Wildlife

Shorebirds and Drought in Eastern Oregon

Throughout eastern Oregon and the Intermountain West migrating and nesting shorebirds depend on saline and freshwater lakes, playas, and nearby wetlands for refueling during migration and for breeding. For example, Wilson’s Phalarope use saline lakes throughout the region as stopover habitat.

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Scrub Jays and Range Expansion

Written by Peter Pearsall/Photo by Kay Steele We marvel at birds for a wide variety of reasons: colorful plumage, melodious songs, intriguing behavior, canny adaptations, and so on. But perhaps

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Trumpeter Swan

Swan Capture At Benson Pond

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge was once home to as many as 20+ breeding pairs of Trumpeter Swans. As recently as the 1990’s Refuge biologists have a history of collaborating with and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists and managers from Summer Lake Wildlife Area to capture cygnets from Benson Pond and transfer them over to Summer Lake.

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A Trumpeter Swan Mystery Studied

Numbers of migrant Trumpeter Swans moving through eastern Oregon have increased dramatically over the last two decades, particularly at Malheur Refuge and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) Summer Lake Wildlife Area. We want to learn more about the origins of these trumpeters and to identify their breeding, stopover, and wintering sites.

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