In January 2016 an armed group of protesters seized and occupied the headquarters of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. By the time the occupation was over in February 2016, there was a considerable amount of destruction of the refuge facilities, resulting in closure of the headquarters facilities for months. Unfortunately, I had planned a summer 2016 birding trip to the sagebrush country of eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and southern Idaho to include a lengthy stop at Malheur NWR. But given the issues at Malheur I shelved those plans and headed to Alberta and British Columbia that summer instead.
But my interests in birding eastern OR, eastern WA, and
southern ID continued as this was the last large section of the Lower 48 that I
had not yet birded. And a new part of
the country for me would equate to considerable statebirding potential. So after further delays first due to moving,
and then due to Covid, I finally got around to scheduling the OR/WA/ID
sagebrush country trip for the summer of 2023.
Plus I added a short side- trip to the South Hills of ID for Cassia
Crossbill. I reached out to birding
friend David Donsker who often joins me on these trips, and he agreed to come
along.
But simply adding a lot of statebirds wasn’t my only
objective for the trip. Years ago, the
ABA allowed you to report your totals for a given state only if your total
exceeded half of the total number of species ever recorded in that state. Early in my birding career I had set a goal
to be able to report my totals to the ABA in each of the continental 49
states. Eventually I exceeded those
thresholds in each state except one – OR.
Although those ABA reporting thresholds no longer exist, they still
represent a logical set of standards to strive for in each state. And since the state totals inch up over the
years as new birds are added to the official state list, I set a somewhat
arbitrary goal of being 15 over those old ABA thresholds (I call it “ABA plus
15”). I started the 2023 trip with 249
species in OR, just 10 shy of that old ABA reportable threshold. So this was certainly a realistic secondary
objective for this trip.
After considerable research on-line especially on eBird, and
with invaluable advice from a number of local birders, I set up an 11-day
itinerary from May 24th to June 3rd, starting in Boise and southern ID, then
into eastern OR, next into southeastern WA, then back to ID for flights back
home. And with 5 days birding in OR I hoped
to add perhaps 28 new birds.
This blog post presents the first of two parts of the OR
portion of the trip on Days 2 through 4.
The next post summarizes the second part of the OR portion starting with
Day 5. The subsequent post summarizes
the WA portion. My previous posts
briefly summarized the entire trip and the ID portion.
Day 2 – May 25 – Drive to Burns
After birding the morning in the South Hills in southeastern
ID we spent the rest of the day driving west to Burns, OR to be in position to start
the next day pre-dawn at Malheur NWR. And
of course we birded along the way. Although
we were driving through some pretty desolate habitat we did pick up my first OR
statebird along the way – the first of many Swainson’s Hawks. My statebird map for this species is inserted
below. Blue-shaded states are those
where I’ve seen this western species; the cross-hatched states are those in its
regular range where I’ve yet to see it.
Also, when we got close to Burns we started to run into some flooded fields, and spotted a pair of Ring-billed Gulls feeding in one of them. They turned out to be the only ones for us in OR.
Day 3 – May 26 – Malheur NWR
Our plan was to spend the entire day birding the northern
portions of Malheur NWR, starting with nocturnal searches for Poorwill and
Short-eared Owl. Interestingly, there
were very few sightings of either species there yet this year. So for Poorwill I went back to 2022 sightings,
and found several reports just north of the Field Station, including a couple
with birds sitting in the road. We made
that our first stop, turning onto the road to the Field Station at 4:15 AM. We drove along slowly but didn’t see any
birds on the road. Then we arrived at
the butte just north of the Field Station and got out to listen. Almost instantly we heard a Poorwill calling
from the butte (OR statebird #2). Nice
when a search for a nocturnal bird comes out so well. I just need this species in 3 more states
across its western range.
Our next target was Short-eared Owl. There were only a few scattered 2022 records for this species in the area, and only 1 so far this year. The 2023 report seemed like it was in a good habitat, and was nearby, so we drove over to that location and started our vigil for the Owl just as the skies were starting to get light.
