• Home
  • About Carol
  • Blog
  • Speaking
  • Products
  • Contact

Carol Patterson

INSPIRING EVERYDAY EXPLORERS Through wildlife tales and trails

Carol Patterson

  • Canada
    • Alberta
    • British Columbia
    • Manitoba
    • Maritimes
    • Ontario
    • Quebec
    • Saskatchewan
    • Yukon
  • U.S.
    • California
    • Nebraska
    • Texas
    • Other States
  • International
    • Antarctica
    • Bhutan
    • Borneo
    • Costa Rica
    • Ireland
    • Mexico
    • Norway
    • Peru
  • Interesting People
    • Reflections
  • Events

How a trip to Portland turned me into a dancing grebe stalker

June 11, 2019 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

grebesI’d never paid much attention to grebes, one of our prettiest but elusive waterfowl, until I got the chance to see grebes dancing. Then I was all in. I boned up on grebe behavior and watched a David Attenborough video of two grebes – chicken-sized waterfowl – running across a lake on their toes in a perfectly synchronized dance. It looked stunning.

At the YYC airport I waited to board WestJet’s inaugural flight from Calgary to Portland April 29. With free munchies and selfies with the flight crew, the departure lounge had a party vibe. “Why are you going to Portland?” asked a fellow traveler. “I’m going to see dancing grebes,” I replied. Her brows scrunched together in confusion. “Dancing grapes?” she uttered.

“No, dancing grebes. They are a type of waterfowl and one of the best places to see their courtship is in Southern Oregon. Portland’s a great place to launch explorations of the state,” I explained.

Touching down in Portland

I planned my assault from Tore, the rooftop bar of The Hoxton, a downtown hotel with lots of cozy gathering places. Friends of the hotel select ten of their favorite books for each room. Mine had books on ghosts and dream interpretation but I didn’t need them to tell me I’d be dreaming of birds.

To get the blood moving after sitting in the plane I took a short bike tour of the river valley to learn more about the city. I discovered Portland was a great destination for outdoor lovers. There’s 500 kilometers of walking, hiking and hiking trails and a multitude of breweries, urban wineries (where grapes are purchased not grown by winemakers) and doughnut makers to give you a reason to move more.

I could’ve taking public transit from the airport and then road an Amtrak plane train all the way to Klamath Falls if I wanted but I had a stop planned at Smith rock State Park so I picked up my rental car and drove south five hours to Klamath Falls, a few kilometers north of the California Oregon border.

Why birds and bird lovers like Klamath Falls Oregon

Klamath Falls is unknown to many human travelers, but birds know it. The Pacific Flyway – a migratory route for North American birds – passes overhead and narrows near the Cascade Mountains. This pinch point and six national wildlife refuges nearby with wetland habitat mean 80% of North American waterfowl pass through the Klamath Falls area.

That means a lot of birds to see but I arrived with only one species in mind and the western grebe with a long graceful neck, cherry-red eyes, and a long narrow beak, is easy to identify.

I met up with Diana Samuels, coordinator of the Winter Wings bird watching festival, to improve my chances of seeing their courtship rituals or dancing. “It’s called rushing,” she corrected me.

“Am I too early to see it?” I asked. In the hours since I’d arrived I turned into a grebe stalker asking everyone I met where I could see the grebes and if they’d seen them dancing.

“It’s too early.” “It’s been too cold.” “Spring is late this year.” I was told. My spirit sank as I considered I may have come all this way to see only paddling, not dancing, grebes.

“Nonsense,” Samuels exclaimed when I told her of my worries, “I saw a pair rushing yesterday. We’re going to find you some birds.”

Finding grebes

They take their grebe watching in Klamath Falls seriously. Samuels produced a couple of lawn chairs from her car and we settled in at Putnam Point on Upper Klamath Lake. I hadn’t yet sat down when a male grebe floating near shore passed its mate some wet reeds. “That’s the reed dance! “Samuels exclaimed. “It’s the first part of the courtship but I’ve never seen that before.”

If there is a romantic in the bird world it’s the western grebe. Each year they engage in elaborate courtship rituals, the male presenting his beloved with reeds or a fish before they perform a series of head movements in unison. I watched one pair work themselves into an agitated state until they swam rapidly towards each other, bills clicking out a sound like angry frogs, and then Shazam!

The two birds had lifted their bodies vertically and were propelling themselves rapidly across the surface with their web feet, the sun glinting off their white breasts, wings arched backwards as they danced on the lake for a few seconds, their next arched in a graceful S-curve.

