We just returned from a photo trip to the Birds of Prey area SE of Boise and Malheur NWR in Oregon. If you plan to go there soon and want photo advice, feel free to contact me by email or phone. Thanks to Jerry Boadus and others who supplied us with information, it was a terrific trip! The Birds of Prey area on the Snake River was interesting but too hot for my liking. Lots of Prairie Falcons as expected but we didn't stay long enough to do much good with them. Our 5 days in Malheur were much better. Every day produced new photo opportunities from a Western Grebe presenting chicks with fish they were too small to eat to a Golden Eagle in a nest on a cliff side with a baby peeking up from time to time. We also photographed a Red-tailed Hawk nest with babies near P Ranch and Sand Hill Cranes with babies near headquarters though their numbers overall seemed to be down. The Black and Forester's Terns were readily available for photographing flying over and the Yellow-breasted Chats did show from time to time while frustrating us to no end calling from within nearby bushes. We were there a month earlier last year and the increase in numbers of birds from then was incredible. White-faced Ibis, American Avocets, Black-necked Stilts and Wilson's Phalaropes lined practically every body of water with mud flats. Last year we saw no Wilson's. All of the usual inland ducks were around with more Cinnamon Teal than I remember. The White Pelican colony had to number in the many 1,000 with huge numbers along Ruh-Red Road and singles in most of the bodies of water. Each day new warblers showed up at the headquarters. In addition to the usual we would see around here, a Black and White Warbler showed up our last day. We picked up 4 lifers and around 90 species without working very hard.


David Gluckman
811 22nd St.
Pt. Townsend, WA 98368
360 379-0360