In the days immediately following the Harney County Migratory Bird Festival, there was another, slightly more technical celebration of migratory birds underway. A small crew arrived on Sunday April 19th and spent the next two days installing a third MOTUS tower at Malheur, this time at the Double O unit on the Refuge’s western side. This new tower, or receiver, expands a project that has been growing steadily since the first MOTUS towers were installed at Refuge Headquarters and near Boca Reservoir.
As we shared in earlier Friends blog posts, the MOTUS Wildlife Tracking System is an international collaborative network that uses automated radio telemetry to help researchers better understand migratory animal movement. At Malheur, the system supports Refuge wildlife surveys by helping staff track tagged shorebirds using habitats on Malheur and Harney lakes, as well as nearby wetlands, playas, and other important stopover areas.
The Double O location is especially exciting because it opens a window into a different part of the Refuge landscape. The new tower may help detect tagged birds using Stinking Lake, the west spring of Harney Lake, and neighboring BLM lands, adding another layer to the growing picture of migration and habitat use across the basin. That broader geographic reach is exactly what makes MOTUS so valuable: it connects isolated observations into a larger story about where birds go, how they move, and which habitats matter most along the way.
Meanwhile, you may also notice the installation of an interactive MOTUS Kiosk at Refuge Headquarters. The kiosk helps bring this science to the public so that visitors can explore the detections from each tower, watch migration tracks of individual birds, and learn about the species being detected. This tool was funded by Friends of Malheur and built by volunteer Richard Schramm who has designed similar units for other refuges that host MOTUS towers. With the addition of the Double O tower, there is even more to explore on the kiosk! This real-time tracking data displayed is exactly what the scientists are seeing, but through a more accessible format, helping visitors learn how Malheur contributes to a continent-wide network of bird monitoring.
For Friends of Malheur, projects like this reflect the best kind of partnership: science, education, and public engagement working together to support conservation. With each new MOTUS installation, we gain a better understanding of the birds that depend on the Refuge and a better way to share that story with the community
