Female Redhead on Ashland Pond.  This species breeds in small numbers around Klamath Lake, but is an unusual wintering bird here in Rogue Valley.  Let’s hope this one sticks around for the nascent Ashland Christmas Bird Count.

This morning the bird flew onto Billings Ranch with a pair of skittish Mallards.

It must’ve been ladies day at the olds ponde.  Female Wood Duck.

Ring-necked Duck, female of course.  I didn’t get anew image of the two female Shovelers that have been onthe pond for a couple weeks.  Usually with heads below the surface and  butts pointing to the heavens.

One of a trio of Purple Finches on the pondshore.  And an image of the bird launching into flight.

There was a lone YR Warbler sharing the weeds in the pond with the usual Blakc Phoebe.  No sign of a raptor nor the WT Sparrow.

Thus it was at Ashland Pond this morning.  It had been in the low 20s overnight, every surface, every twig  prettily frosted with frozen fog.  At 830AM it was still cold and there was little bird action.  One of the first birds to show was the White-throated Sparrow.  He looked at me briefly before plunging down into the blackberry foliage, becoming completely invisible and slightly insulated.

Only the intake, shallow, end of the pond was open water.  No sign of the Great Horned Owl.  The only noise came from the jays, of course, and a calling Flicker.  Bridget and I soon retreated from the cold.

On the way home we drove past one home with a crowded crabapple tree:

One of several Robins in the crabapple tree still holding a lot of small fruit.

Beneath the tree were several more Robins, gobbling those small crabs that had already fallen.  I wanted to go straight home and plant several more crabapples, ones that hold their fruit into winter.  Our largest crab was used by two Robins and a Hermit Thrush until about a week ago when they’d cleaned it out.  Next year it will have more fruit, and provide a longer-lasting smorgasbord for thrushes.

Location: Ashland Pond Observation date: 12/29/09 Number of species: 17 Wood Duck 3 Gadwall 1 American Wigeon 1 Northern Shoveler 1 Mourning Dove 9 Northern Flicker (Red-shafted) 1 Western Scrub-Jay 4 American Crow 1 Black-capped Chickadee 1 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1 American Robin 3 European Starling 2 Spotted Towhee 2 Song Sparrow 1 White-throated Sparrow 1 Purple Finch 1

The Great Horned Owl was back in the pine on Christmas Eve.

The river otters in motion on the pond.

Green Heron taking a fish at the shallow end of Ashland Pond.

These photos are all shared courtesy of Linda and Peter Kreisman, Ashland birders.

Tundra Swans and Greater White-fronted Geese in flooded rice paddies northeast of Sacramento.

Three juvenile swans in a line.  Also present were numerous Shovelers and Pintails.  This is the area from Lincoln to Chico, east of Interstate 5.  Butte, Yuba and Placer County lowlands.    In some pools the geese predominated.

Also in the Central Valley, seen from our car: Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks, Harrier, Kestrel, Meadowlarks, Blue Heron, Great Egret, numerous Turkey Vultures, Western Bluebirds.  We sawa lone Yellow-billed Magpie south of Chico.   There were Lewis’s Woodpeckers both near Yreka and in Butte County south of Chico.

We spent the Christmas weekend around Lake Tahoe, above 6000′.  Not many birds winter there: one Black-billed Magpie at South Lake Tahoe, Ravens, RB Nuthatches, Mountain Chickadees, Flicker, Steller’s Jays, Red-tailed Hawks, Starlings galore, Canada Geese and Mallards.  Skiers and gamblers were abundant.

Location:     Butte County
Observation date:     12/27/09
Number of species:     19

Greater White-fronted Goose     4000
Tundra Swan     5000
Northern Shoveler     1000
Northern Pintail     2000
Great Egret     15
Turkey Vulture     30
White-tailed Kite     1
Northern Harrier     1
Red-shouldered Hawk (California)     3
Red-tailed Hawk     6
American Kestrel     2
Ring-billed Gull     150
Yellow-billed Magpie     1
American Crow     25
Common Raven     2
Western Bluebird     6
European Starling     75
Red-winged Blackbird     30
Brewer’s Blackbird     80

It was snowy today.  The hungry Bushtits hit our suet bar at least three times today.  The thrushes were at the remaining fruit on our largest crabapple.  By name those

thrushes would be the Hermit seen above, and a Robin.

Junco numbers are definitely up, because the snow level is down on the moutainsides.  Saw the most of the season in our garden.

Location:     243 Granite Street, Ashland
Observation date:     12/22/09
Number of species:     12

Mourning Dove     165
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     1
Steller’s Jay     7
Western Scrub-Jay     2
Black-capped Chickadee     3
Bushtit     22
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Hermit Thrush     1
American Robin     2
Spotted Towhee     1
Song Sparrow     1
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)     40

This is what it looked like this afternoon.  Snow down to about 2500′ inthe Siskiyous.  No ice in the pond but a distinct freezery feeling in the air between rain and snow flurries.

It was a Boys Club around the old pond this afternoon.  One male Gadwall, seen here on the right.  Three male Wigeons, one on the left in this image.  A male Mallard.  The only obvious females were two Shovelers who’ ve been on the pond for a couple weeks now.

