, if they could be arranged.

We did get a little more of that needed snow last night, maybe an inch. More of the same birds as yesterday are active in the yard plus a couple of Western Gray Squirrels and a covey of California Quail. The Canada Geese (3) continued to graze the grass along the river near one of the bird feeders.

The ranch's black lab, Lori Darling, sure loves to chase those squirrels! It appears the squirrels like being chased!! The squirrels often jump back down on the ground, from the opposite side from her, after she chases them up the tree. Sometimes the squirrel will then run over a football field in length with her literally to their tail. She seems to slow down to where she just doesn't quite catch them. The squirrels seem to know she will not catch them (I don't recall that we've ever seen her kill anything). Sometimes we worry about her naiveté, especially when the Coyotes come out and bark at her and try to get her to chase them; it's not just a game then. I bet the squirrels don't give the Coyotes a chance to catch them.

Snow at Lonesome Duck!!

When we went to bed at nearly 11pm the wind was howling but the snow had not started. However, when we awoke this was the Williamson River in front of our cabin:

Here's how the other side of our cabin looked. That's a Blue Elder covered with snow. A high desert species, which like others, can look rather artsy if tended.

That's 7 3/4 inches of the beautiful, and in the case around here, badly needed crystalline water. How did I know we received that much snow? Take a look here:

Actually, I took a yardstick and measured the snow on the open deck of one of the cabins. As you can see there was other evidence of a very nice snowfall.

 It's pretty obvious the wind stopped fairly soon after the snow started. The next picture shows how the snow was balanced on even the smallest of our cherry tree's branches, and it wasn't sticky but light and fluffy.

 Notice above that the Williamson River is wide open. It contains a large amount of spring water so it takes consistent very low temperatures (below zero F) to freeze it at the Lonesome Duck and yet the riffles do not freeze even then. As usual, when it snows, the temperatures stay rather mild. It dropped to 30F and stayed there most of the night. We are still under the effects of the Pacific air mass even on the east side of the Cascade Mountains. It doesn't get to below zero very often until you get over the Fremont Mountains, immediately to the east of us.

The snow and cold, it's supposed to drop to the low 20's F tonight, does effect the behavior of the animals. More waterfowl are forced to the open waters of the Williamson; we saw more Buffleheads and Common Goldeneyes today than we have seen since the colder spells in January. The smaller birds were very active around our feeders, especially Pine Siskins, Juncos, and Lesser Goldfinch with a large flock of Evening Grosbeaks spending some time here. Here are some of the Evening Grosbeaks which we can get anytime of year due to the proximity of the mountains around us:

We can also get Red Crossbills, mostly in winter, but they will fly over the Klamath Basin anytime of the year to get to the mountains surrounding us. We had some fly over the ranch a few days ago but they have not stopped by for a snack lately.

Here's some more Evening Grosbeaks with a Steller's Jay. This is our common yard jay year round. Some of the locals call them blue jays, perhaps not knowing of the blue and white Blue Jay east of the Rockies.

Other birds around the feeders the past couple of days are chickadees (usually Mountain), Pygmy Nuthatches, and House Finch. We often have Cassin's and Purple Finches but none within the past 48 hours. A Townsend's Solitaire was near the cabins; they are usually close by except in the middle of the summer when the spend their time in the mountains above us.

Suzie and I decided to take advantage of the snow and get some exercise by cross-country skiing today. It might be our last chance of the season but there is a chance of a refreshing about Friday. We almost waited too long. Sublimation and strong sun with the temperature up to 41F had quickly reduced the snow to only 2-3 inches in the pastures. We made it however, and did get to see more diving ducks, an unidentified eagle soaring high over Modoc Rim, and a couple other signs of spring that just showed up in the last week or so, a Spotted Towhee and a single Tree Swallow.

And, I almost forgot, a usually crepuscular to nocturnal Muskrat was swimming in front of our cabin mid-morning. A little later at least two River Otters stopped in the middle of the river in front of the River's Edge cabin next door to dive for the very large crayfish found there. You can see the Otters come up holding their mouths up, crunching away, trying not to spill the crunchy pieces out of their mouths. I said at least two Otters because the high metabolic critters are hard to count while diving in water.

We made it home from the fly fishing Expo (http://www.nwexpo.com./) just fine, a little late and tired. As soon as we dropped down to about 4,500' the roads were pretty good.

Today didn't produce much precip, just lots of wind. There were whitecaps on the Williamson River! Yet, with high winds, a high of 42F today and a snowstorm rolling in tonight and tomorrow, a Red-winged Blackbird between our cabin and the river was singing his spring song. A pair of Canada Geese was feeding and resting on the ground near one of our bird feeders, and the first pair of Killdeer of the season was in the horse's paddock. We also saw our first Turkey Vulture of the season this far north on this east side of the Cascades. Even though we are nearly on the floor of the Klamath Basin the elevation is still 4,150' above sea level. It made me recall the much greater advance of the season some 200 miles further north that we saw in the Willamette Valley the past few days. Life is tuned in to the coming spring even though we may get a temporary weather setback. Furthermore, we still do need the moisture with its benefits to the plant life and everything else.