An Oregon wildlife spectacle

I felt like David Attenborough when I realized I’d seen a duck-style Paso Doble ballroom dance, and been lucky to capture it on video. Like a sugar addict with a box of donuts I wanted more. We sat for a couple of hours listening to the frog-like chatter of the grebes, leaping up when a pair rushed across the water, and soaking in the quiet rhythms of spring unfolding.

“In other places if you want to see marsh birds you have to go to a marsh. If you want to see forest birds you go to a forest, in Klamath Falls it feels like the birds are all around,” Samuels explained on the magic of Klamath Falls. As I headed back to Portland I felt like I had left the bird lovers Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were a pair of grebes.

Travel Oregon, Discover Klamath and WestJet sponsored Carol’s trip but the opinions expressed are her own.

Tweetables

Discover how my friend, @Reinventure’s trip to Portland turned her into a dancing grebe stalker – Click to Tweet.

If you’re traveling to Oregon in the future make sure you take time to see the dancing grebes – Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Oregon Tagged With: birds, dancing grebes, oregon

Making a night-time attraction better for birds

November 14, 2017 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Tribute-of-LightThe world and travel changed forever on September 11, 2001. Since then we’ve learned to navigate shifting security rules before boarding a plane and we have not forgotten images of airliners crashing into the World Trade Center. Surprisingly a tribute to lives lost that day has created opportunities for avian science and conservation.

Where the Twin Towers once stood there is a memorial – Tribute in Light – that shines two beams of light into the sky each September 11. Wildlife lovers noticed the large beams – each with 44 xenon bulbs of 7,000 watts – were having a dramatic impact on birds.

September is prime time for bird migrations but birds are attracted to light, especially the powerful beams of Tribute in Light. Birds slow down, circle in the light, and call more frequently. This wastes energy and increases the risk of colliding with buildings or being killed by predators. When the Tribute is illuminated 60 to 150 times the number of birds normally found in the area can gather.

The New York Audubon Society reached out to tribute organizers in 2002 to make them aware of the problem and develop a protocol for turning off the lights for twenty minutes when more than 1,000 birds are seen circling (within minutes of turning off the lights birds continue their migration).

The memorial has provided scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the University of Oxford a unique research opportunity. A study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences proves that artificial light at night causes radical change in migrating bird behavior.

It remains to be seen if this study will encourage tourism facilities to dim their lights but Andrew Farnsworth, Research Associate of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who explains to visitors why the Tribute in Light monument goes dark has an interesting observation. He finds most people, after their initial concern that the attraction is broken, just want to talk about the loss of a loved one.

Maybe illuminating the sky isn’t always critical to visitor experience and we can balance wildlife needs with the desire to entertain. Hopefully other attractions will soon give thought to non-human users of night skies.

TWEETABLES

Making a night-time attraction better for birds. Click to Tweet.

Discover how the Tribute in Light is affecting bird migrations. Click to Tweet.

Will this study about artificial light & migrating bird behaviour be enough to encourage change? Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: U.S. Tagged With: birds, tribute of light

Prairie chickens reunite a Nebraska family

May 19, 2017 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

If your house guest told you how to make more money, would you listen?

I’ve had guests tell me how to plant flowers or get a better deal on Stampede tickets but never a suggestion on how to make lots more money. But Sarah Sortum (nee Switzer) got such a tip. A visitor to her family farm in the Nebraska Sandhills said people would pay to see prairie chickens and sage grouse if they had any on the farm.

If a house guest told you how to make more $ would you listen?Click to Tweet
A tourism resource?

Would you bet your future on a wild bird?

The Switzer Ranch is a long ways from airports and urban centres. They like it that way but were skeptical that people would make the trip and pay for the privilege of bird watching on their ranch.

Bird watchers generate economic benefits

Sarah wanted to move home with her husband and children and needed an income source so she was willing to take a risk even if betting her future on a wild bird wasn’t conventional business wisdom.

If you’re wondering whether the gamble paid off, read the full story here.

how betting the family farm on prairie chickens paid offClick to Tweet

A creature with the charisma of a tax accountant

If you’re not sure what a prairie chicken looks like, you’re not alone. Once plentiful on the North American prairies, they’ve become less and less common. The land that prairie chickens like is also the land we like but too often we can’t co-exist. So when nature lovers find a undisturbed prairie habitat with prairie chickens they know a great show is close by.

For most of the year this little bird has the charisma of a tax accountant (sorry, tax accountants) but come mating season, the prairie chicken puts on an impressive drumming display that bird watchers love to see.

See what the fuss is about

http://carolpatterson.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Prairie-Chicken.m4v

Filed Under: Nebraska Tagged With: bird watchers, birds, prairie chickens

Tofino festival celebrates visitors and birds

April 19, 2017 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Looking for a reason to visit Tofino?

