Eagles and Ducks

On Friday I heard the low call of the Golden Eagle along Modoc Rim above us. It is a sound that many people that have seen Golden Eagles have never heard. Here is the sound from eNature; click on the "listen" button when you get there.


It usually is not so close and loud, or frequent a call as of the Bald Eagle. It considered a rare sound to many and is usually kind of muffled and may be limited to their nesting territories.


Also, on Friday I flushed a hen Mallard in the sage and Rabbitbrush near our Eagle's Nest cabin. Mallards will usually nest in dense cover on the ground, often over 100 yards from water. Predators, like fox, coyote, and raccoon often follow the edges of water so that is not a good place to hide the nest, especially for ground nesting birds. (Wood Ducks, are partly called that because they usually nest in hollows up in trees.) The same day I possibly saw ducklings of unknown species in the wetland in our north pasture. I plan to look again to see if I can verify them and determine the species.


On Saturday in our north pasture a Bald Eagle was flying low and fast over the pasture toward the river. Quick behind it came a Golden Eagle moving very fast with his wings tucked in. The speed and demonstration of power of the Golden Eagle was impressive. The Golden Eagle, evidently was chasing the Bald Eagle out of his territory. When the Bald Eagle reached the Williamson River he seemed to relax and just swooped up and landed in one of his usual perches in the big Ponderosa Pines along the river. The Golden Eagle veered off at river, evidently content that he had defended his territory. I am reminded that Golden Eagles are primarily predators of mammals, while Bald Eagles are primarily predators of aquatic species from fish to geese. Evidently both like the Belding's Ground Squirrels that are abundant in some of our pastures.

Red Crossbills & Red Breasted Sapsuckers

I have posted recently that Red Crossbills have been courting in the tops of the tall Ponderosa Pines in front of our cabin. Yesterday a pair came done to the Black Thistle feeders on our deck. So close that you could see their crossed bills without binoculars.

About the same time a beautiful Red Breasted Sapsucker landed on the corner post of our porch and began searching for insects. Again, at very close range.

The Bald Eagles continued their everyday appearances.

Beaver jungles and sniping elk.

The highlight of the past week was a trip to some of the springs and wetlands along the base of the Cascade Mountains just to our west. I went there on Friday on a tip I might find a spring-fed stream full of hungry Brook Trout. I have been searching the numerous springs there for several years but, have never found any fishing too exciting. I understand that for some of the areas the time of year can be critical; for Brook Trout I would expect the best time would be leading up to their spawning in the fall of the year.

The main area I checked was a jungle of flooded brush and beaver ponds. The spring was multi-channeled due to the diversions created by the beaver ponds. The channels flowed out into huge wetlands of bogs, emergent wetlands, and sedge meadows. It was a natural wildlife haven and many sounds of birds and amphibians could be heard. Two of the strangest sounds were the many Winnowing Snipe doing their aerial displays over the marshes and the American Bittern. See and hear them on the eNature.com website: first the American Bittern. Be sure to listen to the very strange sound they make, on the left just above the photo. Because of the strange sound it has also been called the "thunder-pumper" or "Bogbumper" or "Stake Driver". The Common Snipe (yes there really are snipe, several species around the world, but they do not glow in the dark) also makes and interesting sound which is common to large open wetlands in the spring of the year. Be sure to listen to the sound on the website too.

 A bonus was a couple of cow elk grazing far out in the wet meadows.

As it grew dark the beaver came out and started slapping their tails on the water when they sensed I was in the area.

I went fly fishing at dusk at the mouth of Spring Creek on the Williamson River. I started late and only caught one little Redband Trout which I quickly released. I also heard my first Nighthawk of the season Saturday eve. I had heard a Common Poorwill during the week through our screen windows during the night a day or two earlier.

We continue to see Bald Eagles daily; there is a mated pair hanging around especially near our Eagles Nest cabin.

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 )

Good and bad nature news.

This week I discovered that something had gotten into the wild bee hive in one of our owl boxes, torn off the lower side, and there was no sign of live bees on the comb.

Also, a couple weeks ago we found enough Barn Owl feathers to believe that something had killed one of the pair of our Barn Owls. Great Horned Owls would be highly suspect and are known to kill Red-tails and other raptors. We do hear Great Horned Owls occasionally. The good news is we found that one of our owl boxes is occupied by an adult and I can see at least one wobbly half-grown chick through the entrance hole.

There was a pair of Bullock's Orioles coming to the hummingbird feeder in our kitchen window of our cabin, beautiful!! Several hummingbirds have been coming of several species, including a brightly colored male Anna's Hummingbird.

I noticed a Mountain Chickadee on the ranch on Tuesday. They are fairly common here anytime of year and we get an occassional Black-capped Chickadee. You have to get into the Cascade Mountains, about 20 miles west to see the Chestnut-backed Chickadee.

Weekly Synopsis of Birds seen on the Lonesome Duck and the area.

Last Sunday there was a Townsend's Solitaire giving its little one note call on the ranch. We get them mostly in late fall and winter. This time of year they are mostly higher in the mountains (again, we are at an elevation of 4,150 feet).

Monday & Tuesday a Whiteheaded Woodpecker was seen a couple of places on the ranch. Hopefully, it will find a mate and they will be here all summer.

Tuesday night it was calm and pleasant. We slept with only the screen between us and the outdoors. I can often hear fish, beaver, and other things splashing in the Williamson River from our upstairs bedroom. Often we also hear owls, especially Great Horned, and coyotes. This night I got a surprise, a Sora Rail on the river! This is unusual habitat since we do not have their usual marshy habitat on the river close to the cabin. Possibly it was migrating along the Williamson River. We do have good habitat for them in a wetland in our north pasture.

On Thursday a Red-breasted Sapsucker was hanging around our cabin. We also have lots of Pygmy Nuthatches and an occasional White-breasted Sapsucker.

Today I went fishing back in the Fremont Mountains almost 50 miles to a place along the Sycan River. I did not catch any fish, only seeing one small one in an area where they can be over 2 feet long. However, it was a great break into the backwoods and I saw Mt. Bluebirds, Canada Jays, Clark's Nutcrackers, deer, Ravens, Mallards, etc.

A Birdwatching Trip

Yesterday some of the ranch guests wanted to do some birdwatching. Four guests and I went out for just over 4 hours in the north end of the Klamath Basin. We birded and discussed the natural history along Modoc Rim, along the Williamson River delta and Agency Lake, spending some time at Wood River Wetlands, and finishing up at Kimball State Park. Special objectives were the huge White Pelicans and Sandhill Cranes. We did not see any Sandhill Cranes this time but did see the pelicans and many other birds and a few other creatures like muskrats. A sampling of what we saw:

    Pied-billed Grebe

    Horned Grebe

    Western Grebe

    Clark's Grebe

    American White Pelican

    Double-crested Cormorant

    Great Egret

    Turkey Vulture

    Canada Goose

    Wood Duck

    Mallard

    Bufflehead

    Osprey

    Bald Eagle

    Red-tailed Hawk

    Golden Eagle

    American Kestrel

    California Quail

    American Coot

    Black-necked Stilt

    Forster's Tern

    Mourning Dove

    Steller's Jay

    Black-billed Magpie

    Common Raven

    Tree Swallow

    Northern Rough-winged Swallow

    Barn Swallow

    Cliff Swallow

    Marsh Wren

    American Robin

    European Starling

    Yellow Warbler

    Song Sparrow

    Red-winged Blackbird

    Western Meadowlark

    Yellow-headed Blackbird

    Brewer's Blackbird

    Brown-headed Cowbird

    House Finch

    American Goldfinch

It was a good day.  :)