Counting snowy plover (unofficial), Alvord Desert, OR Copyright © 1997, Don Baccus (dhogaza@pacifier.com)
Copyright © 1995, Don Baccus
All images copyright © 1995, Don Baccus
Desert playas are the flattest and most lifeless pieces of landscape on earth. The Alvord Desert, which lies at the base of Steens Mountain, is no exception. In summer, its cracked, sun-baked surface is smooth enough to drive across, or for small airplanes to land on. The only visible signs of life are the carcasses of small insects which have died after being blown into its barren expanse by the wind. When melting snow or spring thunderstorms wet the fine silt which forms its surface, it turns into a thick, sticky shoe-eating mud - a tennis shoe of mine is still out there, somewhere, a foot or so under the surface.
On the western edge of the playa, visible for the road which runs between it and Steens, is the Alvord Hot Springs and its galvanized tin bathhouse. This is privately owned, but public use is tolerated. The life-giving waters of the spring flow out over the playa for a mile or so.
In the desert proper, the hot springs themselves provide the only bird habitat. Between the bathhouse and the playa, long-billed curlew nest in most years. Out on the playa, a large colony of snowy plover nest, along with many killdeer and a few American avocet.
