Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, California, 1908
The Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, located in rural northeastern California and southern Oregon, was established by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908 as the nation's first waterfowl refuge. The refuge, with a backdrop of 14,000-foot Mount Shasta to the southwest, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as both a National Historic Landmark and a National Natural Landmark.
The 50,092-acre refuge is a varied mix of intensively managed shallow marshes, open water, grassy uplands, and croplands that provide feeding, resting, nesting, and brood-rearing habitat for waterfowl and other water birds. This refuge is one of the most biologically productive refuges within the Pacific Flyway.
Approximately 80 percent of the flyway's migrating waterfowl pass through the Klamath Basin on both spring and fall migrations, with 50 percent using the refuge. Peak waterfowl populations can reach 1.8 million birds, which represent 15 to 45 percent of the total birds wintering in California. The refuge produces between 30,000 and 60,000 waterfowl annually.
The refuge is also a fall staging area for 20 to 30 percent of the central valley population of sandhill crane. From 20,000 to 100,000 shorebirds use refuge wetlands during the spring migration. Wintering wildlife populations include 500 bald eagle and 30,000 tundra swan. Spring and summer nesting wildlife include many colonial water birds, such as white-faced ibis, heron, egret, cormorant, grebe, white pelican, and gulls.
I visited LKNWR many times during the mid to late nineties. It is one of the great wildlife refuges in the US. I'll show you a variety of photos that I have taken there.
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| Lower Klamath at Sunrise |
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| Bald Eagle |
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| Northern Pintail |
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| Red Tailed Hawk along the auto tour and pointing the way to turn |
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| Ross Geese with snow covered mountains in the background |
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| Tundra Swan with Bald Eagle waiting for dinner |
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| Lone Tundra Swan among the Canada Geese |
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| White Fronted Geese with Ross Geese |
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| Willet eating an insect it plucked off the shoreline |
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