Wandering in the USA: Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

Tucked away in the southeastern corner of Oregon is Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - 187,000 acres of sagebrush, wetland and riparian habitat. Over 320 species of birds and 58 species of mammals benefit from the refuge. And bordering Malheur is the recently designated Steens Mountain Wilderness.

Many species come to Malheur to breed and nest, including short-eared owls, sage grouse, western snowy plovers, sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans. During spring migration, hundreds of thousands of waterfowl descend on Malheur's wetlands. Songbirds also rest at Malheur during their northward migration in May and June: they are commonly seen at refuge headquarters, P Ranch and Benson Pond.

We spent May and June in 2007 at the refuge as volunteers, Kay worked in the Visitor's Center and Bill did a number of building projects as well as other maintenance around the refuge. Neither one of us has ever claimed to be a "birder" or really know anything about birds, but by the time we left there at the end of June we could actually recognize and name a number of different species. We had a lot of time to explore the area including a day trip around the Steens Mountain Loop, lunched at the historic French Glen Hotel and had a fabulous dinner at Diamond, OR at the historic hotel there. We also drove on a really bad road to see the Kiger mustang herds, visited the Round Barn (originally used by Peter French to train teams of draft horses).

We really enjoyed our time there, as well as all the rangers and staff, at Malheur and we hope to return there again in the near future.