We’ve been on a week-long trip to Malheur and Bear River with lots of photos.
This shot of a Mourning Dove taken on our first morning at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
will have to serve as a place holder for our trip until I find time to process all the shots we took.
I doubt I’ll get back to Big Beef Creek this year unless the season runs longer than usual, so I’ll end this episode with a couple of my favorite shots of the Great Blue Herons.
The main reason this is my favorite place to shoot herons is that you actually get to look down on them as they fly past,
and you’ll never find them with a bigger catch than they make here routinely.
As it turned out the birding was better at Seabeck than at Big Beef Creek. I saw my first juveniles at Seabeck. This one flew over my head and landed a block or so down the road and waited for me to get there before flying off.
As I headed back to where the herons were feeding, this beautiful adult landed in almost the same spot and seemed entirely indifferent to my presence, giving me time to change the angle and the background. It was strangely thrilling being this close to these powerful birds.
Unfortunately, I was seduced by the close-up shots so I missed the kind of shots I was really shooting for. While walking back, the Bald Eagle flew past and buzzed the herons to get them to drop their catch.
A few minutes later the juvenile pulled the same trick.
Maybe in my next life I’ll learn the value of patience, though not if the last 75 years are any indication.
Because the Great Blue Herons weren’t catching sculpin near the shore, there weren’t many Bald Eagles at Big Beef Creek. The pair that seem to live there were hanging out together in the tall fir and they both flew out, caught a sculpin, and flew back
to same tree where they seem to feed on their catch every time I’ve been there.
After feeding, the pair rejoined each other on the beach and proceeded to “sing” for a steady five minutes — the first time I’ve observed that behavior.
It was slow enough and the tide was far enough out that I decided after a few hours to go to Seabeck to see what I could see there.