By John Spilker

Dan Streiffert had been home just two days when he greeted the crowd at Eastside Audubon's May Program Night. He had driven back from Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, where he had photographed sandhill crane colts.

Streiffert, a retired software engineer and president of the Rainier Audubon Society, spends about a month at the refuge each year. He volunteers with the Friends of Malheur Refuge and spends much of his free time photographing wildlife. Most of the photography happens from his car, with a bean bag on the window and a 600-millimeter lens, which lets him get close without spooking his subjects.

His talk, "How to Bird Malheur," was a tour of what keeps him coming back. Greater sandhill cranes nest on the refuge, and during the April bird festival the fields can fill with thousands of cranes and geese. Avocets end their courtship by crossing bills and walking off together, a sight Streiffert called the “coolest thing” he has ever seen.

He shared the refuge's roots, too. In 1908, after photographer William Finley showed President Theodore Roosevelt images of slaughtered egrets, Roosevelt made Malheur one of the nation's first wildlife refuges.

The best time to visit, Streiffert said, is early April, when migration peaks. Late May brings its own rewards: the first nighthawks, arriving bobolinks, and crane colts testing their legs.

The presentation was Eastside Audubon's May Program Night, held at the Lake Washington School District Central Office Board Room in Redmond.

See more of Dan Streiffert's wildlife photography.