Super Spring

OK, I confess, it's actually almost the end of July but I should have written this in May! In January I wrote about looking forward to spring and some RPM (relaxation, photography and musing), and in March about the slow and cool but welcome coming of spring. Come halfway through April the weather was still cool but a break was forcast for a few days. The wife wasn't ready yet but I was out the door and down the road. Driving through snow and ice in the passes (six or seven of them), I made my way to Malhuer NWR in SE Oregon. The day I got there it cleared off but the wind was at 30 mph the whole day. The real goal for this spot was a grouse lek in the hills, so with the promise of a good tomorrow I drove up and spent the night beside the road near the lek in my newly remodeled camper van. It turned into a beautiful morning with 12 or more sage grouse doing the chest puffing exercise I had come to see and photograph.
   This was my third trip to this location. The first time I was also alone and had a beautiful morning but parked wrong and had the sun in my eyes. Also I was using a 35mm film camera with a comparative small lens. After going digital and buying my long telephoto lens I felt I could do better so a couple years ago I made the second trip. My wife was with me on that one. We arrived in the afternoon then too but it had been raining most of the trip. We thought since we didn't have much else to do we would check out the road to the lek. It wasn't good! It didn't start too bad but when it got that way there was no way I could turn around so we continued to the top and the lek. We decided then we might as well stay up there the night, we had everything we needed with us, So as it started to get dark it also started to snow. And the wind blew, a real spring blizzard. It lasted all night and well into the next day. Finally the wind died and the snow began to melt. The road was still too treacherous until late in the afternoon when we finally drove out. We didn't see any grouse of course. Well, coming back to this trip, how wonderful to finally get it right.

After leaving the lek I was off to Ruby Lake NWR in NE Nevada. An isolated wetland out in the middle of high desert, this sounded like my kind of place. And so it was. I arrived just in time to find a campsite and settle in for the night. From my campsite in the morning I was able to look out across the whole valley. As the sun rose I could hear the birds singing and calling while watching them fly here and there over the wetland. What I didn't hear was a single sound made by another human or our infernal inventions, until I started mine. I almost felt ashamed.
   Most of the refuge is seen from an auto tour route of several miles. I drove it several times with my big lens hanging out the window and was able to get a few good pictures, some of birds not photographed by me before. Interestingly, the few times I left the van I had no success at all. Even though I was careful to use the van as a screen, as soon as I could see where they were, they weren't. In other places I have quite often gotten better pictures that way, but not here. I said I had my lens out the window but in fact I found it better to keep it out of sight until I'm ready to shoot. This is always the best practice but it seemed to spook the birds more here than usual.
   By mid-afternoon I felt I had seen all I was likely to from the van so I headed out for the east side of the Great Salt Lake. I had intended to go to Antelope Island but by the time I arrived the campground was full, it was close to dusk and there were people everywhere. Definitely not my kind of place. Doing a uuee around the ranger booth I headed north to Bear River Refuge. After stopping at a campground at Willard Bay I discovered my sewer dump was damaged and my holding tank was approaching max level. Bummer! In the morning I decided I would check out Bear River refuge and head for home.

Arriving at the beginning of the 12 mile auto tour route at daybreak I was happy to note a few fishermen along the road but only one other car on the refuge. Soon I was turning the van this way or that across the road, lining up the camera and lens out the window. Occasionally I had to let someone go by but only one was an idiot. I spent about nine hours and circled the refuge three times and hated to leave.
   I drove straight through coming home, stopping to sleep awhile at a rest stop in Oregon. Startng with the morning at the grouse lek, the sun was out everyday. The mountains were still covered in snow from the days before and besides just being pretty, gave me reason to consider what a great gift I had been given. The beauty, The solitude, the wildlife and the neccesities to enjoy it. After struggling through much of last year, I felt almost rewarded. Little did I realize it was going to get even better. I'll tell more about that in the next page but, if you notice this is more of a trip summary than a musing, it's because I hardly have had time. But there are a lot of pictures to remind me and give me fuel when I get to it.
   I should mention the pictures on this page; the one at the top is, of course, the Greater Sage Grouse. It seems almost indecent but I guess the girl grouse like it. Then the Black-crowned Night Heron that I saw at Ruby Lake and Bear River as also was the case with the White-faced Ibis. These birds can be found in Washington State but not where they can be photographed like this. The sun in the morning and evenings in the open country is really great, but I'm not used to having it and have some to learn about making full use of it. I'm willing to do that, though.