We unfortunately struck out on the Owl, but the grassy fields nearby held a singing Vesper Sparrow (OR statebird #3), which turned out to be our only one of the trip. That was a pretty good start of the day – 1 of 2 nocturnal targets plus one bonus bird.
It was now closing in on sunrise, so it was time to head to
the Headquarters where we planned to bird the oasis hoping for a nice
fallout. Just after getting out of the
car we ran into a small flock of Western Kingbirds (OR statebird #4) pestering
a Great Horned Owl. And the cottonwoods
held small groups of Western Tanagers and Bullock’s Orioles. We walked over to the hummingbird feeders and
saw several female Black-chinneds making extended visits (OR statebird #5).
In the distance beyond the hummingbird feeders were these extensive
wetlands that would eventually deserve a detailed scoping.
But with a quick scan I spotted a small flock of Black Terns dancing over the marsh (OR statebird #6), several Blue-winged Teal (OR statebird #7) mixed in with Cinnamon Teal, and a couple fly-by White-faced Ibis (OR statebird #8). And then I looked up just in time to spot a high-flying Franklin’s Gull (OR statebird #9) – surprisingly the only one we would see at Malheur where it is supposed to be common. In my statebird map below the brown-shaded eastern states are those where I’ve seen this species as a rarity.
But the marsh would have to wait, because we needed to focus on landbird migrants at the oasis. And right on cue I turned just in time to watch a flock of a dozen Western Tanagers fly by. Followed by at least 10 Orioles. And all of this was within the first 15 minutes.
David and I then started a slow walk around the Headquarters
finding nearly constant activity and picking up quite a number of Yellow-rumps,
Wilson’s Warblers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, Warbling Vireos and additional
flocks of Orioles and Tanagers. Numbers
were difficult to estimate because so many birds were moving back and
forth. It was turning out to be a nice
fallout, and we both thought that we had the “critical mass” to get a rarity
(or 2).
Then we had the moment we predicted – a drab gray warbler
appeared in a small tree just 20 ft away.
It was gray above with an eyering and no wingbars, had bright yellow
undertail coverts and a dark rump. We had
a rare female Viriginia’s Warbler, with only 17 prior accepted records in the
state (OR statebird #10). Unfortunately,
we had it in view for only about 20 seconds before it flew off. We alerted other nearby birders but it was
not re-found that day. Though there was
another report of Virginia’s Warbler there the next day, also a female. Perhaps the same bird? I still need this species in several states
around the periphery of its regular range.
That was my 10th new OR statebird, bringing my state list to 259 – the old ABA threshold. Nice to reach the goal, but we had lots of OR birding ahead of us yet.
We spent another couple hours birding the trees in the oasis,
picking up good numbers of the same species.
But we also added a few new species like Townsend’s Warbler, Cassin’s
Vireo, Western Pewee, Lazuli Bunting, and finally a cooperative Ash-throated
Flycatcher (OR statebird #11). Then
there were these Yellow-headed Blackbirds providing nice eye candy at one of
the feeders.
Unfortunately news didn’t get out in time to chase after the male Indigo Bunting seen at one point just a few feet away from us.
After the landbird activity slowed down we went back to get
the scope and birded the wetlands. We
had 9 waterfowl species, 4 shorebirds, and more Black Terns along with my first
Forster’s Tern (OR statebird #12). Plus
close looks at the swallows feeding overhead gave us 5 species including my
first Banks (OR statebird #13). I just
need Bank Swallow in one more state plus D.C. to complete my statebird map for
this species.
As we walked back to the car we were alerted by others to this baby Great Horned Owl.
What a morning! In 4 hours at the Headquarters we tallied 59 species including 10 new ones for my OR statelist. Not to mention a significant rarity. We also made a good birding connection while we were there – a young birder named Ezra Cohen who would end up alerting us to a couple other rarities later in the trip. But the day was young – we had lots of stops ahead of us yet.
