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Wednesday, October 5, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Oregon Wings and Feathers calendars available
By helen Schmidling
Correspondent
The 2017 “Oregon Wings
and Feathers” calendar is now
available. Sisters wildlife
photographer Douglas Beall
has assembled this year’s cal-
endar from his favorite pho-
tographs of birds taken in the
past year.
Beall photographs and
writes the Sisters Country
Birds feature for The Nugget.
This month, Beall’s photo-
graphs of Oregon Waterfowl
are featured in the computer
room of the Sisters Library.
Beall, who lives in Camp
Sherman, is donating the
proceeds of sales to Turtle
Ridge Wildlife Center, a non-
profit organization that pro-
vides injured and orphaned
animals a second chance at
life, and promotes the well-
being of wildlife through
public outreach, education,
and involvement. The calen-
dar, which sells for $16, is
available at Sisters Gallery
& Frame Shop and Paulina
Springs Books, both on West
Hood Avenue in Sisters. They
can also be ordered by email-
ing bealla49@gmail.com.
Choosing a cover image
is always difficult. This
year, Beall picked his photo-
graph of the northern pygmy
owl (Glaucidium gnoma).
Although this is a fairly com-
mon owl, like most owls it’s
hard to spot, even though it
does hunt its prey during the
day. Beall found this pretty
little owl north of Sisters
near a spring. The owl put
on a show for nearly half-an-
hour, never spotting Beall or
his camera. The cover pho-
tograph depicts the owl at
nearly life-size.
A pair of western mead-
owlarks (Sturnella neglecta)
is January’s photograph.
Oregon schoolchildren
picked this as the state bird
back in 1927, in a poll spon-
sored by the Oregon Audubon
Society. Often spotted on fen-
ceposts and in grasslands, the
western meadowlark has a
flute-like song that ends with
three descending notes.
Look closely at the
February bird … it’s a bald
eagle (Haliaeetus leucocepha-
lus), not a golden. The imma-
ture bird has dark wings and
tail. The hooked bill is dis-
tinctive, and in soaring flight
the wings are held flat, like a
board. The head will eventu-
ally turn white, and the bill
yellow.
A pair of western blue-
birds (Sialia Mexicana) tops
the March calendar. Beall
shot this photograph in a
Sisters subdivision.
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he said.
This male and female had
not yet begun building their
nest, and were out hunting
insects.
Many of Beall’s favorite
birds are water- or shore-
birds, like the white-faced
Ibis (Plegadis chihi) of April.
This very tropical-looking
bird has a distinctive long
down-curved bill. Beall said
he once spotted five of these
birds in snow in the Rockies
— too much snow for them.
This shot was taken at the
Malheur National Wildlife
Refuge.
A common bird, photo-
graphed at Camp Sherman, is
September’s western tanager
(Piranga ludoviciana). It is
as bright as fall’s finest col-
ors with its orange-red head,
golden-yellow body and
white-tipped black wings.
They tend to hang out in coni-
fers, so look for them down
near the Metolius.
C l a r k ’s n u t c r a c k e r
(Nucifraga Columbiana) can
remember where it buries
nuts in thousands of places,
even under the snow. This
October bird was hanging out
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photo by douglas beall
ace birding photographer douglas Beall has produced a calendar.
at Crater Lake when photo-
graphed on a typical blue-sky
day.
Turn to November for
male and female hooded mer-
gansers (Lophodytes cuculla-
tus) on the wing.
“I worked for years to get
this shot!” Beall exclaimed.
He captured this image
at Upper Klamath Falls
National Wildlife Refuge,
and they take their name from
the distinctive crest (or hood)
— black and white for the
males and cinnamon colored
for females.
The calendar year winds
up with a photograph of the
varied thrush (Ixoreus nae-
vius), a shy, robin-like bird
with an ethereal trill that
echoes through the forest.
This stocky black-and-orange
songbird was photographed
around Camp Sherman.
More avian and wildlife
photographs are available at
Beall’s website, www.abird
singsbecauseithasasong.com.
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