I got some good close looks at a lone Golden-crowned Kinglet pushed down into Bear Creek Valley  by the snowy mountain conditions.  My camera was too cold to function so I failed to get a picture.  No sign of the Horned Owl, except some of his white poop beneath the perch where he was sitting when photographed recently.

Another hiker at the pond told me that four otters had been seen there earlier inthe afternoon.  I did spot the wake of one mammal swimming beneath the surface of the otherwise placid, motionless pond.  But I could not identify the swimmer.  There are otter, beaver and muskrat in that area.

Location:     Ashland Pond
Observation date:     12/22/09
Number of species:     20

Canada Goose     20
Gadwall     1
American Wigeon     3
Mallard     15
Northern Shoveler     2
American Coot     1
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     1
Black Phoebe     1
Western Scrub-Jay     3
Black-capped Chickadee     3
Golden-crowned Kinglet     1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1
American Robin     60
European Starling     4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)     5
Spotted Towhee     1
Song Sparrow     1
Golden-crowned Sparrow     3
Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon)     1
Purple Finch     1

Here’s the latest on the federal plans to…perhaps…start killing Barred Owls in Oregon and neighboring forests.

Two photos of Great Horned Owl at Ashland Pond, taken by Peter Kreisman.

Medford Christmas Bird count Area D 12-19-09 . Here’s what our team faced shortly after dawn. Daunting fog in the valley, but we had an area that included Roxy Ann and the foothills of the Cascades so we headed uphill at daybreak. This pictures was taken from about 3000 feet looking eastward over the valley that contains Agate Lake and the Cascades in the background. That perfectly conical mountain covered with snow is Mt. McLaughlan, almost 10,000 feet high. A volcano that is still active, on rare occasions. Like a typical slumbering cat. It was the fog, not the volcano, that made our team team feel Roxy “Annxious.” Our team had five more species than we had the previoys year when we faced snow and a blizzard on top of Roxy Ann. But the nasty fog lingered in the valley and crippled many other CBC teams so the Medford count was 123 for the year, four below the decades-long average. Amazingly we missed Pine Siskin which seems to be absent from the area this year. Here’s one of our two Say’s Phoebe:

SPECIES LIST: 69 Canada Goose; 2 Black Phoebe; 29 Spotted Towhee; 16 Wood Duck; 2 Say’s Phoebe; 2 California Towhee; 14 American Wigeon; 6 Song Sparrow; 234 Mallard; 5 White-crowned Sparrow; 1 Northern Shoveler; 1 Northern Shrike; 165 Golden-crowned Sparrow; 11 Green-winged Teal; 86 Dark-eyed Junco ;3 Hooded Merganser; 50 Savannah Sparrow; 3 Common Merganser; 8 Steller’s Jay; 1 Fox Sparrow; 3 Bufflehead; 45 Western Scrub Jay; 7 American Crow; 11 Common Raven; 83 Red-winged Blackbird; 1 Merlin; 8 Western Meadowlark; 2 White-tailed Kite ; 240 Brewer’s Blackbird; 5 Northern Harrier; 7 Black-capped Chickadee; 5 Brown-headed Cowbird; 5 Cooper’s Hawk; 21 Oak Titmouse; 1 Red-shouldered Hawk; 17 American Kestrel; 73 House Finch; 29 Red-tailed Hawk ;1 Red-breasted Nuthatch; 113 Lesser Goldfinch; 1 Golden Eagle; 10 White-breasted Nuthatch; 6 American ; 3 Purple Finch; 1 California Quail; 2 Bewick’s Wren; 1 Mountain Quail; 1 Winter Wren; 12 House Sparrow; 6 Great Blue Heron; 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet ;2 Great Egret;  297 Western Bluebird 18 American Coot; 449 American Robin; 1 Townsend’s Solitaire; 26 Killdeer; 5 Wilson’s Snipe; 4 Anna’s Hummingbird; 99 Mourning Dove; 6 Cedar Waxwing; 71 Rock Pigeon; 935 European Starling ; 51 Acorn Woodpecker; 1 Red-breasted Sapsucker; 3 Downey Woodpecker; 1 Yellow-rumped Warbler; 22 Northern Flicker.

Total Species 68                                             Total Individuals 3560

Team members: Edith Lindner, Keiko Thurston, Jim Hostick, Steve Runnels, Lynn Kellogg, John and Stephanie Bullock, Harry Fuller. The count was sponsored by Rogue Valley Audubon Society.

At Ashland Pond this morning the first Ring-necked Ducks of the season.  An even half dozen.  And the White-throated Sparrow is still there in the berry brambles.

Location: Ashland Pond Observation date: 12/17/09 Number of species: 16 Wood Duck 1 American Wigeon 8 Mallard 10 Northern Shoveler 2 Ring-necked Duck 6 Downy Woodpecker 1 Black Phoebe 1 Western Scrub-Jay 6 Black-capped Chickadee 2 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 American Robin 4 Spotted Towhee 2 White-throated Sparrow 1 Golden-crowned Sparrow 4 Dark-eyed Junco (Oregon) 8 Lesser Goldfinch 4