With high hopes we traveled to the wildlife refuge first thing the first morning.   Yet we were a bit later than probably needed to see many birds as we found that it is also a place used by many locals to walk their dogs and do their morning runs.   Still we found geese, ring-necked pheasant, lots of quail (a surprise to me that we saw so many quail during our stay), ducks and the blackbirds.  The quail are pretty spooky when you stop so they were hard to photograph - and the little buggers can move amazingly fast.   I thought it was pretty cool though to find one of the blackbirds suitors showing off for a girl!   The refuge has some really great trails though and would be a great place to go back to and I can see why the locals like it so much!   It is a very peaceful and meditative place.

The refuge was established in 1964 and is named for a MT senator who grew up in the area.  It is also one of the very few remaining undeveloped tracts of land in the valley.   It is a haven for wild birds and waterfowl as well as deer and other wildlife.  They do a great deal of bird banding in this spot during the summer.