Birding the Basin

This from Mary Ellen Sargent. Last evening, 7/3, we did a quick look at the marsh, shallow open water and mud flats at Meiss Lake. 2 beautiful Bald Eagles surveying 2 Sandhill Cranes working the shallow waters amidst all the puddle ducks (Mallard, Gadwall, Cinnamon Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Northen Pintail, Canvasback, Canada Goose). Highlight of the evening was a flock of Western Sandpipers next to a Killdeer (for comparision)....guess the shorebird migration has begun...Other species seen/heard/in the vicinity: large flock of White-faced Ibis, Marsh Wren, Brewer's and Redwinged Blackbird, several Red-tailed Hawks, American Avocet (one still on nest?) and Black-necked Stilt (and immature), Forster's Tern, Song Sparrow, Western Kingbird, Black-billed Magpie, gulls, Bullock's Oriole, Western Meadowlark, Mourning Dove.
Hi all, A friend and I took spent the better part of the day birding around the southern part of the basin. Some highlights included seeing at least a dozen Swainson' Hawks. Most were along Lower Klamath Lake Road from just north of Township Road to near Fugate Road. There were somewhere between 200 to 300 phalaropes in the flooded field about mile east of Hill Road on East West Road. That is something like 8 times the number of phalaropes I have ever seen in one place before today. A female Barn Owl was back at the hole to which the arrow on Hill Road points just before one gets to the Tule Lake tour route. We could not find any Tri-colored Blackbirds a couple of miles south of that location on Hill Road where something like 400 were seen nesting earlier this season. The lava crater across the main paved monument road from where one turns to go to Schonchin Butte had at least 7 and probably 8 Purple Martins flying about the crater. I do not believe that I have ever seen more than 4 or 5 there before. We saw no wrens or Violet green Swallows, but that may have been due to our getting there around noon.Charlotte Ann