So lets see, late April and May were the busiest. I got my first kayak runs in of the year, with a day paddling the Smith and Bybee lakes, and water was actually high enough this year to make it over to Bybee. It helped that last year's beaver dam was dismantled in the channel too. Lots of immature eagles, Red-winged blackbirds, an egret roost, and a huge number of already full grown carp swimming in groups around me. The water was only a few feet deep in places, so this was a bit surreal. The Gilbert River out on Sauvie Island was higher than I've seen it in years, and subsequently, so was Sturgeon Lake. There are so many nooks off of the lake that I want to explore in the future, and fingers crossed, the colony of America White pelicans will return again this summer. I never get tired of watching them.
I hit up the coast, finally getting some decent pics of Tufted puffins at Cannon Beach and then managed to almost get scalped by a Caspian tern at Fort Stevens. Unfortunately, I missed the huge influx of shorebirds at Fort Stevens and Astoria in general because I had decided to head up to Gray's Harbor in Washington. It's really the luck of the draw; migrating shorebirds are always on the move looking for food, here one day, and gone the next. I had a decent haul of shorebirds on the surf side, but the usually bountiful Oyehut was barren of any shorebirds, and my only good bird there was a Peregrine falcon. Go figure.
I also got out to the desert for two days at Cottonwood Canyon. Not much going on, the usual suspects. I just always want to get out to the coast and the desert in rapid succession in the spring. It's like I'm touching base with the magical places, you know? And then I did a kayak/canoe Birdathon outing with the Audubon along the Columbia slough out towards Gresham. I've walked that path before but never put in there, so it was nice to know the area from the water. It was steadily drizzling, but we still managed to pull in 45 species in a few hours. My next trip was out to upper central Oregon with a van full of Birdathon crew for a full day of adventuring around the Deschutes River, Tygh Valley, Maupin, and the vicinity. Saw some lifebirds and got some new areas to add to my places to go back to. And had the added bonus of having birding buddy Jill at my side. I don't get to see enough of her as it is, so this was great! I've posted pictures from all of these trips on Flickr, so you can go click on that link and check them out, I think they start on the 2nd or third page after the most recent pictures. You can go "back to photostream" at top left of page, then scroll down to bottom of first page, and it gives you options to go to the next page, or any page.
So that brings us up to date, and here it is, a week into July. A cool mellow NW summer for the first time in five years. I couldn't be happier! The rain and flooded rivers of the spring of 2011 were becoming a hazy memory, and I had visions of Oregon slowly turning into Arizona.. Don't get me wrong, I love Arizona, but you know what I'm saying.. So my friend Jill had turned me on to the woodpecker madness that takes place in Sisters, and she had signed up for the ECAS annual trip which covered parts of Ochoco Forest, if I'm remembering correctly, Summer Lake and Sisters. There was also a Birdathon group with friends of mine headed to Sisters over Memorial Day weekend too, so I had Sisters on the brain. And after the September trip of last fall to Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge, I had a bee in my bonnet about getting down to that area in late spring when there was still water around for the birds, water in the Warner Wetlands, water in Summer Lake, water anywhere.
So I invited Chris Strickland to head back out on a bird lurkin' trip, starting at Hart Mountain and working our way back up to Sisters. We got the days figured out and headed out Saturday June 11th. I hoped that not that many folks would be camped out at Hart Mountain, even though it was a weekend. It's a long, out of the way drive to get there. We turned down the same road at the hotsprings campground we had last time and found the last spot on the end free. That night we were treated to Mars burning brightly in the sky, and the crazy starscape that you see in the desert. Woke up and went over to hop in the second hot spring out in the field which we had somehow missed last time. Very nice and I prefer it to the built up one. A family of mule deer bounded past, and we watched some Northern harriers hunt. No pronghorn or bighorn sheep to be seen from the roads on the refuge, no coyotes or owls. I assume the animals we saw last fall were probably down lower because that was where the remaining watering holes were. They must still be up higher munching on green shoots and enjoying a wetter spring. You learn quickly that every place you visit also has four seasons which affect what you're seeing; this might seem obvious, but sometimes you forget it until you travel somewhere a couple times.
So, I'm going to try to be brief in regards to the rest of this post. As I said, first night was at Hart Mountain Hot Springs CG, and then we headed down to Warner Wetlands, which had some good flyover birds, but the actual wetlands were too far for my binocs, would have needed a good scope.
We headed about two hours up to Summer Lake and camped out on the lake, to the delight of the swarms of mosquitos there. That place is freaking amazing for birds! I will absolutely be going back there next spring.
Next morning, we headed north to Fort Rock to check out the cliffs and then drive on to the Cabin Lake bird blinds. Chris had been to the blinds before, but they had been improved since he was there, and were very cool. I will also be returning there, fricking amazing photos with birds ten feet away.
Then we headed up to Sisters, to set up camp in the rain, and had a not very birdy walk in the woods at Calliope Crossing. Maybe we weren't in the right spot, this is always the risk you run when following online directions, but it also might have been the weather. Windy and cool with rain coming, so the birds might have just hunkered down. The next morning we prowled the campground to no avail, and then the roadside. Some luck with nuthatches and then we serendipitously ran into two ladies coming back from looking at the Three-toed woodpecker. This is the rarest of the Oregon 12 to see, so was cool to have the opportunity. They gave us their directions, which we proceeded to muck up, and eventually stood staring into what we thought was the right spot for almost an hour. And then it started snowing. Finally, I went off a ways to pee in the woods and noticed more pink ribbons farther off to the right. I grabbed Chris, and we followed them for about 50 yds before hearing the tell tale knock of a woodpecker. We came across a local birder and his insane lens who took us right to the Three-toed woodpecker nesting cavity. He told us where we had been looking was the site of a Hairy woodpecker's nesting site from last season. Wha wha.. It was very cool to see this life bird feeding it's young at it's nesting cavity. After that excitement, we drove into the woods looking for the fabled Bridge 99 burn, which we eventually found (I think), but no woodpeckers, only cavity holes.
Luck of the draw; we saw six woodpeckers total: Hairy, Downy, Northern Flicker, White-Headed, Red-Breasted Sapsucker, and the Three-toed. I'll have to save the Black-backed for another time. I was also lucky enough to see my first Lewis' woodpecker on the full-day Birdathon trip thanks to Eric Scheuering, so this has been a great year so far! (not to mention a Tri-colored blackbird-another lifebird!)
Anyway, good trip all around, we only saw 86 confirmed species, but it's quality, not quantity, right? And going to check out new places, that's kind of my jam for this year. I have some pics I want to post from a recent trip to Mt. St. Helens, plan to get that going this weekend. Hope you all are having a fun and adventurous summer and getting out to smell the flowers. Much love, and happy trails.
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