Our next target bird was Black-throated Sparrow seen last year,
along with another target Sagebrush Sparrow, on the south side of the south
butte at the Field Station. We drove
back to the Field Station but couldn’t find any trails leading from the
buildings to the butte. We then drove
around to the south side of the butte hoping to find a trail but found the
access road to the area was closed. We
decided to pass on this spot, with 3 other possible locations for these targets. Though I did get my first Sage Thrasher for
the state (OR statebird #14). Hopefully
I’m just as successful with this species in WA later in the trip.
The next stop was Saddle Butte which was another potential spot for both Black-throated and Sagebrush Sparrows. But as we drove south along the west edge of the butte on Route 205 we couldn’t find a place to pull off this busy road. Maybe we could try it again later heading north and find a safe spot to park. That is unless we found these species at our next stop at Diamond Craters. Along the way we came upon an overlook for the Buena Vista Ponds. Quite a nice view of the wetlands below!
And while we scanned below we heard a Say’s Phoebe singing from the rocks nearby. That’s not a song I hear very often. And then we heard a song that we were very familiar with – at least one Yellow-breasted Chat was singing in the brush down below us (OR statebird #15).
After we snaked our way around the Buena Vista Ponds we made
our way to Diamond Craters where both Sagebrush and Black-throated Sparrows
were reported last year. This area had
some very unique volcanic rock formations, but few birds.
We couldn’t find any noticeable trails through the sagebrush, and in fact the vegetation was pretty meager.
But we had at least one more spot for the sparrows – along
Foster Flat Road. After a short drive we
made it to this gravel road running through some very nice sagebrush
habitat. We made several stops playing
tape for both sparrow species but with no luck.
Then we finally got a response from a Sagebrush Sparrow and eventually
found it perched on a sagebrush (OR statebird #16).
As we continued down the road playing Black-throated Sparrow
tape we came to an area with exposed rocks.
David suggested that we play some Chukar tape as well – he had good
instincts. At our next stop we heard
some “chuck” calls behind us and spotted this calling Chukar perched on the
rocks (statebird #17).
That was a great find, but we still needed Black-throated Sparrow. We doubled back to 205, and headed north toward Saddle Butte. This time we found a spot that seemed to be wide enough to pull over, and started to walk through the sagebrush looking for our target.
We were able to find a couple more Sagebrush Sparrows, a Sage Thrasher, and several Lark Sparrows, but no Black-throated. And there were some nice wildflowers too.
I guess in retrospect we should have tried harder to access the Field Station butte location.
It was now getting pretty late in the day but we had one
more stop on the way back to our hotel in Burns. There were quite a number of Burrowing Owl
sightings just north of Malheur so far this year, though specific locations
weren’t provided for most sightings. One
key exception was a sighting along Ruh-Red S Rd. with the location listed as -
“North side of road. Just east of
telephone pole F129”. That sounded
pretty specific. And it was – after a
short drive along the dirt road we found the correct telephone pole and started
our search. And just a few seconds later
David spotted the diminutive owl low in front of a pile of dirt that had been excavated
from the hole (OR statebird #18). A bit
later the Owl walked a bit higher up on the pile to let me get this phonescoped
photo.
Despite our most successful day at Malheur NWR I still had 2 remaining water-related targets – Trumpeter Swan and Wilson’s Phalarope. Both species had been seen in the last week at a number of locations around Burns. Most spots were apparently flooded fields from the spring rains. So after a quick dinner, we headed out to check 4 nearby spots where 1 or both targets had been seen recently. But the fields at the first 2 spots were now dry – we were just a couple days too late. Our third stop was at Foley Rd. and we initially thought that grassy field was dry too, but we realized some water remained when we spotted the heads of 3 tall shorebirds sticking above the grass – Greater Yellowlegs, Willet, and Long-billed Curlew. Then while scanning the grasses I spotted a Wilson’s Phalarope flutter up out of the vegetation and fly off (OR statebird #19). How lucky can you get? If I can also find this species in WA later in the trip I would need it in just a few states in central US in its regular range, though I’ve seen it in a number of eastern states as a rarity.
