Birds of the Willamette Valley Projects
Bird Monitoring and Management Program
The Willamette Valley Projects have an extensive monitoring and management program for a variety of bird species that range from eagles to songbirds.
A typical year begins with mid-winter Bald Eagle surveys. This survey monitors winter populations of eagles at several sites including Lookout Point and Fall Creek lakes. By March, Bald Eagle nest monitoring has begun, and continues throughout the breeding season, sometimes into August. Bald Eagles nest near almost all Corps lakes in the Willamette Valley.
Spring is the busiest time for monitoring because birds are migrating and getting ready for breeding. With the sunny weather comes an abundance of neotropical migrants heading north to take advantage of the large influx of food. The Corps conducts a variety of songbird studies to establish baseline population data and to detect trends in population changes. These surveys include MAPS banding, marshbird surveys, and Grassland Sparrow monitoring.
The busy spring rolls over into early summer when production monitoring begins. The main species of focus are Purple Martins and Osprey. Fern Ridge has one of Oregon’s largest martin colonies with over 150 available boxes. In 1998, the Corps started an extensive martin monitoring program. Production surveys are also done for Osprey and Western Bluebird. The Corps has been monitoring Osprey for over twenty years at Fern Ridge Lake.
Birding at Willamette Valley Projects
Birding at Corps lakes in the Willamette Valley provides many opportunities to observe a diversity of avian wildlife. Bald Eagle and Osprey frequent all the Corps lakes, and waterfowl are numerous on most of them. Goldeneye species are often found at Foster and Dexter lakes in winter. Many of the montane reservoirs act as migrant traps. The large deciduous trees at Detroit and Hills Creek lakes attract bountiful flocks of migrants including an occasional rarity.
The crown jewel of birding in the Willamette Valley Projects is Fern Ridge Lake. Its expansive acres of wetlands provide nesting habitat for many species of ducks, grebes, rails, bitterns, and more. Fern Ridge is well known for hosting uncommon Eastern Oregon breeders such as Black-necked Stilt and Yellow-headed Blackbird. In winter, it is known for its large waterfowl population of ducks, geese and swans.
View the complete checklist of Fern Ridge Birds.