Favorite Memories From 2012

I was reading one of my favorite garden bloggers, and saw she had reviewed her year with favorite pictures. Another blogger is suggesting that we all do the same thing and then link back to his blog. This is another reason I love to write a blog and read other people's blogs.  They really both expand my views and energize me. But anyway, I decided to do the same. 

This past year has been the  most exciting year of my life. ( At least except for the year I got married or had my first child.)  I got to work and explore California and Eastern Oregon and got on vacations in Idaho, North and South Dakota, Montana, and Minnesota, New Mexico, and Utah.  I've also had some great times in Texas and Louisiana since I've returned south. I've had more adventures this year than most people have had in a decade.

 I spent the first two months of the year at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge, for a total of four months there. I got to live with three young guys in the bunkhouse, which was a new experience, and had four of my friends visit me for a week. We also had a famous visitor, the falcated duck, who stayed for nine weeks and attracted around 10,000 visitors. Wintering ducks and wading birds were our big attraction there. The flyout every evening was magnificent and awesome. We also had raptors, including bald and golden eagles. And I enjoyed the people I met there, including people that came for the tours I led or for the children's photography workshop I facilitated.  We even had an eagle sit low enough in a tree that all the children could get a good picture of it on their little cameras.

 A few of the birds of Sacramento  Complex Refuges

 While there I did a lot of traveling and  especially loved meeting  the chickens of Yuba city. And I was totally blown away by the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. It was fabulous, even in January.

A few of the feral chickens of Yuba City

A few of the fantastic gardens and plants at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden.

 At  the end of February, I made two trips to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, about four hundred fifty miles away, to get all my stuff transferred. On the second trip, I took a break and visited the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay, which crosses the Sacramento River in the heart of Redding, California. I was stopped by  big-horned sheep in Oregon on my way to Malheur.

The Sundial Bridge at dawn

These are iconic pictures for me. I love the California quail, was amazed by the big-horn sheep encounter,and my picture of the Blitzen River was a finalist in the National Wildlife Refuge Association Photography contest.

The two big icons of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are Malheur Lake and Steens Mountain.  Steens Mountain is visible from most places on the refuge. Malheur Lake is too big to photograph from the ground.

A view of Steens Mountain in early spring

 I was told to be SURE and visit the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. I ended up visiting it twice, the second time to show it to my friend, Lucy.  The fantastic colors in the Painted Hills were the most amazing parts of the monument to me.

A view in the Painted Hills Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds

 I fell in immediate love with Malheur  - both the refuge and the staff.  I begged to stay all summer. But there wasn't room for me in August so I started inviting my friends to take a vacation with me. Several of them did, and I also had my own vacations in between. I ended up having to spend two months on various vacations in New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota. It was definitely NOT a tough life.

One of the beautiful mushrooms I found in the Boundary Waters

The pool called Morning Glory in Yellowstone National Park

Crystal Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Yellowstone Buffalo

  I worked back at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in October, finishing up my bee pinning and bee display.  I'll write a blog on it as soon as I get the finished files for the posters my boss was making, using my pictures. She is also going to send pictures of the finished display.  I just left dried plants with bees and butterflies glued to them and several boxes of pinned bees.

My  friend, Lucy, stopped by to see me on her way from Alaska, where she worked all summer, to Texas. She hung around so long, I suggested she just ride home with me. We managed to cram in lots of good places including, Craters of the Moon National Monument,  Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and Petrified Forest National Monument.

A few hoodoos

View on the Emerald Falls Trails in Zion

 I enjoyed getting to spend time with one of my oldest friends, Hulin, and also visiting the huge camillia research garden in his town.

I finished out the year by visiting old friends and getting in some more paddling. I also did a lot of cooking and gardening. The end of the year found me back in Louisiana at Lake Fosse Point State Park camping and paddling.It's going to be hard to top last year. But I'll definitely make the effort to do so.

Paddling a little canal with Bill and Bob in the Atachfalaya Basin

One of the features of Natalie's yard is a huge satsuma tree. It gives the neighbors and us fruit from late November until February. One neighbor trades us deer sausage for the fruit.  A very good exchange!

