Written/Photos by Teresa Wicks, Portland Audubon’s Eastern OR Biologist

Refuge Celebration Week is right around the corner and we have plenty of things to celebrate about Malheur. We could celebrate the emergent and submergent vegetation growing on Malheur Lake for the first time in well over a decade. We could celebrate the thousands of birds reared on Malheur Lake this year. Or we could celebrate the partnerships that help get work done at Malheur. That helped make Malheur an inspiration for collaborative conservation work since I was an undergraduate. 

But I’m going to take this opportunity instead to step out of my typical biology or conservation zone and I’m going to step into something akin to a socio-emotional celebration of the place that I have called home for over five years now. 

There are many birders who make the annual trek to Malheur in the spring, to check as many bird species as possible off of their yearly lists. “Leaf peepers” make their annual trips to Malheur and Steens Mountain to catch a glimpse of the truly breathtaking fall palette tinting the mountainsides and canyons gold, orange, and red. When I’m asked my favorite time of year at Malheur I nearly always say “any season is a good time of year to be at Malheur.” Though this time of year I find the call of winter the most irresistible.

Winters at Malheur, particularly after a recent snow, are made for introspection. You can often go for a walk across headquarters, looking across silent and fluffy, undisturbed snow. There are fewer birds, but many more swans. I love the feel of the cold stinging my cheeks, my breath hanging in droplets, semi-frozen in the air, the only sound the crunch of snow under my feet. Malheur in winter is about processing the previous year. About reflecting on the spectacular beauty that the spring cacophony of birds and wildflower blooms brings. 

The other, less popular season at Malheur is mosquito season, aka summer. As a fan of the cold, and not so much the heat, I find summers at Malheur the most difficult to celebrate. But even still, there are fledgling and flocking Bobolink, the males looking goofy in their half-fanciness as they molt into their less colorful winter plumes. White-faced Ibis busily oink-oink-oinking their way from nest colonies to wet meadows. Baby Black Terns, cheaping from their floating nests. And now, our twin toddlers helping fill bird feeders, greeting birders, and filling the air with their giggles, shouts of joy, and sometimes their cries. New life exploring and learning the world is certainly a good reason to relish summer at Malheur. 

Transitional times at Malheur, spring and fall, are good for many things. Most of them for me center on celebrating birds. Which is a good transition back to October and Refuge Celebration Week. October 14th is the end of Refuge Celebration Week, the October Big Day, and an annular (aka donut) eclipse. So, Portland Audubon and Friends of Malheur are partnering with Walk for the Wild to “Walk the Big Day” at Malheur. There will be several opportunities for walking and birding and viewing the eclipse. You can find more information here: 

And finally, we can’t properly celebrate Malheur and fall transitions without acknowledging the transition in staffing at Malheur. Deputy Project Leader Tara Wertz will be retiring on October 31st, two years after joining the staff at Malheur. Tara has been with the service for 22 years, across several refuges including two more remote than Malheur (Arapaho and Arctic NWR). We’re wishing her luck as she transitions into her retirement. As Tara’s retirement will leave the top two positions at the Refuge open, we know we have more staff transitions on the horizon.

I can feel the yearning for winter in our crisp mornings and encourage FOMR members to make the trek to Malheur one winter, so you too can find time and space for introspection and to reflect on all that Malheur brings to our lives.