Counting Birds

Annual Christmas count finds more than 100 different species

By LEE JUILLERAT

H&N Regional Editor

December 22, 2007

A ferruginous hawk was spotted during the Dec. 15 Christmas count.

   For Klamath Basin bird watchers, counting the area’s avian friends is part of holiday tradition. 

   Twenty-four people traveled around the region Dec. 15 and spotted 110 different species of birds during the annual Klamath Falls Christmas Bird Count. 

   Two more counts are planned — Dec. 27 for the Tule Lake Christmas Bird Count on the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge and Dec. 29 for the Lakeview Christmas Bird Count. 

   Habitat 

   Kevin Spencer, who helped coordinate the Dec. 15 count, said the outings give people a chance to see familiar and not -so-common birds in a variety of habitats. 

   “The species list speaks loudly that even in the tough times of winter there’s a diverse wildlife population if you get out there and look for it,” he said. “East of the Cascades, Klamath County generally tops the list. We have a diverse habitat that supports a diverse population. That makes Klamath County a very interesting place to live. 

   Saturday’s tally of 110 species, he said, “is a very fair representation of what to expect for this area at this time of year. That number sits high among the previous Klamath Falls counts.” 

   Rare sighting 

   Among the more interesting species was a female white-winged scoter, seen near the bridge over the Klamath River just north of Miller Island . Spencer said the sighting is only the third in Klamath County in about the last 20 years. 

   Other sightings include a peregrine falcon near the Cogen plant and Klamath River , along with a least sandpiper, black phoebe, northern shrike, American pipit, ferruginous hawk, red-shoulder hawks, wood duck, mew gull, glaucous winged gulls, rock wren, horned lark, red crossbill and large numbers of mourning doves. 

   “That’s much different than 20 years ago when those birds disappeared from the Basin in winter,” Spencer said. “More mild winters coupled with more feeders have evidently built their winter numbers over the last 10 to 15 years. 

   Only one red-breasted nuthatch was reported, down from the dozen or so seen in the previous years. Not seen were pine siskins, which Spencer said had big numbers last year  “They appear to be erratic in their search for food and winter locations and are not necessarily having a population crash. There’s ups and downs in what we see. You do it long enough that you expect to certain numbers.” 

   Raptor and waterfowl 

   Raptor and waterfowl numbers were about the same. The number of mountain chickadees appeared to be above average, but there were no sightings of warblers or long-tailed ducks. 

   Participants included Spencer, Mary Ellen Sargent, Rick Hardy, BJ Matzen, Glenn Smith, Wes Stone, Dave Haupt, Dave Larson, Helen Fitting, Karl Bachman, Daniel George, Carol Fields, Julie Vanmoorhem, Jean Van Hulzen, Marilyn Christian, Dave Potter, Sherry Perry, Bill and Elaine Deutschman, Lois Phillips, Trisha Roninger and Ruth Olsen.

Wood ducks were found during the Christmas count in Klamath Falls . Two more counts are planned in the area before the end of the year.

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