Summer Lake

September 17, 2023September 16, 2023

Mosquitoes in September?

This week we headed over to Summer Lake. It’s a trek we’ll make a couple of times over the next few weeks as the winter migration gets underway.

It bears repeating . . . Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge offers the best vantage point for birding. To start, it’s on the Pacific Flyway.

More importantly, the marshes and ponds are bordered with a loop road and numerous turnouts. These two elements mean we are within easy viewing distance of a multitude of bird species.

There is one other, not so great, aspect of this wetland sanctuary . . . mosquitoes. Clouds of the little buggers.

I was under the impression that one encountered this pest only in spring and early summer. I was wrong. Application of some trusty repellent and at least the biting was down to a minimum.

We’d come in the late afternoon to take advantage of the evening light and perhaps capture the sunset. It was too early in the season to have the wetlands teeming with waterfowl. With the exception of mosquito swarms, it was a pleasant evening to be birding.

Photographers refer to this time of day as golden hour. The sun casts long shadows and paints a warm hue to the light cast.

We found some nice images and have plans to return in a few weeks when the activity increases. Hopefully, without mosquitoes.

April 30, 2023April 29, 2023

Birding

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.

December 11, 2022December 9, 2022

Winter at Summer Lake

Trails and dikes wind through the Summer Lake marshlands

Foul weather is the reason most stated for not going outside … saw it on FaceBook, I think. Since moving to Central Oregon we’ve grown very attached to iPhone weather apps. Our weekly sojourns are guided by the trove of information available via this visual piece of software, now bundled with iOS.

Weather permitting, we like to take in at least one winter day at Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.

Waterfowl forage and rest along these channels

Granted, peak birding season is March to May when a majority of the migratory birds are in the flyway. But winter weather doesn’t just affect wildlife, there are seasonal changes to vegetation around this marshy lowland.

Weather on the valley floor is dependent on and very different from Fremont Ridge to the south or Abert Rim to the East.

Snow covers sage and rocky desert terrain

Summer Lake and La Pine are at nearly the same elevation with a couple of ancient lava mounds between them.

Our day starts in a pine forest as Highway 31 scales the southern edge of Paulina’s lava flow. At the Fort Rock junction scenery changes to sage. There is a distinct high desert landscape along the southern edge of Christmas Valley, through Silver Lake.

From there it’s a gradual climb up the western slope of Fremont Ridge. Looking back, west from Picture Rock Pass, you’ll get a better sense of that elevation change.

From the same vantage point looking east, Summer Lake sits in a wide valley butted up to the nearly vertical rockface of Fremont Ridge. The slope along the lake’s southern edge, and in the distance Abert Ridge, present great photo backdrops. Wind has scraped recent snowfall into crevices defining Fremont Ridge as it pushes up from the valley.

Freemont Ridge (right) skirts along this snow swept wetland

In the refuge’s marsh golden shades of reeds and grass jutting out of snow add texture, as well as color.

It’s the middle of duck season and RV’s fill the camp sites but we encounter no one.

It’s a cold, sunny mid-week day and we’re finding lots of landscape photo ops, as well as a handful of raptor sightings. Just a typical winter’s day at Summer Lake.

May 29, 2022May 28, 2022

Fledgelings

Red-winged blackbird coming in for a landing

This week we headed back out to Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. There are always some birds that use the refuge as a nesting site. We were hoping to catch images of some babies.

American White Pelican

Summer Lake didn’t disappoint. A trip to the refuge always presents something new. The seasonal changes alone are worth the drive. This visit was no exception.

A Great Horned Owl family, nesting in a willow, seemed as curious about us, as we were them. This owl starts nesting early with both parents sharing in the rearing.

Perched throughout the tree, we sighted four baby Great Horned Owls.

The fledgelings are climbing trees in 5 weeks and fly by the 10th, but are still being fed by parents for several months. Their body is covered in a downy white fluff and lack the pronounced ear tuffs, but have the darker facial disc and yellow eyes.

Great Horned Owls vary in color by region with PNW species having a dusty gray brown tone.

We also happened across a flock of American White Pelicans. Breeding adults have a yellow plate sticking up on the front of their massive bill.

This group included some fledgelings, as southern Oregon is one of the few breeding sites along the migration route.

Several babies were snuggled in amongst this group

These are one of the largest birds in North America. The American White Pelican has white plumage with black flight feathers and has a nine foot wing span.

We also caught sightings of yellow-headed blackbirds staking out breeding territory and foraging. The Stilts were still around in great numbers, though we didn’t see any chicks. As well as the usual pairs of ducks in a variety of species and Canada geese.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

There was also a White-faced Ibis wading and feeding in the short grasses on the edge of a shallow pond.

April 30, 2022May 1, 2022

May Day

Black-necked Stilt at Summer Lake Refuge

It’s the first of May and aside from Maypoles or the Wobblies, we’re hoping it really does mark the start of spring.

Ancient Brits, the Celts actually, celebrated ‘Beltane’ as the return to life and fertility. These festivals didn’t imigrate to the new world, as they were discouraged by the Puritans. However, May Basket Day did, to some degree, and I’ve a faint childhood memory of handformed paper cones filled with flowers, candies and treats, as something my mother did.

April was a record breaking wet month. Good for the rivers, but not so much for our excursions. Weather aside, we have managed a couple of road trips.

A return visit to Summer Lake allowed us to catch up on migrating flocks.

Sandhill Crane

These regular visits have provided us with a wealth of bird pix’s and a much better understanding of what to expect in the lakes. reeds and marsh lands. This trip we made an effort to collect a larger library of sounds to lay under videos.

As always we spent some time on the Crooked River. Levels are coming up which bodes well for better fishing in the future.

However, at the moment, the birds and wildflowers hold most of our attention. At one of our favorite parking sites there was an osprey.

An osprey, perched on an isolated tree, patrols high above the water.

Looking forward to increases in temperatures and more sunny days coming up. The Middle and Lower Deschutes, above Maupin officially opened and the stoneflies are starting to hatch. We also have to make a swing by Spring Basin to check on wildflowers. In all, the summer calendar is filling up.