Tag: Video

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A New Spot on the Flyway

Tree Swallow

It’s the height of migration and the wetlands along the Pacific Flyway are filling with all types of birds.

Usually we visit Summer Lake a few times during April and May. These trips often get extended east to Abert Lake. It’s prime birding time and locations.

Last year the Klamath River was in the news as several dams were removed. What followed was the nearly instant return of ocean-reared salmon to the lower river.

We’ve been charting a trip to Northern California and southern Oregon to see early stages of this rehab project.

Reflections on a marsh pond

In that planning process, we discovered a wetland refuge to the east of Crater Lake.

Klamath Lake Wildlife Refuge is south of the park, and while it’s a large area, we’ve not had much luck finding good birding sites.

Klamath Marsh Wildlife Refuge on the other hand, is a smaller track of wetland directly east of Crater Lake. Until this week, unexplored.

A wide expanse of natural meadow borders the marsh on the Crater Lake side. Ponderosa pine forest lines it’s western edge.

The great part of this birding spot is you can drive right through the middle of it. This makes it very much like an experience at Summer Lake.

Also, like Summer Lake, it’s only about an hour’s drive from the house. Our early morning arrival was met with a wall of fog rising off the marsh. The sun burned off these clouds, but not before we captured some great footage.

The road through the marsh takes off from Highway 97 and is a dozen miles north of Klamath Lake. It continues onto OR 31 at Silver Lake, which is about 30 minutes from Summer Lake, making it a perfect birding loop.

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A Brief Period of Green

The John Day River banks swollen with snow melt

Spring hits different on the high desert. The Cascades remain capped with snow, while the sage steppe sprouts wildflowers  .  .  .  and puts on a cloak of green.

Desert Daisy

The weather app showed nothing but sunshine, there were no appointments, so we headed north to Spring Basin Wilderness.

As it turns out we seem to have skipped spring and gone right to summer.

Canyons frame the trailhead leading into the the Spring Basin Wilderness

A nearly treeless set of rock-topped hills, Spring Basin is sandwiched between the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds and the John Day River.

There is just a bit more than six thousand acres of what, on the surface, seems an unlikely plot for wilderness designation.

There are some rare plant species to be found on the slopes of these hills, Yellow-Hairy Paint Brush and Fuzzytongue Penstemon are two.

However, we’ve make this trip nearly every spring hoping to find a Hedgehog cactus in bloom.

Not a lot of wildflowers out yet  .  .  .  but it was a gorgeous day and the loop from 97 through Antelope, Fossil, Service Creek and then down to Mitchel where it hits Highway 26 has many points of interest.

Banded clays glow across the Painted Hills

We cross the John Day River a couple of times. There are also two units to the Fossil Beds, Clarno and Painted hills.

It made for a great day  .  .   .  have made note to return for another chance at the Hedgehog Cactus.

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. . . out like a Lamb

We made a quick stop at Fort Rock to enjoy the sunrise, then continued our trek to Summer Lake

This week really seemed like spring had arrived to Central Oregon. March softened its edge as April took over  .  .  .  and not anytime too soon.

The arrival of spring requires at least one trip to Summer Lake (likely more) to check on what the Pacific Flyway has deposited on the briny marsh land.

Marsh Wren in repose

We caught lots of flashes of Osprey, Eagles and Hawks.

Hunting is always good (if you are a raptor) with spring fledglings popping about.

There was a squadron of Pelicans swimming in formation, a pair of Sandhill Cranes and flocks of White-fronted Geese.

American White Pelicans ruffling their feathers

The avocets were just starting to show up, however no Snowy Plover, yet.

Red-winged Blackbird singing his heart out

The reeds were full of Red-winged Blackbirds calling for mates and most of the swallow houses had occupants.

The season is on and we were treated to lots of activity.

Summer lake is such an easy trip and usually the valley has great photo ops.

We are planning a run further out to check on Abert Lake, as well as a trip through Klamath Marsh sometime later in the spring. Birding is a great excuse to do some traveling  .  .  .

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Snowdaze

It snowed like this all day

This week, as the first day of spring {3/20/25} rolled by on the calendar, media outlets carried stories about cherry blossoms, gardening tips, and spring break locations.

Meanwhile, Central Oregon got covered in two feet of fresh snowfall.

We’ve gotten used to snow in March, but this snow storm was one storm too many. The weather has been off and on all season. That, I guess shouldn’t come as a shock.

Unfortunately for us, we were clearing snow off our driveway on the first day of spring.

Day two and the sun breaks through

Oh, it was a beautiful sight  .  .  .  fir branches ladened with mounds of white and that muffling of sound a layer of snow brings to the world.

It didn’t get much below freezing, and in fact it melted pretty quickly.

Taking a moment between shovel fulls

There was a day, or two, of clogged roads, as we waited on snowplows to come through. Sharing sympathetic looks with our neighbors (who were also shoveling snow), it took us over an hour to clear our driveway.

In the end, we managed to get a few more home projects completed .

But still  .  .  .  this is MARCH!

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Pacific Flyway Visit

In the Pacific Flyway

Well, that was a False Spring.

For the past few days we greeted each morning with a thin blanket of snow. It’s gone by early afternoon, but still  .  .  .  when will we get a Spring?

Before the winterish weather settled in on us, we managed a trip to Summer Lake.

Expanse of sky above Summer Lake Wildlife Refuge

As migratory birds start to move, we make somewhat regular excursions to the Wildlife Refuge on the Northwestern edge of Summer Lake.

This week there were not a lot of birds to see, but a start to the spring migration through the Pacific Flyway was evident.

Red-winged Blackbirds were starting to claim nesting areas. We spotted a few banks of Trumpeter Swan and a pair of Sandhill Cranes.

Mostly, it was a good excuse to get out while the weather was nice.

There was some wind that cooled the 50 degree day, but not too much.

A bank of swans

We’ve marked the calendar to come back in three weeks which will likely be the height of migration.

We are also charting a trip to the Klamath Lake area as there are some spots there we’ve not checked out.

A chaotic take-off

The Pacific Flyway will be crowded in the coming months, so it’s the perfect time to do some birding  .  .  .  weather is the only question mark.