Birthday Walk! June 21 - Wood River and Klamath Fish Hatchery

I spent most of my birthday walking around the Klamath Fish Hatchery and the Wood River Wildlife Refuge.  I met some wonderful people on the Wood...They were from New York State - Sharon and Mark...they were retired, he a biology teacher and she had been a librarian...they had been doing a State a Year, and Oregon was their vacation state for 2013!  They were very sweet and she was an amazing birder...with her strong New York accent she would call out the birds, both of them 'glassing' into the sky...they knew their stuff and it was really an honor to be strolling with them.  We walked along for about 40 minutes, they told me their stories of places they visited so far this summer, and we talked about how hard it is to be a teacher right now with all the budget cuts, high student enrollment and demands on teachers to make a difference...so they have the same problems back east that we do here in Oregon....Common Ground.  They had to move on, because Sharon had the day all planned out, and she was on a tight schedule - what a nice interesting couple they were.  I walked down to the bridge and saw hundreds of swallows, it was a really magical day down there, so many birds with their young, lots of bird song, butterflies and an occasional SNAKE! Yikes!!!! 

 Tree Swallows

 Yellow Warbler baby

 Osprey

 Double Crested Cormorant

 Mourning Dove

 Song Sparrow

 Female American Goldfinch

 Waxwing

 Chickadee

 Drake Mallard Duck

 Pied-billed Grebe

 Night Heron

 Monkey Flower

 Swallowtail on Columbine

 Lupine

 Eagle flying over the ridge at Klamath Fish Hatchery

Sapsucker