194 Vol. XXI 
BIRD NOTES FROM SOUTHEASTERN OREGON AND NORTHEASTERN 
CALIFORNIA 
By GEORGE WILLETT 
WITH FIVE PHOTOS 
HE WRITER spent the greater part of the summer of 1918 at Malheur 
Lake, Harney County, Oregon, in the interests of the United States Bio- 
logical Survey, and, while there, accumulated the bulk of the bird notes 
that make up this article. There will be found, however, a few additional items 
from other localities, principally from Clear Lake, Modoe County, California, 
and from the territory between Malheur Lake and Klamath Falls, the latter 
having been covered by auto in company with Dr. G. W. Field and Mr. Stanley 
G. Jewett, both of the Biological Survey. 
More than four months, from April 23 to August 27, were spent at Mal- 
heur Lake, so that the notes from that immediate section may be considered © 
fairly complete for this season of the year, but those from other localities are * 
more or less fragmentary. From April 4 to April 16 was spent at Clear Lake 
and, though quite a number of species of birds were observed at this time, some 
of the regular summer visitants had either not appeared at all or were present 
in small numbers at the date of my departure. The auto trip from Malheur 
Lake to Klamath Falls occupied nine days, from August 27 to September 4, 
inclusive. While on this trip we travelled almost continuously during daylight 
hours and undoubtedly missed seeing many species of birds that were common 
in the country traversed. The principal points touched at this time were Dia- 
mond Valley, Warner Valley (Adel and Plush), Warner Mountain, old Fort 
Warner (east side of Warner Mountain), Paisley, Summer Lake, Silver Lake, 
Bear Flat, and Upper Klamath and Chiloquin marshes. 
Malheur Lake, one of the best water-bird nesting grounds in the United 
States, is situated in Harney Valley, Harney County, Oregon. The lake and 
surrounding tule marsh cover approximately 75,000 acres. The water body, 
while several miles in width, is very shallow, being only from six to seven feet 
deep at high water. During the latter part of the past summer—one of the 
driest in the history of the region—the water in the lake probably averaged 
less than one foot in depth, and the surrounding tule marshes were mostly dry. 
The two principal streams that feed the lake are the Blitzen River, running in 
from the south, and the Silves River, from the west. Along these streams a few 
miles back from the lake are straggling groves of willows, the only timber in 
the entire locality, with the exception of occasional cottonwood trees planted 
around ranch houses. On the hiils directly surrounding Harney Valley are 
scattered groves of stunted junipers, and the rolling country between the hills 
and the lake is mostly covered with sage (Artemisia tridentata) and grease- __ 
wood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus). Around the outer edge of the swamp are ex- 
tensive wild hay fields that furnish nesting grounds for many ducks and other 
species of ground-nesting birds. 7 
During my entire stay in the region I boarded at the Alva Springer Ranch, 
which les on the Blitzen River at the south end of the lake. There are living ~ 
springs on this ranch which form a pond known as the Spring Branch, flowing — 
into the Blitzen. Where this spring water empties into the river there are — 
: 
