Our Best Year of Bird Research Yet

A combination of key factors caused this to be our most effective and rewarding year of bird research since we began monitoring fifteen years ago.  Cooperative weather, excellent birding helpers, a smoothly running system for coordinating the counts – and – most importantly – the remarkable range of birds that live in and pass through the forest.

This was our eleventh year in what we expect will be a twelve year research cycle.

Here are some details from Pam Hayes, the keeper of the data:

We had several new species for Mt Richmond this year (including a Coopers Hawk, Western Bluebird, Western Scrub Jay, and Fox Sparrow) as well as the return of some of our rarer (at least for Mt Richmond) favorites (the yellow chat). Quote from Lars Norgren: “Mt Richmond lies at the northern and western edge of the yellow chat’s natural occurrence on our continent, so these detections are to my mind much more significant than if they were made in Medford, OR or Salinas,KS”

 We want to particularly thank Char Corkran, Lori Hennings, Lars Norgren, Nate Richardson, and Ken Chamberlain for reliably rising early and sharing their essential and impressive expertise. To say “we’d be lost without you” is more than an understatement!