The Spring and Summer are the busiest seasons for the ECBC: Many of the field projects are in full swing and this year is proving to be record breaking for the Kestrel Nest Box and Lewis’s Woodpecker Projects.  Field trips have started in earnest and we have led two conservation workdays to improve bird habitat near Sisters and Big Summit Prairie.  As a fundraiser, we have also led ten fee-based trips that have been very popular and very well received.  

June saw the first annual Woodpecker Wonderland Festival based at Camp Sherman.  ECBC was heavily involved with coordinating the finances and leading the popular field trips.

This season has also been a time for introspection and planning.  Sharon Leighty, a professional non-profit developer, donated an evening of her time to help the Board craft a plan to move ECBC on to the next stage.  With an outsiders perspective it was clear that we were spread a little thin so we decided to put two projects on hold: the Gray Flycatcher and Shorebird Surveys.  We would still very much like to monitor the extremely important shorebird areas of Central / Southern Oregon at Summer Lake and Lake Abert as tens of thousands of birds migrate through in the fall.  However, this needs additional resources and planning and we will work with our partners to make this happen.

We would also like to express our sincere thanks to Mrs. Harriet Dennison who donated $1,000 to ECBC through the Oregon Community Foundation.  In addition, Wild Food Markets of Bend will donate 10 cents per bag of groceries you buy to the ECBC if you mention us and you use a recycled bag.  Thank you everyone for making the ECBC grow and prosper.

ECBC volunteers at Big Summit Prairie caging aspens and improving the habitat for birds

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Spring Birding Highlights, by Chuck Gates

Spring is always special.  It seems like our souls thaw with the ice of winter and everything, including ourselves us, exudes renewal. The best part of spring is the arrival of bird migrants.   Birds pour back into Central Oregon to take advantage of the portly bounty of food and breeding habitats.  You’ve just gotta love it.

Water birds ebb and flow in the spring.  Some birds leave (like waterfowl) and some birds arrive (like Spotted Sandpipers and Wilson’s Phalaropes).  Many just stop temporarily on their way to parts farther north.  All of this involves birds being on the move and that means rarities can be found.

WHITE-FRONTED GEESE stopped by with a high count of 250 at Houston Lake in Crook County.  No Snow Geese or Ross’s Geese were reported but there were probably a few around.  The Paulina TRUMPETER SWAN was spotted again this year (Still no mate for that one but, maybe someday).  EURASIAN WIGEONS showed up at Redmond Sewer Ponds, Paulina Valley, and Hatfield Lake.  BLUE-WINGED TEAL were seen at Houston Lake in late May.  WHITE PELICANS returned to Crook County after spurning the county last year.  

Several birds were seen at Houston and Ochoco Lakes.  A single SANDHILL CRANE was heard passing overhead near the town of Redmond.  An unusual BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER spent a day at Houston Lake and while LESSER YELLOWLEGS and SOLITARY SANDPIPERS were found scattered around the local water features.  One of the best birds of the spring was a well-marked and well-seen SEMI-PALMATED SANDPIPER that was found near Houston Lake.  FRANKLIN’S GULLS caused a buzz inthe localbirding

community as birds were seen in Deschutes and Crook Counties.  These are hard to find in both counties.  FORSTER’S, BLACK, and CASPIAN TERNS showed up in small numbers, mostly in Crook County.
 
Game birds and raptors get pretty active in the spring as they vie for mates and territories.  SOOTY GROUSE were located fairly regularly in the Sisters area.  WILD TURKEYS were common at Camp Polk and Rager Ranger Station.  MOUNTAIN QUAIL were seen or heard at Prairie South, Ochoco Reservoir, and Prineville Reservoir.  The EURASIAN COLLARED DOVE continues its invasion of Eastern Oregon with about 25 birds being reported locally.  BAND-TAILED PIGEONS are quite rare locally but one showed up in Prineville and another west of Bend.  GOSHAWKS were found at Calliope Crossing and East of Bend.  FERRUGINOUS HAWKS were found in huge numbers with 30 and 32 seen on two separate locations along Hwy 20 east of Bend in March.  MERLIN was reported from many locations (usually urban) and an incredible GYRFALCON was seen flying over Bend for one of only a handful of Deschutes County records.  PEREGRINE FALCONS were seen at 4 different locations and PRAIRIE FALCONS were relatively easy to find in the open areas.  A BARN OWL was seen in Redmond for an unusual Deschutes County record and PYGMY OWLS were found “tooting” at Sawyer Park, Shevlin Park, and Cold Springs Campground.  A BARRED OWL was photographed in Prineville and a SAW-WHET OWL was heard calling in a Redmond yard.
 
