DARE TO BIRD

Ilya and I went down to bird South-Eastern Oregon because we heard so many great things about it, especially the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. We were also eager to photograph Sage Grouse up close, as we have both only seen them at distant leks through a scope. We started out in Southern Oregon. We knew that Cabin Lake Campground was best in August to see Pinyon Jays but since they would be a lifer for both of us and since we were heading to Malheur anyways, we felt we might as well try. Boy were we glad we did. We saw quite a few birds there, it was very hot and we both have never seen so many Ferruginous Hawks and Sage Thrashers in one place! In one road we counted over 15 of each. After Cabin Lake Campground we stopped at Fort Rock State Park and saw many good birds including nesting Prairie Falcons. We had close views of many raptors including Golden Eagle and Swainsons Hawks. Here is some of the species we saw in Southern Oregon in the Fort Rock area: Eur...

I was blessed to go to a Sharp-tailed Grouse Lek. The location of the sensitive Lek cannot be shared since they are the endangered subspecies and too much disturbance could cause them to abandon the lek. All these photos were taken with use of a photo blind so that the grouse could not see me and were not disturbed. You can see from the video how close they walked in front of me which would never be possible if they could see me. They are notoriously impossible to get close to at the best of times. It is always one of the most thrilling experiences to watch these grouse display. They are one of the most stunning and threatened birds of the prairie. I watched some males squaring off to fight and display for females. The fights can get messy notice the blood on the beak in some of my photos. I was able to see a couple of female and male birds mating on the lek as well. I slept overnight at the lek because I had to setup my blind the night prior before the grouse arrived. I was up ...

One of the best moments of my life was having this juvenile Mountain Plover run around my feet along with his 9 Snowy Plover friends. A Snowy Plover actually walked across my legs as I lay in the sand. Mountain Plovers are usually seen by scope in a distant field and usually not on a sandy beach! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, So Ilya and I drove 8 hrs down to the beautiful Oregon Coast. Oregon is in my top 3 fave states because of its beauty. I don't think I will ever get this close to a Mountain Plover ever again (he was within 5 feet) so it's a memory I will always treasure. These birds are listed as critically endangered in Canada and are threatened in the US. We really need to preserve their habitat and stop turning grasslands into agricultural land if we want this species to persist. They are vital to our ecosystem and indicate its health. The original post I made 2 years ago follows below: Hi guys this long weekend Ilya and I went down to Newport Oregon t...

Ilya and I went birding in San Diego. We signed up for our first ever Photo workshop. We didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised.  We did it with Tim Boyer, more info  HERE for those interested. We birded on our own the other days and had a nice relaxing vacation. We ended up seeing 161 species in 9 days. Some of the highlights were: Reddish Egret, Painted Redstart, Black-throated sparrow, California Towhee, Pomaerine Jaegers, Black-throated Green warbler, Laughing Gull, Thick-billed Kingbird (ABA Code 4), Cassin's Kingbird, Lesser Goldfinch, White-collared Seedeater (non-countable), Red-Shouldered Hawk, Black Phoebe, Snowy Plover,Yellow-crowned night heron, Rufous-crowned sparrow, Allen's Hummingbird, Black-vented shearwater, Island Scrub-Jay, Brown Booby (Aba Code 3), Black Skimmer, Little Blue Heron,Nuttal's Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, Verdin, Wrentit, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, California Gnatcatcher, Californi...

My good friend George Clulow found a Siberian Accentor  (6th record for BC) while doing a Christmas Bird Count. Birders from all over the ABA came to see it including friends from WA and OR. I met people from Quebec there and NY. It was a cool phenomenon. The bird took many hours to see. I saw it a total of 3 times once with two young birders and another after seeing a Brown Thrasher (BC Rarity in Revelstoke) and once with Ilya when he got back from the field. Each time was a long painful wait in cold weather but worth it to finally see the bird. It would pop out for brief moments and I was only able to get a record shot.  This bird is an ABA Code 4 bird and a few weeks before this sighting I was in Victoria looking at another ABA Code 4 bird the Redwing. The Redwing found by Nathan Hentze was as painful a twitch as this one by standing for long hours but it involved the price of 3 expensive ferries! Thank goodness for carpooling. Congrats to George on a great find. You c...

Today I went down with my friend Blair Bernson to twitch the female King Eider found by Bruce La Bar in Tacoma. This "Queen Eider", was eating so many crabs right in close to the shore. She was really beautiful and fun to watch as she filled her gullet with tiny crabs. These sea ducks are normally found in Alaska.   I also twitched some other rare birds down there at Gog - le - hi - te Wetlands and got to successfully see a female Black-throated Warbler found by Mike Charest (dipped yet again on the Slaty-backed Gull), a lovely Red-shouldered Hawk at Nisqually, and a Northern Mockingbird in Olympia. Other good birds today I saw were a Short-eared Owl, an American Bittern (which flew right over my head), Kestrels, Peregrine Falcons, Northern Shrikes and many Western-Scrub Jays.   A truly awesome day! Female King Eider in Tacoma, WA - Photo: Melissa Hafting