FROM: Stacy Peterson
Walla Walla College
College Place, WA
petest at wwc.edu

Greetings All,

What a weekend! Nothing like a trip to Malheur to get the juices
flowing. The blood-birding level was getting kinda low! Not any
more....

My wife and I made one of our two planned trips to Malheur NWR this
past weekend and had a great time. Birding was plentiful. 102 species
within a few miles of refuge boundaries - 108 for the trip (we made a
jaunt to Fields, OR on Friday). We arrived at Page Springs CG shortly
after midnight - technically Friday morning! Most of Friday was spent at
Fields, OR, with the remainder of the day at Malheur Headquarters.
Saturday was spent at Headquarters and all the normal stops down Center
Patrol Road.

FIELDS, OR and vicinity birds-of-note

Yellow-breasted Chat - singing!
Solitary Vireo
Lark Sparrow
unidentified Empidonax - ??Hammond's??
Lazuli Bunting
Great Horned Owl - resident
Western Tanager
Yellow Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Gray Flycatcher - in desert a few miles east of Fields. - Life Bird!
Black-throated Sparrow - same location as above
Sage Sparrow - same location as above
****************************************************

Malheur NWR birds-of-note

HEADQUARTERS

Red-breasted Nuthatch
Black-and-White Warbler ("Yep, Honey, that's a Red-breasted Nuthatch -
Keep an eye out for black and white birds that
act like that and call me if you see one."
(ha, ha) - PAUSE - "Stacy, I think you'd better
come over here!")
Warbling Vireo
Solitary Vireo
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Townsend's Warbler
Cedar Waxwings
Say's Phoebe
Great Horned Owl
Lazuli Bunting
Western Tanager
Evening Grosbeaks
Cattle Egret - in field from road into Headquarters, by cattle (imagine
that)

GREAT-TAILED GRACKLE and COMMON GRACKLE were reported from HQ Saturday
morning (I didn't see them), ditto with NASHVILLE WARBLER. BOBOLINKS
were reported from P Ranch the same day, but we missed that one too.
Most of the shorebirds are gone - except for BLACK-NECKED STILTS -
everywhere, and a few LONG-BILLED DOWITCHERS.

Overall - an excellent trip. My wife and I are returning in a few days
to do it all over again! We will be leaving Wednesday night (May 18) and
will spend the weekend in Malheur - again! Gotta do it now before we
move to Southern California in July!

By the way, if anyone wants more detailed lists of what we saw and were
we saw it, just email me and I'll be happy to send you a copy.

QUESTION - Does anyone know good places to get FLAMMULATED OWL along the
road from Pendleton to Burns? I hear there are a number of places, but
we didn't see/hear anything both times we went through (evening on the
way there, DEAD OF NIGHT on the way back!)

More later...

Stacy Peterson
petest at wwc.edu