Woodpeckers and nightjars provide us with an annual treat that is both welcome and stimulating.  The first POORWILLS were heard around the end of April and NIGHTHAWKS came in at the end of May.  LEWIS’S WOODPECKERS returned to the ECBC Nest Box Study Area with a vengeance and as many as 49 were counted as they prepared to begin nesting.  WHITE-HEADED WOODPECKERS were reported from throughout the region in appropriate habitat and all three sapsucker species were found as well.  BLACK-BACKED (but no 3-toed Woodpeckers) were found in the Sisters area during the spring season.

Most of the spring bird buzz usually centers around the migrating passerines (perching birds).  This diverse group of birds offers the most opportunities for rarities and unusual sightings.  WHITE-THROATED SWIFTS and ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRDS were pretty common if you knew where to look and a BLACK-CHINNED HUMMINGBIRD made a showing at a Deschutes River Woods feeder.  A possible SCISSOR-TAILED FLYCATCHER was spotted near Terrebonne for an area first and a RED-EYED VIREO was a “maybe” at Calliope Crossing (two people thought they might have heard one from the same location on two different occasions).  

A rare (for Deschutes) BEWICK’S WREN was seen by several people at Lower Bridge and John and Anne Gerke found a BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER at Smith Rock.  A singing VEERY was heard at Slough Camp near Benham Falls and a NORTHERN MOCKINGBIRD was located at Tumalo State Park.  AMERICAN PIPITS were seen at scattered watering holes and YELLOW-BREASTED CHATS were seen near Redmond and Ashwood.  The biggest story of the

This birding thing started about 35 years ago.  A co-worker had given me a pair of binocs and after a few years of looking at mountains, I realized birds were way more interesting with magnification than were mountains.  I requested a lighter, more modern pair of binocs as a graduation present 15 years later and I was off and running.  I grew up in Tucson, AZ but really didn't connect with birds there until many years after leaving the region.  Mostly, I was a hiker and backpacker in Arizona and then California and I couldn't seem to merge hiking and birding.
Prior to moving to Bend, I lived in New England, just outside of Boston.  This is where I really started birding.  But it wasn't until about 10 years ago that I discovered warblers by birding with the Brookline Bird Club at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA.  After discovering warblers, I was never able to sleep later than 4:30am during April or May.    Most of my birding experiences have been near where I've lived - New England, or southeast Arizona when I returned for visits with family or friends.  But I've also birded in Trinidad and Tobago as well as the Galapagos….  and stateside at Cape May, Hawk Mtn., Chincoteague/Assateague, Florida, New Mexico, Alaska, and most recently, Utah and Colorado.    I am currently on my 3rd career working part time at Wild Birds Unlimited in Bend.  My first career as a microbiologist research tech took me to USC Med School in Los Angeles.  Ten years later I moved to Portland, OR where I continued this work at Reed College and the Veterans Admin Hospital.  After graduating from Western States Chiropractic College outside of Portland in '82 I moved to New England where I had a private practice for 27 years.    I think I always knew I would return to Oregon one day and before 9/11 in 2001 I explored many towns in Oregon as potential retirement locations.  Bend was the top of the list and finally in May 2006 I returned to Oregon.  My first ECBC bird walk was 4 days after arriving.  I had spent 7 months in Tucson just before moving to Bend and marveled at the clean, fresh, cool, moist air at Calliope Crossing.  I knew I was finally home.    September 2007 I started helping ECBC with membership duties and in March 2008 I started monitoring Lewis’s Woodpecker boxes at Entrada burn.  In the past I had volunteered with The Nature Conservancy in Boston and Tucson Audubon Society in Tucson.  I also have volunteered with Miller Wildlife Rehab in Tucson.  I have found volunteering to be an enriching experience and since I had the time and energy, wanted to offer some of my skills to ECBC.    I live in northeast Bend with my partner of 28 years, Wendy Caro, and a wonderful cat named Catalina.

