This weekend, Sarah and I traveled to the northeast corner of Oregon, a region of the state that we had not yet explored.
On Friday, we escaped the rain in Portland and arrived in drier Wallowa County.
Wallowa County borders Idaho and Washington, contains many cows, and has no traffic lights.
The Wallowa Mountains resemble the Rockies of Montana and contain the same plants and birds that are found in my home state.
We stayed in a nice bed and breakfast near the small town of Joesph, the bronze sculpture capital of Oregon.
On Saturday morning, we drove through ranchland and the Zumwalt Prairie Reserve in search of raptors. We had been looking forward to visiting Zumwalt Prairie and its famous density of hawks and eagles.
Unfortunately, the Belding's ground squirrels, a favorite meal of raptors, appeared to be hibernating, so we did not see the Golden Eagles or Ferruginous Hawks we hoped for.
We saw plenty of nice scenery, red-tailed hawks, and mountain bluebirds, however, so the drive was a success.
5 comments:
I haven't been there, but the scenery always looks breath-taking. Someday...
Dang, early hibernation must be tough on the hawks and eagles. Saw a kestrel catch and lose a junco the other day, kind of felt bad for the sparrow hawk hunter that I am. Shouldn't take sides, my biologist daughter reminds me.
Joseph is a superb city, I have almost the same photo of the bronze statue ;-).
Oh, thanks for showing me this! I read the book, "Prairie Keepers" a few years ago and it is one of my favorites! It's all about the Zumwalt prairie and the raptors there! I would so love to visit this place! Thanks for the look through your eyes and your blog!
I looked at all of your photos again and now I want to go live there!
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