A Pleasant Birding Hike at Hatfield Ponds Preserve

 

Killdeer

 

 

Date: July 1, 2020

Place: Hatfield Ponds, Bend, Oregon

Coordinates: 44.119642, -121.204333

Length: 1.8 miles

Level: easy

The cropped image of our hike's map is misleading. Yes, we did hike that route, but the actual pond was much, much smaller than the blue area indicates. We arrived at Hatfield Ponds in the afternoon of our second day in Bend on or 2020 summer trip, after visiting the High Desert Museum and hiking to the Benham Falls. Hatfield Ponds is a small water management area and nature preserve northeast of Bend. I found this place on the local Audubon Society website as a fine birding location, and our main objective on this hike was birding. 

Our hike as captured by Pappa Quail's GPS

Already at the trailhead we saw that the area was much more arid than we expected it to be. We could barely see the water, a small blue spot surrounded by a wide white dry lake floor and and dry looking sagebrush area dotted with small juniper and pine trees. We started eastward on the trail, hiking the loop counter clockwise. 

The mix of junipers and pines was one of the reasons that Pappa Quail and the elder chika wanted to check this place out - it was a place where they hoped to finally see the pinyon jay which had so far eluded them. 

We didn't see any pinyon jays on this hike, but we did see quite a few birds. The first birds that welcomed us were cliff swallows. A flock of these swallows were busy in the canopy of one of the larger junipers. 

The swallows kept flying in and out of that one tree, ignoring all the other trees nearby. They kept pushing one another, trying to decide where are the prime perching locations and who is entitled to roost there. 

Cliff Swallows

While my family birders were focusing on the swallow tree I was talking with my young chika and looking at the ground. My young chika was disgruntled because she wanted to go back to our lodge already, and here we were, dragging her on yet another hike in a place that for her was boring. I listened to her with sympathy but I was happy to still be outside. I also found some wildflowers to be happy about. 

The day had grown hot and the trail we walked on was pretty exposed. We walked quickly, trying to get closer to the water. The trail however, was circling what was left of the pond as a wide berth. 

hatfield Pond

I was looking for flowers but the dry soil didn't seem to grow much except for the scrub regular for this land. Some of the bushes did bloom though. 

Rabbitbrush

At a much closer look I detected the tiniest of the popcorn flowers I've ever seen, their bloom dotting the tiniest shrubs just below my feet. I don't think I would have even noticed them if I wasn't looking very hard for wildflowers. 

Cryptantha

The juniper trees were a different matter however. They were not large but they did look prosperous and healthy, and each had a very unique and distinct shape, like having its own personality. My family birders kept scanning the trees in search of jays and other birds. I simply admired the trees. 

Juniper

The trail curved again around the pond, maintaining its (and our) distance from the water. Using the binoculars we saw that there were indeed birds in the water, little dark dots against the blue background. They were just too far to see or to get any decent photograph of. 

We turned north with the curve of the trail. On this side bloomed many groundsels, their stems and leaves coated with silvery fine hairs, protection against radiation and dehydration. It's almost an axiom that wildflowers blooming when almost nothing else is, they would be of the aster family. 

On that side of the pond we also got as close as we could to the water. It was sad to see how low the water level was so early in the summer. Together with the poor wildflowers display it was the effect of the hard drought on southeast Oregon. 

Hatfield Pond

Even before seeing any birds we could hear the shrill calls of the killdeer birds. With their powerful zoom lenses, Pappa Quail and the elder chika got the caller's photos (heading this blogpost). We settled in one spot and they started pointing out and photographing the birds in the water. 

Wilson's Phalarope (right) and Blackbird? (right)

I did my best to follow along with my binoculars. The young chika moved to the side and looked for interesting stones and sticks, voicing her boredom, and desire to get back to the lodge.  

Greater Yellowlegs

There were quite a few birds in the pond, but they represented only a few different species, and none that my family birders considered 'lifers' meaning seen for the first time. 

Cinnamon Teal

They were not disappointed though, and very meticulously identified each and every bord they saw, and photographed all of them, even the most common ones, and those we see on a daily basis near our home. 

Canada Geese

Eventually we resumed our walk. Not interested in extending the hike further into the high desert scrub we turned around the pond again and walked west. The grand view of the Three Sisters volcanoes. Our plan for the morrow was to hike there, at the Three Sisters Wilderness. 

The Three Sisters

Swallows kept flying in and out of the trees and overhead. Occasionally they would pause on a tree branch, which made it much easier to take their photograph. 

Tree Swallow

 Despite the late afternoon hour it was a hot walk back along the exposed trail. The chikas walked ahead and quickly disappeared behind the trail curve. Pappa Quail stayed behind with me and we enjoyed a little time on our own. We also were dripping sweat by then, and ready to return to the air conditioner. 

All that time we kept searching the juniper trees on the trail side. Some of these junipers were gray from all the berries they matured. Juniper berries are used in some populations as a spice and as traditional medicine. One day I might try it. For the time being I was just enjoying their beauty. 

Pappa Quail was looking for things other than berries. He and the elder chika reunited again, found a fly catcher hiding in one of the juniper trees. The little gray bird couldn't hide from their birder's eyes. 

Ash-throated Flycatcher

A gap in the trees revealed Mount Bachelor to our eyes. There's a ski resort on the slopes of this mountain but sadly it had very little snow cover that summer. 

Mount Bachelor

There were more of the silver-leaved grounsels north of the pond. Lovely yellow patches filled the gaps between the trees. I didn't see any there wildflowers though, just those groundsels.

Just before completing the loop and returning to the car I turned around and looked at the pond. I stood a bit higher than where the trailhead was, and from here I could see the promise of the blue water in the middle of the dry high desert all around.

We didn't find the pinyon jay but we did have a nice birding hike. And we did have the area entirely to ourselves. Now it was time to go back to the lodge and call it a day.