On June 6th of this year, birders from everywhere descended on the tiny community of Camp Sherman to attend the first annual Woodpecker Wonderland Festival.  Who knew that the avian star of this woodpecker show would turn out to be a non-woodpecker passerine far from it’s normal range.  This bird, of course, was a bright red, male Summer Tanager.  In the local birding community, Peter Low has a reputation for

The next day, newly educated on the bird’s 2-syllable warbler song, I heard it again while laying in bed at 5:10 a.m. but it was too dim yet to see it.  It woke me again about an hour later.  That morning, it was less interested in staying in our yard; popping over the fence into the neighbor’s and back again. The previous day we had the luxury of setting up a scope and trying (unsuccessfully) to photograph through it.  Perhaps on that first day it had just arrived after a long flight and was tired, and after a day of recovery, was more active as it prepared for another flight.

On the second morning our 10-year-old son was able to film a few seconds of it out of our bedroom window with his video camera.  The video has a bit of a “Sasquatch” feel to it, but it was much better than the photographs we took, which had a blurry fishbowl quality to them.

That day after work, I looked around for it and saw it once again doing its “here-I-am-now-I’m-gone” routine.  I poured a pomegranate martini and sat on the back deck.  He came back in.  I watched him come and go for almost an hour.

 

I did not hear or see it the following morning.  We were out of town that day and the next, and I have not seen or heard it since. 

I like the thought of sitting on the deck observing him go about his work of getting a living in this strange habitat, far from its normal range, while I sipped the red martini and pondered.   How many rare birds visit us but land in places where they go unrecognized?  What happened to shift him so far off course, and where was he going next?  It didn’t really matter— I was grateful for the sweet short delight.

 

 

 

Breeding Bobolinks Discovered in Eastern Crook County ... by
Chuck Gates

 

For several years now, I have been recording bird reports from Central Oregon and posting them on the ECBC website.  This activity gives me access to most of the rare bird activity observed in Central Oregon.  Starting a couple of years ago, I began to receive anecdotal accounts of Bobolinks breeding in eastern Crook County.  At first, I was pretty skeptical because I visit that part of the county frequently and I’d not discovered any Bobolinks.  Then one day,

Denise Reinhart and I were driving along the Crooked River near Paulina and we discovered over 100 Bobolinks.  These birds were in basic (non-breeding) plumage and the date was late August so I knew these were not breeding birds.  However, it did raise the question of the location of the breeding colony.  That mystery was solved this year with the discovery of a breeding colony of Bobolinks in the Paulina region of eastern Crook County.
 
Renee Roufs lives and works at Rager Ranger Station.  Rager is one of Crook County’s hidden jewels.  The ranger station is nestled in pines at the transition zone between forest and sagebrush scrub very near the eastern border of Crook County.  Renee has been at Rager for some time and has developed many relationships with local landowners.  One such landowner happened to mention to Renee that they had Bobolinks nesting on their property.  Renee relayed this information to me and the two of us confirmed the colony by direct observation.  The birds are on private land and the landowners are not interested in hosting birders who want to see these birds so the exact location of the colony will not be revealed here.    Birders are reminded to respect the property and privacy rights of these folks and it is requested that no one contact the landowners about visiting this colony.
 
After some discussion with the landowner, it was determined that this colony was present when they gained possession of the property in the 1970’s.  Once the news of this discovery reached the birding community, I began to receive more information.  Nancy MacDonald of Prineville mentioned the birds to a 92-year-old neighbor who was raised in the Rager area and she claimed to be familiar with this species.  So…. it seems that Bobolinks may have been regular nesters in the area for some time.  This is important since general wisdom has placed the nearest Bobolinks in Eastern Oregon with the closest breeding colonies near Prairie City and Mount Vernon in Grant County.
 
Over the course of 20 years of birding in Crook County I have documented over 175 species that breed within the county boundaries.  The discovery of Bobolinks in the Paulina area adds another species to this list and another chapter in the Crook County avian book of knowledge.

