OR ~ Butterflies at Prineville Reservoir

Common Checkered Skipper egg laying

Common Checkered Skipper

Purplish Cooper

Bernie and I decided to drive a nature trail around the lake.  It's an "unmaintained" road which means lots of holes, bumps and so forth. We were hoping for even more birds than we had seen already around the reservoir.  What we found were birds, very low water levels and an explosion of butterflies on Rabbitbrush.  The Juba Skippers are apparently a rare find.

Blue Cooper ~ life butterfly

Juba Skippers ~ life butterfly

Juba Skipper ~ life butterfly

OR ~ On the way to Matheur NWR

Golden Eagle ~ life bird #405

Yesterday, Bernie and I were excited to see a Clark's Nutcracker at Crater Lake (which was life bird # 406 for me) but today just driving along the road from Bend, OR down to Burns, OR we saw at least 3 Golden Eagles.  I have seen Golden Eagles before but never got good looks at them so didn't count them on my life list so now Golden Eagle is life bird #407.  We drove over to Malheur NWR only to find it closed.  It was closed due to the fact they are starting the trials for those persons who took over the Refuge & occupied it for about 40 days.  So no birding there but by the entrance I was able to see a Sage Thrasher (life bird #408) and several new life butterflies including Common Ringlet, Western Pygmy Blue and Purplish Cooper.  We also stopped at several cow pastures along the way where there were butterflies, ducks and shorebirds.

American Widgeon

Common Ringlet ~ Life Butterfly

Western Pygmy Blue

Purplish Cooper ~ Life Butterfly

Sage Thrasher ~ life bird #408