I was too soon with the last post, as the final weekend in May was a simply fabulous trip to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Steens Mtn. In eastern Oregon and I want to relate our adventures.
This outing has been an annual event for the past 5 years. In 2011 I did an Audubon trip, along with 35 others and 12 cars. I drove there with Katy Uhtoff, an acquaintance and a lovely person who owns the Northwest Nature Shop, and now a much closer friend. We loved the trip but not the very large number of people. So the next spring we decided to do our own trip with just 4 women and one car. The others were Ann Magill and a friend of hers, and the three of us have been doing the trip ever since, with a 4th person different every time. This year it was Pat Flanagan, my oldest friend, who lives in 29 Palms and came to Ashland to visit. It is a day’s drive to Malheur, with several stops for birding, lunch or just stretching and we arrived at the Malheur Field Institute around 5. The quarters there are funky at best, and almost squalid at worst but they are just for eating meals and sleeping so who cares. We had the best of the cabins, Owl East, with 3 bedrooms and comfortable living room furnished with ancient overstuffed couches and chairs. The Institute (very fancy name for a very un-fancy place) is out in nowhere, 40 miles from Burns and just about no occupancy in between. Pat found somewhere thaqt there are only 7,000 inhabitants of Harney County, the largest county in Oregon. It is a vast open space with distant mountains, rim rock hills and, mostly, sagebrush Big Basin habitat. It gets to you and even Ashland seems overcrowded in comparison.
We had heard that the severe drought in eastern Oregon had dried up Malheur Lake, but happily there was still water in the eastern part, and lots of surface water, so lots of viable marshes all over the region.The photos here are not mine, I was far too busy looking for birds to worry about anything else. And the few I’ve selected hardly cover the ground. If you want to see more, google Malheur NWR and Steens Mountain.
We had wonderful birding adventures. A pair of Ferruginous Hawks on a huge nest in a lone Juniper in a field. The nest was almost a large as the tree, which in itself was a marvel, gnarled and twisted by many wild windstorms.
A family of Virginia Rails, mom and 4 black fuzz-balls so close and uncaring about us that we just stood and watched them forage.They were in a tiny marsh below the road in the Page Springs campground exactly where we saw them last year and presumably the same pair. This year the chicks are a little older as they were not being fed by a parent.
A male Bobolink in the same meadow it inhabited last spring. Black Terns swooping over several ponds. Ruddy Ducks and Eared Grebes in full and gorgeous breeding plumage. We saw 87 species – it is one of the few places I keep notes on.
We were able to drive up Steens to Jackman Campground and peer over into the first gorge the first gorge and Pat was thrilled, Steens being on her wish list. Until very recently the mountain has been inaccessible til August, the snow pack was so thick. The difference now is dramatic. Last year and this we were able to drive part-way up at the end of May.
We had two full days of birding and some lovely other events that have become part of our annual visits. One is a soak in two hot springs, in Crane and Hart Mountain. Another the dinner at Diamond Hotel for which I call to get a reservation in February. It is a sit-down meal in an old hotel in a lovely valley 30 miles down the road from the refuge HQ where they serve you so much delectable farm food that you feel like you do after Thanksgiving. We got there a little early and were the first to appeqar. Gradually the porch filled up with waiting diners. They came from everywhere; the restaurant is a magnet for many Northwesterners. The wine selection is more than adequate and the meal always memorable. This time meatballs, mashed potoatoes in pesto sauce, mixed veggies and salad from the garden, homemade bread and gingerbread with whipped Cream for hardy souls. At our table only Ann and I managed dessert. Our waitress was the just-graduated daughter of the owners who is off the the Berkeley School of Music in Boston next fall. We learned from her what the school situation is in that part of the state. A lot of kids don’t go on after high school but there is a public boarding high school in Crane for selected students and the graduating class was 8 this year. ALL of them are off to college in the fall. And not just in OR but Ivy League schools as well. Amazing and wonderful.
Pat had 3 days in Ashland after we returned and we did so much I will not go into great detail. One event was a day trip to Crater Lake, which she had never seen. It is a happy experience to show someone this body of water in its magnificent setting and watch the reaction. Speechlessness is inevitable, even for Pat! What can you say when your mind is so struck. The road around the lake was only partially open so we drove and stopped at several overlooks, relishing the various views it allows you. We had a snack on the porch of the little coffee shop and a Clark’s Nutcracker tried to take a bite out of Pat’s cookie. They have become so saucy from being fed, their bills are a bit dangerous. She loved it of course. Seeing it so close you could count the tail feathers.
Our very last adventure was a party for the opening Peter van Fleet’s show in Grants Pass, which we combined with getting Pat to her plane. Lovely wine, hors douevres and conversation while looking at some really unique art. Then a rush back to Medford for Pat’s flight. Peter and another artist who works in wood (Christian Burchard) shared the space and it worked really well. Peter has mastered his medium and I love his work.
The next day I loafed around, recuperating. I should remember sometimes that I am 91 and supposed to slow down.