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Many imagine life on the Oregon Coast as idyllic. It is an exciting place to call home as we experience an influx of thousands during the summers and nice off-season weekends. Then, it is hushed for the remainder of the year—the average experience in many seasonally-dependent tourist destinations.
I recently birded the Tualatin River NWR near Portland, Oregon, and made that my test case for a deeper dive into the Mobile Track. The refuge is a popular birding location , and it has 229 species observed and nearly 8,000 checklists submitted. A Google Maps image is below that, for those unfamiliar with the area.
This may seem like government agency hair-splitting, but the calls needed to be made not to the wildlife division of the wildlife agency, but to the exotic species division of the wildlife agency. The bird is a captive-bred Peregrine/Gyrfalcon hybrid owned by people with an Exotic Species Permit. Are we fed up yet?
“That more rehab centers would accept non-natives, like pigeons house sparrows, and starlings,” wrote Charis in Oregon. I’d wish for rehabber-appreciative regulators who don’t think adding paperwork equals adding security,” wrote Louise in Oregon. Why is there no state or federal money available to care for federally protected species?
But does the value of a particular trip come from the number of birds seen, viewing a particular species, seeing an endangered species, catching a glimpse of a rarity, adding a lifer, or something else? How much do birders value a birding experience? This includes bird-watching experiences.
I’ve been fortunate to see two Penguin species in the wild (African and Galapagos) and have dreamed of seeing more–maybe even all!–especially The goal of Around the World For Penguins is simple: Describe the 18 species of penguin and their breeding grounds “from the perspective of a traveller.”
While Uganda does not have the international reputation of its neighbors Kenya and Tanzania, the experience there is no less extraordinary – and in many ways, particularly for the birder, it’s even more so. The diversity of habitats in this country that is approximately the size of Oregon is particularly notable.
So armed with some knowledge from the “ Access Considerations for Birding Locations ” page on the Birdability website and some research, I twice visited the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge near Portland, Oregon with accessibility in mind. It is an eye-opening experience to view a familiar place from a new perspective.
There are a few spectacles in the birding community that are high energy, happen quickly, and is worth any effort to experience it. One such experience is a bird grounding event, sometimes called a fallout. So, maintaining habitat along the coastline is vital to supporting these species.
During the decade, I submitted 1,219 checklists and observed 555 bird species, all in the U.S. In other words, eBird is effectively a complete history of my birding experiences. After an initial period when all species are new, the lifers begin to follow a pattern. and Canada. I’ve submitted 448 such checklists.
The economic impact of refuge visitation is broad: Recreational visitors pay for recreation through entrance fees, lodging near the refuge, and purchases from local businesses for items to pursue their recreational experience. Critically, NWRs preserve habitat and wildlife, often for endangered species. million; 293 jobs. million; 412.
This area offers Mexico’s greatest concentration of endemics, as well as very few species an American birder might have already seen up north. But I knew that quite a few charismatic species had failed to turn up. Two weeks later, it was a young math and science teacher from Oregon named Brent who asked me to take him with me.
His summers during college were spent as a biological technician, monitoring breeding birds for Point Reyes Bird Observatory in Eastern Oregon, and also five seasons in Black Hills, SD, working for the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory. In addition to Mike joining up as a Beat Writer, there are other changes to the Beat Writer posting schedule.
Tom Brown grew up in the high desert area of Central Oregon. This is Tom’s second contribution to 10,000 Birds, following the riveting description of his great hummingbird nest heist : The Gray Thrasher , one of the endemic species of the “The Baja,” has become one of my favorite birds to photograph.
Flycatcher Jen of I Used To Hate Birds has amassed close to 160 species in the last two years just walking and biking around Portland, Oregon, which is a number that deserves a toast if you ask me. Most of you know about Dorian’s impressive bicycle-based big year.
Growing up in central Oregon, allowed me to experience such a diverse amount of habitat, and the wildlife that resides there. For me, the real jewel of central Oregon is Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. Home to over 200 species, this amazing area is quite susceptible to the amount of rainfall each year.
