Archive for the ‘wildlife refuge’ Category

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The Lost Coast & Humboldt Bay

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

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Moved a little south of Eureka, to the Victorian village of Ferndale, so I could be closer to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and also the road to “The Lost Coast” of Northern California. Highway 211 is a rough, narrow, twisting, and often very steep highway that goes along a segment of the coastline that was too rough for Highway 1 or 101 to go. I wanted to drive it to see if I could take my trailer over it. The only good thing you can say about the 211 is at least it is paved, except for a few very small segments. I would not want to take my trailer over it. If it was a one-lane, one-way road, maybe.

The first picture above is the stretch of coastline you get to after going over the mountains from Ferndale. The second picture is of “The Wall”, a one-mile 18% grade just north of of the coastline stretch.

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Picture of the South Spit Management Area of Humboldt Bay. A five mile road lets you drive over it.

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A paraglider was able to take off and land in the same spot on a bluff over the South Spit.

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sandpipers

Birds seen along the sand spit: brown pelicans, cormorants and sandpipers.

Below, a goodwit seen on mudflats on the wildlife refuge.

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Below: a black phoebe and a dark-eyed junco.

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Posted in Ferndale, cormorants, goodwit, junco, pelican, phoebe, sandpiper, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

More from Malheur Refuge

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

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Horned owl at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.

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Young swan seen at the same spot a number of days. Two adult, banded, swans were seen in a nearby water channel.

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Two young male California quail, on right, in a covey.

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Female ring-necked pheasant.

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Young hawk often seen flying with two adults, probably it’s parents.

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Livestock is often on the road. I can’t pass through the area without getting cow dung on my truck. The day after this picture was taken, saw  two cows with their calves walking along the highway a few miles away. They soon showed up at the cafe/rv park/laundromat that I had gone to do my laundry. They wanted in the owner’s pasture, but he said “no way”. He got on his atv and herded them to the other cows in their herd about a mile away. Glad they finally got some water, it was hot out.

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Stayed one night at the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge.

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Posted in Burns, antelope, hawk, owl, quail, ring-necked pheasant, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Malheur Refuge & Steens Mountain

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

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Have been at the BLM Page Springs Campground at the base of Steens Mountain in Oregon for about a week now. It is right next to the southern edge of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Have spent most of my time visiting the refuge, but have also driven Steens Mountain Loop. Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area was created rather recently, in the year 2000. The BLM is also doing a study on how to deal with the development of western juniper forests that have developed because of fire suppression. They have cut down a lot of juniper trees and will burn them after it snows.

Picture above: Surprised a great horned owl while driving through the refuge late in the afternoon. There is also an owl that perches near the visitor center. Wondered if they bribe it with mice to get it to stay there for visitors to see.

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Have had four coyote sightings. They really look healthy.

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Common merganser.

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Top: male California quail. Below: a young quail.

Have surprised quail with a lot of young ones several times. Each time the male flew up to a bush to supervise while the female corralled the young ones into the brush.

Birds seen but not pictured: Three trumpeter swans, large flock of white pelicans, lots of great egrets, magpies, ring-necked pheasants, vultures roosting on an old fire lookout tower and a few sandhill cranes.

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A rattlesnake decided to sleep in the middle of the road by the campsite next to mine. Bad choice. The camp host came over with a shovel and decapitated it. Talk about nerves of steel!

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There is a long history of Basque sheepherding on Steens Mountain. When I was driving past the ones above, they started to cross the road in front of me. A sheepherder and his dogs quickly came into play and returned them to the area they were supposed to be in.

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There are four u-shaped gorges on Steens Mountain. Above is Kiger Gorge with a little patch of snow.

Getting here

Stopped at Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho on the way here. They water the lawn by the campsites one hour a day, 5 days a week. This, along with the naturally occurring water, makes it very buggy.

