I’m at Malheur volunteering for the Friends of Malheur Refuge in their Crane’s Nest Nature Center and Store. Generally, I’m scheduled for three days a week, so I have time off to bird and explore.
During the past several years, we have volunteered for a month each year at Refuge Headquarters, helping at Crane’s Nest Nature Store and taking on a few assignments around the Refuge such as checking signs along the trails and the Central Patrol Road (CPR), and helping with the annual highway clean-up near Frenchglen. This year, we enthusiastically agreed to be stationed at the far south end of the Refuge at the homesite of the former Pete French Ranch, now known as P Ranch.
Seven field birders braved the frigid temperatures and snow-covered ground along with 2 feeder watchers at their home on the southern part of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Frenchglen to count birds for the annual Refuge Christmas Bird Count on Wednesday December 14.
Written by Suzanne Simons/ Photo by Dan Streiffert Flocks of birds and people disappear overnight. Tundra swans, snow geese, birders, volunteers. It’s disorienting. Squawking, raucous lines at the gift shop
By Julie Burchstead Cover: Avocets and Yellow-headed Blackbird in Marshall Pond by Julie Burchstead As a girl, growing up in NW Oregon, curious about all things nature, and appreciative of
