Saturday, May 9, 2015--Klamath Falls to Bend, OR--Klamath Marsh NWR

The temperature this morning was a crisp 34 degrees and sunny. A meadowlark greeted us with his cheery song as we loaded up our car--and a Rough-winged Swallow posed as well.

We left at 7:30 am. The GPS said we would arrive at Bend at 10:30 am. That, along with Klamath Marsh, was our destination for the day, so we decided to squeeze in a couple extra stops. The first was Putnam Point Park at the southern end of Upper Klamath Lake. It was recommended as the most reliable spot in the Klamath Basin to observe dancing Western and Clark's Grebes. We saw many grebes resting in the water with their heads on their backs. A few pair were doing their head bobbing thing, and fewer still danced along the water but not long enough for photos. As the temperature was so cold, my guess is they were hunkered down waiting for warmer temperatures to begin their courting rituals.

We got a bit more color than yesterday with this Ruddy Duck, still not as much as we could see through our binos

There were more Eared Grebes, too

Our next stop was at Collier Memorial State Park where we searched in vain for woodpeckers and a dipper. The pine trees were beautiful and we enjoyed the scenery.

Tall pines

and the pristine Spring Creek

Next we visited the Klamath Marsh NWR. A state road goes through the refuge but there are no auto tours or walking trails. Instead there are numerous small pullouts where you can scope the marsh. 

A family of Canada Geese had homesteaded this area.

The elevation of the marsh is about 4700 feet. We heard soras whinnying about every 30 seconds but we could not find one. It was mid-day; evening is a better time to look for them according to the ranger at the visitor's center. But it was really cool to hear so many and so close!

You could visit the refuge for the views alone!

Again, we enjoyed watching the Forster's Terns hovering and diving into the water.

A Ring-necked Duck floated quietly by

followed by his lady

The ranger at the small Visitor's Center was both knowledgable and helpful. First, he opened the office so we could use the "flush" facilities! He also told us some of the history of the marsh.

The Klamath Marsh was home to the Klamath Indians for generations where they collected seeds of the lotus blossoms that still thrive in the marsh.  

When the settlers came, they took over much of the land from the Indians through trickery of one kind or another, and then the ranchers drained much of the marsh, put in railroads to take down the timber, and used the pine trees to make apple boxes. Once the timber was removed from an area, they moved the railroads to the next canyon so there is little old growth timber remaining. 

In 1958 the Federal government purchased 16,000 acres of the marsh from the Indians for the refuge. There was a lot of politicking of many tricky sorts that contributed to this sale, to convince the Indians to sell their homeland. There was a push to "assimilate" the Indians at this time.

We chose this gravel road to exit the refuge--17 miles of gravel. The roadbed was made of red volcanic rock, and the land itself is gray pumice as you can see on the sides of the road. This directly came from Mount Mazama (Crater Lake). You wonder how the trees could even grow in the ash/pumice mix, but they do quite well.

Our ranger friend had suggested we might find woodpeckers along this road. I did see a Williamson's Sapsucker flit from tree to tree. Alas, no photo.  

And even though we tried very hard, we did not see the Black-backed or White-headed Woodpeckers, or the Great Gray Owls that reside here. 

We did, however, see this cooperative Mountain Chickadee.

There was another small marshy area where we saw approximately 1 million Yellow-headed Blackbirds--too many and too flitty to even count or photograph. We had never seen nor heard so many before. It was almost overwhelming!

This Barn Swallow was easier to capture and very colorful, too

An unusual pair of Red-tailed Hawks attracted our attention and sat still just long enough

We arrived at our motel at 4:50 pm--not 10:30 like the GPS foretold.  We drove 172 miles today, 17 on the gravel road. New trip birds were the Soras we heard, a White-breasted Nuthatch, the Williamson's Sapsucker and a Western Tanager that flitted briefly through the pine trees.

We managed to wear ourselves out having fun again today! Fittingly, this is the worst motel of our trip, but we are too tired to care. This is the first time on the whole trip I called a reservation in advance--and it didn"t work as well as I hoped. But we are heading for home tomorrow and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!!!!