Malheur National Wildlife Refuge - May 12-15, 2000 - About a dozen participants from Chico and Red Bluff headed up to Malheur to see if we could come up with anything interesting this year. In the past, we've tried this trip on Memorial Day Weekend, and been told "You should have been here two weeks ago!". If this year is any indication, the earlier date might be better for large numbers of Common migrants, but later might be better for rarities (of course, in birding, nothing's set in stone!). We came up with around 135 species this year; in 1999 we had 126 species. We did take a side trip to the oasis at Fields, which accounts for a few extra species - Some other Altacalers who were not with our group had Northern Waterthrush and American Redstart there, and our only Macgillivray's Warbler was there.

The trip did have a few other highlights, such as standing in a field with a few hundred Lazuli Buntings. Experiences like that don't happen often, and can make a trip worthwhile even if we don't see a lot of rarities!

As we did last year, we came up with a few birds that were listed as "Accidental" on their list (or not on their list at all!) including Green-Backed Heron and Anna's Hummingbird - We think that their list may need a bit of work. Other good birds included Short-Billed Dowitcher, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Red-Necked Phalarope, and Horned Grebe. For our final birding stop, we paused at a reliable spot near Lakeview on the way home to pick up a life Chukar for a few folks.