Subject: [Tweeters] Burns, OR, area birding
Date: May 25 19:38:07 2016
From: dennispaulson at comcast.net - dennispaulson at comcast.net


Hello, tweets.

Netta Smith and I are at Burns, OR, on a 4-day Malheur NWR trip. Water birds are abundant and diverse around Burns/Hines, all the usual suspects. Not sure I've ever seen so many White-faced Ibis before.

Not far west of Hampton on the highway between Bend and Burns we saw SIX Golden Eagles, a Prairie Falcon, and over a dozen Red-tailed Hawks on the utility poles. I wasn't able to identify all the buteos we saw, some at a distance, and one or more might have been Ferruginous, which I would expect there. They are all presumably feeding on Belding's Ground Squirrels, which are abundant in the alfalfa fields. The locals call them sage rats and kill them off as fast as they can, sadly. But there are plenty enough for the raptors.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle