 | | SCOTT STAATS/CENTRAL OREGONIAN | | Chuck Gates looks through a spotting scope in the upper reaches of the Prineville Reservoir. Gates has traveled as far as Manitoba to see a Ross’s gull. |
|
As Forrest Gump might say, birding is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're going to get. There's always the excitement of adding a new bird to your list. Birding also gets you outside and allows you to take a closer look at nature.
I recently spent a morning birding with Chuck Gates, who wanted to see if fall migration has begun in central Oregon. Few people are into birding as much as Gates, a biology teacher at Crook County High School and president of the East Cascades Bird Conservancy. He began getting serious about birding in 1988 after taking a few college classes that involved birding. "But the real impetus to my obsession occurred when I bought a spotting scope," he jokes.
The average birder may drive a few miles to see a new bird but Gates is not your average birder. He once flew as far as Churchill, Manitoba to see a Ross's gull and also went 100 miles north of Fairbanks, Alaska to see a northern wheatear. He'll make the five-hour drive from central Oregon to the coast if a rare bird happens to show up. His life list is now closing in on 600 birds and his Oregon list numbers about 350.
Our morning started at the upper reaches of Ochoco Reservoir where we saw lots of shorebirds and waterfowl. To me, one sandpiper looks about the same as the other but Gates pointed out the subtle differences in the four sandpipers we saw there. The spotted sandpiper was pretty straight forward but the western, least and Baird's took closer scrutiny. Gates had me look at the color of legs, length of bill, streaks over eyes, ear patches and so on to determine species.
At the reservoir, we also saw ring-billed gulls, white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, great blue herons, Canada geese and green-winged teal. Swallows were prevalent including barn, cliff, bank, northern rough winged, violet-green and tree swallows.
Gates credits the great birding opportunities in Oregon to its varied geology, citing the coast, the coast range, the Willamette Valley, the Cascades and the high desert. Besides the Pacific flyway, he said that some of the north-south river systems such as the Deschutes and John Day also aid in bird migration.
For those wanting to see the greatest variety of birds, Gates suggests hitting the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Klamath Lake, the Oregon coast and the tri-county area of central Oregon. "If visitors had time and went to these four areas, they would see the majority of birds that visit Oregon," he says.
For anyone who likes raptors, central Oregon's open fields and associated rodents attract a variety of these birds of prey. According to Gates, there are 16 regularly occurring diurnal (daytime) raptors that have been seen in central Oregon, excluding owls.
He thinks the area around Sisters is getting a national reputation for its variety of woodpeckers and says the burns created by forest fires over the past 5 to 10 years have created great woodpecker habitat. He believes all of those species were there originally, the burns have just brought attention to more birders.
From Ochoco Reservoir, we headed out to the Crooked River above Prineville Reservoir and searched the willows for warblers, which are a good sign of fall migration. We spotted orange-crowned, Nashville, yellow, yellow-rumped, Townsend's and black-throated gray warblers. Other neat birds such as common yellowthroat, Bullock's oriole, canyon wren, western wood peewee, Hammond's flycatcher, gray flycatcher and western meadowlark also made appearances.
From a rocky outcrop overlooking the reservoir, we set up our spotting scopes and saw greater and lesser yellowlegs, Wilson's snipe, Wilson's phalarope, killdeer, mallard, northern pintail, cinnamon teal and common merganser. Common nighthawks and kingfishers could be seen flying over the reservoir.
We made our way toward Paulina seeing raptors such as prairie falcon, golden eagle, red-tailed hawk and turkey vulture perched in treetops or circling over fields. On fence lines we saw western and eastern kingbirds.
For the day, we counted a total of 72 species. The highlight was a long-eared owl that took off only a few feet from us in a thick patch of willows.
Anyone interested in becoming more involved in birding should contact the East Cascades Bird Conservancy. The non-profit organization was formed in 2002 to assist state and federal agencies with projects and to get people interested in birding. "We recognize the need for people who have birding experience to contract with government and non-government organizations to conduct citizen bird science," Gates explains. This includes surveys, point counts, area searches and other data collection that those agencies require in order to make land-use decisions. For more information on the East Cascade Bird Conservancy go to: www.ecbcbirds.org
What draws people to birding? Gates believes it's all about the beauty of the birds and the fascination with so many different species. Even after birding for many years, he thinks what keeps the passion going is the challenge.
"You can go out every day and see a wide variety of birds," he said. "There's that element of mystery every time you go out. You can go birding for 50 or 60 years and be just as passionate about it as when you first started."
Scott Staats is a full-time outdoor writer who has lived in Prineville for the last 10 years. His articles have appeared in local, regional and national publications. He can be reached at: falcon@crestviewcable.com |