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Posted in Bureau of Land Management, Burns, Rupert, State, merganser, owl, quail, sheep, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Bear Lake

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

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Bear Lake is a 20-mile-long natural lake, half in Idaho and half in Utah. Both states have state parks along it. The first thing you notice about it is it’s color, a Caribbean blue, due to suspended limestone deposits. I stayed 5 days at the Idaho State Park Campground on the east side of the lake. When I arrived mid-day on a Sunday, it was jammed. Within two hours though, it was just me and three or four other campers. It is a popular weekend place for young families and young people. Boating and jet-sking are allowed and you can drive on the beach (4-wheel drive recommended). When I left on Friday, it was starting to rapidly fill up again.

Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located right across from the north end of the lake and was the reason for my visit. Saw a few sandhill cranes in farmland around the refuge, as well as a pair of swans in the marsh along with a fair amount of waterfowl.

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Two different red-tailed hawks seen in the area. There are also osprey.

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Kestral

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Sora

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What looks to be an old church in the small village of Ovid.

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Posted in American kestrel, Paris, State, hawk, sora, sunset, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Revisiting Grays Lake Wildlife Refuge

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Noted a number of changes in Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge from my visit in June. Snow was gone from the mountain tops, the lake/marsh seemed to have more water, most of the wildflowers were gone, and the marsh had a copper color. There are a lot more sandhill cranes visible, often with juvenile cranes. Most nesting birds have moved on. Did not see any Franklin gulls. They are most likely on their way to South America.

Stayed at Blackfoot Reservoir Campground this time. It is a beautiful BLM campground about halfway between the refuge and Soda Springs. The first night discovered there were lots of flying bugs there. The same “midgies” that I saw in Klamath Falls in August of 2007 that were brought from France because they eat mosquito larva. To their credit, there were not many mosquitos! Also, there were a huge number of swallows nearby that seemed to appreciate having the bugs to eat.

Saw lots of hawks and fledgling hawks in the farmland around the refuge.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, National, Soda Springs, hawk, horse, sandhill crane, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Stayed a few days at Henry’s Lake State Park, a little south of West Yellowstone, just so I could visit the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. I had put off visiting it before because you have to drive more than 25 miles over a dirt road. Was glad I did not try and drive my trailer over the road. Found it to be a mix of washboard, rock, and potholes…really bad. Making it hard to get to probably is a good thing. It is one of the most beautiful and remote wildlife refuges I’ve been to and being hard to get to probably helps keep it that way.

Picture above: Upper Red Rock Lake. The Centennial Mountains are seen when you look in the other direction.

Passed over Red Rock Pass and into Montana on the way to the refuge from Island Park, Idaho.

Taylor Mountain, around 9,500 feet, near the refuge. There is still some snow on it.

Part of the Upper Lake Campground. I would love to get my trailer here for a few days. You are really in the wilderness without having to backpack into it. Next year I’m going to try going through the west entrance to the refuge to see if that road is any better than the east entrance that I traveled.

Had a staredown with this marmot. Kept thinking it would run away. Finally said, ok, you win, and left. It may have been protecting a nest.

Below: Think these are prairie falcon fledglings, though I’m not good at identifying falcons and hawks.

Posted in Island Park, falcon, marmot, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Have been in Little Pend Oreille National Wildlife Refuge near Colville, Washington, for the past five days. It is an unusual refuge, in that it allows free camping in some designated campgrounds on the refuge and even allows you to use dead or downed trees for firewood. You can even use a chainsaw! The campgrounds are in a dry forest area where there are a lot of tall, skinny trees. There is a firefighting unit on site that helps thin out the trees at this level, to allow the trees more room to grow.

Enjoyed having a campground pretty much to myself. There is a dirt/gravel road that circles around the refuge and takes you past the campgrounds and the visitor center. A few bicyclists took advantage of this low traffic road. There are some roads off this main route that are pretty rough. Some of the campgrounds allow horses, but owners have to remove all horse manure!

The birds were generally elusive. I was lucky to find a large flock of cedar waxwings flying through the air catching bugs next to a bog. The white bugs bounced up and down over plants that circled the bog and didn’t bother me. The waxwings didn’t seem to mind me either. They were flying all around intent on catching the bugs. Once and a while there would be a shrill whistle and they would all scatter, only to return a few minutes later.

Saw an eagle and an osprey hunting over a pond.

Campsite at the refuge.

