The first weekend of April is always the semi-annual meeting of the Nature Photographers of the Pacific Northwest.  This year the meeting was held in Eugene, Oregon.  We had just purchased our “new to us” 1989 Volkswagen Syncro Westfalia, so we were anxious to take it on a road trip.  Although we stayed with friends in Eugene for the conference, afterwards we headed out on an adventure to Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and Klamath Falls to photograph birds in the wetlands.

It was a great shake down trip for the van.  Nights were cold and we found the heater worked great.  We found some great places to camp in the National Forests and had good luck spotting many birds as they migrated north.  I think we had the best sightings in the Klamath basin due to a general lack of water at Malheur.  But we throughly enjoyed exploring the Oregon Badlands, Malheur, the town of French Glen, Field Station, and the Alvord Desert in northern Nevada.

Here is a sampling of what I shot on that trip. For the complete gallery, click here.