Our Malheur Field Station birding trip began and ended at the refuge headquarters today. Migrants continue to populate the trees there: both kinglets, Wilson’s and Nashville Warbler, more solitaires, Swainson’s Thrush in the shadows, Olive-sided Flycatcher in the treetops, and the Broad-billed Hummer continues to please the crowd. We headed out to Princeton where we saw seven Golden Eagles, a half dozen Ferruginous Hawks and 102 Sandhill Cranes–all the latter in one flock at the nature pull-out across the Hwy 78 from the Princeton Post Office. We saw two of those Golden Eagles go after a flock of Canada Geese, and fail, settling down to recover their price on a nearby irrigation pivot.
But my favorite time came at the end of a long day, about 430PM, back at refuge headquarters where we watched a male Evening Grosbeak eating seeds from fallen spruce cones…and ignoring our curiosity:
Towheeblog 
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