Birding

August 13, 2023August 12, 2023

Hints at Summer’s End

Not sure you’re ready for this . . . but I saw a vee of geese heading south yesterday.

Summer is spinning to an end and if you chance a look, you’ll see leaves are starting to turn.

While it’s just the start of the migrations, this week we drove over to Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. As a bonus, on the AQI (Air Quality Index) map it seemed to be out of the smoke plume.

There was smoke, but it was hung up on the Abert Rim, shrouding the southern end of the valley in a brownish haze. This made for a lousy photo backdrop, but the air was pretty clear over Summer Lake.

The road that runs through the center of the refuge follows a series of the canals used to move water between ponds. These were lined with thick fresh growth of dark green reeds and cattails. There was an abundance of dragonflies and frogs, but not many birds.

In recent trips to Summer lake we’ve started to drive the whole loop road. Instead of retracing our route, we turn west at a northern junction.

Here the road turns into a narrow set of ruts on a gravel levy that follows the refuge’s boundry with School House Lake.

These ponds offered up a variety of shore birds plying the shallow waters. Grebes, Pelicans, Gulls, Geese, Stilts and Blackbirds had all congregated in this northwest corner of the reserve.

After shooting a SD card load of images, we stopped for lunch. The heat of the day was pushing wildlife to cover so we headed back over the Paulina ridge and home.

July 2, 2023July 1, 2023

Summer Time

We’ve officially moved into summer and Central Oregon weather outlook is sunny and warm. This week we were back on the Crooked River.

Found a nice patch of shade to set up chairs and enjoy the day. The Osprey paid a brief visit, but didn’t pull any fish out of the river.

A Kingfisher dropped by for a bit. Again, obviously hunting, but moved on before pulling any prey out of the water.

American Kestrel, one of the smallest falcons in North America

The highlight of our day was watching American Kestrels soar against the canyon walls . . . occasionally stopping in the tree directly across from us.

Even with all those predators in the sky, I still managed to catch a few fish . . . between malt beverages.

June 25, 2023July 1, 2023

Being Outside

This week we are back on the Crooked River.

We do this a lot . . . visit a location repeatedly throughout the year. For us, it is often the destination, not necessarily the journey.

There are times when exploring a space, looking for something unique, new or just different is the mission.

But that is not this week. This week we’re trying to just get outside.

There are few places as relaxing as a spot next to moving water. It’s still early summer and the days are warm and the camp sites are still relatively empty. Neither of those will be true in a couple of weeks.

The Osprey caught fish . . . I did not.

We spotted an Oriole, which is actually pretty rare around here.

These song birds forage in riparian corridors and mainly eat insects, berries and nectar.

The canyon is painted with yellow balsamroot and wild iris. June is peak wildflower season in the high desert.

Mostly, we sat in camp chairs on the edge of the stream just enjoying being outside.

June 18, 2023June 18, 2023

Along the Marshes

This week we headed over to Summer Lake and birding. The sage plain and hay fields along Route 31 were dressed in a lush green hue. Small patches of snow still clung to the upper edges of Winter Ridge, but the refuge was in full summer regalia.

May and June are great months to be at Summer Lake. You’ll still encounter some migrating birds, but the majority are nesting residents.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Redwinged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds have taken up stations in the cattails lining the canals. offering up a chorus of calls as we drive the dirt roads marking the Marsh’s edge.

This trip never disappoints. There is always some visitor or resident to pose for a picture. Most of the large migratory species have moved north, but a squadron of pelicans is still here.

Most of JQ’s subjects were small residents, some hanging in reeds others dancing along branches.

We’re not expert at this, which is reinforced when a windowed mini-van with birders pulls up to chat.

Occupants are six bespectacaled folk with narrow brimmed boaters. We observed more than one set of Swarovski binoculars on lanyards around their necks. The question … have you seen any Snowy Plovers?

Tip is tucked into the Subaru’s shadow, I’ve got Nikon bios on a Sony camera strap and push the bill of a stained ball cap back to exchange information.

Attempting my most knowledgable voice I name a few sightings, ones I can actually pronounce correctly, then deny seeing a Snowy Plover.

Only …

After the van is gone and we consult the Field Guide, we then realize that wasn’t true.

We HAD actually . . . we had chased a Plover along the road for a few hundred yards.

I was saying something to the effect “stupid little bird… move” as a Snowy Plover (as best as we can tell) was actually hopping off the roadway in front of our car.

In our defense there are a dozen Plover varieties in Sibley’s book, and to that, one really should include Killdeer. Though twice a Plover’s size the Killdeer exhibits similar colors and markings.

Had we known . . . there would be an image of a Snowy Plover.

Alas, we didn’t, but JQ got a lot of great frames and Plovers are now on the list.

April 30, 2023April 29, 2023

White-fronted geese trail behind two Sandhill Cranes

This week Central Oregon skipped spring and went straight to summer. Not complaining, but it was an abrupt shift in weather and attitude.

We’re long overdue for a Summer Lake trip, so we loaded up the bird books and headed east.

It might be a bit cliche . . . turn seventy and post a piece on birding. Is that too much, old guy? In between trips to the river, which by the way are great places to bird, we do regular bird-centric excursions.

Over the years we’ve sat, eyes pinned to lenses, along a lot of different marshes. Living on the northern edge of the Great Basin puts us close to a few stopovers on the Pacific Flyway. One of the best, in our opinion, is Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.

Unlike wildlife areas with better ‘press,’ Summer Lake never disappoints. Here we squint across a hundreds of yards of field. The loop road, often just a couple of tire ruts along the top of a dike, allows for great birding opportunities.

It was an unseasonably warm spring day, perfect time to catch the first round of migratory birds moving across the country. Some will spend weeks, others will move on in a few days.

The great thing is they never cease to amuse; like an acrobatic yellow-headed black bird bouncing from stalk to stalk, or Clark’s Grebes hunting a secluded section of the pond.

There is another visit scheduled for later this spring, well before the summer heat.