Tag: Birding

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Fall at Summer Lake

In Central Oregon Fall seems to have gotten skipped over and we’ve moved directly to winter or at least the cold part.  That said we took off for Summer Lake this morning hoping to catch some migrating waterfowl.

The weather was overcast with temperatures just above freezing as we drove south Fremont highway (US 31) past Fort Rock on to the high desert.

Took a brief side trip a few miles up USFS 2901, which would eventually take you to the rim of the cliffs that border the west side of Summer Lake. Snowy roads persuaded us to turn around before they got worse higher up.

The reserve at summer lake was packed with pre-wildfowl season RV’s, no people just their trailers.

The clouds broke up and we enjoyed some birding, highlighted by a trio of swans landing and paddling around just a few hundred feet away.

 

 

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A Spring thaw

Winter has retreated and spring’s thaw turns pasture land around the Sunriver Nature Center into ponds to contain the snow melt. Our walking trails are about the only thing still above the water level right now.

There are an abundance of birds and water fowl taking advantage of the expanded flood plain. Ducks, mostly mallard pairs, and of course flocks of Canada geese. To the year round residents there is a  marked increase in song birds, particularly robins and red-winged black birds. The black birds are aggressively staking claim to territory with red flashes from their shoulders and loud calls. There are also small birds that flit too fast for easy identification, but are adding their voices to the choir.

 

The willow groves offering cover for all this increased bird activity are starting to bud. Marsh grasses and cattail that poked brown stalks out of the snow banks show tinges of green and seem to be standing more upright in response to the April sun.

Each day’s visit presents new treasures to observe and we’ve taken to adding binoculars to the camera gear packed for our walks these blustery spring days.

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An Eastern Loop

With an outlook for sun and no snow storms, we headed northeast to take a couple of days and do some birding along the Columbia River flyway. There have been a lot of day trips to nearby hiking sites, but a bit of cabin fever and the prospect of seeing a wide variety of migratory birds drew us to Boardman and the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge.  Fifteen hundred of the 23 thousand acre reserve is irrigated crop lands providing cover and food for the waterfowl and raptors.

Highway 97, north of Grass Valley and almost to Biggs, was covered in freezing fog that left a beautiful covering of rime frost on everything. The ODOT trucks had been through with de-icer so roads were drivable and we enjoyed the photo ops the eerie scenery offered.

We stopped off at a dog-friendly motel in Boardman and did a quick refuge scouting trip in the evening light. The skies were covered with a solid blanket of gray and temperatures hung just above freezing. There is permitted hunting on the refuge that would have closed on the 12th of January, except a government shutdown shortened that season even more. The area we wandered is dotted with trails and hunting blinds making access to viewing really easy.

What strikes you first is the cacophony of sound as you exit the car.  There aren’t any ducks or geese in sight, but you hear what must be hundreds of them. There are eagles and hawks in nearly all the bare trees that sit in groves throughout the area.  We returned at sunup to even greater numbers and a louder chorus. A longer (higher magnification) lens is on JQ’s wish list, but still we got some great images.

The trip home started by heading farther east to Pendleton and catching Highway 395 south along the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains.

A few miles out of Pendleton we drove into a bank of freezing fog and frost-covered scenery that lasted nearly to Battle Mountain Summit.

The highway winds southerly through forested valleys from Dale to Long Creek, finally turning west at Mt Vernon. Here you pick up Highway 26 and drive through the geologically rich Picture Gorge and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

Of course we sidetracked to the Painted Hills unit and here we got treated to stark evening sun that brought definition to the folds between painted mounds just for JQ’s camera.

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Holiday birding


Turns out we don’t have to go very far to do some bird watching. The Sunriver Nature Center is on a small lake that is home to a nesting pair of Trumpeter Swans. And JQ’s camera captured one, along with numerous Canada geese all hunkered down on a crisp winter morning.

We visit this place often when we want to get in a little walking and take in the
 seasonal changes. Sunriver isn’t the easiest place to find your way around, but after a couple of trips we’ve mastered the route with it’s four different roads and two traffic circles.

In the summer the trails are full of bike riders, but late fall and winter there is hardly anyone around and the birds don’t seem to care that the pond is clogged with ice.