Category: Nature

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In the Flyway

Tundra swans

More than half of the 650 species of birds in North America migrate. The westernmost edge of North America is the Pacific Flyway and includes coastal plains, the valleys on the west side of the cascade range, and also marsh and wetlands in Central Oregon.

Marsh wren

Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge is one of three major stopping points along the Pacific Flyway and happens to be an hour’s drive from our house. The marshes on the north end of the Summer Lake Valley are an excellent spot for birding.

Binoculars, the extra long camera lens and of course “Shirley Birds West” … a favorite guide book …  are primary tools in our bird watching. However, recently we discovered a couple of online tools that are invaluable.

Buffleheads
Marsh wren

Bring up BirdCast on your browser and you’ll get an animated map of current bird migrations. There are also some interesting forecasting tools here as well. But the best tools come out of Cornel University. It’s eBird web page is packed with helpful goodies.

There are species specific maps that show monthly migration patterns. Which will help predict when the Evening Grosbeaks will be showing up at the feeder.

We used this as an identification aid when trying to figure out which species of swan was sitting on the water at Summer Lake.

Tundra swans have entirely white plumage and their bill is mostly black.

It’s spring so naturally we are making somewhat regular trips to the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. This week we were greeted with hundreds of swans. The question is Trumpeter or Tundra … it’s not an easy ID … we think they were Tundra.

Tree swallow

The Cornell site also has an application where you can set up an account and track of what birds you’ve seen, get a list of the types of birds most likely to be in a specific area and find out what other birders are seeing.

There is also a mobile app that turns your smart phone into a bird identification tool and even plays song/call recordings.

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Waiting on Spring

A wind advisory (gusts of 85 mph) for Summer Lake killed any plans to visit the wildlife refuge.

All the signs point to the start of spring. However, the weather or rather the constant changes in the weather continue to upset our plans.

During the last few weeks we woke to snow three times and daily temps in or near 60º twice. That’s in one ten day stretch.

Winter keeps a grudging hold on us as Spring taunts us from the sidelines. We’ve managed to get on the river a couple of times during those warmer days. But each morning it’s a new forecast and shifts the day’s travel plans.

All winter the snows have been frequent but rarely more than a couple of inches and have always melted away in a week’s time, or less.

Past winters have seen a foot or more of snow sticking for weeks, but not this year. That may be why it’s so frustrating to plan a road trip.  Destination set and then you wake to iced roads or the threat of a snow dump. For some reason the weather people are having a hard time forecasting more than a day or two in advance.

Smith Rock near Terrabonne, Oregon

Saturday (3/20/21) was officially the start of Spring and for now that’s reflected in the forecasts. We continue to add locations to our itinerary and pack for a variety of weather … that’s just Central Oregon … but it has been a slow  month as occasional sunny days hint at the potential for a real winter thaw.

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The Off Season

Trails edge the Crooked on both sides of the river.

Fly fishing makes up a major portion of our weekly excursions and winter weather can add some difficulty to our plans.

Late fall typically marks the end of the regular fishing season. Fortunately Oregon has waters that remain open year round. Fish don’t stop feeding when the snows come and the lakes freeze. Bug hatches still occur regularly, you just use smaller patterns or fish imitations of insects found subsurface.

The biggest adjustment to off season fishing is you need to layer up before going to the stream. A near freezing morning on a typical cloudless Central Oregon day can warm to shirtsleeve temperatures by afternoon. Fingerless gloves are also an essential addition to the ensemble.

Three streams with access all year are the Fall River, Deschutes River (middle and lower stretches) and the Crooked River.

When the temperature drops we might have to hike though a blanket of snow to get to the water.

The Fall River is a beautiful spring-fed stream flowing through rolling pine forest. It is open to fly fishing only and features brook, brown, and rainbow trout.

As for the snow Central Oregon is blessed with more clear than cloudy days. While Bend and La Pine can get accumulations of two or more feet, our roads are well maintained and in just a couple of clear days any snow pack is reduced at lower elevations.

The Deschutes and Crooked Rivers run through basalt column canyons that are sparsely timbered. This exposure to the sun seems to keep river banks clear of snow.

Closer to home, the Fall River wanders through a forested landscape and it’s banks hold snow much longer.

The river is a few hundred steps off a well traveled road with numerous pullouts and a clearly marked walking path runs along both banks.

Adding a splash of whiskey to hot coffee or cocoa is a regular winter treat.

The winter weather hasn’t been a deterrent in getting out. January cold spells mean we bundle up and add a shot of whiskey to the cocoa for extra oomph. We still like to enjoy the days outside.

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Time-Sculpted Landscapes

Rabbit Bush on plateau of Cove Palisades with storm clouds to the northeast.

While these posts get a lot of fishing stories, another major draw for our excursions involves geology.

Rimrock basalt lines the top of canyon walls.

Evidence of caldera and volcanic activity pokes up through the Central Oregon landscape everywhere. This week’s post highlights one of these areas.

Gusting winds made hiking the trail overlooking the rocks a bit hazardous.

The Metolius Balancing Rocks are the remnants of activity a millennia ago. They remained in near obscurity until a wildfire burned through the western edge of Cove Palisades State Park.

A volcanic eruption created spires, then another added a top layer of denser material.

Over the centuries the lower portions of these spires eroded out from under the harder sedimentary top layer, leaving a unique geographical structure.

You can still see evidence of wildfire that tore through the area in 2002.
The threat of rain followed us most of the day.

Once the wildfire exposed the area long protected by the park service, a short loop trail was added, as well as some informational signage. My guess it was in hopes that vandals would be dissuaded from wreaking havoc on the site.

Another draw for a stop at this overlook is the magnificent view of the Metolius River and Mt Washington offered from a small parking area at the trail head.

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Painted Hills Pictures

Painted Hills Overlook features a panoramic view of the hills. The trail is accessible year-round, but can be icy in the winter.

The otherworldly nature of the Painted Hills is why we keep coming back to this unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. The guidebooks suggest spring or fall as good times to visit. This just means that those are the seasons with the most visitors at the monument.

Mitchell, the closest town, is a two hour drive through the Ochoco National Forest. There are three units that make up the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Painted Hills is at the southwest corner of the complex. An hour and a half north is the Clarno Unit or 45 minutes East is the Sheep Rock Unit. These three sites offer a great look at the paleontological riches of Oregon and as you can imagine the drive between sites is rich in geological marvels.

The Clarno Unit offers the oldest exposed layers and fossil encrusted rocks while at the Sheep Rock unit you can tour the Thomas Condon Center and view fragments of ancient animals under glass.

However, the Painted Hills Unit presents a much larger canvas where stratified layers of soil show off eons of earth history in a very colorful manner.

We make seasonal trips to Painted Hills and find that the colored layers are more pronounced in the winter and spring.

In the spring we plan to try hiking the Blue Basin Loop, at the northern edge of the Sheep Rock Unit, and take in a somewhat different ancient landscape.