When I first visited the display pond at Malheur NWR in October 1978, I was
a new birder driving a 1974 Dodge Colt wagon. I saw some life birds on the
pond that fall. With the back seat folded down I could sleep in the back
of my vehicle, camping in the parking lot by the pond. Before dawn the
Canada Geese that roosted on the pond for the night would begin to wake,
then gabble, and finally take flight to go out to feed for the day. I
learned to park parallel to the pond so I could look out the side window as
the sun lit the pond. Dawn at the pond is magical.
By 1985 I was in a Datsun pickup with a camper. I had screens so I could
get air and still avoid mosquitos. Malheur Lake had risen to include the
display pond. Waves crashed against the shore at night. If I walked to the
restroom before bed in the fall, I passed deer in the rut on the lawn.
By 1988 I got my first Plymouth Voyager, a 1987 model. The back seat could
convert to a comfortable hide-a-bed. That allowed me to run the heater
before going to bed to warm the back end of the vehicle. The lake continued
to encompass the pond. The old photo blind was destroyed by the waves. As
the lake receded, archaeological remains were exposed on the shore, evidence
of visitors long before our time.
The hide-a-bed later moved to a 1988 Voyager, then a 1998 Dodge Caravan,
then a 2007 Caravan. The pond returned to its present size. Many changes
have happened, but Malheur and the display pond remained magical. A new
photo blind is in place. Many friends shared my vehicles' back seat on
Birding Weekends and just ordinary visits. Many good birds were spotted
through those years: Bay-breasted Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Black-throated
Green Warbler, to name a few.
After 28 years the time finally came for that back seat to retire.
On Friday, July 8, I parked my new 2013 Toyota Rav4 in the driveway of the
borrow pit across the road from the parking lot. I walked across the road
to look down on the display pond. It is half-drained, exposing a large
patch of mud. On that mud I saw 425 FRANKLIN'S GULLS and 75 WHITE-FACED
IBIS. I've never seen so many of those birds in the display pond; without
human disturbance the birds could be there. There were a few killdeer, and
flocks of Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds in the reeds.
Malheur endures.
Paul Sullivan
