Birds

July 3, 2022July 2, 2022

Cygnet sighting

Picked up the local paper this week to find that the Sunriver swans will hatch young soon. It has been months since we last prowled the nature center, so this week we changed that.

Tiny free library

Sunriver’s Nature Center is tucked up against one end of a landing strip on the west side of the resort. It functions as an educational center with a variety of program offerings throughout the year. There is an excellent stellar observatory, an injured raptor sanctuary, and for us it’s a trail head.

The resort has an abundance of walking / biking trails. As you get near the Market area, bikes overrun paved tracks. However, out at the edges this isn’t the case. The nature center’s parking lot functions as a staging area for quick birding or some basic leg stretching.

Lake Aspen at the Sunriver Nature Center

Along with the usual migratory birds, there are resident ducks, nesting Redwinged Blackbirds, and a pair of Swans. In the fall of 2017, the male was shot and killed leaving just Gracie. Two years later, the center introduced Gus to the pond. It took a couple more years, but in June of 2022 the pair have produced at least three eggs. They expect the cygnets to hatch the first part of July.

They hadn’t hatched this week, but Gus and Gracie were staying close to their nesting site. The other interesting observation was the obvious work of some beaver. These nocturnal creatures have been busy gnawing down small pine trees along the pond’s edge. We’ll definitely return and spend some time seeking out a possible dam/den site, as well as checking up on the cygnets.

June 26, 2022June 24, 2022

Summer Days

This week contained the summer solstice, June 21st, the longest day of the year. It also brought sunny days to the high desert. While we didn’t venture far from home, we did manage to visit some favorite spots.

Early summer is marked with days warmed by clear sky and daytime temps pushing into the realm of hot. However, the shrubs and grasses still hold spring greens with the added punch of a bloom or two.

A swallow swoops towards a colony of a gourd-shaped mud nests.

There are still surprise bird sightings, even as the migration tapers off. We’ve spotted fawns, as well as fledglings, not always with camera in hand. Some of the most pleasant days are jammed into the last weeks of June and early July … if you’re lucky.

All too soon the relentless sun will bleach the color from the sage plateau. We’ll seek shade under ancient Juniper along the river’s edge. And all too soon, we will scan the horizon for a plume of wildfire smoke … all too regular these days.

The Crooked and Upper Deschutes are running at average flows and fishing better than ever. The weather is perfect for relaxing with a good read in our camp chair. We’re not ignoring the oncoming drought, just enjoying the lush start to summer.

November 7, 2021November 7, 2021

In The Clouds

We spotted several Blue Heron roosting in trees along the river’s edge

The main difference between weather on the Cascade’s west versus the east slope is how long it lingers. In Central Oregon a rain storm comes in and moves on in a day. The great part is you get to experience weather in a variety of stages and it seems like a sunny day is always on the way. This week we drove through clouds.

The Lower Deschutes, around Maupin, is a regular destination in the fall. There are far fewer people, the river level drops to ‘wadeable,’ and summer heat has passed.

The road ahead winds its way down through a dense cloud bank

The latter part of the week looked like a storm front coming along with wind gusts and increased rain. So we spent a bit more time on the road and headed for Maupin. On the edge of the Deschutes River canyon we drove into the clouds … literally.

The fog bank hung onto the canyon’s edge, so we slipped below the clouds and pulled up to a favorite spot on the river.

Lunch, fresh coffee and on the river. The fishing was very slow but Tip and I had fun scrambling along the bank. JQ was much more productive with the long lens on her camera snapping pix of some of the locals.

We spent an afternoon on the river without encountering a single fisherman or rafter, unusual, but made for a great day. We expect the rainy days to increase in late fall and take advantage of the drier ones. Bend / La Pine get an average of 11 inches of precipitation compared to Portland’s 44 inches, so we still get mostly desert-like weather.