Our 4th stop also still had water, but no target birds. Though we picked up Wigeon, Redhead, and Lesser Yellowlegs for the day.
And what a day it was – we had 90 species, 19 of which were
new for my OR list including a rare Virginia’s Warbler!
Day 4 – May 27 – Malheur NWR
Our plan for this day was to concentrate on the southern
portion of Malheur NWR and a few areas just south of the refuge. Since we still needed Short-eared Owl we
would slowly drive the southern end of the Center Patrol Road (CPR) at first
light hoping to find a hunting Short-ear.
Then at sunrise we would make our way to the oasis at P Ranch hoping for
another nice fallout.
We started our Owl search at 4:45 AM slowly driving several
miles of the CPR but with no luck. When
we neared sunrise we turned around and headed back to P Ranch, having only
netted a couple Black-crowned Night-herons.
I had just got done mentioning that the grassland in this area can be
good for Bobolinks when we spotted one sitting in the road right in front of us
(OR statebird #20). That was easy. I still need Bobolink in a couple states at
the western edge of its breeding range, along with a few southern states where
it is a migrant.
We arrived at P Ranch right on time and crossed our fingers for another fallout. This was still a functioning ranch with a house and some out-buildings off limits. But it was OK to bird the tall cottonwoods ringing the complex. Plus a small river flowed by the ranch which was lined with riparian shrubs and small trees. It all looked like it would be inviting to a migrant. Unfortunately, it was slow with mostly nesting passerines and few migrants. We had small numbers of Bullock’s Orioles and Western Tanagers in the trees, and good numbers of Willow Flycatchers, Yellow Warblers, and Chats in the riparian brush. Plus a Say’s Phoebe around the buildings was a nice find. So with birding being pretty slow, after about 90 minutes we decided to head to nearby Page Springs Campground to see if birding was any better there.
Page Springs Campground was touted as another good spot for migrant
fallouts. Plus we hoped for breeding
Gray and Dusky Flycatchers along two trails there. As we pulled into the campground we were
greeted not by birds but by mosquitoes – hordes of mosquitoes. We felt sorry for those camping there. Birding in the campground was next to
impossible, as was one trail that would take us into riparian habitat. So we tried to head up into the hills above to
lessen our blood loss. But that trail
was gated off, so I ended up just bushwacking my way upslope.
The habitat quickly changed to a juniper forest with
scattered undergrowth of sagebrush - nice for my breeding targets. The first birds I found were several
Black-throated Gray Warblers singing from the junipers. Then as I continued my climb I started to hear
a singing Empidonax that I wasn’t familiar with. I played a bit of tape and soon realized I
had a Gray Flycatcher as confirmed by Merlin (OR statebird #21). I got some pretty nice views of the bird as
it sang from the tops of the junipers.
I continued wandering through the forest but couldn’t find any Dusky Flycatchers. That target would have to wait until the next day when we would be in some more good habitat for this species.
Here’s a picture of the Gray Flycatcher habitat and valley
below.
We bid farewell to the campground (and its mosquitoes!) and then headed toward the Steens Mountains in search of Green-tailed Towhee. But the road to the mountains was still closed apparently due to heavy snow cover. So I went onto eBird to look for alternative locations and found several recent reports nearby at the Barnes Spring and Trail hotspot near Frenchglen. And in fact, two recent reports seemed to put the Towhee right at the trailhead for the spring. We parked the car at the trailhead and focused on a hillside above the lot with sparse sagebrush vegetation that looked like good Towhee habitat. And sure enough after just a couple minutes we could hear a bird singing up the hill that I wasn’t familiar with. Merlin suggested it was our target, which I confirmed by playing a bit of tape off the Sibley app (OR statebird #22). I just need this species in a few states on the periphery of its range, including WA where we hoped to find it in a couple days.
