Malheur National Wildlife Refuge
This is Oregon’s greatest birding spot, which frequently comes up on magazine lists of the ten or so best birding places in the country. The time to show up here is during spring migration in late April or early May. In April you’ll find flocks of snow geese that fill the sky like so many glittering jewels. In May serious birders flock here to spot vagrants — migrating non-native birds that have gotten lost and shown up, like confused tourists, in the marshy oasis. A good introduction to birding here is the annual John Scharff Migratory Bird Festival in April.
Our favorite thing to do here is get up before dawn and drive about 5 mph down the Center Patrol Road (known here as the CPR), a straight, flat, gravel road that runs down the center of the refuge. Besides birds, you’re likely to see antelope, coyotes, badgers, porcupines, mink, otter and mule deer going about their business. Go in July and you’ll see lots of animal babies — if you can stand the clouds of mosquitoes. Go in January and you may suffer frostbite.
Refuge headquarters is about 30 miles south of Burns and about 30 miles north of Frenchglen. It has a great little museum. Besides the motels of Burns, nearby accommodations include the Malheur Field Station, the Frenchglen Hotel and the campground at Page Springs. You’re also next door to Steens Mountain, a 9,733-foot peak so beautiful the Bureau of Land Management couldn’t resist building a road all the way to the top.