Memories of Malheur

While looking for a photograph, I kept getting distracted by memories of Malheur NWR, gathered from last March.  I thought you might enjoy a look back with me.

This tower is identical to the one at Sacramento NWR, my last assignment, so was a welcome first sight of Malheur NWR. And it has been  the scene from the kitchen window of Coyote Hollow, and from the living room window of Carp Haven. And when we spot it on the way back from Crane Hot Springs - our Tuesday night out place this summer - we know we are only a few miles from the refuge and bed.

Several species of animals were always entertaining  us all over the refuge headquarters. The Belding grouond squirrels have gone back into hibernation after their grass dried up.  They spend up to nine months hibernating but have been out most of the time since I arrived. One squirrel trained me to leave bird seed near his burrow by coming towards me and whistling every time I brought the seeds around to fill the feeders. And another would climb my yard willow tree to eat oranges and peanut butter. 

The California quail are also always present and usually cheering for Chi-ca-go. They often distracted me from my computer work.  I had to stop work to take this picture out my window. Now most of their children are full grown but I saw one pair with little babies a few days ago.

The Donner and Blitzen  River brings the refuge the water it needs to maintain the wetlands before filling up Malheur, Mud, and Harney Lakes. This part of the river has been rehabilitated to make it a better habitat for the local redband trout. This view of the river from near P-Ranch, is my favorite river view.

Owls played a huge role in my bird life at the refuge. The late afternoons and evenings were enhanced by the flight of short-eared owls over the golden fields. A burrowing owl family raised a family of five, only a few yards from the highway  to Burns. I stopped to look for them almost every time I went by. And a snowy owl passed through our area in early April and I got to get a life look at it.

A pair of great horned owls  has lived in the fire tower for several years. I often fell asleep listening to their conversation. They raised two babies.  A few nights ago, I heard the youngsters calling for their supper and found them sitting together. The last time I found them, they still had baby grey feathers on their heads.

Willows are an important tree on the refuge. The Civil Conservation Corp planted non-native golden willows at Benson Pond. Today they provide holes for tree swallows and produce copious amounts of nectar and pollen that attract all kinds of bugs. And the native coyote willows are found along the Blitzen River and various canals. They too, support insect and bird life and are the best place to find yellow warblers, vireos, raptors, and owls.

The land here is a wonderful mix of desert, volcanic outcroppings, and wetlands. The beauty is doubled by the shallow waters when it reflects a sunset or a cloud-strewn sky.

The late afternoon sun turns the low hills to gold.

One of the reasons I wanted to be here in the late spring and early summer was to see breeding ducks and waders. This avocet built her nest only a few feet from the road.  I took this picture from my car. A few weeks later, the pond that was just behind her dried up and I never did see the avocet babies. But I have seen lots of black-necked stilt babies.

One of my big jobs here was to collect bees so we could get a baseline idea of the species that occur here. I'm also working on a display that will have dried flowers, bees, and butterflies from the refuge in it. This was probably the first bee I saw up here.

One of the birding hot spots on the Refuge is Krumbo Swamp.  It is just where the road to Krumbo Reservoir is gated.  There is a great overlook where you can set up a scope and enjoy birds for a half hour or more. And the hill above Krumbo Reservoir held the most wildflowers this spring.

The refuge has the westernmost breeding population of bobolinks.  When the males arrive in June, the immediately start singing from every shrub, post or fence available to them.  But soon they are living most of their lives down in the grasses of the wet fields.

As soon as part of the Steens Mountain Loop Road opened, I went up to Steens Mountain Campground and camped for a few lovely days. Later I got to drive the entire loop but still haven't had time to do some of the hikes I would have like to do.

A beautiful valley along the Steens Mountain Loop Road.

We are always excited when we find black-crowned night herons.  This one was near one of my transects and flew a short ways, then stoped to watch me take his picture.

Life here depends on the water from the snow melt off Steens Mountain. And the mountain dominates our landscape from much of the refuge. This was one of the first pictures I took of it and is one of my favorites.

This blog was written just before I went on a series of vacations from Arizona to the Boundary Waters. Then I came back for a few more months at this magnificent place, leaving after the first snow storm of the season.