Tom:
>Not..

>Kort said this event took place at the juncture of where the
>gravel road ends and the blacktop road begins..

They may've done some paving out there, I've not been to the
westside of Hart in two years. The road up the mountain is
definitely not paved, but the road out of Plush may be paved
as far as the intersection of the refuge road and the continuance
of the first road north past the potholes.

That part of the world has roads seeing pavement for the first
time on an ongoing basis. First, about 20 or so years ago,
was the paving of highway 205 south of Burns, past Malheur
NWR into Frenchglen. Then, ten or so years ago 205 from
Frenchglen to Fields was paved. In the past two years,
Diamond Lane has been paved from Diamond, past Round Barn,
clear up to Narrows-Princeton Road. And there are plans afoot
to pave the Steens Mountain Loop, plans which have been opposed
by some of us in the conservation community and the ranching
community both (one of those rare occasions where there is
agreement). Of course, there are members in both communities
which welcome this and other paving projects. I have mixed
feelings myself - on the one hand, paving brings in more people.
On the other hand, two years ago I had three (3) flats on the
road west from Plush to the highway which runs north out of
Lakeview. I had two spares, but six tires total minus three
flats leaves you with only three functional tires. I sat
on that road in my old pop-top van for 24 hours before someone
came by with a portable compressor and bailed me out. Fortunately
I had most of my natural history library with me, along with
five gallons of water, food, camera, tons of film, and a sixpack
of beer (along with ice to keep it cool). I kind of enjoyed
the solitude, actually, I was in no hurry (and this was Memorial
Day weekend!). Burp!

In an effort to turn this into an on-topic post, let me note
that I was entertained by my favorite song of the sage country
for hours on end, just fifty or so feet from where I was parked.
A Sage Thrasher had taken up residence nearby and was using the
high posts of a roadside cattle chute to sing from. What else does
one need on a fine spring day?

Sage Thrasher are amazing. I can remember a day surveying Snowy
Plover on the alkali flats which surround Borax Lake. Blinding
white alkali underfoot, noontime sun in late June, tromping for
a couple of miles with spotting scope and tripod trying to detect
little white birds in the middle of the brilliant glare. As an
official ODF&W volunteer, I was doing this for free, of course,
though the previous night the bios had treated us to a fine BBQ at
the Summer Lake refuge headquarters. And the state was buying
our meals and lodging at Fields, not even balking at our having
Famous Milkshakes for lunch, dinner, and - to the amazement of
all - breakfast. Three milkshakes a day will motivate my lazy
ass to work hard!

On the edge of the flat, off in the distance, at least a quarter mile
away, on top of a low shrub, sat a Sage Thrasher singing endlessly,
oblivious to our notion that desert birds mostly sing in the morning
coolness and spend the high-noon hours of intense heat and sun shading
themselves in the shrubbery.

Is it obvious that I'm getting psyched about my month-long sojurn
into the Great Basin to band hawks, beginning this coming Thursday?


- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>