Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.
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?On June 17th I woke up to lots and lots of bird calls. Common Poorwills and the winnowing of Snipes could be heard in the early morning. As the sun came up there were Yellow Warblers, MacGillivray's Warblers, Orange-crowned Warblers, Black-headed Grosbeaks, American Robins, Cassin's Finches and House Wrens. The one downside was the Mosquitoes, they were very, very, very bad! They took over our camp, we even found a discarded spray can on repellent, abandoned by some frustrated camper. We used it throughout the trip, along with our "jungle juice".
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The headquarters at Hart Mountain Refuge were only a few miles from Hot Springs Camp. It is an amazingly Mosquito free place, considering what is only a short ways away!!! Here visitors can obtain many maps and pamphlets, including a bird check list. Pronghorn Antelopes were very close by. We headed to nearby Petroglyph Lake to look for the Native American petroglyphs. There were some interesting birds here. In the lake were Mallards and Northern Pintails. Shorebirds included Killdeers and Spotted Sandpipers. On the rocky outcrops around the lake were Rock Wrens and Vesper Sparrows.
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The petroglyphs were fabulous. The one that caught my eye was that of a lizard. There is actually a second lizard petroglyph that is upside down.?Later that?day we saw a number of Horned Lizards and I really think that they resemble this petroglyph strongly with there stubby tails and little fat bodies. I thought that a couple of the petroglyphs may have depicted owls, but I am not sure. There are many anthropomorphic figures as well. Some of you may know more about these petroglyphs. On our way out we ran into a very nice Gopher Snake, but it would not let us take it's picture.
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We next went to the Warner Lakes overlook, a very spectacular view. We could American White Pelicans. They were huge and looked like airplanes or hang gliders.
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After lunch we hiked up to a ridge from Hot Springs Camp on an old jeep road. We kept meeting Horned Toads, I mean Lizards, on the road. This reminded me of a story I heard of Navajos singing to the Horned Lizards as they encountered them in their mountains. The Mosquitoes actually grew worse as we gained altitude, this surprised me!!! We tried to rest by sitting in the grass, and the Mosquitoes poured out of the grass and bushes, I could see them! we went on as fast as we could only losing them when we got to the top of the ridge. Here we found Horned Larks and White-throated Swifts. The Mosquitoes chased us all the way down, picking up numbers as we went. We met two kids coming up with clouds of the bloodsuckers floating around their heads. We tried to warn them that it would get worse but off they went.
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To be continued...
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Mark Vernon
Renton, WA
mailto ma_vern at yahoo.com