The Williamson is rising!

I noticed the Williamson River is up about 5 or 6 inches more today.The river is still below average for this time of year. There is an exaggerated delay in runoff reaching us here at the Lonesome Duck due to the baffling effect of the several canyons upstream on the Sprague River as well as the effects of Klamath Marsh on the Williamson proper.

The Sprague, which has a large watershed, both watersheds reaching to the Great Basin, joins the Williamson at Chiloquin. Chiloquin is about 5 river miles above us. The Sprague is also very important in the life history of the Redband Rainbow trout that Klamath Lake and the rivers flowing into it are famous for producing. Furthermore, the Sprague River is one of the principal breeding streams of the endangered Lost River Sucker (Deltistes luxatus) and Shortnose Sucker (Chasmistes brevirostris), once extremely abundant and still important to the Klamath Tribes. In fact, a small diversion dam for irrigation that blocked the Sprague at Chiloquin was taken out in 2008. An important reason was to allow the passage and breeding of the endangered suckers. More evidence is building that the dam removal is also benefiting the Redband Rainbows which are known to migrate well over 100 miles above the dam site to spawn. Without the dam they now have much less inhibited access to this large watershed.

For more background, Chiloquin was the pioneer version of a Klamath family name Chaloquin, which was the name of a Klamath chief who was alive at the time of the treaty of 1864. Some say Chiloquin also means two, or twin, rivers.

A little more of the history can be found at http://www.chiloquin.us/History.htmhttp://www.chiloquin.us/History.htm

Yellow-headed Blackbirds Close and Colorful!

As usual, as spring has progressed the Yellow-headed Blackbirds have arrived en masse. Here's a closeup of the birds below one of the feeders. A Red-winged Blackbird (showing mostly the yellow band) and Brown-headed Cowbird can also be seen.

 We have several feeders placed about the property. Sometimes a dozen to two dozen Yellow-headed Blackbirds are at each feeder simultaneously. Here's one:

 Here's a little closer:

They even come up on the deck were we have a feeder hanging above:

Other visitors are Cassin's Finch, Steller's Jays, Mourning Doves, and large numbers of Evening Grosbeaks continue to stop by.

Purple Finches and Crossed Bills

Today was a good day at the Lonesome to see a couple of less commonly seen birds. First was a pair of Purple Finches. They came in to the Black Oil Sunflower feeder. More commonly we see the similar House Finches and Cassin's Finch, possibly the most of the later.

The other bird of note today was a Red Crossbill. It showed up in the Ponderosa Pines around the cabins. Although they pass through almost any time of year in our mountain bowl, they only occasionally drop down to the feeders. Here's eNature's link for more info and their photo of the Red Crossbill:

There are several species of Crossbills around the world. They are still considered finches, but, as you can see they really do have crossed bills! This is an adaptation to pry apart the scales on pines and other cone-bearing trees. Then they pluck the seeds out with their very able tongues! Looks kind of parrot-like, eh?

Lonesome Duck gets refreshed.

If you would have come in this week this is what you might have seen:

We are touching up the log cabins and resealing them. They will be looking as sharp as ever this year.

The weather has been great at ranch elevation with still lots of snow in the mountains. We have had a couple in Eagle's Nest cabin all week. They have been bird-watching and exploring from Klamath Basin over into the Rogue Valley. It's time to mow the grass and maybe you can see the flower shoots in the flower boxes in the above photo. It will not be long and lots of things will be in bloom!

Golden Eagle & Yellow-headed Blackbirds

A mature Golden Eagle landed in the trees on the mountain side of Modoc Rim above me today. I was working on the back side of the ranch and looked up just in time to see it silently gliding low below the rim and land back in the Ponderosa Pines.

The Yellow-headed blackbirds are visiting the bird feeders in the yard in good numbers now.

I saw the Golden Eagle at the Lonesome Duck today. It was a young bird with the classic white base of its rather long tail, which is still dark on the end. There are some other differences with the Bald Eagle such as feet feather to the toes and a smaller head. The clincher is that both the adult and immature Golden Eagle has golden blond feathers on the back of its head. This can be seen at a great distance with binoculars when the bird turns its head or as it circles when soaring. This particular Golden Eagle was soaring low over the floodplain of Williamson River about twice the height of the Ponderosa Pines growing there. No sound was heard.

My wife and I were wondering yesterday when the first Yellow-headed Blackbirds of the season would show up on the Lonesome Duck. Today was the day! They use the feeders as they pass through during the spring. Although there was just a few today, less than a dozen, over the next month they will peak with up to several dozen per day. They are a handsome bird and normally not seen except within emergent wetlands of the West.

Here's a catch-up post since I have been battling a spring cold.

