If you like photographing a wide variety of birds but don’t want to go to a dozen different locations to find them, you should consider the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge contains over 50,000 acres of wetlands sitting on the border of California and Oregon in the shadow of 14,000 foot Mount Shasta. Approximately 80 percent of the migratory birds in the Pacific Flyway pass through the Lower Klamath refuge on the spring and fall migrations, including tundra swans and snow geese.
In February 2020, I joined a dozen other wildlife photographers for a three-day trip in the refuge to photograph the thousands of migrating waterfowl. Lower Klamath NWR is a managed wetlands, with a series of gates and canals that control the water levels. Several unpaved roads pass through the wetlands and allow access by car. The birds are generally accustomed to the cars and so your car becomes a kind of “bird blind” - a protected place from which to do your photography. Getting out of the car would tend to startle the birds, but by staying inside the car, and using a long telephoto lens, we were able get the photos we were looking for.
We found two exceptions to the car blind rule. The first was the bald eagle. The bald eagles (and to a lesser extent, other eagles) didn’t care if we got out of our car and walked right up to the tree in which they were perched. Apparently, apex predators aren’t as nervous around people as the other birds at the refuge.
The other exception was the Bufflehead Duck. These little ducks were startled by anything, including a moving car. The best way to photograph the buffleheads was to team up with another photographer -- one driving the car and the other in the back seat doing the photography.
The interesting thing about the Buffleheads is that they seem to walk on the water for several steps before taking flight. Bird photography, in general, requires a fast shutter speed. With the buffleheads that meant 1/2000 of a second. Even at that speed, it took a bit of luck to get just the right shot.
An advantage to traveling with other photographers (other than having a driver for the Bufflehead Ducks) was that we could check with each other to get information on what birds they were seeing and where. We met for dinner each night and also met once or twice during the day to coordinate and share information.
If you want to try your hand at bird photography, grab your long telephoto lens (I recommend 400mm or longer), gather some photographer friends, and head to the Lower Klamath NWR in fall or early spring and see the variety of waterfowl that migrate through the Pacific Flyway each year.
Comments