Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Tour

Malheur Lake Overlook

This trip to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on May 23-26 was put together by DRV residents Vern and Ann Beeson, with transportation provided by the Dallas Retirement Village. Overnight accommodations for three nights were at the Malheur Field Station. Day one of our tour of the refuge stared with a stop at Malheur Lake Overlook, which gave us a bird's eye view of the Malheur NWR Headquarters as well as a sweeping view of the Blitzen Valley and Steens Mountain. Next stop was for birding at the Headquarters' grounds.

Western Tanager

Blue-winged Teals

Our next stop was at the Buena Vista Ponds Overlook. Despite great views of the pond, which were practically empty, the bird that caught our attention was the close-at-hand energetic vocalization of the Rock Wren.

Rock Wren

On our second day of touring, we traveled on to the historic P-Ranch.  Major battle with mosquitos made for a short hike here.  The most obvious birds here were the raucous calling Red-winged Blackbirds.

Red-winged Blackbird

Malheur Field Station was our base of operations and allowed us more birding time either early in the morning and late afternoon and evening.

California Quail

The family of owls drew the most attention. Below is the mother with two of her fuzzy chicks.

Great Horned Owls

A tip on the location of Burrowing Owls took us to the Ruh-Red Road where we caught site of this one.

Burrowing Owl

Several checks on the Ferruginous Hawk's nest site along Highway 205, gave us this shot of her on our way home, after she was chased off the nest by Western Kingbirds.

Ferruginous Hawk

 

 
 

An Osprey Story

 This morning we stopped by the Osprey nest in the former Willamette Mill Site off of South Main Street here in Dallas.  This photo has a complete story to tell. But first some background.  In general, it has been a hard year for Ospreys. Perhaps the late winter snows in Northern California delayed their arrival, and then they were greeted with more cold and wet weather with their arrival in late March and early April.  Jeanette and I keep a somewhat informal inventory of 10 different Osprey nest here in Polk County.   Two of them are important enough to have remote cameras located at their nests. Both of them have failed this year, that is to say, they do not have a pair of Osprey using the nest site. For one of them, the nest at the Independence Riverview Park, this is the third year in a row it has failed. The remaining 8 nest sights may or may not be successful, with the exception of this nest in Dallas. I am now very optimistic that the Dallas nest is coming right along.  

Now back to what this photo tells us.  The larger bird in the back has just flown in, and because of the "necklace", we know that she is a female. The smaller bird down in the nest is the male.  And because Osprey share the job of setting of the eggs, we can assume that he is shown here taking his turn on the eggs.  They both look a little perturbed. Perhaps he does not want to leave the nest yet, and maybe she is irritated and wants her turn back. Just after this photo was taken, she flew off, and then minutes later returned with a stick.  Did she go furniture shopping? Will she be adding something improvement to the nest? 

Anyway, we are excited to see that it looks like we have a success story going on for this nest here in Dallas, particularly in light of all the struggle going on with the other Osprey nests. 

Adair Pond Bus Birding Trip #2

Thursday was our second bus trip of the Village Birders to the Adair Wildlife Area. On Tuesday we took the first load of Village Birders.  I'm thinking back to when this whole bus birding thing started up. In December of 2019 when we were signing our paperwork to move to Dallas Retirement Village with Sales Director Tawnya, she had the bright idea that Dallas Retirement Village could provide a bus and driver for me to lead residents on birding trips. By Spring 2020, we were all dealing with Covid, and close confinement in a bus was not a good idea, but I went ahead and lead bird walks on foot in the Village every Saturday morning. Everyone wore a mask and stayed six feet apart. In 2021 we were able to start our first bus trips.  By the end of the year, we were having to turn people away for lack of space.  In Spring of 2022, I arranged to have a second bus, but due to scheduling conflicts, I had to run both trips on the same day.  Now in 2023, we are able to run a bus trip on Tuesday, and then a second bus trip on Thursday. It's rewarding for me to see the growing interest and participation as people discover the joys of birding.

The latest improvement to the birding world is the use of the phone app "Merlin" to identify birds by sound. This is the greatest change since digital cameras, and before that, binoculars. It levels the playing field. A person brand new to birding is able to participate and begin to build their knowledge of birds without having to depend on someone else with years of experience to make an identification of a bird song. I now suggest every participant bring their smartphone, as well as their binoculars. 

 

Thursday's Bird Watch!

 Spring migration brings back the colorful Black-headed Grosbeaks, and they are now here in Oregon in good numbers.  Their complex extended melodious songs will grab your attention almost always before they are seen.  Although they have only been identified in the Dallas Retirement Village a half dozen times, they can easily be heard right now in good numbers along the Rickreall Creek Trail System and in the Dallas City Park.  This male Black-headed Grosbeak was photographed last Friday, May 12th, at Huddleston Pond in Willamina.

