Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge - Part 2

Welcome to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge!

Here's a little sampling of some of the birds we saw during our drive through the auto tour...

More photos to come!

(Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge - Part 1)

(Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge - Part 3)

Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge in Winter

Our latest visit to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge was absolutely amazing! We've never been to the refuge in winter and the snow-dusted mountains and foothills did not disappoint.

We saw dozens of different bird species and I highly recommend this area if you're looking to check off some birds on your Big Year or lifelist.

This is just a small sampling of some of the birds and ducks we spotted on the auto tour...

Tricolored Blackbird

Double-crested Cormorant

Bufflehead

Killdeer

What they say about the large concentration of Bald Eagles here is no joke either. We counted over thirty eagles between both refuges (Lower Klamath and Tule Lake) and I'll post those photos tomorrow.

Here's the link to the refuge website in case you need more info to plan your own visit.

Lower Klamath NWR - Part 1 of 2

We've finally arrived at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge!

Just as we turned onto the auto tour, we spotted this Willet, a new species for the Big Year list!

As always, there were lots of ducks and a few birds here and there...

Lesser Scaup

Bufflehead (with Coot in the background)

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Redhead

Ring-necked Duck

Photo of the Day ☼ Handsome Hawk

It isn't every day that you can get a bird to pose perfectly for your camera. This handsome hawk didn't budge an inch when we drove next to it on the auto tour at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge.

I mean, we were RIGHT next to it, like maybe ten feet away! (Oops, I probably should have kept that to myself so you thought I was in a photo blind with some fancy schmancy camera!)

Even when I was poised to get some video of it flying off, it would not move. In fact, it continued to sit on its sign long after we finally drove away.

As awesome as this guy was, it kind of ruined it for all the other birds we saw that day because they were so flighty in comparison!

Thanks, buddy, for allowing us to get our best shots of the day with you!

Klamath Basin NWR - Part 4

When we made the trip up to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, we hoped to add some more birds to our Big Year 2017 list. (We did, adding 4 species.) What we didn't expect was to see our very first coyote! There he is in the middle of the photo below:

He was certainly camouflaged and I'm glad I spotted him! Like I've said before, you never know what you're going to see when you go birding!

Okay, back to the birds now...

Here are some sleeping Tundra Swans:

And an immature Bald Eagle!

On the far right of the tree on the right is a crow, but a little to the left of the crow is another immature Bald Eagle...

(Read my previous blog post about these two trees here.)

He had himself a snack...

 Sorry for the blood and guts! Nature isn't always rated G!

Maybe this is one of the juveniles' parents?

All in all, we picked the perfect day to experience the beauty of the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuges.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Synchronized Grebes...

Klamath Basin NWR - Part 3

Here are some more photos from our trip to the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge:

Western Meadowlark

Bufflehead

Red-winged Blackbird

Canada Geese

Tomorrow's post is all about the Bald Eagles we saw (and a surprise furry guest)...