Posted in Airstream, Colville, cedar waxwing, eagle, wildlife refuge | 1 Comment »

Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

I am visiting Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, around 20 miles from the Canadian Border. The cedar waxwing, above, has some fledglings in the berry bush. The leaves were so dense, I couldn’t get a good picture of them.

On reading about Bonners Ferry on Wikipedia, found that it is near where the Ruby Ridge incident occurred. The write up on Wikipedia about this is like a novel. There are lots of places in the woods around here to try and escape society.

It is really crowded here with rv’s and motorcycles. I stopped by Glacier National Park on the way, but it was also jammed. Hope to get back there. A Canadian radio station made the comment that they just have two seasons: winter and July. This may have something to do with the crowds. It’s the best weather of the year.

Have seen this moose and calf three times. The adult always detects when people stop to watch her with the calf and she heads back into the tall grass.

Osprey. An adult was two posts down from it eating a fish.

On leaving the refuge one day, I noticed the silhouette of the back of an owl on a utility pole. I slowing walked towards it, not wanting it to fly away. Came to find it was a fake owl! Read where they were put on utility poles to keep osprey from nesting, but the osprey ended up using the fake owls in their nests.

Young deer going out into a wheat field where an adult was grazing.

Posted in Bonners Ferry, cedar waxwing, deer, geese, moose, osprey, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Benton Lake National Wildife Refuge

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge is near Great Falls, Montana at the western edge of the northern Great Plains and 50 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. It has many of the birds I saw at Camas Refuge in Idaho, with a few differences.

Above, eared grebe with offspring. Still seeing some young ones riding on a parent’s back. The other parent dives for food for the baby during this time. Have seen some young ones like the one above, start diving. The just stay under water a few seconds though.

Breeding sora in the marsh.

Ibis

A standing yellow-bellied marmot. Have also seen a muskrat.

Upland sandpiper

Willet

Long-billed curlew

Phalarope

A night heron carrying a black bird in it’s beak, with the black bird’s significant other chasing after them. The heron disappeared with it’s prey into the marsh foliage.

A pair of western kingbirds are nesting near the refuge visitor center. They fuss at you when you pass by. Have also seen eastern kingbirds.

When I first got to Great Falls, I stayed two nights at Walmart. During the day, I took my trailer to the refuge. One night, there were around 25 other rv’s staying in the Walmart parking lot. After two days, I moved to Fort Benton. It is an unusual small town, in that it’s in a canyon made by the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark thought this area was paradise when they stopped here. It later became the last stop for steamboats from St. Louis and then a major railway stop. The fort was built to protect people from outlaws and indians.

In looking on the web for information on the Upper Missouri River Breaks, found that cattle have caused a lot of problems here, as they have elsewhere.

“The BLM reports that past grazing management has resulted in almost complete elimination of important woody shrub species such as red-osier dogwood, chokecherry, serviceberry, currant, and gooseberry – all of which are highly important as food sources for mammals and birds. Another grazing related problem is the impending demise of riverside cottonwood forests. Presently almost all of the cottonwood trees along the river germinated from seed in the 1880s, before grazing was occurring on the river. As cattle grazing became an entrenched use on the river, cattle have systematically eliminated virtually all young cottonwoods, leaving no replacement trees to take the place of the old and dying mature trees.”

Posted in Fort Benton, Ibis, White Falls, grebe, heron, kingbird, marmot, phalarope, sandpiper, sora, wildlife refuge, willet | No Comments »

No Bull!

Friday, July 10th, 2009

This is the typical landscape, without the bison, that you see driving from Bozeman to Missoula, Montana. Outside of the towns, it is only lightly dotted with homes and ranches. Most offramps have signs saying “No Services”. I did not see a single highway patrol or sheriff’s car until I got to Missoula. The picture above, of course, is from the National Bison Range.

Bison calves among the big guys. The 2,000 lb bulls are imposing. The bison are moved to a different pasture each day. Wonder how it is done.

This was the only pronghorn I saw tagged like this. It would be hard to catch a pronghorn, the way they can run.

Above: A catbird at the refuge.

Below: Another beautiful view from the refuge road.

Posted in Flathead Lake, St. Ignatious, antelope, bison, catbird, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

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