Nature – Page 8

August 13, 2023August 12, 2023

Hints at Summer’s End

Not sure you’re ready for this . . . but I saw a vee of geese heading south yesterday.

Summer is spinning to an end and if you chance a look, you’ll see leaves are starting to turn.

While it’s just the start of the migrations, this week we drove over to Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. As a bonus, on the AQI (Air Quality Index) map it seemed to be out of the smoke plume.

There was smoke, but it was hung up on the Abert Rim, shrouding the southern end of the valley in a brownish haze. This made for a lousy photo backdrop, but the air was pretty clear over Summer Lake.

The road that runs through the center of the refuge follows a series of the canals used to move water between ponds. These were lined with thick fresh growth of dark green reeds and cattails. There was an abundance of dragonflies and frogs, but not many birds.

In recent trips to Summer lake we’ve started to drive the whole loop road. Instead of retracing our route, we turn west at a northern junction.

Here the road turns into a narrow set of ruts on a gravel levy that follows the refuge’s boundry with School House Lake.

These ponds offered up a variety of shore birds plying the shallow waters. Grebes, Pelicans, Gulls, Geese, Stilts and Blackbirds had all congregated in this northwest corner of the reserve.

After shooting a SD card load of images, we stopped for lunch. The heat of the day was pushing wildlife to cover so we headed back over the Paulina ridge and home.

August 6, 2023October 11, 2023

Crooked River Day Trip

This week we headed up to the Crooked. Looked like a good place to avoid the Bedrock fire smoke plume, which has haunted us for weeks.

Typically, BLM sites are in use by summer campers. So, we’ll pull into a day use spot.

This day we got lucky and found a favorite spot empty. In fact, the whole campground was empty.

Summer is peak season for camping so we’ll pay the parking fee when we find a spot. Two reasons; old guys like me get half price deals and BLM uses these dollars to maintain these spots.

We set up camp chairs in the shade of some ancient juniper trees. Pull out the lunch boxes and while I rigged a couple of rods JQ points her camera at flowers, butterflies, birds and bees.

Might be because the smoke has been bad for days or it’s just a fluke . . . but there are very few people on the river. Amid this calm, we take photos, enjoy lunch with a cold beverage and catch a few fish.

In all . . . it was a great day and nice break from the smog.

July 9, 2023July 8, 2023

The Ochoco and Wildflowers

The Ochoco National Forest runs from the Crooked River Grasslands and west of Prineville to the John Day Fossil Beds, bisected by Highway 26.

In the middle of this beautiful forest is Big Summit Prairie with it’s abundance of wildflower species.

Heavy winter snows and a wetter than normal spring have provided an especially lush understory.

The added moisture likely enhanced this year’s crop of wildflowers scattered throughout numerous open meadows .

We drove a loop; out of Prineville on 26 to USFS 42 and then up into the Ochoco National Forest.

The headwaters of the Crooked River’s North Fork are in these hills.

We don’t get quite that far south, instead we turned east at Walton Lake, around Lookout Mountain and along one side of Big Summit Prairie.

We stopped to picnic at the edge of the prairie and shot more flower pictures.

The forest on this side of 26 (south) is a mix of meadows and second growth pines.

Later in the summer the understory will dry out and the grasses will brown, but today it’s all a lush green.

The Ochoco north of 26 is rock hounding country, still pine trees, but more juniper and the understory is lava outcrops, and cinder cones. That trip involves a very different type of hunt, maybe next week.

We meet back up with 26 near Ochoco Pass and head back down into Prineville. This network of forest roads will require more exploring, but for today we’ve enjoyed the drive and gotten lots of good images.

June 18, 2023June 18, 2023

Along the Marshes

This week we headed over to Summer Lake and birding. The sage plain and hay fields along Route 31 were dressed in a lush green hue. Small patches of snow still clung to the upper edges of Winter Ridge, but the refuge was in full summer regalia.

May and June are great months to be at Summer Lake. You’ll still encounter some migrating birds, but the majority are nesting residents.

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Redwinged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds have taken up stations in the cattails lining the canals. offering up a chorus of calls as we drive the dirt roads marking the Marsh’s edge.

This trip never disappoints. There is always some visitor or resident to pose for a picture. Most of the large migratory species have moved north, but a squadron of pelicans is still here.

Most of JQ’s subjects were small residents, some hanging in reeds others dancing along branches.

We’re not expert at this, which is reinforced when a windowed mini-van with birders pulls up to chat.

Occupants are six bespectacaled folk with narrow brimmed boaters. We observed more than one set of Swarovski binoculars on lanyards around their necks. The question … have you seen any Snowy Plovers?

Tip is tucked into the Subaru’s shadow, I’ve got Nikon bios on a Sony camera strap and push the bill of a stained ball cap back to exchange information.

Attempting my most knowledgable voice I name a few sightings, ones I can actually pronounce correctly, then deny seeing a Snowy Plover.

Only …

After the van is gone and we consult the Field Guide, we then realize that wasn’t true.

We HAD actually . . . we had chased a Plover along the road for a few hundred yards.

I was saying something to the effect “stupid little bird… move” as a Snowy Plover (as best as we can tell) was actually hopping off the roadway in front of our car.

In our defense there are a dozen Plover varieties in Sibley’s book, and to that, one really should include Killdeer. Though twice a Plover’s size the Killdeer exhibits similar colors and markings.

Had we known . . . there would be an image of a Snowy Plover.

Alas, we didn’t, but JQ got a lot of great frames and Plovers are now on the list.

June 11, 2023June 16, 2023

Wildflowers

High Desert summers get hot, dry and eventually smokey. We try to take advantage of the days before the sun has beaten the green down to just the river’s edge. This year that seems to be extending into June.

This week’s excursion was full of blossoms and bird song as we were back on the Crooked River. Water levels are down to summer flows, fishing is getting better and the riparian was full of wild flowers and wild life.

There are always field guides for Bird, Wildflower and High Desert Plant identification in the car. We’ve found it’s better to have a printed copy than rely on an internet connection when you’re trying to figure out what that brownish bird is.

JQ discovered an excellent resource when you’re trying to find where the flowers might be blooming. NorthWest Wildflowers (duh!) . . . no, it’s actually a web site that has color coded dots on a map showing when and where flowers are in bloom. From this ‘bloom map’ you’ll see points in Washington, Oregon, Southern BC and Northern California where wildflowers are.

Click on a location and you’ll be presented with a set of directions, an Oregon hikers guide, and a link for plant identification tools starting with the most likely flowers at that spot. All from this one web page . . . very cool.

We don’t plan to leave the field guides at home, but when you’re looking for a spot to explore this is a great site. It takes the guess work out of planning where and when the blooms are. There are still a lot of “early bloom” locations to check out, so we’ve been updating the calendar.