We elected to try another wildlife refuge for the destination of the day. About 10 miles from our camping spot in the Riverhaven RV Park is the Deer Flat NWR. We popped over for a glimpse. The refuge is pretty close to Nampa so the solitude and silence we encountered at Snake River Birds of Prey NWR yesterday were conspicuously absent. At Deer Flat, they have a small visitor center with some informative displays but, strangely, dead stuffed birds that look like the operators did not bother using the skills of a taxidermist instead choosing to have a blind amputee create their wildlife models.
Outside the visitor center is a pretty grass area where the staff has installed some feeders that are greatly appreciated by blackbirds, red-winged blackbirds, doves, robins and surely all the bigger birds who find them so tasty. In the river behind the center, an osprey couple has taken up residence in a big nest atop a pole in the river. Considering the abundance of wildlife here, there is little speculation on why they look so well-fed.
We spotted some fishermen in boats in the Snake River behind the visitor center but, after watching osprey pluck fish directly from the water, hook and line fishing seems impractical. We hung out for maybe an hour before we bolted for other climes. On the way back through Marsing, we pulled over and tried a Mexican restaurant named Alejandro’s which had very good food at a very reasonable price. It doesn’t look like they have a lot of competition in this town because very few other businesses exist here and only a tiny fraction of those businesses are restaurants. Marsing looks like it is either dying or dead. It is a pity because the folks we did meet around here were very nice.
We got a few pix that you can see by clicking here