If you live at sea level as I did for decades, 4000 feet is as good as a mile, and nearly as high.  So at 4000 feet Klamath air felt cold and thin.  But fortunately the water and sky were thick with birds.  In greatest numbers were the swallows, dominated by Cliffs that next under every bridge.  The lake was alive with grebes, mostly Clark’s and Western.  One lady said she’d come to see them dance across the water.  We heard pelnty of calling, no dance was seen by us.

We walked the link trail between Upper Klamath Lake and whatever comes next.  It parallels the Link River which flows south.  The willows held orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks, warblers and a Green Heron my sharp-eyed wife noticed.  I also missed the Prairie Falcon that Lynda Steveneson spotted at a farm west of the lake.  But most of the birds were seen by all three of us.  These included my first Yellow Warblers of the spring.   Some Eared Grebe in breeding pluamhge.  My first-ever American Avocet in Oregon, was state bird #200 on my life list.  One Osprey without a fish.  One young river otter with a fish in his mouth as he headed along the edge of the lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clark’s Grebe pair courting, but not on the dance floor.

 Note the yellow beaks, black eye in the white feathers on the side of the face, the back amottle gray not close to a solid black.

 

 

 

Most numerous duck in this season:

 

 

 

 

 

That’s a perching female Common Merganser above and a preening male here on the left.  These large fish-eating specialists are common breeding ducks at Klamath and further west here in the Rogue Valley.

 

 

 

The White Pelicans evidently had eaten well.  They were all sitting, loafing or dozing, or perhaps all three simulataneously as it took little effort to combine those activities.  There were myriad Forster’s Terns fishing though I saw few actual dives.  They nest at Klamath, just as they do further south in Shasta Valley where I took this nest platform picture on Saturday:

one bonus to birding in Oregon and Northern California: the scenery.  Today we caught outselves staring at Klamath Lake, its fringe of hills and the snow-capped volcanic Cascades in the background.  Here’s the view looking south across Steamboat Lake in Shasta Valley:

That’s a real volcano in the background, not a painted mural.   Mount Shasta, ten thousand feet higher than the valley where I was standing which is at about 4000 feet elevation.

Location:     Link Trail, Klamath
Observation date:     5/12/08
Notes:     Mammals: yellow-bellied marmot (3), raccoons (2), cal.  ground squirrel (3), golden-mantled ground squirrel (1), river otter with fish in mouth (1)
Number of species:     52

Canada Goose     40
Wood Duck     1
Mallard     10
Lesser Scaup     6
Bufflehead     12
Common Merganser     15
Eared Grebe     12
Western Grebe     300
Clark’s Grebe     25
American White Pelican     50
Double-crested Cormorant     35
Great Blue Heron     2
Great Egret     3
Green Heron     1
Black-crowned Night-Heron     2
Turkey Vulture     3
Osprey     1
Red-tailed Hawk     1
Prairie Falcon     2
American Coot     5
Sandhill Crane     2
Killdeer     1
American Avocet     1
Ring-billed Gull     120
Forster’s Tern     30
Belted Kingfisher     1
Downy Woodpecker     2
Northern Flicker (Red-shafted)     1
Western Kingbird     1
Warbling Vireo     1
Western Scrub-Jay     6
Black-billed Magpie     4
Common Raven     2
Tree Swallow     4
Northern Rough-winged Swallow     8
Cliff Swallow     240
Barn Swallow     12
American Robin     4
European Starling     10
Yellow Warbler     4
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon’s)     1
Wilson’s Warbler     3
Western Tanager     2
Black-headed Grosbeak     6
Red-winged Blackbird     60
Yellow-headed Blackbird     6
Brewer’s Blackbird     15
Brown-headed Cowbird     25
Bullock’s Oriole     8
House Finch     4
Lesser Goldfinch     4
House Sparrow     10

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/Klamath-Siskiyou)