The heat of summer has settled in so our daytrips have shifted to early morning departures.
The high desert cools overnight and offers a chilly morning . . . light sweater cool. This is true even when we hit ninety plus afternoons.
The sun was just cresting over Fort Rock as we passed on our way to Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.
The Pacific Flyway has already started to show signs of winter migration. The distinctive honks of Canada Geese have been overhead often during the last few weeks.
Summer Lake is a 45 minute drive, so with an early start we got a good bit of birding in and were home before the oppressive heat of the afternoon settled in.
Mostly they bolted from the canal ahead of our car, but occasionally we caught one wading a pond or picking its way among the reeds.
Winter’s heavy snows seem to have benefited the refuge. Even this late in the summer the marsh grasses, cattails and reeds are still brilliant green.
This lush growth on ponds edge is contrasted by sunburnt field grasses that extend up the edges of Winter Ridge.
Black Birds, Red Winged and Yellow Headed, are in typical large numbers and quite vocal. The other species we found in large groups were Killdeer.
Which as you might remember are similar to Snowy Plovers . . . of which we saw one.
There weren’t any other people there, birding or camping. We had the large expanse of Summer Lake to ourselves.
We enjoyed the solitude and being able to park wherever we liked.
Just before noon we spotted a couple of cars coming in as we made our way out. A good time was had by all.
Fishing wasn’t great but Tip and I covered a lot of stream to to be sure. We spent most of that time wading. The reparian is still pretty lush as the river level remains high. A few more weeks of this and the resevoir will be all but dried up and we’ll see a dramatic shift in stream levels.