One of my favorite parts of the CLM internship is being out in the field all day and having the opportunity to see an incredible diversity of birds.  Almost every day I drive past an Osprey nest, a Bald Eagle nest, and a Golden Eagle nest (alas they have already fledged).  I get to see birds on the road, from California Quail to Sandhill Crane.  Then, when I arrive at my site, I am in the sagebrush and I get the opportunity to see that whole suite of birds in this unique habitat.  Furthermore, since I am doing Juniper clearances, I have the opportunity to see a whole other set of birds.  For the juniper clearances, I am checking the trees for nests so that we can have contractors remove the trees from the landscape.  Due to the Migratory Bird Treaty we cannot remove trees with nests, so those trees will be taken down in the fall after all the birds have fledged.  Removing junipers has many benefits from returning water back into the soil, to improving sage grouse habitat by removing perching sites for raptors and ravens, which predate the sage grouse.

Ferruginous Hawk

Loggerhead Shrike

Lark Sparrow

Prairie Falcon

Recently, I got to see both an Eastern Kingbird and a Western Kingbird within miles of each other.  This may not seem to be too exciting, but this is the very farthest Western extent of the Eastern Kingbird, so it was quite surprising to see one out here.  When I went to enter it in eBird, I got a message that it was a rare bird and that I have to enter additional information about the sighting.  Luckily, I had snapped some photos, so I was able to enter those and have the sighting confirmed without a problem.

Rare Eastern Kingbird at the western edge of its range.

In my time searching for nests, I have found plenty of unoccupied nests, but I have also found some really cool nests.  I have gotten to see Red-tailed hawk nests, Ferruginous Hawk nests, Northern Flicker nests and Prairie Falcon nests (these guys nest on cliffs, so not technically under my purview of juniper nests).

Red-tailed Hawk nest with chick.

Red-tailed Hawk on nest.

Ferruginous Hawk Nest with chick (center white blob)

Having a job where I am paid essentially to bird is a dream come true.  Sometimes the birding becomes routine, one can only hear and see so many Vesper sparrows before they start to go crazy.  However, every day has its surprises from Dusky Flycatchers to Ash-throated Flycatchers.  I cannot wait to see what the coming days and months will bring and I will continue to share these birding experiences from the High Desert of Central Oregon.

Ash-throated Flycatcher