Friday, May 8, 2015--Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges

Back on the road this morning at 7:40 am heading for the Lower Klamath NWR about 20 miles from our motel and back in California. It was sunny and 52 degrees with a nippy breeze. The scenery was beautiful

We arrived at the beginning of the 12 mile Auto Tour and were swarmed by Cliff Swallows

They were busy getting mud to build their nests. When I was growing up we called them "Mud Daubbers"

They are quite striking in their appearance close-up

Lovely habitat promising lots of water birds. The mosquitos were thick and huge so we did not linger outside, and could not keep the windows open for long.

We enjoyed this raucous Yellow-headed Blackbird

There were many pair of Gadwall

  and an equal number of Cinnamon Teal pairs, this lady giving her stoic gentlemen a few choice words.

This Willet almost slipped by unnoticed because he blended so well with the background

This is kind of a funny photo--the Forster's Tern was sitting on a sign far out in the water, with an ever-present Coot beyond and another Forster's Tern flew by in front. It is a curious sign he is studying, too!

We had lots of opportunities to study Black-crowned Night Heron. We must have seen thirty or more.

This one posed well so we could get a close-up with our zoom lens

We saw hundreds of Eared Grebes. Paul caught these especially great photos of 3 of them.

The entire refuge had only a handful of trees so we looked hard for a bird in each one. We found this Great-horned Owl

and this Red-tailed Hawk in another. We had witnessed a Red-tail mixing it up with and screeching at a Falcon right before this, so maybe he was catching his breath now and checking himself over. We did not see the falcon well enough to determine Prairie or Peregrine.

A bunch of American Avocets were on White Lake

We found 36 species of birds in Lower Klamath NWR and finished the Auto Tour at noon. We drove 14 miles to the Visitor's Center of the Klamath Basin NWR Complex and had lunch beside a reclaimed marshland. This is the marsh now.

And this is how the land looked in 1993 as farmland before the project to reclaim it.

At the Visitor's Center they have an elaborate set-up for feeding birds. It was a great place to sit and take photos

We got these photos of a California Towhee, which had previously evaded our cameras

A bright American Goldfinch 

A female Bullock's Oriole

and the Male Bullock's Oriole

After this brief respite, we started on the 10-mile Auto Tour of Tule Lake NWR. Pelicans were abundant.

Western Grebes were also in great numbers. We watched this pair bobbing their heads together and then they danced across the water--no photos of that wonderful sight. Sorry! It always happens so fast and is over so quickly.

We were excited to be able to identify several Clark's Grebes as well

A pair of Caspian Terns

A lot of the refuge is under agricultural use. 

A trio of American White Pelicans

A trio of Snow or Ross' Geese

We really enjoyed watching the Forster's Terns hovering over the water

Ruddy Ducks kept their distance and we were unable to get photos which showed the striking blue beaks and ruddy brown color, but this is a Ruddy Duck, nevertheless--and there were many

At 4 pm we finished the Auto Tour but we had one stop left for the day. On route we saw some of the cinder cones from yesterday's visit to the Lava Beds National Monument.

Our final destination was Captain Jack's Stronghold in the Lava Beds National Monument. When I was a kid a family friend told me the story of Captain Jack, a Modoc Indian who tried to stay on his homeland when the settlers and army were trying to move his tribe away. Captain Jack was able to outfox the Army for a long time by staying hidden with his whole tribe in the lava beds and caves where the army could not find or fight him. This all happened in the winter as well. It all ended as Indian wars do, but like Chief Joseph, Captain Jack put up a valiant fight. I wanted to see the site of this story I first heard about many years ago. It was a half-mile hiking trail through the lava twists and turns to the final summit. And I could understand from the beauty of the place why the Indians wanted to keep their home and how they were able to keep the army at bay for such a long time.

The summit of Captain Jack's Stronghold

We arrived back at our motel at 6:10 pm. It was a long but wonderful day. We drove 101 miles and saw over 60 species, including the following which I have not mentioned: Great and Snowy Egrets, Wilson's Phalaropes, Franklin Gull, Long-billed Dowichers, Canvasback, Redheads, Northern Shovelers, Mallards, Ring-necked Pheasants, Greater White-fronted Geese, Caspian Terns, Turkey Vultures, Song Sparrow, House Sparrow, Killdeer, Great Blue Herons, Brewer's and Red-winged Blackbirds, Golden Eagle, Lesser Scaup, White-faced Ibis, Dunlin, Bufflehead, California Quail, Double-crested Cormorants, Mourning and Eurasian Collared Doves, Western Meadowlark, Black-billed Magpie, Robin, Raven, Marsh Wrens, Canada Goose, Black-necked Stilts and Rock Doves! And Dratted Cowbirds and Dratted Starlings!

A full day of birding and more!