I took another short trip to Harney County at the very end of May, early June. I was dying to see the wild horses again and also to see what other birds were around Burns and Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. It was almost too late for birds, but I just couldn’t get away before. Also, this time a friend came along, and it was fun to share the experience of seeing all the wonderful wildlife. The headquarters at Malheur are still closed which is a shame, but the Central Patrol Road is open.
For having only 1 full day and 2 half-days I came away with a lot of experiences, memories and pictures. I will do more posts later on the wild horses. This post will just focus on the Yellow-headed Blackbirds (males) I saw. I have to say there was a lot more greenery as my prior trip had been at the beginning of spring, and this time the grass and wild flowers were abundant as were the blackbirds!
The female Yellow-headed Blackbirds are brown with a duller yellow on their chest, so yes, the males get all the attention.
A challenge for me was to catch one in flight in order to see the great white marking on its wings. This was harder to expected, as I was seeing the blackbirds from a car (using it as a blind) along country roads outside of Burns. It is hard to maneuver a long telephoto in a car when trying to follow a bird’s flight and the erratic way the blackbirds take off from their perches on a fence.
Fortunately, there were so many blackbirds, I would just have to move the car up slowly to where another one was perched and try again. I thank my friend for being so patient.
Finally I just got out and approached slowly. This was obviously a hit and miss, and I really didn’t know if I had gotten any good ones until I got home and reviewed them on my computer.
It turned out I was happy with a few, although only this one had the white markings on the wings clearly visible.
Musings with Camera in Hand 