Our next target was White-throated Swift which can be seen nesting on cliffs near Roaring Spring some 14 miles south of Frenchglen. These cliffs can also be good for Chukars, but we no longer needed that one since we had the cooperative bird the day before. Just after we arrived at the northern end of the cliffs we spotted a soaring adult Golden Eagle – a nice start. And a bit later we found this remarkable nest which must be 10 feet tall. The baby raptor on the nest is likely another Golden Eagle.
Unfortunately, those turned out to be the highlights of this spot since we never found the Swifts despite nearly an hour searching that stretch of the cliffs. Try as we might, we could never turn any of the many Cliff and Violet-green Swallows flying around the cliffs into a Swift.
We now had an option to drive another 45 minutes south to an
Oasis in the town of Fields for possible migrants, or head back north onto the
refuge to search for waterbirds. Given
the limited migration we experienced at P Ranch, we decided to head back to the
wetlands. Our last realistic target
waterbird was Trumpeter Swan, of which there were several recent reports in the
wetlands in the southern half of the refuge, so we were optimistic.
We soon were back to the CPR and started our drive
north. The southern mile or two passed
through grasslands where we found Bobolinks in 3 different fields – we counted
11 singing birds. We then drove from
wetland to wetland looking for large white swimming birds but each time came up
empty. Though we picked up a few nice
birds along the way including an American Bittern in flight, Caspian, Forster’s
and Black Terns, and Marsh Wrens at several spots.
Then we came to Benson Pond and found a lot of cars and
birders milling about. “Bird the
birders” as I always say, so we got out to find out what was up. We happened to run into our friend Ezra Cohen
from the fallout at the Headquarters the day before and he said there was a singing
Least Flycatcher up ahead in the small oasis at the pond’s edge. It was first found the day before and had
stuck around all this time. We quickly
took the short walk to the grove of trees finding an Ash-throated Flycatcher along
the way. Then after a short wait we heard
the characteristic monotonous “chebek” calls of the Least Flycatcher. We even got good views of the bird (OR
statebird #23). OR is now the third
state where I’ve seen this species as a rarity.
As we headed back to the car we again noticed some activity among the birders. They had found a very distant Trumpeter Swan. The views weren’t the best even through the scope, but good enough (OR statebird #24). OR was my 21st state for this species which is being re-introduced in much of its former range.
I texted Ezra to thank him for the tip on the Least Flycatcher and he responded by asking if we had seen the Rose-breasted Grosbeaks yet. That was the first we had heard of them. They had apparently been seen that morning in Frenchglen and Ezra gave me the coordinates of the tree where he had them. That was more than 8 hours ago, so it wasn’t likely that the birds would still be there. But it was only a short ride back to Frenchglen so we decided to give it a try. I punched in the coordinates and we were off.
The coordinates took us to a small parking lot for a school
in the town of Frenchglen. I got out of
the car and looked at the map to get my bearings. The GPS put us just a few feet south of the Ezra’s
tree. I looked up and pointed to the
apparent tree where the Grosbeaks had been seen in the morning and pointed
right at a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (OR statebird #25). A few seconds later we spotted a second male
in the same tree. Remarkably the birds
were still feeding on seeds in that tree (an elm) 8 hours after being first
spotted. And in fact, Ezra had the same bird,
or a different bird, in that tree 2 days earlier.
Later we found 3 Black-headed Grosbeaks feeding in that same tree. Must be some tasty seeds.
OR was the 3rd state where I’ve seen Rose-breasted Grosbeak
as a rarity. This eastern species is
definitely prone to vagrancy especially to western migrant traps.
And as my 25th new statebird for OR, that puts me at my “ABA plus 15” threshold. Nice when the threshold is a rarity. An excellent way to celebrate our day. I may have only added 6 new statebirds that day, but it’s not often you can get 2 rarities (Least Flycatcher and Rose-breasted Grosbeak) in the same day.
See my next blog post for the continuation of the OR portion
of the trip.
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