Adair Pond Bus Birding Trip

 Yesterday we took the Village Birders of Dallas Retirement Village on a birding trip to Adair Wildlife Area. It was a wonderful experience to share a place so special to us. In 2010 and 2011, we worked as Volunteers here at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's District Office. We lived in our RV and Jeanette worked in the Volunteer Coordinators' Office, and I worked on Grounds Maintenace. Of course, we spent most of our free time counting birds and walking our dog, Buster. 

This trip with the Village Birders was our first trip of the season without worrying about rain. Earlier trips in April and May involved either just avoiding rain, or actually getting rained on. The group was all smiles on this trip, and everyone used their Merlin phone app to identify a good number of birds. Red-winged Blackbirds, Black-headed Gosbeaks, and Bewick's Wrens were the top songsters.  You can look at our eBird Observation List here.

Because of the of the large amount of interest at Dallas Retirement Village, we will be taking a second bus here tomorrow, Thursday June 18th. 

Thursday's Bird Watch!

 This is a Spotted Towhee, once known as the Rufous-sided Towhee.  He was photographed here in the Dallas Retirement Village on May 3rd singing his heart out on top of a post.  This is somewhat unusual in that Towhees normally are seen hanging out deep in the bushes or down on the ground feeding.  I'm not sure if he is attempting to establish his territory, attract a mate, or just proud of himself.

Anniversary Birdathon!

 Tuesday, May 9th was our 30th Wedding Anniversary! Adventure has always been the central theme of our relationship, starting with bicycling, and bike touring.  It then grew to include hiking, backpacking, cross-county skiing, RV traveling, and now birding. To celebrate, I put together a trip along the Alsea River on winding Highway 34, with planned stops at eBird Hot Spots to bird in eight different parks along the route. 

Our first stop was Clemens Park.  This Benton County Park definitely set the tone of the day with its wonderful lush natural setting, inviting nature trail and secluded picnic sites alongside the Alsea River.

Stop #2 - Mill Creek Park. This Benton County Park is primarily a boat ramp, but with a nice, paved parking lot, toilet, and most importantly cell service. It is a must stop.

Violet-green Swallow

Stop #3 - Campbell Park, another Benton County Park with parking, toilet and boat ramp. Only one bar of cell service.

Stop #4 - Salmonberry Park & Campground. This is a Benton County Day Use Area with a large immaculate kept, reservation only campground with connecting riverside trail. Here our cell service ran out and we had to resort to a handwritten check list to keep track of the birds.  We have been totally spoiled to be able to list our bird findings, quickly and easily, on our iPhones.

Stop #5 - Missouri Bend Recreation Site.  This is a Bureau of Land Management location, with mainly a paved parking lot, toilet and sort path with a couple of picnic tables, and again no cell service. 

Stop #6 - River Edge Campground and Recreation Area. This site includes a large Group Campground, which was closed, and a small Day-Use parking lot, toilet and connecting trail to campground. No cell service.

Stop #7 - Blackberry Campground. This is a Siuslaw National Forest Campground. Here we had our largest list of birds. No cell service.

Stop #8 - Mike Bauer Wayside. This is an Oregon State Parks location.  Again, no cell service.

Eckman Slough

Stop #9 - Eckman Slough

Stop #10 - Eckman Lake the W.B. Nelson Wayside offers the best parking area at the lake. There is a parking lot, a boat dock, a toilet, and cell service. 

 

Stop #11 - Lint Slough Trail After a celebrity dinner of fish tacos, followed with a marionberry milkshake at SkoSH in Waldport, this trailhead was truly the last stop of the day.   

 

Thursday's Bird Watch!

 Although swallows arrived at Dallas Retirement Village mid-March from their winter in Mexico, they only recently seem to be serious about nesting.  This is a Tree Swallow with a mouthful of nesting material, photographed here at DRV on April 26th.  At this point they still seem to be fighting over nesting sites, but eventually it will all get sorted out, and they will get their nests built and get on with raising their babies.  

Sarah Helmick Bus Birding Trip

The Dallas Retirement Village's birdwatching group, The Village Birders, set a record this morning.  All participants left in the bus with their cell phones loaded with the Merlin Bird Identification app. Our destination was the Sarah Helmick State Recreation Area south of Monmouth.  In all, we were able to identify 33 separate species of birds, either by sound or sight, and some by both sound and sight. Bird List 

Wild-Flower Memories

I went to Sarah Helmick State Recreation Area this morning to scout out a bird-walk Jeanette and I will be leading for the Village Birders tomorrow. But I got a bit distracted by the beautiful spring wildflowers. You see, I haven't always been obsessed with birds.  In the early 70's it was wildflowers. I couldn't help but stop and take some photos. The flowers were as bright as ever, but their names had faded in my memory.  Took some time and effort this afternoon to come up with their names. 

Wood Violet

 

Broad-leaved Bluebells

Salmonberry

False Solomon's Seal

Bleeding Hearts