It's National Wildlife Refuge Week, let's celebrate! My all time favorite National Wildlife Refuge is Malheur NWR. I first went there around 2000 armed with a 300 mm lens and a 2x Extender with a Canon film camera. I had heard there were Sandhill Cranes there, so I went there for a week in mid September looking for newly arrived cranes. I think I heard a few, but I discovered so much more. The abundance of birds, the wide open landscape, the room to breathe, just the freedom of the West, so prevalent in the High Desert of Eastern Oregon. Here are just a few of the birds that can be found at Malheur, and a few landscape iamges as well.
A Sandhill Crane pauses during feeding to checkout the surroundings.
From near the Refuge Headquarters a full moon rises over the landscape.
Lake Malheur from The Narrows at sunset.
When there's water at Malheur the birding and the bird photography is fantastic. Didn't Roger Tory Peterson himself describe this a a birding place not to be missed!
A Black-necked Stilt chick foraging by the side of the road in a "wet" year.
An American Bittern by the side of the road in one of the years where tehre wre birds everywhere.
One of my all time favoirte birds becasue of the way they sit side-ways and the sound they make when they dive through the eveing air.
Sunset on the high desert near Malheur Lake.
White-faced Ibis flyinig near sunset.
In the spring, a huge variety of songbirds migrate thorugh the refuge, and migrate traps like the Malheur NWR Headquarters site arrtact them.
I love the way Western Meadow Larks sining along the side of the road as I approach the refuge make me smile.
Our National Wildlife Refuge system protects and preserves land and animals. It's one of the things that makes America a great place. I encourage everyone to visit a National Wildlife Refuge and for a few minutes just stop and listen. You'll hear the natural world, birds, insects, and lots of other animals. Then plan to go out and experience a sunrise or a sunset at a Refuge, when the sun breaks the horizon it's usually magical.
If you'd like to join me on one of my photography workshops to Malheur Natioanl Wildlife Refuge, more information can be found here.
Many thanks to Sue from A Sense of Wonder for giving me the idea that I need to post about Wildlife Refuges this week.
Enjoy! Thanks As Always Tim