Klamath Basin NWR Birding with Bro. John

In the spring of 2006, my younger brother John and I took a trip to the Klamath Basin birding.  I flew the Cessna down from Hillsboro, and John drove over from his home in Medford.  We got at it fairly early, and got in a good 100 species day!  Since then I have wanted to go back with him and concentrate this time on trying to photograph some of the amazing birds in that area. We got that chance this last May 7, and it was really fun.  Lot's of romance in the bird air!

The Klamath Basin NWR is one of the largest concentrations of open water in the NWR system.  A nesting spot for many shorebirds and a stop off point for many passarines, it is really a goldmine for anyone with a few hours to spend.  Much of it can be birded by car, making it possible to get very close to many of the birds.





Great Egret



Canada Goose family.





Pied Bill Grebe






Black Crowned Night Heron.  This was one on a roost of at least a couple of dozen including several juveniles.




A couple of my favorite Blackbirds including the Redwing,





And the very proud Yellowheaded.







Ring Billed Gull




One of the really fun things to watch is the Coot's running across the water.  Later in the post I want to show the Grebe breeding dance which is similar, but the Coot's do it as part of a long takeoff!






As I have stated in an earlier post, this year seems to have particularly good for Yellow Rumped Warblers.  This Audouban variant was seen along the river in Bend.


A lot of the ducks were seen this day including:


Redhead



Greater Scaup




And the following are the Lesser Scaup and a Lesser Scaup Pair.







Common Merganser


Cinnamon Teal



And Northern Shoveler


The aerial show being put on by the Forster's Tern's was really spectacular.  





One of the most interesting nesting display's was the Bank Swallow.  Collecting mud from the edge of the river and the lakes, it was building nests under every bridge and against virtually every abutment we saw.


Collecting the mud.


Starting a nest.


Fighting for territory.




At the visitors center in the south unit on the Tule Lake road (California side), there is a very high cliff with owls nesting.  These shots of a fledgling and an adult were probably taken from about 400 yards.




A variety of Raptors was seen including the following:


Red Tail Hawk


Ferruginous Hawk


And one very large Golden Eagle. (Alas no Balds this trip even though they are usually very easy to see on the Klamath unit.)   To give you an idea of how big this Golden Eagle was, we saw an araiel dogfight between it and a Red Tail Hawk.  Look at the size difference in these pictures.








 Ok, let's throw in the Mystery Critter here.  Should be pretty easy.  Klamath in May!!






And now for the Grand Finale of the Klamath trip.  The Western and Clark's Grebes are very similar and very unique birds.  They both share a mating ritual that is remarkable to see.  First the difference.  The Western Grebe is slightly smaller (almost no difference), but is distinct in that the dark patch on the head covers the eye, whereas on the Clark's Grebe it does not.  See the following portraits:


Clark's Grebe

Western Grebe

While most of the rest of these pictures are of the Clark's, there were equally as many Western's as Clark's all exhibiting the same behavior.

Eating and Courting was the primary activity that was being observed.








The dance that they do when they court starts with a series of bows to each other.


Then they literally rise up and run side by side across the water.



We took some video, but I found this BBC video which is better than the stuff we were able to get on what was a grey and overcast day.  This is definitely worth watching.  If it does not open in your browser properly, click here to go to youtube   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1XAFo_uVgk&feature=player_embedded. 



Seeing this with my brother John was fun.  Here is to more of these kind of experiences.