May, 2022
The other day we drove along the earth dam, and then took a road heading south in order to see all those lava rocks and lava tubes and the water potholes fed by underground waterways. Today we drove along the earth dam, and then headed north … to the very north end of the reservoir/lake. We were in search of migrating birds.
Fair warning, turns out we had missed most of the migrating birds. Those birds just didn’t get that email with the schedule they were supposed to follow!
Be we saw interesting local birds, and we saw other interesting things, and had a great day exploring lots of stuff in addition to this area. But let me show you just this one small piece of the north end of the reservoir/lake.
The image below is from Google Earth. Mardon Resort is the sold RED DOT at the bottom of the image. We drove east, then north, then west, then found the small gravel road (the RED ARROW) that took us down to the waterway (the YELLOW ARROW). The image below might be misleading in its size; it took us about an hour-and-a-half to get from Mardon Resort to the big red arrow.
And here, in the image below, is how you find the RED ARROW turn-off that then takes you down a gravel road to the north end of the reservoir/lake. You drive eastbound or westbound on Interstate 90, then find an exit that will allow access to S. Frontage Road NW, then you drive along that road until you see two giant power “poles” … one with three poles and one with two poles, and then you take the first dirt road that’s on the west side of those poles. I found those directions online on someone else’s blog. There was no sign posted at this turnoff!
RED arrow points to the power poles. Turn onto the gravel road that the YELLOW arrow points to. 🙂
Further south along that gravel road, there was this sign below. Hmm, why not put the sign up near Frontage Road?
We arrived at the reservoir after another 30 minutes or so of driving on the gravel road. Lots of water here. Lots of blue sky and white clouds. Lots of flooded land, but also lots of land still above water even at “high water”. The pieces of wood floating in the water gave the birds and other creatures access to bugs and such for food. More photos coming that show that. You can see a bit of the gravel road in the two photos below.
We kept driving, very slowly, along the road for the mile or two that it crossed the waterway and meandered around the waterway. We saw two other vehicles parked along the road in here, obviously folks who had driven in and put a small boat in the water for fishing. But in all the time we were here, we saw no other humans.
Eventually, we arrived at a closed and locked gate across the road. There was plenty of room for parking so we did that and started off on foot.
Almost immediately, we came upon another Cinnamon Teal. By now, we knew what he was. 🙂
We could hear birds … everywhere! We just couldn’t see them. Keep in mind that before the O’Sullivan Dam (the earth dam) was built that created this reservoir, this was pretty much all “dry” land. So there are many trees and shrubs that grow in the water today, but used to grow on dry land.
Take a close look at the photo below. There is a bird in it. We kept hearing chirping and fluttering, but it took us a LONG time of standing and staring at a spot, then staring at another spot, etc, before we finally found our friend. Ok, I’ll put an arrow in the photo, and then I’ll show you the little bird in photos below.
Is this a White-rumped Swallow? Help me here.
And then a few minutes later and over along another waterway, this very brightly-colored bird appeared (below). We couldn’t get very close to it, so my photos aren’t too sharp, but you get the idea. How pretty.
I think this one might be a White-throated Swallow, except that all the photos I see of them online have a tan/brown spot right above the beak, and this little person did not.
And you may have noticed that there are LOTS of plants growing hereabouts. The one below was just coming up, just sprouting, in the spring weather of the month of May. What is it?
Up along the path even further, we found this pond off to the left. It was so peaceful here, and quiet, even with the bird song.
Upon closer inspection … more Cinnamon Teal ducks!
On our walk back to the big white truck that was waiting patiently in the parking area by the locked gate, this fellow landed just a few feet from me, just for a fraction of a second. He was fast! But I got a pretty good photo of him. 🙂
I think this is an adult Killdeer. No? Yes?
The weather during the entire trip here to the potholes area was spectacular … blue sky, warm enough for just a light jacket or a second shirt during the day, no rain. We still have another day or two here, so stay tuned for one or two more blog posts.