The sun returned and nature awoke after the storm had passed

The coyote slithered through the thick bulrushes along the Camas Creek emptying into Mud Lake, but the visiting Tundra swans were aware of the predator and flew past me as I hid in a makeshift blind. I was able to get a picture of one of the swans as it headed out to join the thousands of snow geese mixed with other waterfowl resting on the newly ice-free water.

The south breeze was in my favor as the prairie wolf continued down the creek wading through the thick mud created from the weekend storms. When it stopped to clean some of the slimy mud from its paw I started shooting. The heavily pregnant wild dog occasionally stopped trying to find the faint sound of the camera, but was unable to locate me until it had gone far enough to expose my hiding place. Mud flew as it ran behind a willow, leaving behind a very happy humanoid.

Taking the back roads from Mud Lake to Camas National Wildlife Refuge swans, sandhill cranes and snow geese filled a few fields; nesting Great-horned owls, robins, Dark-eyed juncos, even a rare Long-eared owl inhabited patches of Russian olive and cottonwood windbreaks along the roads.

At Camas, I found the big pond full and many other ponds full with water as a smattering of waterfowl were starting to discover the open water. Signs closed some of the flooded auto-route roads and Camas Creek was about half full of running water.

“The storm this weekend caused flooding as chunks of ice a foot and a half thick, along with other debris, blocked Camas Creek until it flooded areas of the refuge,” Brian Wehausen, manager of Camas National Wildlife Refuge, said. “The water slowed on Monday, but we are still filling the ponds from the creek. The birds are slow finding the open water and are still using Market Lake and Mud Lake.”

It has been years since the ponds at Camas has filled this early but their filling and receding will cause mud flats that will attract many types of birds in the coming weeks. Water, along with storms, are the keys to bring in the migrations of birds heading north to their nesting grounds. But they also bring in some of the resident nesting songbirds. Male Red-winged blackbirds, Marsh wrens and even a lone Virginia rail were busy picking out their nesting territory.

With the flooding of the marshes, the movement of rodents to higher ground created a smorgasbord for the Northern harriers, Red-tailed hawks and a Short-eared owl as they harvested their lunch specials.

As I headed home, I passed a farm where a cow had just dropped a calf. An immature Bald eagle and a Turkey vulture were circling overhead waiting for their lunch.

Driving from Hamer to Sage Junction, I checked out a Burrowing owl nest that had been active last year. Sure enough there was one sitting on the lip of the hole. As I approached the burrow, it disappeared only to peek at me, showing just one eye between two little weeds.

I decided to make myself a little late on my schedule by checking out the 11 Burrowing owl nests that had been active last summer. Seven of them have birds in them that migrated here during the storms last weekend.

As I bounced along the desert road smiling, I started humming a song from long ago.

So if you were damaged by the storm, I apologize for enjoying the results of it which caused a delightful day and hopefully busy weeks for me and my beloved wildlife.