Since Dennis posted his observations of southern Oregon, I thought it might be interesting to post some recent observations from central Oregon, where I went on the first half of a two-week (separated by one month) effort to find breeding birds, in mid-May. As Dennis says, the weather has been unusually wet and cold this spring, and I got hailed on, rained on, blown around, etc. Only a few patches of sun brightened my days (usually in the late afternoon). I spent some time in one assigned area consisting primarily of cattle country around Paulina, the theory being that an earlier trip was better for lower elevations and a later trip better for higher elevations (heading to Ochoco Natl. Forest in June). This was interesting and frustrating, because everything was fenced off and the ground was in general, pretty trampled. It was almost painful to look at, especially with all the rain the area had been having, which also limited access to many of the roads I wanted to try to take. Nevertheless, there were some fun and even exciting finds. Highlights:

Paulina Valley was largely flooded due to the recent rains and I lucked out and got permission from a very large landowner/rancher to walk around on the dikes and see what was out there. Here I did find long-billed curlews, a willet (!), and rafts of ducks, pairing off in the side channels, including green-winged teal, mallard, cinnamon teal, northern shoveler, gadwall, american wigeon, ring-necked duck, and eared grebe. Early western kingbirds and lots of kestrels frequented the slightly dryer spots.

In another flooded area, I found the same ducks, along with a pair of Wilson's phalaropes, the sound of snipes winnowing in the distance, and lots of showy red-winged and yellow-headed blackbirds. More long-billed curlews flying overhead and calling to each other. There was even a sandhill crane out in the meadow.

A little further along the cattle road, I was startled by a horned lark only 10 feet away on top of a rock pile, by far the best look I have