Cold Springs NWR.
This weekend I wanted to visit somewhere new so I picked a random spot from Birding Oregon and headed out... I ended up near Hermiston at Cold Springs National Wildlife Refuge.
Between I-84 and the refuge are cows, farms, more cows, some horses, and these hawks:
They look to me like Swainson's Hawks with the lighter patches on the face... I could be wrong (as always).
I eventually arrived at the refuge after stopping to check Google Maps on my phone a couple times.. There are no signs from the "main" roads and the directions from Birding Oregon were vague at best.
The refuge consists of several parking areas with trails to different areas of the Cold Springs Reservoir. The trails pass through cottonwoods and willows while the rest of the refuge consists of sagebrush fields.
My first find:
The willows were filled with warblers... A Townsend's Warbler:
A new one for me!
Jake and I walked along the reservoir shoreline for quite awhile...
It got pretty hot quickly and…
Between I-84 and the refuge are cows, farms, more cows, some horses, and these hawks:
They look to me like Swainson's Hawks with the lighter patches on the face... I could be wrong (as always).
I eventually arrived at the refuge after stopping to check Google Maps on my phone a couple times.. There are no signs from the "main" roads and the directions from Birding Oregon were vague at best.
The refuge consists of several parking areas with trails to different areas of the Cold Springs Reservoir. The trails pass through cottonwoods and willows while the rest of the refuge consists of sagebrush fields.
My first find:
The willows were filled with warblers... A Townsend's Warbler:
A new one for me!
Jake and I walked along the reservoir shoreline for quite awhile...
It got pretty hot quickly and…