We Dusted off our Tent and Sleeping Bags and Hit the Woods

The Idlewild Campground is just 17 miles north of Burns, about an hour away. We love to go there to immerse ourselves in the forest in contrast to the open sagebrush & marshlands of the refuge. We have been up there birding a few times and seen some great woodpeckers and other birds and heard that they have Flammulated Owls. We thought it would be fun to clean out the cobwebs from tent and go camping up there. We wanted to have our tent so we can camp in remote locations that we cannot get Shak3 into. Idlewild is one of those small National Forest campgrounds.

We had a beautiful afternoon and evening. We hike the Devine Interpretive Trail and as we were coming back into the campground we had this male Black-backed Woodpecker grace us with his presence:

These Hermit Thrushes were having an intense discussion in our campground. We think they might be a mating pair.

This Dusky Flycatcher was hanging around at our campsite. There were Duskies perching and calling all through the campground! It really helped us to learn the call of the Dusky.

The camping experience was amazing- we slept like babies on our old blowup air mattress. The magical treat was the hooting Flammulated Owl outside of our tent:)

When we returned from camping we heard there was a pair of nesting Ferruginous Hawks down the road..... and here they were with chicks!

We are so blessed to be able to experience all of the nature around us!

Turtle and Hawk