August 22 - Oregon 2020 Project

I woke at 5:20 a.m. when a neighboring motel guest here in Lakeview fired up their diesel engine.  So, I got up, drank a cup of coffee and ate a bit of breakfast.  Then, I decided that it was a good day to spend time adding a bird or two to some Oregon 2020 “hotspots”.

The Oregon 2020 Project was developed by the folks at Oak Creek Lab of Biology at Oregon State University to establish a state-wide estimate of the abundance and distribution of Oregon birds.

Vesper Sparrow

To accomplish that, the project used a grant from the Bob and Phyllis Mace Watchable Wildlife endowment, in part, to establish “Hotspot Squares” - one square-mile sections chosen at random from each of the 36-square mile Townships across Oregon.

Bob and Phyllis Mace from the foundation's website

There are just over 2800 Townships and, therefore, Hotspot Squares in Oregon.  These squares are intended to provide a more even distribution of survey effort, rather than just those clustered around cities, parks, and other popular birding locations.  The protocol is for a person to go birding within one of the designated township squares, and spend 5 to 10 minutes there, recording all the birds seen or heard in that time, listing them on eBird.

Brewer's Sparrows

I’d checked out the local Oregon 2020 spots on the eBird app, and started a little after 8 a.m. at the North 4th Street square, stopping to scan at the corner of Missouri Ave. and Rabbit Hill Road and picked up 4 species.  A nearby “square” further north along Rabbit Hill Road, called the “Bauers Creek Road” square, yielded 3 species of birds in 10 minutes.

I then drove into the Fremont National Forest, where the “Blue-gray Gnatcatcher” square was traversed by FS Road 3780, and birded along Augur Creek Meadows, finding a half-dozen species.  Not far away was the “Augur Creek” square, which was not in the Augur Creek drainage.  I stopped for the 10 minutes there, and only had 3 species of birds, but I was very close to an agitated and vocal Western Wood Pewee.

I headed back east to the highway, stopping to bird at one more Oregon 2020 square, the “Loveless” square just east of the road.  This site had sagebrush on one side and a hayfield on the other, and I tallied eight bird species here.

My final birding stop was a quick one at the Summer Lake Rest Area, where there is a Memorial to the Second  Expedition of Captain John C. Frémont.

Frémont (seated) with his erstwhile scout, Kit Carson

Frémont’s party had arrived on the edge of the high escarpment to the west on a cold day in December, 1843 and saw the relatively open and snowless shores of the lake below, respectively naming them “Winter Rim” and “Summer Lake”. 

Leaving the Great Basin, I pretty much just drove toward home today, gassing up at Bend, and continuing over the shoulder of Mt. Hood to arrive in Portland traffic, which was ‘moderately heavy’ until I crossed the I-205 bridge into Washington.  From there, it was smooth sailing until I got home at 7:30 p.m.  It was good to be on the road, and good to return home again after three weeks.

I see, as I write this on Christmas 2019 that the Oregon 2020 Hotspots have been removed from the eBird Hotspot maps, so sent a query to W. Douglas Robinson at the Project to see what their current status is.  I'll let folks know if I learn more.

Summer Lake Rest Area eBird Checklist is Here