We had 9 birders on this first Summer Bird Walk, starting at 8am;
Doris, Donna, Don, Janet, Jen, Betsy, Jackie S. Terry (new), and of course, me - Priscilla. I queried people as they arrived, to see where people were thinking about going birding. Doris and Donna and me all had Mt Pisgah on our list and others were happy to go along with that idea. The other places on my list were Fern Ridge Royal and the Pleasant Hill side of Mt Pisgah. Lots of our common species were being seen at Fern Ridge, and the east side of Pisgah has a nesting pair of Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. These are native to the Medford area and south of there. Jennifer found one at the Pisgah site three years ago and this is the first year that they have been found to be nesting here. I think we will go there to try to see the Gnatcatchers, but my plan is to do some hill climbing beforehand to get in shape for walking up hills in the hot Sun. I started my preparation the next day by climbing Skinner Butte.

For our bird walk, the weather was cool with partial overcast at the start but gradually became quite warm with clear skies. We got off to a great start as soon as we left the main parking lot and got under the Oak trees. Bullock's Orioles were calling and flying about. I do not see this species very often so it was fun to learn the call just from hearing it so much in a single morning.

Seeing an Oriole nest with both parents feeding the young really got the enthusiasm of our group buzzing.
But the bird which seemed the most common, based on how much we heard them, was the Western Wood Pewee. They were everywhere except the wide open south meadow.

Because there were so many birds calling and flitting about, we took it very slow moving through the arboretum Oak grove, going upstream relative to the Coast Fork. Adding Lazuli Buntings, Bald Eagles, Osprey and Red-breasted Sapsuckers to our list in the open south meadow, we ended the day with 31 species, which is a respectable number.

Janet's notes:
High points:
Active nests:
2 Bullock's oriole nests;
violet green swallows in arboretum nest no. 20;
red breasted sapsucker nest.
Plus: empty nest that had had pileated woodpeckers nesting earlier this year (empty today).

Thanks to Janet Naylor for making the bird list for today’s walk.