A Number of Birds

[rrip...@charter.net]

There's numbers, and then there are NUMBERS. 

Counting birds whenever I'm out, one gets to understand that  the number one can be just as amazing as 10,000. In the last week, I've seen and heard some amazing numbers. Today I heard about 600 ducks fly over at Wood River Wetlands, and not just their wings beating against the 15 mph head winds, but the sheer force of air against their wings, like the sound of air being ripped, a vortez in a funnel, as they "put the brakes on" going from 45 to zero mph, and from 1000 feet above, to shallow ponds, when they landed. Or the fourteen Pectoral Sandpipers that flew by with their "cheety" calls, stopping for a few days at Wood River Wetlands, on their journey of thousands of miles. And, soon, in November, tens of thousands of Snow Geese come into the Basin. It will remain to be seen if they stay with the number of inches of precipitation so low this year, leaving their usual fields dry. 

   

It was two different numbers that were interesting in the last two days. It was a one, and three hundred. The one, a single Brown Pelican, was seen two days ago at Henzel Park, at the south end of Agency Lake. The Brown Pelican is exclusively found along the coast, hunting individually, by diving into schools of small fish and swallowing what it catches in its "net" for a bill. But there was one in the Klamath Basin two days ago. And being lost, it is usual that those birds usually move on, so trying to go to a location to see an unsual bird for this area is often, well a waste of time, and better spent continuing to get out and view and count birds where you are. It is interesting to see, or find, birds that are out the area. It doesn't happen too often. And for those that are out counting birds quite often, it can add to a day when one encounters a species that is out of the area. Sometimes those unusual sighting don't happen where you are, but are somewhere else. Julie Van Moorhem went to where the Brown Pelican was seen, and fortunately, it was still there the next day! It was the first time she had seen a Brown Pelican in Klamath County, and it brought her list of birds seen in Klamath County to three hundred. Not only was it a thrill to see a bird so far from its normal habitat, away from an ocean's offshore coastline, and such an odd occurrence, but it marked three hundred species of birds that she has encountered in Klamath County. It is a number that is a measure of how much she is out viewing birds. And she counts the birds she sees, each species, and keeps track, which in turn monitors their populations. It's a measure of her constantly going out at all times of the year to scan, and scrutinize, and identify species of birds, which means that she has a great deal of knowledge, especially when it comes to sorting through all of those "little brown jobs" that flit through ones field of view. 

So, it was an usual day for numbers. An unsual bird, for this area, and an unusually high number of species seen, in Klamath County,  by Julie Van Moorhem. Every day is fun when out observing birds, and a day like yesterday, is one day that's especiallly high on a list.

Attached are photos showing:

 Immature Brown Pelican, Henzel Park, Klamath County, 17 September 2022

Elijah Hayes, Dave Haupt, Julie Van Moorhem, Henzel Park, with Brown Pelican been on water out in the distance between dock columns

Kevin Spencer

Klamath Falls, Oregon