I got sunburned yesterday. It wasn’t unbearably hot, but it was sunny with a few fluffy clouds floating around. Today started with a gray looking sky and it sort of went downhill from there. It was overcast all morning and while we were walking out along the highway, in a cloud of mosquitoes, looking around for the site of a reported burrowing owl, the rain started to fall.
On the bright side, that seemed to take care of the bugs, but we never found the owl we were looking for, and we ate lunch in the car alongside the road south of Burns. Scanning all the while for little flashes of colorful or interesting birds along the side of the road and out to the horizon.
One thing we did see along that highway, was a small body of water that was buzzing with acrobatic birds. I don’t know why they had concentrated on this tiny, temporary lake, but swallows and black terns were zipping around snapping up insects. They were amazing to watch and didn’t seem to be bothered by the rain at all.
After we headed further south, we pulled off near Buena Vista Viewpoint and it was as if we had the entire refuge to ourselves. We could only take pictures out of the leeward side of the car because the other side was being pelted with horizontal raindrops. We did get to see an American Bittern which was a first for us. My wife photographed it. We were both looking at it and thinking “oh my… um… um.. ” and then she says “Give me the picture… taking… thingy!” She plans to post this later and I’ll make sure you have a link to it when it’s available.
We returned to our cabin and there was a brief period of sunshine, so we quickly suited up and went for a walk down to the campground. By the time we returned, it was about 8:45 PM, nearly dark and hailing on us.
It feels good to be back in this warm, but drafty cabin again. The wind is blowing hard and I have to wonder if I am going to have power for long.