Fires are vital to the health of our forests: by Steve Shunk; recent letter published in the Grass Valley Union, CA

 

I appreciate your recent publication of Dr. Chad Hanson's "Other Voices" on fire ecology, and I would like to amplify a couple points.

 

First and foremost, fire is a critical component of most healthy forests, but not just in the West. Southeastern forests too evolved with a regular fire regime, and the clearing and subsequent development (for agriculture and otherwise) of these lands has contributed to population declines in many species, not the least important of which are the woodpeckers (especially the Red-cockaded Woodpecker). In fact, woodpeckers are also critical components of healthy forest ecosystems. We may even be able to monitor woodpecker populations as one gauge of forest health.

 

It is also important to note that forest managers recognize this importance, and wherever possible, they are managing many of these forests now with the return of fire into the ecosystem. But we have two problems. (1) We now live in the "woods," making it impossible to allow fire to run its natural course without jeopardizing human lives and livelihoods; and (2) Timber now has a high value to our society, and letting it burn is perceived as detrimental to local economies (as is the opposition to forest salvage projects that seek to capture some of this value before burned timber degrades to the point where it is no longer marketable).

 

I am a staunch conservationist, which is not to say that I oppose logging or fire suppression. These two human activities are facts of life; as long as we live in the woods and as long as we use wood products, we will need to engage in these two practices. I am simply in favor of conserving our forests so that they retain their value as healthy ecosystems, for the ecosystems themselves and for all of their components, of which humans are one. I also recognize that forestry practices of prior centuries occurred without having the knowledge of forest ecology. It's not that we cut all our forests because we didn't care about maintaining healthy ecosystems, but rather that we did not even understand the mechanisms of a healthy ecosystem.

 

Those of us who live in the woods need to realize that we are essentially placing ourselves in the path of fire, and we need to manage our own properties to protect their value. Clearing brush, as Dr. Hanson suggests, is just one way to do this. Furthermore, those of us who use wood products need to realize that as long as we do so, trees will need to be cut down somewhere, and the only way to conserve these trees and the ecosystems they support is to limit our use of wood products.

 

We must recognize fire as well as our own dynamic role as two critical components in healthy forest ecosystems, and we must learn how the two can work together to see the forest for the trees, as well as the woodpeckers and the bark-beetles and the fungi, and so on.

 

Today, we can make no more excuses. Because of the work conducted by Dr. Hanson and others to teach us about forest ecology, we now have a responsibility to apply what we know so that human activities and healthy forest ecosystems can and may coexist.

Stephen A. Shunk is a professional naturalist, author and field ornithologist based in the ponderosa pine forests of central Oregon's east Cascade Mountains. He conducts regular surveys on the interactions between forest fire and avian populations. He can be reached at steve@paradisebirding.com.

 

Recent Field Trips, by Steve Dougill

A key part of what ECBC is about, is to introduce people to the birds and the great birding areas in Central Oregon.  Car pooling is encouraged and it’s casual and fun ....

 

This spring was cold and wet with snow into June.  Still, we had great turnouts at all of our field trips averaging 15 – 20 people.  Joined by groups from Portland and Washington State, regulars and new members enjoyed the bird banquet that Central Oregon offers up.

 

May 4 - A local trip to Bend.  The riparian habitat along the Deschutes River attracts a host of migrants and we saw a variety of flycatchers and warblers, and a Calliope Hummingbird along the First Street Rapids Trail.  We stopped at Robert Sawyer Park before heading over to the Entrada Burn, on the western edge of Bend.  This is the site of the successful ECBC Lewis’s Woodpecker Project and we saw many birds noisily calling and claiming their nest boxes.

 

May 16 – We led a combined trip with the Deschutes Land Trust at Camp Polk Meadow, just outside Sisters.  I was glad we started early as temperatures soon climbed into the 90’s.  On a four mile round trip, we passed through a variety of habitats and had fantastic views of Western Tanagers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, and Northern Orioles.  We didn’t get to see any rails despite the fact we heard both Sora and Virginia Rails calling from the marsh.  We will continue to build the relationship with The Land Trust and offer these combined trips as its fun to mingle the two groups and meet new people.

