Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests
Crooked River National Grassland

Wildlife Viewing Sites Etiquette For Wildlife Viewing Adjust your behavior to protect wildlife. Watch or photograph animals without knowingly disturbing, chasing, or repeatedly flushing the animal in alarm. Keep a respectful distance from nests and young, especially in hot, cold, or windy weather. Protect the natural surroundings. Stay on existing roads, trails, or pathways to protect fragile ground cover. Leave the area as you found it (including gates). Respect the rights of others. Know and observe the laws, rules, and regulations governing the site. Get prior permission to enter private or posted property. Be considerate of others around you. Observers in groups have added responsibility. Remember that group actions have magnified effects. Inform others in your group about these guidelines and monitor so all behave responsibly. Don't tolerate unethical viewing behavior. If you witness inconsiderate or harmful viewing etiquette, assess the situation and intervene if prudent. Otherwise, document it in detail and promptly notify appropriate authorities.

VIEW SITES By Name By Area WILDLIFE HABITAT IMAGE GALLERY FOR KIDS LINKS/CONTACTS

Techniques For Finding Wildlife

The most essential ingredient to appreciate the secrets of nature is patience. Whether hiking or sitting, patience will allow an experience that hurried observations often miss.

Getting Close To Wildlife

If you visit by vehicle, remember that some wildlife are not alarmed by an automobile. Your vehicle can become a blind from which to observe, hear, or smell. It's the automobile occupants that may cause distress - humans exiting, making noise, freeing a pet dog, or deliberately chasing wildlife. While watching roadside wildlife, stay put. Crank the windows down slowly. Be still or move slowly.

Using Common Sense

Use your vision - look forward and behind - to spot movement or a distinguishing color, shape, or texture. In summer, expect animals to be in the shadows instead of direct sun, and in concealing vegetation rather than openings. During the cold of winter, searching the opposite places can be productive. Look for evidence of an animal's former presence: tracks, hair, feathers, shed skin, ground-level or cliff-face excrement, burrow or tree excavations, and chewed, rubbed, or trampled vegetation.

Hearing can be vital to finding - or distinguishing - birds and mammals. Certain animals are difficult to see because they are tiny, wary, or nocturnal. However, their calls or songs can give away their presence and identity. Some birds sing in notes too high-pitched for impaired human ears, but a companion observing with you might compensate for that deficit.

Your nose can locate wildlife that sight or sound may not detect. For example, Rocky Mountain elk emanate a strong 'barn-yard' odor that can give away their presence even at a distance. The smell of a bushy-tailed woodrat's nest is so distinctively like turpentine that alert observers in proper habitat can find the precise location.

Studying Natural History

Spend some time reading local field guides. Get to know the habitat, physical appearance, and behavior of your quarry. That understanding will increase your probability for seeing animals, and heighten the exhilaration of an encounter.

Although some animals generalize in their habitat preference, many are very specific. You can find the American robin almost anywhere, but don't expect the horned lark within dense forest or the American dipper far from water.

Distinguishing one species from a close relative can be difficult without a field guide in hand. A nuance in marking or size can be telling - separating the house wren from the winter wren, for example - so such knowledge can make you the expert.

Understanding animal behavior can even help you anticipate the unknown. The frenzied alarm-calls of red-winged blackbirds could be unmasking a predatory great-horned owl hidden nearby. Observing only a sentinel California quail can alert you to an entire covey if you know that the species is colonial.

USDA Forest Service - Deschutes & Ochoco National Forests
Last Modified: Friday, 12 March 2004 at 12:40:34 EST