Birding at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

sunset from my campsite

Memorial Day weekend found me traveling to the high desert of southeast Oregon. Malheur NWR is  186,500 acres in size,  was designated in 1908, and is full of heavily managed wetlands. The wetlands comprise 120,000 of those acres. Around 320 species of birds and 55 species of mammals have been seen on the refuge. Most birders eventually visit the refuge due to its rare and unique migrants that drop in to the islands of trees along riparian areas and at the refuge headquarters. It's 30 miles south of Burns and in the middle of nowhere in many ways. Check it out and plan a stay at the field station or take a class.

I started out getting stuck on Snoqualmie Pass taking a half-hour to go 3 miles. I never did figure out why. It allowed for taking in the waterfalls flowing down the mountainsides and the raven foraging along the road. As i came close to Ellensburg (where i stayed the night) the full moon was hug and wondrous in its pinkness! As it rose it lit up the sky and me. Gorgeous! I'm not much at getting decent photos of it though.

My stay at the refuge was fairly cool with lots of thunderstorms. There was enough time between showers to walk around and look for critters and take photos. I spent most of the time driving the Center Patrol Road and other roads very very slowly. I got a variety of good photos which I haven't processed yet. The lighting was incredibly challenging.

Red-winged blackbirds and yellow-headed blackbirds were ubiquitous throughout the refuge.









Heavy clouds interspersed with clear skies made for some amazing sunsets. Birding was good! I found the field of bobolinks and with patience even got a few great shots. They have a tinkly song which they sing as they fly up and drop back down into the grassy fields disappearing from sight. I watched as a northern harrier dive-bombed a large nesting colony of cliff swallows as they emerged from under a small bridge. I marveled at the speed of a prairie falcon relentlessly diving on a small colony of ground squirrels. I attempted to follow it with my camera but only got blurry photos. It was also not successful in its endeavors.

bobolink

 Cedar waxwings invaded the flowering hawthorn tree at the refuge headquarters eating the flowers. This provided a beautiful study in color.

There was a nest of burrowing owls just outside the refuge that could be seen from the road. Their burrow was in the middle of a grazed field. If you look closely at the second photo you can see two owls.









American avocets were some of my favorites to watch. They were pairing up and as the photos show mating and dancing. Right after they spend a few seconds mating they do a little dance. I also watched as all the pairs regularly argued about their foraging space.

The calliope and black-chinned hummingbirds were busy at the feeders set out at headquarters. Between chasing each other and taking a second or two to feed they were in constant movement. The headquarters is a well-known area to bird because for some reason lots of unusual migrants drop into the trees. I never did find the great horned owl but there were probably 10 male western tanagers at the orange halves set out for feeding. What brilliance against a green background!

 I have more photos than I can post so here so I'll be looking into to creating a flickr page in order to share more- after they have been processed a bit.  In the meantime, enjoy this sampling.

black-tailed jackrabbit

western tanager

calliope hummingbird