American River Otter (Lontra canadensis)
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)
Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum)
Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
Lisa dropped Cathy and me off at the High Desert Museum south of Bend this afternoon. Going to this sort of place is always a little bit of a risk because you’re paying to get in before you know much about it, even if you’ve looked at their web site. Nevertheless, we decided to take the risk and I’d say it was the right choice.
The indoor exhibits are nice, with life-sized dioramas depicting various scenes of life in the high-desert area of Oregon. There is also a nice art collection, with some really beautiful works. Our interest, though, was more on the natural history of the high desert. There were signs and exhibits that told us about the plants and animals that are found throughout the region. We had already identified the rabbitbush (Ericameria nauseosa and related species) as one of the most abundant and obvious shrubs in the area, since it is blooming just about everywhere. But there were other plants we were not so sure about or that we hadn’t yet seen and identified (in our short time here so far). I particularly like the manzanitas (various Arctostaphylos species). These are seen throughout the grounds of the museum as well as all over the wild areas around Bend.
Outdoors, we first went to see the American river otter (Lontra canadensis) exhibit. There were three otters and they were very actively swimming around, coming up onto the shore and posing for us. I got a few nice shots of one standing up and looking around, as well as some close ups, like this one. We saw quite a few golden-mantled ground squirrels (Callospermophilus lateralis) as well as quite a few chipmunks (Neotamias species), all running around in the woods.
Back inside we saw Juniper, a female common porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) and a bobcat (Lynx rufus), both of which were beautiful, even if in captivity for whatever reason. The museum isn’t really cheap but for us, we considered it worthwhile, especially if you’re new to the high desert. It’s a nice introduction to the natural history of the region.