Easy Walk at Commonwealth Park

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

Although Sunday was supposed to be rainy, it turned out very nice and we decided to go for an easy walk at Commonwealth Park (map).

Just as we entered the park, a man asked us if we were getting good pictures and pointed us towards this heron way up in a tree.

Double Crested Cormorants - Phalacrocorax auritus

In the water, the cormorants were making a scene, showing off and charging at each other, circling around and going at it again.

We saw this bird at Fernhill wetlands the other day, but didn't get a good picture then.

Ring-Billed Gull - Larus delawarensis

Where did he hide his feet! ?

You've seen pictures of this type of bird from my last trip to Commonwealth. It's got a very distinctive ring on the bill.

There was a small flock of these gulls and they were very tame. Unfortunately lots of people feed the birds here even though it is against the rules.

Sami (and his shadow) taking pictures of the birds.

Since we only have the one working camera, I was picking out different kinds of birds with the binoculars while Sami took most of the photos.

Like last time (click to see more photos), we also saw lots of mallards, domestic mallards, wigeons, and geese. We also saw some coots, and got a slightly better picture than at Fernhill.

Buffleheads - Bucephala albeola

Don't you just love a bird called a Bufflehead?

Anyway, it's the smallest diving duck in North America, and it likes to nest in woodpecker holes.

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Oh, Sami figures my new camera should be a Pansonic Lumix DMC-FZ18, with double the zoom.

Song Sparrow - Melospiza melodia

We see these cute birds quite frequently, but they're fast and like to hide in the brush, so it's hard to get a good picture. Sami did a great job with this one.

Deck the Halls

We decided to go ahead and put the small artificial tree up this year even though we'll be going to NC for Christmas. Not all of the lights from last year were working so I went ahead and got some of the new LED ones. They look pretty good and they're super efficient.

Another year, when we're actually home for Christmas, we'd like to go out in the forest and cut our own tree. You can buy a permit for only 5$ to go and pick out a tree from one of the national forests.

Hike to Warrior Rock Lighthouse

On Saturday, the weather was supposed to be warm and sunny. We decided to go to Sauvie Island. We'd been there a couple other times to pick berries and to geocache. The wildlife area is supposed to be a great place to see birds, especially in the fall and winter.

We decided to park at the end of Reeder road and hike the trail to Warrior Rock Lighthouse. The map is from our copy of Best Easy Day Hikes - Portland, Oregon. It's a nice flat hike with some sections along the beach and others in the forest.

As soon as we got out of the car, it started sleeting. Not a good sign, but we were already there and properly dressed so we decided to keep going.

Snow Geese - Chen caerulescens

and

Canada Geese - Branta canadensis

When we were about halfway up Reeder Road, we saw all these geese grazing in the fields. As it turned out, they were nearly the only birds we saw the entire day.

Poor Little Fish

I was surprised to see this little guy just laying on the beach. He was dead already, but I would have figured some bird would've been glad to have such an easy dinner.

Normally Sami doesn't like to hike, but he decided that this trail was flat and therefore OK. We hiked a total of about 7.5 miles

Black Cottonwood - Populus balsamifera ssp. trichocarpa

The trail was completely covered in these beautiful yellow hearts.

Interesting orange mushrooms

We are now the owners of two very good mushroom books, All That the Rain Promises and More and Mushrooms of Northwest North America. Although I searched both books to try and identify this species, I still have no idea what it might be.

Warrior Rock Lighthouse seen from River View cache.

The lighthouse didn't seem so exciting, so we continued past it to a nearby geocache.

Just as we arrived at the cache site, this kayaker approached the tip of the island. We waited for him to pass before retrieving the cache.

Bricks and other debris at the North end of Sauvie Island

There were several fan shaped concrete slabs and an old broken down pier at this end of the island, but I haven't found any information as to why they were there. I can only assume they were part of homes or businesses built before this was a wildlife area.

Boise Cascade Mill

We headed to another geocache on the west side of the point and came across this mill. It's not on the island, but across the Multnomah Channel in St. Helens, OR.

Natural Bird House

On our hike back Sami noticed this hole in an old snag. Some bird definitely lives there. However, like all the other birds, he was not to be seen on this hike.

Barge heading South on the Columbia River

Snowberry - Symphoricarpos albus

Sometimes we forget that Portland is a major port. Then we see a boat like this and we're reminded once again.

Sunset at the Eastside Viewing Platform

We couldn't walk beyond the platform into the wildlife area because it's hunting season, but we did see a very nice (and very quick) sunset.

Ironically, it's mainly the hunters and not the birders or other environmentalists that pay for the protection of these great wildlife areas.

Fernhill Wetlands

Tree Swallow - Tachycineta bicolor

Saturday afternoon, the weather was cold but beautiful so we decided to go to one of our favorite parks, the Fernhill Wetlands.

