Summer Lake – Page 3

September 12, 2021September 11, 2021

Smoke Clogged Days

Endless days of ‘unhealthy’ and ‘very unhealthy’ air pushed us to a point where we drove into the belly of the beast, Summer Lake. It’s a few miles north of what was at one point this summer, the nation’s largest wildfire.

Air quality doesn’t seem to matter to the snow geese, sand pipers, American avocet, and stilts who feed across the shallows.

California fires are the major contributor to the choking particulate count but Oregon has added to the plume. Which at last view stretches from left coast across the nation. In all it’s been a bad summer for outside activities.

The one thing poor air quality offers is unique sunrises. So the first stop was Fort Rock to catch the orange globe.

Fort Rock is a great location to watch the progression from dawn to sunrise.

We broke out the drone for some aerial footage.

No obstacles … no wind … perfect flight conditions for this novice drone pilot

The gray haze and lack of wind created some really cool conditions on the water at Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.

Harshly backlit black-necked stilts stride across a silent expanse of water.

The gray haze and lack of wind created some really cool conditions on the water at Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge.

Birds are starting fall migrations and that was reflected in the variety of species we saw.

A pair of coyotes, one roaming, the other hunkered down in a lone patch of grass.

And for the first time we came across a pair of coyotes that appeared to be hunting.

Photos were shot in brief excursions from the cab of our car and the ever-present masks helped.

There is rain in our forecast so that may bring some relief as season weather patterns shift and temperatures cool.

May 16, 2021May 13, 2021

Summer Flights

Maybe you noticed the increase in birds around your house. The spring migration is in full flight and millions of birds (222 million last night) were making their way north. It’s the perfect time to see species that don’t typically nest in your area.

Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge is a a major layover spot on the pacific flyway. As regular readers of this blog know we make frequent visits to the refuge, most of which are timed to take advantage of seasonal migrations.

This week we returned to Summer Lake, a second time, to check on the late spring migrators

We found a summer resident, the Red-winged Blackbirds, were already staking claim to cattail patches and singing mating songs.

A pair of Great Egrets were poking around in the reeds and a huge flock of Pelicans were gathered on a pond.

Some Black-necked Stilts were still around, but not nearly as many as last visit.

The new species, for us, were Caspian Terns who seemed to be hunting as they skimmed over the water heads down.

Two other shore birds we’d not seen in pervious trips but got pix of this time were White-faced Ibis and Long-billed Curlew.

Like Stilts, these are waders with long beaks however, they are much larger. Unlike the stilts they were tucked into the reeds and much more difficult to get a good look at or frame for a photo.

This is likely our last trip to Summer Lake until fall. There are too many other adventures to fit in, plus the refuge’s inhabitants are already started to shift from visitors to the regulars.

March 28, 2021March 27, 2021

In the Flyway

More than half of the 650 species of birds in North America migrate. The westernmost edge of North America is the Pacific Flyway and includes coastal plains, the valleys on the west side of the cascade range, and also marsh and wetlands in Central Oregon.

Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge is one of three major stopping points along the Pacific Flyway and happens to be an hour’s drive from our house. The marshes on the north end of the Summer Lake Valley are an excellent spot for birding.

Binoculars, the extra long camera lens and of course “Shirley Birds West” … a favorite guide book … are primary tools in our bird watching. However, recently we discovered a couple of online tools that are invaluable.

Bring up BirdCast on your browser and you’ll get an animated map of current bird migrations. There are also some interesting forecasting tools here as well. But the best tools come out of Cornel University. It’s eBird web page is packed with helpful goodies.

There are species specific maps that show monthly migration patterns. Which will help predict when the Evening Grosbeaks will be showing up at the feeder.

We used this as an identification aid when trying to figure out which species of swan was sitting on the water at Summer Lake.

Tundra swans have entirely white plumage and their bill is mostly black.

It’s spring so naturally we are making somewhat regular trips to the Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge. This week we were greeted with hundreds of swans. The question is Trumpeter or Tundra … it’s not an easy ID … we think they were Tundra.

The Cornell site also has an application where you can set up an account and track of what birds you’ve seen, get a list of the types of birds most likely to be in a specific area and find out what other birders are seeing.

There is also a mobile app that turns your smart phone into a bird identification tool and even plays song/call recordings.

October 17, 2020October 18, 2020

Looking through a new lens

This week, unlike the last few, was filled with ‘doing’. The air quality improved and the sun was out.

We took day trips three different days.

Hit the Crooked River on a perfect fall day … caught no fish but had a great picnic.

We love areas like this … that said, we never travel unprepared, even on short trips.

The other two days we headed east toward Fort Rock and the high desert.

Came across a few road obstacles … nothing we couldn’t manage.

If you’ve spent any time on this blog it’s clear we are iPhone photographers. We subscribe to the adage ‘the best camera is the one you have in hand’.

However, the types of images we are attempting to capture require telephoto lenses that just aren’t available on an iPhone.

This week we took delivery on a new Sony camera and lenses. Similar to the system we rented in June and posted about in issue #38 on birding.

Storm front moving across the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.

Of course Summer Lake was one of the places we headed for. Unfortunately it’s hunting season and there was some obvious restrictions on where you can go if you’re shooting but not ‘killing’.

We stuck to the western edge, Anna Reservoir area of the refuge, and managed to get a ton of really great weather shots.

The Summer Lake valley presents lots of image possibilities … rain clouds, sunny sky and thunder heads simply by turning around.

There will still be iPhone pictures in the blog but this new system is going to bring a new level of photos, hope you enjoy.

August 22, 2020August 23, 2020

A Summer Lake Overview

For us, there are regular excursions to Summer Lake area and the wildlife refuge there. It’s a favorite spot to bird and shoot weather images.

But this week we are looking at Summer lake from a different angle.

Winter Rim. The Western edge of the Summer Lake Basin is lined with basalt columns with vertical rock walls plunging to the valley floor below. This offers a beautiful backdrop for the many photos we snap while exploring the refuge.

There is a trail (Fremont NFT #160) running along the top edge of Winter Rim. The Southern OR. Intertie Trail extends from the northern boundary of the Fremont NF to the southern edge of Summer and Albert lakes. At the top of Winter Rim, the views of Lake County are stunning.

At the point we intersected it, there’s a picnic table that hangs quite literally on the edge of Winter Rim. The view was obstructed with smoke haze on this day, but still very impressive. There is also a rental cabin at this site.

We have always used US 31 to get to Summer Lake, but this trip we found a whole new area to explore on the western side of Winter Rim.