Collier State Park, Klamath County, Oregon, 17 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.I don't attend very many bird festivals. The Oregon Shorebird Festival in fall is the one I usually attend, as The Bird Guide coordinates pelagic trips for that.
But I was asked to come to the Winter Wings Festival and present a slide show on pelagic birds off the Oregon coast, which I will do Sunday morning.
So I ventured out of my comfort zone, and headed up over the Cascades in winter to Klamath Falls. At 5000 feet elevation on the Willamette Pass, I was worried. But instead of 8 feet of snow there was only 8 inches! Roads were bare and the temperature was 45F--the same as in Portland! This is important as I don't winterize my cars with show tires and such. Nor do I "summerize" my car either (we only had 2 days over 90F this past summer, so no need to fix the leak in the car's air conditioner). But I digress.
I stopped at Collier State Park north of Klamath Falls about 30 miles. Not too many birds. But I did come across an obliging and out-in-the-sun American Dipper!
Tonight's BBQ Banquet was wonderful at the festival. And I listened to a presentation on citizen science by a member of the Klamath Bird Observatory.
Tomorrow I hope to do some more birding and photography. In the evening I will go to another banquet and Kenn Kaufman's keynote: "Kingbird Highway and Extreme Birding in Another Era."
American Dipper, Collier State Park, Klamath County, Oregon, 17 February 2011 by Greg Gillson.