Towheeblog

This was the final day of our Malheur Field Station fall birding trip.  Much of it was spent up US 395 north of Burns.  Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches in the ponderosa forest, Cedar Waxwing in Devine (or De Vine says one road sign) Canyon,  both Steller’s and Canada (nee Gray) Jays at Idlewild Campground area, Mountain Chickadees, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Hermit Thrush, ravens, juncos.  There were also over a hundred cranes, all overhead in southbound migratory Vs, bugling their way to winter vacationland crane-style.

But an early highlight was at Malheur refuge headquarters.  Before breakfast we saw downy feathers decorating the skirts of a spruce near the visitors center.  Then, through a gap in the branches, we saw two Great Horned Owls, resting after their evening repast of collared-dove whose feathers we’d seen.  There were a couple warning screeches, then the two owls went back to sleep, confident we could not climb the  tree to pester them on their perch.