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.
