Oregon: Birds & Theater Review
The Oregon Birds & Theater tour was an immensely enjoyable mix of great birds and fabulous theater – with absolutely perfect weather, very little smoke, and several delicious picnic meals in gorgeous settings.
The first day's very early start of 5:20 am sounded extreme, though it was easy for those coming from the Eastern time zones and was deemed worth it by all when we drove up to a lovely mountain meadow to see a Great Gray Owl perched not far from the road. We got out and watched this amazing creature through the spotting scope for nearly a quarter hour as it flew down to the ground several times and at least once caught a mouse. The rest of that first morning was spectacular with Sandhill Cranes audible from our picnic breakfast site and visible from the road nearby, followed by Mountain Quail and many other woodland birds.
Other bird highlights on our birding based out of Ashland included White-headed Woodpecker, MacGillivray's Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, and Western Screech-Owl, the latter just a couple minutes from our hotel. The side trip to the Klamath Basin was amazing for the number of water birds such as White-faced Ibis and the local Tricolored Blackbird, while the views of Crater Lake were spectacular and had our only Clark's Nutcracker.
The quality of the theater performances was top notch, with most participants voting for either Shane or Quixote Nuevo as their favorite, though the Julius Caesar and Importance of Being Earnest were also excellent productions as well. For such a short tour with just a few hours of birding each day, it was a very full experience for the wonderful group of participants.
