|
Oregon: birds and The Shakespeare Festival This tour will next run in July 2009. Dates and prices to be announced
The wonderful open-air theatre at Ashland Cost: £ Maximum group size: 14 participants and
2 leaders.
|
|
|
This imaginative combination of birding and culture follows in the tradition of Bryan Bland's popular "Birds and Music" tours of Europe. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, has long been acclaimed as one of the most professional acting companies in North America. With up to three plays performed each evening six days a week, we'll have the opportunity to see most of the year's offerings during our seven nights in Ashland, including some more modern plays in addition to four of the Bard's own. Ashland is a charming small college town located in a natural wonderland hours from any metropolitan area and surrounded by rugged mountains, wild rivers, national forests, and wilderness areas, and it's within driving distance of Oregon's only national park and several national wildlife refuges. Before we arrive in Ashland for the theatrical attractions, we'll take two days to travel from Portland down the splendid Oregon coast during the peak of wader migration, birdwatching as we go. Day 1: The tour begins with a flight from London to Portland, via Minneapolis. Night in Portland. Day 2: It's about an hour and a half to the coast at Tillamook, famous for its cheese-producing dairy herds, not to mention the scenic Three Capes drive and rich coastal waters. We'll stop at several state parks, scenic waysides and river jetties where Heermann's Gulls attend Brown Pelicans, young Common Murres beg food from the adults, and Western and Glaucous-winged Gulls mix in more ways than one. Also among our avian targets today will be the locally breeding Marbled Murrelet and Black Oystercatcher as well as migrating Black Turnstone and Wandering Tattler. Night in Florence. Day 3: The southern Oregon coast has a rather different character, typified by the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The best areas for migrant waders are near the towns of Coos Bay and Bandon, where Western and Least Sandpipers can be abundant, joined by lesser numbers of Pectoral, Baird's and Semipalmated Sandpipers, both Short-billed and Long-billed Dowitchers, both species of yellowlegs, and others. We'll have the first half of the day devoted to birdwatching before we head inland to the Rogue Valley and on to Ashland. We'll see our first play this evening after settling into our comfortable accommodation. Night in Ashland. Days 4-5: Our first birding near Ashland will be in a valley surrounded by forested hills. The oak and madrone woodlands are home to the common Western Scrub-Jay along with more local California and Spotted Towhees, Oak Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch and Acorn Woodpecker. Bushtit, Lesser Goldfinch and Black-capped Chickadee are common garden birds in town, and even American Dipper can be found in the city park. Evenings will be devoted to the theatre, where four Shakespeare productions are scheduled for 2007: As You Like It, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew. The festival, which runs all but two months of the year, is well known for performing plays by other authors as well, which in 2007 will include three of the following: Tartuffe (Moliére), On the Razzle (Stoppard), Gem of the Ocean (Wilson), Distracted (Loomer), and Tracy's Tiger (based on the novella by Saroyan). Nights in Ashland. Day 6: We'll take advantage of the one night free of performances to travel a bit farther abroad into the Klamath Basin, famous for its teeming national wildlife refuges. En route are diverse coniferous forests where we should see Dusky Flycatcher, White-headed Woodpecker, Cassin's Vireo, Pygmy Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee and Mountain Bluebird. We'll drive around the enormous Upper Klamath Lake in search of Ruddy Duck, Western and Clark's Grebes and American White Pelican. Staying overnight far from civilization among pine forests and sedge meadows, we may be lucky enough to hear Yellow Rail in its only known breeding location in western North America. Night in Fort Klamath. Day 7: We’ll visit magnificent Crater Lake National Park, checking the coniferous forests on the way up the mountain for Williamson's Sapsucker and Cassin's Finch. Birding above treeline at the lodge and the rim overlooking the crystal blue lake (the deepest in North America) could produce Clark's Nutcracker, Grey Jay and Grey-crowned Rosy-Finch. In the afternoon we'll return to Ashland and the festival. Night in Ashland. Days 8-10: During the last three days we'll continue our pattern of birding in the mornings and theatre in the evenings. Options include Mt. Ashland, where wildflowers attract several kinds of butterflies; searching for Great Grey Owl, which breeds in all the surrounding mountains; or working our way up the Rogue Valley to look for Wrentit, Yellow-breasted Chat, Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Red-breasted Sapsucker and White-breasted Nuthatch. If we have the energy, we can spend a few post-theater hours looking for Northern Pygmy-Owl, Western Screech-Owl, Barn Owl and Great Horned Owl. Nights in Ashland. Day 11: We take a morning flight from Ashland to Portland to connect with an overnight flight, via Minneapolis, back to London where the tour ends on Day 12. Details of the festival can be found at the following website: https://www.osfashland.org/index.aspx
The ground arrangements for this tour are organized by our American associates WINGS.
E-mail or phone +44 (0)1767 262522 for availability.
Last updated June 2008.
|
|
