2015-06-09 Ken Denman Reserve

Red-Breasted Sapsucker - Sphyrapicus ruber One of the most pleasant and personally rewarding episodes for me on this expedition was the stay I had with my nephew and his family in southern Oregon. I hadn’t really been able to spend time with Chris and his family until this visit. Chris did not know well his dad (my brother) and now that my brother has passed away I have become a sort of link to the past for him, and he had questions. For reasons too complex to go into here, my brother was not my favorite person, and reliving old memories was not a process that I do happily, but on a request such as this I can not refuse … or it would be very selfish of me to do so.

I had three pretty productive photo safaris during my stay here. This is the first.

Kenneth Denman Wildlife Area, formerly the Rogue Valley Game Management Area, near Eagle Point, Oregon is 1,858 acres on the Rogue Valley floor near some low, flat-topped mountains called Upper Table Rock and Lower Table Rock. It is a tract of land that was formerly a military reservation. Access is restricted, but by paying an annual fee, a key to open the locked gates is issued for a year at a time. My nephew and I visited and explored these grounds and I went back later my myself. Subjects that I was able to capture were Black-Headed Grosbeak, Common Merganser, Red-Breasted Sapsucker, River Jewelwing, Song Sparrow, Spotted Sandpiper, Spotted Towhee and Tree Swallow.