A mature Bald Eagle put on a show along Modoc Rim above us as it worked its way to the rim from the Williamson River and then into the strong winds as it flew close to the brow of the Rim, sometimes below the tops of the trees, in a southerly direction. What a master of the air! The eagle approached the Rim almost directly at the satellite Golden Eagle nest there, so we watched to see if it would go to the nest or if a territorial confrontation would develop. It seemed to pay no attention to the nest and there must have been not Golden Eagle to see what we observed. A few minutes later a dark phase Red Tailed Hawk approached the Rim at about the same place the eagle had but, after circling a few times, turned north with the winds and followed Modoc Rim out of sight.

Wow! Winter is roaring back to high dessert country after the last post. However, Suzie and I had a great preview of spring by crossing over to the west side of the Cascades since then. I continue to be amazed at the variety of climates in the varied topography of Oregon.

We headed into the central Willamette Valley so I could do a tag team presentation on the Williamson River with John Hyde of Yamsi Ranch. The location was the 2012 Northwest Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo, March 9 & 10, in Albany, OR. It is one of the largest Fly Fishing events west of the Mississippi. Not only did I help present, I attended some 6 classes to brush up on aspects of fly fishing and, especially, learn some new things from knots to "Euronymphing." Always interesting is biology and behavior of fish (and humans) and the interplay behind the reasons many things are done the way they are. Learning is always valuable, and most of the time fun too. I had a good time and I hope John and the rest of the members of the Klamath Country Fly Casters club that were able to be there did too.

We are headed home now as I have been typing (and Suzie drives us up Oregon 58 toward a snowy Willamette Pass). So we are leaving behind the green grass and blooming daffodils, various plums, Western Redbud, and occasional early blooming apple tree. There are even palm trees and bamboo thickets around the valley from Albany to Portland, artificially propagated of course. I did not see any banana trees, although I would not be surprised to see them planted somewhere in the Willamette Valley in the summer.

We stayed overnight in the Portland area while I commuted to the Expo. That means we dropped to less than 100' above sea level at times. On the return it is like this: we passed 3,000' on the west slope of the Cascades and back into winter. I was thinking of breaking up this blog by submitting some it in parts, but now we are out of service in the rugged valleys of the upper Willamette watershed. I'll have to wait.

We started seeing patchy snow on the ground at just under 2,000'. At 3,000' there was general snow on the ground with snow in the air. At nearly 4,000' there is fresh snow all over the boughs of the trees, a couple of feet of snow, and we have left most of the deciduous trees below. 

Since I have some extra time before I can publish this I'll tell you more. At 6:51pm we passed Salt Creek Falls State Park. Salt Creek Falls is the second highest falls in Oregon, permanent, and very impressive. Access to the public is easy in summer (which comes very late) with a nice parking lot and short paved trails to the overlook. Other trails around the falls can be very rugged. The falls, in summer, is the home of a Black Swift colony (see the eBird article Black Swift Wintering Grounds Discovered). They are large for swifts, looking a lot like oversize Chimney Swifts, and are difficult to find.This is one of the relatively easiest places to add one to your life list, if you wish. They like to hide their nests in the rocks behind the waterfalls and often leave early in the morning. They often do not come back until late in the day, even when young are in the nests (provoking some scientific studies on the amazing metabolism of both the young and adults). How would you like to be able to fly all day (or maybe, go 12 hours or more without eating)??!!!

At just over 5,000' we crossed Willamette Pass. There looked to be over 5' of snow along the road. The Willamette Pass ski resort was open. Actually, this is not much snow for this time of year! We are having a very dry year and definitely need lots more precipitation, especially a pile of snow in the mountains to keep us watered in the valleys below this summer. The broken weather systems that have been hitting the northwest coast since Saturday evening are supposed to continue with off and on precipitation beyond the 10-day forecast. The Cascades will most likely receive all of it as snow. It could be a summer with lots of wildfires if we don't have better snowpack.

It's all a very fascinating creation we find ourselves in.

Lonesome Duck Blog: Spring is coming early to Lonesome Duck (so far). ...

Spring is coming early to Lonesome Duck (so far). After a drop into single digits and over 10 inches of snow last week we are headed back to above 50F and the first Wood Duck of the season showed up in the Williamson River in front of the cabin yesterday. It is beautifully clear as I type.

We have been seeing Tree Swallows (with possibly some Violet Greens), mated Canada Geese and eagles close by on the river over the past week. In fact an adult Golden Eagle and an immature were messing around the satellite nest on Modoc Rim above the ranch. A pair of Goldens is nesting on the rim about 4 miles south of us. Steve took a peep through the scope yesterday and the Bald Eagle pair toward the south end of the ranch has started nesting. They are both early nesters but spring can't be far behind!

Test blog

Hello, ready to try my wings as a blogger. I plan this to be mostly travel, natural history/outdoor (wildlife, fishing, bird watching, etc.), reporting and observations.