Malheur NWR First Take 2010

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We are getting settled in well at Malheur. We arrived a little early in the year, so our actual work schedule did not start for a week, so we spent some time getting setup. We had a very pretty day the first Saturday, so we took a tour of the the refuge trying to spot wildlife. We were successful with many birds, not a lot of mammals running around in sight.

These are greater white-fronted geese. Very colorful.

The refuge is 187,000 acres, mostly concentrated along the Donner and Blitzen (Thunder and Lightening in German) river. That many acres along a thin line make the refuge very long. It is 42 miles from the main office to the south end of the refuge. There is a dirt road that travels that length. We only drove the southern half of it. Water is the big attraction for wildlife, and the north end of the refuge is dry(er).

We did have a big dust storm then the next morning, some precipitation in the form of 4 inches of snow on the Monday after we arrived.

We then had two weeks of very cold and snowy weather. This was not part of our expectations of volunteering in the high desert, but mother nature is in control.

Our normal work week is three eight hour days. This year we are doing some strange things with that schedule. We worked two days, then off for four, then ten days in a row. We are now finished with our obligation for April (but we are helping with other projects during our "off time".)

The big thing going on during the 10 days was the annual bird festival in Burns. Snow geese and Ross's geese like the ones in the picture are a main attraction.

The festival is normally the first weekend in April, but because of Easter, it was moved the second weekend. We had a lot of visitors and participated in several events. Sally won a painting during a raffle. And not just any painting, but the one chosen for the printing of the festival posters and flyers. She wanted to win a special bottle of wine, but she seems happy with the prize she got.

Sally also got out to do bird counts. She and the Biologist went on one trip, She and another volunteer on another trip, she even got to go on a special tour. Tom, lazy soul that he is, just covered the visitor center while she was having fun, but we predict payback will happen.

American Avocet - a most photogenic bird.

Tom spotted this hawk - Rough-legged, we believe, though he is a very odd specimen.

Note the adult and baby Great Horned Owl hiding out in the side of a cliff. Lots of raptors here






We will be heading to points west on our days off, Bend and Nehalem State Park. Watch for those posting, they should have a lot of "wildlife". Until then ...

Moving West (Part 3)

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Utah is a lovely state. There are mountains and canyons and desert lands. Our trip through last year was a fight with wind and snow. This year the weather has been beautiful.

Our drive started in Bullhead City, AZ and we ended the first day at a truck stop in Payson UT. We made an attempted stop at Zion National Park, but they were closing.

We had decided to stop this year and tour Salt Lake City a little. Sally had been here before, but Tom had not. The city has wide streets (so the ox team can turn around without any trouble.) The city was well planned with the streets in easy numerical layout. There are a lot of parks and open air lots. The Temple Square is impressive with the buildings all complementing the Temple. The people we have met are very kind and generous with their time.

We also visited "This is the Place Heritage Park". It's located at the spot where the Mormons overlooked the beautiful valley and decided that they would settle. Unfortunately, it was cold and raining, so we couldn't see much of the valley. The exhibits in the visitor center were interesting, though, and we enjoyed the candy made of honey.

We spent some time looking up our genealogy. Sally was looking for books on her family and trying to trace the parents of her great-grandfather Hiram Page.

Tom was tracing back individuals. He discovered his great-great-grandfather, Joshua Hall, served in the civil war. Joshua was in a unit defending Mobile. His unit surrendered late in the war (actually after the war ended, but communications being what they were, they did not know). He was a P.O.W. for all of six days then sent home.

We drove out to Antelope Island State Park, an island in the Great Salt Lake. The name comes from the number of Pronghorns that inhabited the island when it was “discovered”. The area is full of beautiful vistas. The Great Salt Lake is in a basin, so it is surrounded by hills and mountains - many still snow covered this time of year.

Sally went to the Mormon Tabernacle to hear the choir sing Sunday morning. It was their 8201st weekly radio broadcast - the first one was in 1929! The music was glorious. The acoustics were wonderful and Sally enjoyed the selections. They sang Simple Gifts, one of Sally's favorites.

Our next move was to Boise. We cross several high points between the two cities, including the continental divide. We marveled at the snow covered mountains while we fought a little wind. We left the southeast early this year to give us time to pull off the road for a day or two if the wind and weather was as bad last year, but the resistance was much less this trip. We wanted to the oil changed in the motorhome, so we found a place that could do the job. They had to put the RV on a rack. We had them check the brakes and found one of the rear drums was working metal-on-metal, not a good situation while traveling up and down in the mountains. The repairs on our little home have amounted quite a bit this month, but the house is 10 years old.

We made our last metro area shopping trip and then headed to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is an one-hundred-eighty-eight acre water sanctuary held in the public trust for birds and western wildlife. The area was set up as ranches. Water rights and the diminishing bird populations convinced some locals to apply to the federal government to create the sanctury. Malhuer was designated in Sept. 1908 and slowly bought up the land that comprises three lakes and river that moves water from the Steens Mountain to lakes. More about Malhuer later, thanks for reading and we hope you are aoo doing well.