I heard screaming Monday of last week. It turned out to be a light phase Red-tailed Hawk. The can get very vocal and urgent sounding. Since the Bald Eagle chirps like a giant sparrow the call of the Red-tailed Hawk is often dubbed in movies. Thus they show the eagle soaring and then you hear the spine-tingling scream. Hollywood does a lot of fakery - you might say it's there business.  (*~*)

Speaking of eagles, I saw 8 eagles on my way to the Klamath Country Fly Casters meeting Tuesday. They were mostly in the cottonwoods along U.S. 97 and Upper Klamath Lake. Even though some did not have the famous white head and tail, they were probably all Bald Eagles. Note that Bald Eagles don't completely develop the white head and tail until about an age of 5 years.

That Tuesday (4/17/2012) I also observed a new species for the Lonesome Duck since I began keeping records 6 years ago. There were 4 Ring-necked Ducks on our pond in the yard of the Eagles' Nest cabin. They sure look sharp in their spring plumage.

Today at least 3 or 4 Red-tailed Hawks were chasing each other and screaming at tree-top level right over the office area of the ranch. There was a lot of human activity here as we do the spring cleanup and fix-ups. It did not seem to bother them at all.

Oh, I could hear the low call of a Golden Eagle on the mountain above us today too. Unlike the two raptors mentioned above, Golden Eagles are not very vocal with few people ever hearing them. I think we hear them more often here because there is one of their satellite nests on the mountain adjacent to the office area. It appears to be around their nests that they are the most vocal.

Last night the coyotes put on a "serenade" in the middle of the night. We had new guest in, and, as is often the case, they call heavily the first night of a stranger’s presence. The calls vary tremendously from yipping and squealing to long dog-like howls. Their calls last night were particularly long, drawn out calls and quite high pitched.

I have not blogged for a couple of weeks now because Suzie and I were away from Oregon. We're back now from a couple of weeks of "vacation" to a very interesting place that I hope to tell you more about over the next couple of days, other duties permitting.

But first a couple of local things: I went fishing! The Wednesday before we left Oregon, March 28th, I went with Robert West of Klamath Falls to what is known as the clearwater section of the Klamath River below the J.C. Boyle Dam, downstream from Keno, Oregon. I met Robert through Parker's Rod and Gun Rack a couple of years ago when he repaired a couple of my fly rods for me. Robert is handy at a lot of things and also makes custom fly rods and flies. I use a number of his flies. And... we have had some great fishing adventures.

The clearwater section of the Klamath River is called that because it is the stretch of water between the dam and  where most of the water is released back into the river at electrical power turbines roughly 4 miles downstream. The river in this section is usually smaller and clearer because it is mostly filled by seepage from the dam and springs along the canyon.

Here's a shot of the Klamath River in that section from our trip:

The canyon is deep and very rugged. It takes a careful hike down, good footwear for slippery rocks in the river, and a seemingly longer hike up and out. The fishing is usually good for the Redband Rainbows found there. We caught and released roughly 40 fish that day, mostly by Robert. They ran 10-14 inches; not nearly as large as the Redbands the area is famous for, but they were abundant and relatively easy to catch.

The tangle of heavy vegetation along and in the river will limit the accessibility to this section of the Klamath River as the growing season progresses. Other sections will come into their own then, including the full river downstream which, I am told and want to experience, will have a great Salmonfly hatch later in the spring.

As the Klamath flows through the mountains crowded into the areas along the Oregon-California border it has many very rugged areas, some famous with the white-water people. Some say it is more rugged than the more famous Rogue River just over the Cascades from us. Here's a link with some river info from American Whitewater.

Spring is coming along nicely now at our 4,150 foot basin ringed by mountains. We arrived back at the ranch to find the grass greening up, the tulips and daffodils up, and the crocuses blooming. The early frogs are in full chorus now so I went out shortly after dark to try to identify the most vociferous ones in our several wetlands on the ranch. The sound is melodious from a distance and one of my favorite "calls of the wild." I thought I better make the effort now as I have meetings several nights this week and I had always missed the opportunity over the 6 springs we have been here.

At the first small wetland the frogs stopped their chorus as soon as I arrived. It was too small and my noise and bright light was too much for them.

At the larger wetland in the north pasture there were hundreds of frogs singing simultaneously and I hardly effected their amorous calls at all, even when I decided to drive my little SUV there, lights shining over the wetland and all. I was able to walk within a couple of feet of the tiny little frogs near the edge of the water while they just kept on singing, the air coursing back and forth between deeper in their bodies and their inflated throat pouch. One little frog at a time does not make a very impressive sound - just a little two part creck! However, with hundreds of them calling at the same time the sound at the edge of the wetland is nearly earsplitting. They can easily be heard over a mile on a calm night.

Oh, and they turned out to be be Pacific Treefrogs, Hyla regilla. They come in a couple of color forms and also have limited ability, as do other tree frogs, to change colors within a minute or so, especially from gray to green. They have a large range west of the Rockies from southern Baja well up into central B.C.