Really, who needs a reason to visit this charming village on Canada’s wild west coast. But if you need an excuse to get out of town, try visiting Tofino in May 5 – 7th for the Shorebird Festival.  There are fewer people in the shoulder season but there is still plenty to do and the festival lets you take part in the community celebration of returning visitors.

Tofino in spring offers great weather with fewer people

Whales AND little birds

Grey whales move back into the Tofino area in March and April, orcas can be found year-round and humpbacks start to appear as summer approaches so Tofino is always popular with whale watchers. What few realize is that Tofino’s mud flats are important feeding areas for birds migrating to Alaska from points south. And thousands of birds arrive in early spring.

Even if you aren't a bird watcher the sight of 150,000 sandpipers is impressive Click to Tweet
Tofino mud flats are important for migrating birds

Don’t know a shorebird from Sesame’s Big Bird?

If you don’t know much about birds or doubt your spotting skills, don’t worry. The festival organizers are offering dozens of events over the weekend that will teach you about birds, for the keen and the not-so-keen (you know who you are)!

Did you know that shorebirds can fly half-asleep with one eye open?Click to Tweet

Click here for a complete listing of events.

Learn how to identify birds from festival experts

Set your drink on fire 

When you’ve had enough of mud flats and bird identification, warm up with some flaming gin at the Long Beach Lodge Resort‘s Great Room. Thawing out your wet feet while sipping on one of the locally sourced spirits gives you another angle on the forest.

I had the pleasure of sampling The Great Room’s cocktails at last year’s festival. You can read more here about what happens when your drink catches fire!

When your drink catches fire – take a picture!

 

Filed Under: British Columbia Tagged With: birds, festival

Golfers not the only roadrunners in Palm Springs

February 25, 2017 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

I’ve always thought Palm Springs was just for golfers or old people zipping to happy hours in their golf carts. On a recent trip, I discovered that Palm Springs is a fabulous place for hiking and bird watching. Did you know Palm Springs is a great place to bird watch?Click to Tweet

I joined up with a group of birders at Coachella Valley Preserve and loved poking around several oasis for desert birds but one of my best bird encounters was on the patio of my VRBO rental in Palm Desert.

What I first thought was the soft coo of a dove turned out to be the call of a male roadrunner trying to attract females and set boundaries with other males.

Roadrunners can outrun a human

Roadrunners often got the best of Wile E. Coyote in Warner Brothers’ cartoons. They can also get the best of rattlesnakes – they aren’t affected by the snake venom – and sometimes work in pairs to kill the snakes. Like many birds they suffer from habitat loss so it was a real treat to spot a roadrunner living a roadrunner’s life in Palm Desert, California.

Did you know roadrunners are impervious to snake venom?Click to Tweet

The roadrunner in this video was very approachable as I turned my camera on his courtship display. At one point he even ran towards me, perhaps thinking a female was hiding on our VRBO patio.

http://carolpatterson.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Palm-Springs-Birds.m4v

Video of Roadrunner and hummingbirds

Palm Springs has many great places for bird watching. My favorites are:

Coachella Valley Preserve Guided hikes most mornings at 7:30 a.m. from October to March.

Coachella Valley Preserve is popular with birders

Living Desert Museum Annual memberships are $99 but let you hike/bird every morning at 7am before the facility opens to the public.

This wild Black-crowned night heron visits captive birds at Living Desert Museum

Joshua Tree National Park Hidden Valley hiking trail (1.6 kilometers) didn’t have a lot of birds the day I visited (maybe it was too windy) but it was fun looking in the boulder-strewn landscapes.

Hidden Valley trail at Joshua Tree National Park

Other recommendations by bird-loving friends include:

Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge

Big Morongo Canyon Preserve

If you’ve visited Palm Springs what are your favourite places to hike or bird watch?

 

Filed Under: California Tagged With: bird watching, birds, roadrunner

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »

Follow Me

Books

Sustainable Tourism
Business Ecotourism

Tags

adventure adventure travel alberta banff bears best practices birding birds Birdwatching bird watching bison british columbia calgary canada costa rica cultural tourism culture ecotourism ethics events grasslands national park Haida Gwaii hiking Manitoba national parks nature nature deficit disorder nature scapes nature tourism Nebraska new year resolutions oregon parks canada puerto vallarta quebec reinventure Saskatchewan sustainability sustainable tourism think like an explorer travel whales whale watching wildlife wildlife viewing

Copyright © 2021 Carol Patterson · All Rights Reserved

T: 403-512-0574 Email: carol@kalahari-online.com
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Copyright © 2021 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in