For folks who weren’t able to attend our May 17 limited attendance tour in cooperation with WREN in the West Eugene Wetlands, check out these images and a short video of Rick Ahrens discussing the benefit of oaks for caterpillar production and bird conservation.
Naturalist Rick Ahrens discusses why native trees like oaks provide essential food for migratory and nesting birds during LTWC’s Scenic Spring Woodland Walk on May 17. Oaks can host hundreds of species of caterpillars, and a nesting family of songbirds can eat several thousand caterpillars in a single season! Many thanks to Rick Ahrens and thanks to WREN in the West Eugene Wetlands for providing this footage!
A small group gathered on the evening of May 17th for a Scenic Spring Woodland Walk guided by local naturalist Rick Ahrens at a project site along the Long Tom River near the historic Coyote Creek Confluence. We had nearly 100 applicants for this limited space tour, and those who were drawn from a random lottery were treated with a moody and beautiful Oregon spring evening. We heard and saw lazuli buntings, yellowthroats, Swainson’s thrush, northern harrier, hooded mergansers, redwing blackbird, great blue heron and many other birds. We also encountered plenty of elk sign, camas and numerous other flowering native plants like wild rose, California poppy, lomatium, and lupine. Due to the popularity of these tours and the limited space for this one, stay tuned for more tour opportunities this fall!
A big thanks to Rick Ahrens for sharing his wealth of knowledge about birds and plants with our guests. We had fun learning from you! We also want to thank our partners at WREN in the West Eugene Wetlands and McKenzie River Trust for your help putting this together and having staff present to answer questions.
