BEND, Ore. — Some days, a message is sent out on WhatsApp, alerting birders of a northern saw-whet owl, others it might be a message on the Central Oregon Birders Online website informing the close to 1,000 members on the site’s message boards about a swarm of purple finches and hermit thrushes taking over a birdbath.
And if you are lucky, rare birds like white winged junco or a American redstart might find their way into your yard.
“The first spring I was here, I was putting a swing set together and had a gyrfalcon flying over the house,” said Tom Crabtree, a longtime Central Oregon birder. “There were only half a dozen on record of people who saw that falcon.”
There are roughly 300 species of birds in Central Oregon, with about 150 that stay year-round, including various types of owls, hawks, geese and robins. The East Cascades Audubon Society lists more than 100 different spots between Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson counties. Three popular locations are Hatfield Lakes, Powell Butte and Crooked River National Grasslands.
“I like the challenge: There are many species that we have that are so similar to one another, it takes a lot of practice to know them apart, which is really rewarding and a lot of fun,” said Chuck Gates, of the Prineville Bird Club. “The best part is how beautiful the birds are. Birds I’ve seen 1,000 times, I never get tired of them.”
Conventional wisdom says that birds will seek warmer climates during the winter, which could lead to a belief that a climate similar to Central Oregon would not be a hot spot for birding.
Yet, compared to areas up north, Central Oregon is warm enough to stay for the winter. During the winter months, eagles and hawks are more common than other times in the year.
Making the hunt for finding and catching a glimpse of a bird is a yearlong activity.
“Every month of the year because birds are constantly in motion, spring and fall is when the most birds are in the area because they are migrating,” said Gates. “We get dozens of rare birds every season. ”
Crabtree, who is a East Cascades Audubon Society member, spent a recent Wednesday afternoon in the Redmond and Terrebonne area, managing to locate 40 different hawks.
“That particular field has been a hot spot for hawks for the last four years,” Crabtree said. “For some reason, there is just a huge concentration around there, not sure what it is, the people who own it let grass grow there. Hawks find it as a good place to hunt and eat during the winter.”
Crabtree has been birding in Central Oregon since he moved here in 1981 and was birding 12 years prior to that. He found that being on the east side of the Cascades, where the weather is drier, made for better birding due to not having to battle the rain during the winter months.
In the almost 40 years of living in Central Oregon, he has seen the rise in popularity of birding spanning college-aged to retired people.
“When I moved here, there weren’t a lot of birders,” Crabree said. “The ranks of birders grew; now there is a strong contingent of birders. I’m not one of the young ones any more.”
And to find a bird, oftentimes, you do not have to go far.
“One of the big attractions about birding is there are birds everywhere,” Gates said. “There is nowhere you can’t go in North America where you can’t find a bird.”
