Oregon Wings and Feathers calendars available

The 2017 "Oregon Wings and Feathers" calendar is now available. Sisters wildlife photographer Douglas Beall has assembled this year's calendar from his favorite photographs of birds taken in the past year.

Beall photographs and writes the Sisters Country Birds feature for The Nugget. This month, Beall's photographs 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 nonprofit organization that provides injured and orphaned animals a second chance at life, and promotes the wellbeing of wildlife through public outreach, education, and involvement. The calendar, 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 emailing [email protected]

Choosing a cover image is always difficult. This year, Beall picked his photograph of the northern pygmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma). Although this is a fairly common 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 photograph depicts the owl at nearly life-size.

A pair of western meadowlarks (Sturnella neglecta) is January's photograph. Oregon schoolchildren picked this as the state bird back in 1927, in a poll sponsored by the Oregon Audubon Society. Often spotted on fenceposts 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 leucocephalus), not a golden. The immature bird has dark wings and tail. The hooked bill is distinctive, and in soaring flight the wings are held flat, like a board. The head will eventually turn white, and the bill yellow.

A pair of western bluebirds (Sialia Mexicana) tops the March calendar. Beall shot this photograph in a Sisters subdivision.

"I just got lucky one day," 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, photographed at Camp Sherman, is September's western tanager (Piranga ludoviciana). It is as bright as fall's finest colors with its orange-red head, golden-yellow body and white-tipped black wings. They tend to hang out in conifers, so look for them down near the Metolius.

Clark's nutcracker (Nucifraga Columbiana) can remember where it buries nuts in thousands of places, even under the snow. This October bird was hanging out at Crater Lake when photographed on a typical blue-sky day.

Turn to November for male and female hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) 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 naevius), 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.abirdsingsbecauseithasasong.com.