Tag: Sunriver

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A Bit of Distance

 

How are you doing with the quarantine? Yeah, us too.

Even though we’ve embraced the social distance concept, there is a limit to how much you can ‘stay at home.’ We aren’t gallivanting across the countryside … but we have found a number of places nearby that allow for zero contact with other people and include a nice walk.

Surprisingly, there are few people at the Sunriver Nature Center during the week, so it has become a great morning destination when the neighborhood walk starts to get a bit stale.

As we’ve mentioned in these blog posts, there are a huge variety of walking trails and most are paved. The nature center sits near the Deschutes River and away from most of the resort’s development.

There is a pond with lots of water fowl, lined with benches to sit and soak in the spring sun. We have enjoyed this space alot and it seems like we’ll be able to continue to do so … for now.

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Sunriver Nature Center

One sunny afternoon last week we headed over to the Nature Center at Sunriver Resort.

The idea was to check on the new trumpeter swan cygnets and maybe get a glimpse of the river otters JQ spied earlier this month.

The swans were in sight, however no river otters. Instead we were treated to a close up view of a Great Horned Owl, Joe.

He was hit by a car and is blind in one eye, thus he’s become a permanent resident of the nature center’s rehab and education facility.

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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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A week for weather

It’s been one of those weeks. By that I mean, we have had weather patterns that make it difficult to get out and do much more than just a daily walk.

Snow and rain, alternating with cold snaps, mean roads are difficult to navigate or should I say, passable only if you need to be somewhere. So why bother.

However, we can’t just sit, read, and do the crossword. Well, we can…but for a change we drive north 15 minutes to Sunriver. At the height of the season, Sunriver’s network of trails is clogged with families on bikes, making walking with Tip problematic.

Once late fall comes, Sunriver presents a nearly ideal walking location, with it’s paved walk ways (except immediately after a snowfall) which are plowed and mostly free of ice.

There are 40 miles of paths in the resort, and while most of that is around and through housing units, apartments, and condos, there is a great loop of trails branching out from the Nature Center. A nearly 4 mile loop takes you across marsh land and fields, eventually dropping down to the Deschutes River.

We also have been spending time watching the water fowl that winter over on the pond beside the Nature Center. A Trumpeter Swan, Canada geese and a heron are regulars here. So on weeks like this one, we do our walking in the relative comfort of paved paths.

 

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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.