Camp Sherman is for the birds

It's time for The Second Annual Woodpecker Wonderland Festival, Friday-Sunday, June 5-7.

People with binoculars will invade local woods and streams, all with one goal: to spot their favorite woodpeckers and other local species.

Enthusiasts will share what they know about the background, habitat and habits of local birds with new and experienced birders alike. Even seasoned birders are hungry for new information about their favorite species.

"Every species has their own story, and their story is so different," said this year's speaker Dr. Eric Walters.

Walters is a postdoctoral fellow of University of California's Hastings Reservation in Carmel Valley, California. He will entertain with tales of the acorn woodpecker, nicknamed the clown-faced woodpecker, and the red-cockaded woodpecker.

Rare social birds, they live in family groups with multiple adults laying eggs in the same nest and sharing in the care of the young. The children remain with the family structure and help with the rearing of the next generation. This is rare behavior among birds. While there has been one in Camp Sherman, they breed mostly west of the Cascades.

Walters will also discuss his studies of the red-naped sapsucker, which is local to the Camp Sherman area.

Walters will be speaking at the Caldera Grand Room at Blue Lake Saturday evening after the banquet. You do not have to have gone on a birding tour to attend the banquet or lecture.

Paul Klahr (pronounced Claire) attended last year's festival and is returning again this year.

His birding life began about 30 years ago in a roundabout way. He had a close friend who was robbed and beaten just prior to the Watts riots, needed brain surgery, and became disabled. When his friend came home from the hospital he gifted him with birdfeeders and a birdbath to keep him entertained. Thus began his own interest in birds. His friend gifted him with a subscription to Audubon and some binoculars.

"You train yourself to be observant," he said.

He birds mainly by ear because his hearing is his strength more so than his eyesight. Through the years he became more involved with birding, leading trips for two different Audubon Society groups, as well as bird walks for the Laguna Canyon Foundation, which has worked to preserve habitat, and he is a docent trained to lead tours for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

Experienced birders, Klahr explained, generally observe and take field notes, but when he was learning he took birding books out into the field. When hiking alone he takes the usual survival gear of water, snacks, cell phone, compass, maps and rain coat.

Sisters resident Sue Tank, a birder of 35 years, says birding is a hobby you can do anywhere. Some people just bird in their own back yard. You can start young or pick it up when you are older.

Tank, who is also the registrar for the Woodpecker Wonderland Festival, says she has become more observant through the years, noticing animal tracks in birding areas as well as the habitat.

Geoff Stearns, who comes up from Santa Barbara, California, is relatively new to birding, having only started about four years ago. Like Klahr, he took classes at his local community college and was fortunate to take classes at the Natural History Museum from well-known birding author Joan Easton Lentz.

He found that a lot of experienced birders would attend classes just to help those new to birding.

He feels he hasn't become that proficient yet, but says birding opens up the whole natural world. The more he knows, the more proficient he becomes.

He came to last year's festival hoping to see several varieties including the Williamson sapsucker and three-toed woodpecker and was thrilled to have seen them all.

The staff of East Cascades Bird Conservancy is currently out scouting nesting sites for the event. They are also tour guides for the festival.

For more information on the festival, visit http://www.paradisebirding.com.