We didn't see the tree swallows on this trip (photo from 4 July 06) but they're just so cute I couldn't resist posting an old one. Click for a close-up and to see flying tree swallows.

Domestic "Blue Swedish" Mallard - Anas platyrhynchos

When we first entered the park, we saw a flock of mallards with a bunch of weird ducks mixed in.

Sami was sure we'd discovered something new, but I'd read this article on Manky Mallards
so I knew we were looking at domestic and hybrid mallards. We also saw a "Bibbed Mallard".

Great Egret - Ardea alba

and

Green Winged Teals - Anas crecca

The Great Egret is the symbol of the National Audubon Society. It flies with it's neck pulled back in an s curve.

Great Egret in flight and standing alone.

Juvenile Gull

The young gulls all look sort of similar and don't even have the same beak and leg colors as their parents so I couldn't identify this one.

Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias

and

Common Mergansers (f) - Mergus merganser

The great blues are the largest herons in the US and they are fairly common in our area. Another picture of the great blue here.

The mergansers are tough little diving ducks, with sharp toothlike projections on their bills. Apparently gulls like to follow flocks of mergansers and steal the fish they caught. Although we witnessed several successful dives for fish, we didn't see any being stolen. Picture of the merganser flock (including males).

Bald Eagle - Haliaeetus leucocephalus

We saw several bald eagles on this trip. Adults with the classic white heads, not the confusing young ones with brown heads like we saw at Tillamook.

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We also saw a Double Crested Cormorant - Phalacrocorax auritus

Unfortunately the cormorant photo is not very good because it was so far away.

Northern Shoveler (f) - Anas clypeata

The shovelers have giant shovel-shaped bills with comblike projections that they use to filter food from the water.

It's interesting to watch them feeding because groups of shovelers swim around in a circle to create a kind of whirlpool that swirls food up from the bottom of the pond.

Hooded Merganser (m) - Lophodytes cucullatus

The Hooded Merganser has a fancy crest that it can raise and lower (this one is raised).

Another interesting fact: the Hooded Merganser can change the refractive properties of its eyes to see fish underwater. Kind of like those Moken Sea-Gypsy children that dive for pearls.

American Coots - Fulica Americana

Although they look and act like ducks, they're not, they're part of the rail family. Also, they don't have webbed feet.

Oh, and they have some seriously ugly babies.

Northern Pintails - Anas acuta

I think the pintails are probably the most elegant ducks we have in Oregon.

More pintails swimming.

Male pintail on land.

Canadian Geese - Branta canadensis

These are the most common geese in the US. They're everywhere, usually in large quantities. Some of them migrate north or south depending on the season, others live here year round.

Actually there are a lot of different subspecies but they're so similar you need to be an expert to tell them apart.

Green-Winged Teals - Anas crecca

This was my first time seeing Green-Winged Teals. They were incredible and had such amazing colors.

Sami's binoculars are 18x, so we got a good view of them. It made me really want an even better camera with a telephoto lens.

American Kestrel - Falco Sparverius

Just as we were leaving the park, I saw this young Kestrel. It's the same kind of bird we saw at the Wild Arts Festival last week.

Full Moon

Although it got dark early and we were only in the park for about 2 hours, we saw an incredible variety of birds. We should definitely go back more often.

Backyard Birds

Dark Eyed Junco Junco hyemalis

I put a couple new bird feeders in the back yard last weekend and the birds hadn't visited them yet. One of the bird books said that birds will come investigate shiny things, so I put a chocolate wrapper near the feeder. Success.

These little juncos are very fast and frenetic. Always twitching and hopping. They mostly eat seeds off the ground and they like to hang out in the pear tree.

Female junco here.

House Finch - Carpodacus mexicanus

and

Black-Capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapilla

The chickadees are supposed to be some of the most tame birds, but that didn't seem to be the case yesterday. This one was the only one that came near the feeders and the french doors in the kitchen (where I was sitting taking pictures.)

Western Scrub Jay - Aphelocoma californica

Every 15 minutes or so, the Jay would swoop in and disturb all the little birds at the feeder. I think he was just doing it to assert his dominance or something because he never bothered to take any seeds.

American Crow - Corvus brachyrhynchos

Like the Jay, the Crow was curious to see why all the little birds were so excited.

An Anna's Hummingbird flew by also, but unfortunately I didn't have my hummingbird feeder out anymore. But I hurriedly made some more sugar water and it's ready now.

Lesser Goldfinches - Carduelis psaltria

Finches love the niger seeds and there's often a bit of a scuffle at the feeder. Here you can see the house finch flying in from the right and scaring away the goldfinches.

A couple more goldfinch action photos here and here.