The Birders Report

Ross’s Geese (Chen rossii) in Flight photos by Larry Jordan (click photos for full sized images)

A few weeks ago I took a ride up to the California/Oregon border to visit the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. You can read my posts on two of these refuges over at the Wildlife Conservation Stamp website. This state wildlife area is just south of the town of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and is a prime staging area in the late winter and early spring for migrating Ross’s, Snow, and White-fronted Geese.

Currently, about 95 percent of all Ross’s Geese nest in the Queen Maud Gulf Migratory Bird Sanctuary in the central Canadian Arctic and the main wintering area for them is the California Central Valley¹.

It was late afternoon and I was heading back to California after driving around Upper Klamath Lake which still had so much snow on the ground most of the roads into the lake were impassible for me. I saw the sign for the wildlife area on highway 97 and turned in.

I’m glad that I did because there were hundreds of acres of agricultural fields where the Ross’s Geese were foraging with Greater White-fronted Geese and a few Snow Geese.

There were huge flocks, hundreds and hundreds of Ross’s Geese, flying in to take part in this feeding frenzy before the sun went down.

This one seemed to be giving direction to the huge flocks as they approached.

Of course I shot some video to share all the sights and sounds of this impressive spectacle.

They were fun to watch as they occasionally looked skyward for predators as they vocalized and ate, until a Bald Eagle flew overhead, rather low to the ground and that was all it took. The geese took off nearly in unison and moved off to another field to fill their bellies.

For more great bird photos check out The Bird D’pot and Wild Bird Wednesday, then head over to the Wildlife Conservation Stamp website and like us on Facebook!

References: ¹Birds of North America Online

Rough-legged Hawk (Buteo lagopus) photos by Larry Jordan (click to see full sized images)

The Rough-legged Hawk is a true arctic species having an extensive panboreal breeding range, with populations in taiga and tundra regions of both the Old World and the New World¹. Green is their summer range, blue is winter.

In North America this raptor breeds in arctic and sub-arctic Canada and Alaska. They nest on cliffs and feed primarily on lemmings and voles. Fortunately for us, the entire Rough-legged Hawk population migrates to open country in southern Canada and the United States for the winter.

Rough-legged Hawks exhibit a high degree of plumage variation in both light and dark morphs. This bird looks to be a dark morph juvenile to me. It has a light head and an all dark belly with lighter brown streaks on the breast. If you stop the following video at 21 seconds, you will see that it also has rufous underwing coverts with the universal dark carpal patches that show in both morphs.

I was having a very nice time watching and filming this bird at close range before a pick up drove by at high speed flushing it from its perch. At the end of the video, around a minute and 17 seconds, you can also see that it’s tail shows dark above with pale gray banding, not the broad white base that is so obvious on the light morph.

The dark morph bird above was seen at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge last week. A light morph was also spotted a short distance away as it flew into the shallow flooded field across the road.

You can see from this spread wing shot that this is a light morph Rough-legged Hawk. Probably a male due to the multiple dark terminal tail bands. He appeared to be hunting in the shallows but after a few minutes, took flight.

Rough-legged Hawks often hunt from perches but they also hover or “kite,” descending vertically to pounce on prey. This is a light morph bird who is joined by another toward the end of the video.

Back in December we saw quite a few light morph birds on a Christmas Bird Count in Fall River Mills, California. This is my best photo from that trip.

It looks quite a bit different than the dark morph Rough-legged Hawk doesn’t it?

A few things that they do all have in common though are a small bill, feathered legs and the hover behavior!

If you want to see more photos of cool birds, check out Wild Bird Wednesday and The Bird D’pot.

If you want to be part of a conservation movement to create more money for our National Wildlife Refuges, come on over to our Wildlife Conservation Stamp website! We want to hear about National Wildlife Refuges you visit!

References: ¹Birds of North America Online

Marsh Wren ((Cistothorus palustris) Singing photo by Larry Jordan

Check out my latest West Coast Beat Writer post over at 10000 Birds on the Marsh Wren. It includes two videos of this vociferous little bird, one collecting nest material and one of the male building a nest.