 

May 19 – This was the annual fast past tour of Crook County, led by Chuck Gates.  Species numbers quickly rose as we moved from one great birding spot to another.  Not only did we get a chance to see some great birds but also were shown some fantastic birding areas to return back to with more time to spare.  First stop was Houston Lake in Powell Butte where we saw a number of terns and gulls and great views of a Bittern.  The star, however, was a small sandpiper that was well out of its normal range: A Semi-palmated Sandpiper.  After stopping for Juniper species and seeing Lark, Brewers and Vesper Sparrows and Gray Flycatchers we headed into the Ochocos and through Big Summit Prairie where the wild flowers were just beginning to carpet the meadows and forest clearings.  We looped around to the Paulina Valley where Willets were displaying, Stilts and Avocets were setting up territories, and Curlews were singing their bubbling trills.  We enjoyed a pair of Wilson’s Phalaropes just 10ft away next to the road in a small pool.

 

June 14 – Howard Horvath led a smaller trip to some more local birding areas close to Sisters.  The highlight for everyone was a great view of a Pileated Woodpecker at Trout Creek Swamp; a bird that is more often heard than seen.  Other birds at the swamp included Lincoln Sparrow and Dusky Grouse and great views of Fox Sparrows and Green-tailed Towhees.

• The third Thursday of selected months is Birder's Night at the Environmental Center in Bend.  For a schedule of talks and slide shows [see] for more info.

• 8/16 ECBC Conservation Work day at Glaze Meadow – Help us remove old fencing and improve the habitat for the wildlife…. [More info]

• 8/17 ECBC Field trip to Summer Lake.  This is a fantastic wetland in Lake County for Egrets, Bitterns and a whole host of shorebirds…. [More info]

• 8/28 ECBC Raptor ID class in preparation for the Green ridge Raptor Migration Counts.  Meet in the Environmental Center, Bend from 6:30 – 8:30pm.

• 9/13 ECBC Field trip to Hatfield Lake and the Bend area.  Stay local and bird the local hot spots for either half or a full day…. [More info]

• 9/20 & 21 North American Migration Counts throughout the State of Oregon.

• 9/27 ECBC Field trip to Lower Bridge and Redmond Sewage Lagoons.  Another local trip to see migrants and shorebirds…. [More info]

•  10/04 ECBC Field trip to Wickiup Reservoir.  This is one of the local hot spots  and good for a variety of waterfowl and forest birds…. [More info]

• 11/08 ECBC Annual Meeting.  Come join the social event of the year with free food, entertainment and guest speaker.  Help ECBC raise money the easy way.

• 11/09 ECBC Field trip to The High lakes of the Cascades.  Another chance to see migrating waterfowl and upland forest birds…. [More info]

ECBC Project Reports:

Once again, ECBC volunteers conducted bird surveys at Glaze Meadow, a diverse area surrounding Black Butte Ranch.  The highlight was confirming Veery nesting in the area, a first for Deschutes County and a rarity in Central Oregon. Although this species is known to summer in a couple of locations, it is extremely secretive and actual breeding behavior is very difficult to record in the field.

Oregon Wild has been working on plans to thin the forest surrounding the Meadow to help mitigate the threat of fires to Black Butte Ranch properties.  The project has a signed decision notice and there were no appeals during the review period.  Several modifications were made in the final decision in response to public comment; more trees were left around the meadows; some trees will be felled and left on the edges of meadows to provide for small critter habitat.  Also many old growth stands will be left intact  and more wildlife cover patches will be left.
 
Forest thinning will start this winter and the prescribed burning will begin in the next 2-4 years.  It will be very interesting in the following years as we continue to monitor the area and continue to provide input into helping to manage this unique area.  For directions to this great birding area [see]. 

The early spring was spent cleaning and repairing all 120-nest boxes ready for the nesting season, with over 500 miles of driving this was a huge task but it has paid off with about 55 boxes being used by Kestrels.

 

For this newsletter, I looked at the finch data for the five yards that kept records for the entire year in 2007.  Each yard reported the maximum number of individuals for each species of finch seen on one day during 10-day periods.
 
If we start with the most common finch, the House Finch, not surprisingly, we find House Finches recorded for each of the 10-day periods by every yard except one: a yard west of Bend in mixed coniferous habitat that had no House Finches at all.  For the other yards, are House Finch numbers consistent over the year?  Based on our data, the answer is no.