Category: Malheur Wildlife Refuge

I went to the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Northern Nevada looking for Pronghorn Antelope and wild horses. However, whenever I mentioned to people in the area that I was going there to photograph wildlife, they’d say, â€?”Oh, you’re going to take pictures of the wild Burros.” Strangely, it was not one of the animals featured in the online guide to the refuge. It turns out, that except for a few coyotes and deer, Burros were all I saw there — and I was perfectly happy.

I knew when I took this picture that I was looking at Wild Burros. There didn’t seem to be a person with fifty miles, and not a building or fence in sight. In fact, I’m not sure this isn’t precisely how wild Burros should be seen,

because it puts them in the kind of environment that they survive in, at least when you see it in a larger scale.

Actually, I felt pretty lucky to see them in my first visit because I never saw any Pronghorn Antelope or Wild horses. A little further down the road, though I managed to see them much closer, just a little ways off like this one,

and up close and personal when I had to wait for this one to cross the road in front of me.

They might have been wild, but they certainly weren’t afraid of people, which is more than I can say for this coyote

that went running past me. It was running from a truck coming up the hill, though I’m not sure the hunters in the truck ever saw it. After I saw another coyote across a valley take off when it saw me, I decided that hunters must be shooting at them because the coyotes in Malheur never seemed that frightened.

This adventure reminded me of a long-ago trek to Alaska. Both were wild and isolated, and greatest fear was running out of gas. I carried a 5-gallon tank of gas inside the car, even though I didn’t like doing so. On my way out, I ran into a truck driver who had been stranded for over 12 hours and had seen only one other driver in that time. He had multiple communication devices and none of them worked out there. It’s not the kind of place where you want something to go wrong, but, of course, that’s also part of its appeal.

I love the Pacific Northwest and have never considered moving away, perhaps because I have had to live in different parts of the county as a child and while in the Army. I did move away from the Puget Sound area for 30 years to avoid the massive population growth, but only down the highway a few miles. If it weren’t for other considerations, I would still consider moving from Tacoma to the Olympic Peninsula.

This area is dominated by water, mountains, and evergreen trees. One of the reasons I’ve posted pictures of Mt. Rainier is because it’s unusual to actually see it, either because of clouds or simply because it’s obstructed by trees, hills, or clouds. Perhaps that explains why the following shots appealed to me so much — though certainly not enough to make me want to move there.

Here’s a shot of Morgan Lake, or, more precisely, the land surrounding Morgan Lake:

This might be referred to as Oregon’s version of Big Sky Country, a huge plateau that demands to be seen in a much larger version.

Here’s a shot taken just a few miles away, from Hart Mountain looking back to the West with the Cascades barely visible in the distance:

What probably captured my imagination was the sense of depth, and height, something not easily captured even in this larger version of the same shot.

Finally, after spending much of the day on top of Hart Mountain, I was equally impressed when I dropped down the back side of the plateau and was confronted with these cliffs

Unfortunately, even this large version does not do justice to this massive wall of rock.
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Even when birds are scarce, I find the drive through Malheur peaceful and meditative. I seldom see more than five people during the entire drive. Nothing to do but to reflect on the beauty of the surroundings, whether it’s a pair of Red-Necked Grebes

or a Western Grebe

quietly drifting through time and space as I do the same.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I was a little disappointed by birding at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge the last few days, particularly since I managed to get up at 5:30 and get out birding before 7:00. Unfortunately, the sun was so low on the horizon that the early-morning shots weren’t as crisp as I’d like and were unusually warm. That’s the bad news, the good news is that this is still the best shot I’ve ever gotten of a Western Meadowlark.

Apparently, I caught the end of the Yellow-Rumped Warbler migration because they were everywhere, particularly at the Creek Trail by Longbarn and the light was great by the time I got there in early afternoon.

I actually cut my trip shorter than planned because of the low temperatures. It dropped to 15 degrees in Burns my last night there, and I found I wasn’t quite prepared to handle those low temperatures while sleeping in the car. It’s going to take better preparation on my part next time.

Another sure sign winter is approaching was the large number of raptors, which seemed to be everywhere. The most common were Northern Harriers, but my best bird shots were these two shots of the common Red-Tailed Hawk,

taken two days apart.

Common or not, I’m always impressed by the speed and power of these predators every time I see them up close like this.