Oregon Birding III: Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

It was our second day of birding in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge (MNWR) and I wanted to get a good early start, so my Dad and I took a morning walk through the town of Frenchglen. We saw many of the same birds from the day before (crows, blackbirds and swallows galore), but on the way back to the hotel I noticed a smallish, robinish bird bobbing its tail in a juniper tree. This was odd and so I investigated it further to find a Say's Phoebe (1) and, soon after that, I saw Common Nighthawks (2) circling through town. I watched one for a while and it landed in a tree.

Common Nighthawk taking a break

We headed for the MNWR headquarters to get in a bit of birding before our late morning breakfast. There were lots of birders at the HQ and we were told by the first guy we saw that an Ovenbird was on the premise!. Ok, I thought that sounds nice, but then I looked at the distribution map to realize this was not a common bird in this neck of the woods. Anyways, I didn't see the Ovenbird but instead found an Evening Grosbeak (3) and a Western Tanager (4). For me, these were much better finds since I can track down Ovenbirds back home in Ontario.

Evening Grosbeak at MNWR

We went to go find breakfast, leaving the dozen or so birders at the headquarters standing in the yard staring into the trees and talking about the differences between the songs of the American Redstart and the Yellow Warbler. I mentioned to my Dad that these folks travel hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles to stare into our eastern Oregon trees. I'm not really sure what he made out of it. 

After breakfast, we worked our way north past the "narrows". This is where Malheur Lake on the east meets Harney Lake on the west and the road runs right through this convergence. There are lots of wading areas for birds and open water. Western and Clark's Grebes (5, 6) greeted us as we got out of the car.

Clark's Grebe at the narrows.

I scanned the mudflats and saw many American Avocets, but also many smaller shorebirds including the Wilson's Phalarope (7) and some California Gulls (8) hanging around. Cinnamon Teal were swimming about and there even some Willets. It was quite a bird's paradise. 

We drove on up the road and stopped several times to scan the mudflats and small ponds that sit next to the highway. We must have seen a few hundred avocets, lots of Black-necked Stilts, and dozens of Wilson's Phalaropes. There more ducks and a few gulls around too. We were just about back to Burns when we passed a small pond and I hollered at my Dad to stop the car; there was a either a Redhead or a Canvasback on the pond! We did a quick u-turn and pulled up into good viewing position, but the bird was a good 50-60 yards off so it took us some concerted concentration to determine that it was indeed a Canvasback (9) based on the shape of the head and the bill. I also noticed a grebe in the pond as well. It was not a Western or Clark's and it wasn't a Pied-billed Grebe either. As I focused in on it, I realized it was an Eared Grebe (10) and another bird for my year list.

We took a 2 hour break in Burns while the Ford dealership fixed my Dad's broken car key, which we had temporarily repaired using duct tape (no, seriously). I looked around the car lot and there were some House Sparrows. Not really good birding territory. I kept wanting to go tell the car guy to hurry it up as they were eating into my birding time; didn't they know that I would lose opportunities to see Canyon Wrens and Lazuli Buntings?

American Avocets feeding in the mudflats

Once we were finally back on the road, we knew we had to make time back home. We did stop, briefly, at a pullout on the Malheur River somewhere halfway between Juntura and Vale. I was watching a Yellow Warbler (this confirms my suspicion that these birds are found everywhere) in a tree and two Gadwalls on the river when my Dad gave me a shout. He was across the road staring up the canyon walls and had seen a bird up there and thought I should have a look. Soon enough the bird took flight from its perch and I could see that it was a raptor, and it was a lot higher up than I had imagined. It had very pointed wings, which were different from those of the hawks of the day before; this had "falcon" written all over it. It had the wrong coloration to be a Peregrine (and how common are these anyways?) and it was way too big to be a Kestrel and Merlins aren't found here in the summer. It was a Prairie Falcon (11)! With that, we went home and my day of birding was over.

In total, we saw 60 bird species that day, I reclaimed the Big Day mark from Damon, and I identified 11 additional year species. This was turning out to be a good birding trip with 36 new species seen up to that point.

In case you are curious what you can see in eastern Oregon over the course of one day, here is my day list for June 6, 2013.

1 Black-billed Magpie Frenchglen, OR
2 American Crow Frenchglen, OR
3 Red-winged Blackbird Frenchglen, OR
4 Yellow-heased Blackbird Frenchglen, OR
5 Killdeer Frenchglen, OR
6 Raven Frenchglen, OR
7 Starling Frenchglen, OR
8 Cliff Swallow Frenchglen, OR
9 American Robin Frenchglen, OR
10 Mourning Dove Frenchglen, OR
11 Barn Swallow Frenchglen, OR
12 House Sparrow Frenchglen, OR
13 Common Nighthawk Frenchglen, OR
14 Says Phoebe Frenchglen, OR
15 Western Kingbird Frenchglen, OR
16 Great-tailed Grackle Frenchglen, OR
17 Osprey Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
18 Western Meadowlark Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
19 Sandhill Crane Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
20 Canada Goose Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
21 Long-billed Curlew Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
22 White-faced Ibis Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
23 Brewer's Blackbird Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
24 Ring-necked Pheasant Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
25 Great-blue Heron Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
26 California Quail Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
27 American Pelican Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
28 Cinnamon Teal Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
29 Caspian Tern Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
30 Northern Shoveler Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
31 Evening Grosbeak Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
32 Gadwall Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
33 American Coot Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
34 Yellow Warbler Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
35 Brown-headed Cowbird Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
36 Western Tanager Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
37 Bank Swallow Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
38 Western Grebe Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
39 Clarks Grebe Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
40 Wilsons Phalarope Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
41 Willet Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
42 Forster's Tern Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
43 Franklin's Gull Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
44 California Gull Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
45 Mallard Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
46 Black-necked Stilt Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
47 Ring-billed Gull Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
48 Eared Grebe Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
49 Canvasback Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
50 Bufflehead Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
51 Wilson's Snipe Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Frenchglen, OR
52 Red-tailed Hawk Hwy 20, Drewsey, OR
53 Turkey Vulture Hwy 20, Juntura, OR
54 Prairie Falcon Hwy 20, Juntura, OR
55 Rock Dove Hwy 20, Juntura, OR
56 Northern Harrier Hwy 20, Harper, OR
57 Northern Rough Winged Swallow Parent's House, Nyssa, OR
58 Eurasian Collared Dove Parent's House, Nyssa, OR
59 American Kestrel Nyssa, OR
60 Black-chinned Hummingbird Parent's House, Nyssa, OR