Dorian’s gregarious personality and self-deprecating sense of humor makes even the most meditative sections one of a piece with his birding experiences, producing a good read that may make you think. Plus tales of birding from the point of view of the traveling cyclist. There are also surprises. This is a smartly written book.
He digitized and downloaded all of them, he says, in preparation for his 2015 Big Year — a whirlwind trip around the world in an effort to see 5,000 bird species in one year, something never before done. The result is his delightful new book, “ Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World.”.
Habitat is very important to Hashimoto’s art, they are part of her observational and creative experience, and I think it’s this attention to appropriate waters, plants, climate, and time of day that make her bird portraits special. The index lists bird species by whole name, which is less than satisfactory.
I’ve taken tours out of Monterey Bay (with pelagic legend Debi Shearwater , now retired) and Half Moon Bay, California ; Newport, Oregon ; and Hatteras, North Carolina. Additionally, there are still a few regularly-occurring Pacific pelagic species that I have never seen. They took care of the eBirding too.
The Refuge is now home to nearly 200 species of birds, over 50 species of mammals, 25 species of reptiles and amphibians, and a wide variety of insects, fish and plants. The Louisiana black bear’s threatened status warrants protection under sections 7 and 9 of the Endangered Species Act. This is an Urban Refuge !
But, I did take many photos, and used the book, in spurts during the trip and more closely afterward, to identify three seabird species, two expected (Sooty and Black-vented Shearwaters) and one a surprise. It does not include near-shore, coastal species, like Brown Pelican, Elegant Tern, and Harbor Seal.
Anyway, the story is not quite how I remembered it, to be honest, but fitting enough to describe the almost claustrophobic birding experience in ever-shrinking Nanhui. This is partly due to hunting in China, where about 90% of the species winter (HBW). So, I need to find something else to say about this species.
Hannah Buschert was first exposed to birds and birding during a required ornithology course at Oregon State University and she quickly caught the birding bug. After securing our passage, I patiently waited for this once-in-a-lifetime experience to a place we have never been and lacked any knowledge of, we were in for a complete surprise.
All twitchers will experience it at some stage or another. For those that might not fully comprehend, the birding slang-term to “dip” or to “dip out on” a bird is to go looking for a particular species and not find it. Anita still makes impolite noises when the name of this species comes up. hours back.
It was one of two life birds (the other being Cassin’s Vireo ) I photographed at the inaugural Mountain Bird Festival in Klamath, Oregon. Finally, the Similan Islands are perhaps one of the most beautiful islands in the world and form a stunning backdrop to this species, one of the loveliest pigeons in the world.
Specifically, the coastal temperate rainforest of Oregon and Washington. Same species, but our Mexican variety sports Bernie Sanders eyebrows and a taller crest. For Mexican birders, Cerro de Garnica is a great place to see more northerly species without travelling north.
I like observing them, reading about them, grappling with species and subspecies identification, and even—on a good day—talking about sparrow taxonomy. Peterson Reference Guide to Sparrows of North America covers 61 species of the New World sparrow family Passerellidae that breed in Canada, the United States, and northern Mexico.
It was an all around quality experience. This trip, all the way around the world, has been a whirl-wind of amazing stops, fantastic people, and bird species that I never imagined to see in my life time! The final numbers for this part of the adventure are as follows: The Little Big Year (so far) 806 species. US Species 101.
Not only have dogs and humans influenced each other for tens of thousands of years, they have done so in far more profound ways than any other two species on earth, and primarily in the direction of acting on the capacity for love in all its different manifestations, such as showing sympathy, feeling empathy, and expressing compassion" (xi).
Grief, friendship, gratitude, wonder, and other things we animals experience. Waterfall Dances: Do animals have spiritual experiences? Nonetheless, Chino, a golden retriever who lived with Mary and Dan Heath in Medford, Oregon, and Falstaff, a 15-inch koi, had regular meetings for six years at the edge of the pond where Falstaff lived.
In the event I’m in a life or death struggle with an Oregon Junco or a particularly feral Dunnock I’d rather my birding companion was at least nominally on my side. It’s an unnerving experience and not at all pleasant even if the bird doesn’t connect often, and I am no stranger to bird attacks.
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