Does a map exist depicting all current and past count circles for the State
of Oregon?
On Wed, Dec 5, 2018, 23:00 Alan Contreras <acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
The advent of the Gresham “test run” CBC prompted someone to ask me where
Oregon should add new CBCs to cover areas that need it. There are two
really obvious places:
1. Hermiston/McNary. By far the biggest hole. No count touches the
Columbia between the mouth of the John Day River and Tri-Cities,
Washington. This is over 100 miles. The McNary-Umatilla area is the best
birding on the Columbia east of Multnomah County and also contains Cold
Springs NWR, some good spots along the Umatilla River and the Columbia east
and west of the dam, and some ag land and open space to the south. It is
stuffed with waterfowl and raptors. It’s low elevation, too, with a few
wintering warblers. My guess is that there are enough birders within 50
miles to do that count. Hey, I even have a nice circle drawn !
2. Treasure Valley: something in the Ontario area. There are no counts
touching the Snake River lowlands between Nampa and Lewiston, except for
the new Pine Valley count around Richland in Baker County, which at least
covers some of the backwaters and lowlands. Two counts ran for a short time
in the 1990s, Vale and Lower Owyhee. Both were short-handed and
short-lived. Something based in the Ontario-Payette area would likely draw
a few more people and have access to more habitat.
Other possibilities include:
3. A restart of Gold Beach, which ran about a dozen years in the 1960s and
70s. This would be tough, as the south coast counts are already gasping
for observers. If we can’t keep Coos Bay, Reedsport and Port Orford going
annually (all three are having trouble getting enough observers), adding
more would not be a good idea.
4. Diamond Lake or somewhere around there. This was run casually once or
twice in the 1980s or early 90s. It would be a nice data comparison to
Santiam Pass, which ran long enough to generate some data. There are
probably enough observers to do this, as Roseburg does not have many nearby
counts.
5. Waldport-Yachats. A nice area but mid-coast observers are pretty
committed already. Doesn’t add much in terms of different habitat
coverage. The same applies to Pacific City, which ran for a couple of
years in the 1990s.
6. Lakeview. Great idea. It has actually been done a couple of times.
But no way to get enough observers there.
7. A restart of Fort Klamath. This is a sort of dark horse. It was run
decades ago. It would probably have some interest from K Falls, Bend and
maybe Medford and Roseburg. Get three people from each of those and you
just about have a count, given the limits of winter roads. Quite a varied
and interesting area.
The bottom line is that counts can only be done where birders are
interested in doing them. That’s why NW Oregon is cheek-to-jowl with
counts. Our first priority should be keeping existing counts alive IF
their existence is providing useful data for the CBC database (and if
birding there is fun).
A great season coming - have fun !
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
Eugene, Oregon
www.alanlcontreras.com
