Month: October 2011

My Final Day at Malheur

My trip to Malheur ended on a high note. As I was about to leave, a Ranger told me that some of the best shorebird viewing this year was at the north end of the refuge because the high water. So, I decided to visit that area on my way home.

As I was driving there, I spotted this Great Egret, closer to the road than any I’d seen so far:

Great Egret

The real surprise, though, came as I slowed down and started to get out of the car to get a better picture. As I checked the road for oncoming cars, I saw this Badger standing on the edge of the road:

Badger

I’ve never seen a badger in the wild before, and I thought seriously about trying to get even closer to get a better shot, but a glance at those long front nails convinced me that might not be a great idea, even though this guy seemed awfully mellow.

Birding was great on the north end of the refuge, good enough I thought briefly about staying another night. I managed to get closer to the White Pelicans,

White Pelicans on Shoreline

got the best shot of the trip of a White-faced Ibis,

White Front Ibis, non-breeding colors

and spotted a personal favorite, a Black-Necked Stilt,

Black-Necked Stilt

a bird I haven’t seen in over a year.

Another Day in Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Wednesday’s drive back through Malhuer started very differently than Tuesday’s drive. I was greeted by two large birds in a snag, this Red-Tailed Hawk

Red-Tailed Hawk

sitting on the left side, higher up, and this Magpie

Magpie

sitting on the right side, slightly lower. I was rather surprised by their juxtaposition, especially since they seemed largely indifferent to each other. I wondered if the Magpie was playing â€?”Chicken” and would fly away first, but that didn’t turn out to be the case, as the hawk flew away as I sat there, and the Magpie remained, unconcerned.

I took the pair as a sign that I was going to have a good birding day, and I was determined to make it so. So, even though I had trouble getting close to most of the birds I spotted, a worked on getting shots like this one of a White-faced Ibis,

Ibis Silhouette

where the setting is as important as the bird itself knowing that the birds and I come to experience this place.

Which isn’t to say that an unexpected face-to-face meeting with a pair of beautiful Tundra Swan,

Pair of Tundra Swans

wasn’t greatly appreciated.

On the way out of Malheur, I stopped and watched the Western Grebes interacting with their chicks. Here the parent finally feeds a chick after making the chick catch up with the parent. Apparently there’s no more free-lunches for Western Grebe chicks this time of year.

Western Grebe Feeding Chick

A Short Break from Birding

This is a powerful video that deserves attention:

No wonder the Republicans didn’t want to confirm Elizabeth Warren and forced her to take her fight to Massachusetts’ Senate race.

The bigger question, for me, at least, is why President Obama wasn’t willing to fight for her confirmation, as Barney Frank urged.

The Steens Mountain Loop Road

Although I’m a confirmed night owl, camping out, even car camping, quickly converts me to an early riser. Without lights I usually go to bed when the sun starts to sink in the West, and when you go to bed at 6:30 it’s pretty easy to get up at 5:00 or 5:30. After all, how many hours in a sleeping bag can a man stand?

Thus, Wednesday morning I was standing near the highest point of the Steens watching sunrise, miles from the previous night’s camp site.

Sunrise in the Steen Mountains

Although it left me with the feeling that sunrises might well be overrated, the morning sun did cast a golden glow on the highest point in the Steen Mountains:

Sunrise in the Steen Mountains

I had never made the complete Steens’ Mountain loop, as I’d been too low on gas the first time and was told the next trip that although my Element has all-wheel drive it didn’t have high enough ground clearance to be safe on the back side. Luckily, that’s no longer true as they’ve been laying a new layer of rock and gravel down. The only tense moments on the road were when meeting huge gravel-laden trucks on the one-lane road and those should be gone shortly.

This certainly wasn’t Mount Rainier or Mount Hood, seeming more like a high plateau than a mountaintop,

Driving Steen Mountain Road

at least until you begin to drop down the other side,

Impressive Canyons

revealing huge canyons.

Although I hesitated to take my eyes off the road, it was hard to ignore the stark beauty of this high desert.

Increasing Vegetation

I was rewarded by sighting a few of the 300 wild horses to be found here.

Wild Horses

I even spotted a Pronghorn Antelope as I completed the loop.

Pronghorn Antelope