North Portland Canoeing and Coffee

The St John's neighborhood of North Portland is somewhere I don't get to all that often. I used to take my Honda up there for service, Ms Nut used to live near-ish and I hear there's a McMenamin's Pub up there, but mostly I see it from the west side of the Willamette as I motor up Hwy 30 to Sauvie Island and pass the St John's Bridge. Boy, is that a picturesque bridge. Yesterday, my canoeing associate and I put in right underneath it and paddled south a ways. Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with a cuppa and a cookie at the Ladybug Organic Coffeehouse on Lombard in the heart of the charming neighborhood. This isn't really a birding post....more of a photo post. Enjoy!

Ridgefield NWR Kiwa Trail

My mother and stepdad visited last week and I took them up to Ridgefield to walk the Kiwa Trail. Located within the River S Auto Tour route, the trail is closed for winter and has only been open a few weeks now. What a treasure!! I'd been there just once before and am most often up there in winter. We saw over 40 species of birds including Yellow-headed Blackbird (unusual west of the Cascades), Sora, Virginia Rail, Wilson's Snipe, Blue-winged Teal, Yellow Warbler and on and on and on. I highly recommend a trip to the refuge in spring.

My favorite Oak in Spring and in Winter

Powell Butte and Bushtit nests

Every year we sell a boatload of packaged nesting materials at the Backyard Bird Shop and every year customers report it being taken by many species of birds. I, on the other hand, have watched many a wad of ideal material go green with algae in the spring rains never destined to line the nest of a chickadee or bushtit.
Last fall I bought a cat grooming tool called The Furminator (actually I bought the $12 version of that $50 tool) and groomed my cats. I could have built a whole new cat out of what I combed from Ruby but instead I packed it into a suet cage with some moss and hung it out for birds. Just the other day my first customer came along and pulled tuft after tuft from the cage and flew off into the trees with it. I've got to get the BirdCam on it but these came out just fine for the moment.

Busy Bushtits

Sunday, Mark and I went to Powell Butte in search of anything birdy but especially in search of Lazuli Buntings. We were rewarded with a bunting in the parking lot and several more throughout our walk. We saw this unusual Savannah Sparrow singing and defending territory against intruders. It has a white head with some yellow showing at the lores. Nifty!



In the woods that surround the open meadows of the butte we saw this wonderfully worked over snag with fresh Pileated Woodpecker work. Look how far down the tree it all goes! Surprisingly with all the woodpecker sign we saw we never heard a one.



Powell Butte (SE 162nd and Powell Blvd)is a great destination for a spring walk. On a clear day you can see many of the Cascades and the birdlife abounds. Pack a lunch and go!

Birdathon and other adventures

Last weekend (or maybe longer?!?) my birding associate and I went canoeing at Smith and Bybee Lakes. Lovely sunny day and we spied on these eagles.






Today was Birdathon and my team, Whittemore's What-zits, scampered around Oaks Bottom and came up with about 40 species. Hooray for us and $$ for Audubon!


Here we spied on a preening Osprey.




Excellent feet.


Picturesque Heron.....


I hope to bring you more bloggable adventures soon!!

Birdcam and Ankeny NWR

Just a coupla shots from the Wingscapes BirdCam of a Townsend's Warbler and a Yellow-rumped Warbler on the suet feeder....boy, that Townsend's looks a little ragged.....

Yes, I do too have a yellow rump.

And a cute yellow bit on my head

Saturday I took my Beginning Birding 2 group to Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge south of Salem. Lovely day, no rain (that's how we judge 'em here) and about 55 species of birds. BEST bird of the trip was a Long-billed Curlew, a bird rarely found in the Willamette Valley. A very nice birder clued us in to its location and we all saw it easily. A new bird for much of the group!


Lots of pishing for a Common Yellowthroat.....first of the season for me.

Then we got to the spot where a Merlin entertained the group last year......and a Peregrine was perched there instead! Nice tradeoff!



The other benefit we received from the kindness of strangers was the news that Ospreys were just down the road at the river. I'd not been down that road so we went in search and were instantly rewarded with a pair on a nest right next to the road.




Good day at the refuge! Spring migrants are slowly coming in......and maybe my trees will bloom soon, too!

Test Driving the New Equipment

My new binoculars arrived last week and today I had a chance to take them out for a spin and see if my money was well spent. Michele and I went to Jackson Bottom Wetlands for a few hours and looked over the usual suspects of waterfowl and raptors. I'll be bringing my Beginning Birding 2 group here next Sunday so I needed to reacquaint myself with the terrain. Still a great place! Loads of flooded fields, wide open ponds, quiet backwaters. Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, Shovelers, Ring-necked Ducks, Pintails, Ruddy Ducks, Gadwall and a few Cinnamon Teal were all about. Also got a preview of warbler movement......we saw maybe 10-12 Yellow-rumps working the trees during our visit....they are the first to arrive so this means Black-throated Grays can't be far behind!


Now I'm back at home in front of the computer realizing that my spring teaching season is really here like RIGHT NOW and so I'd better get my act together! Next week starts Beginning Birding 2 - three field trips over the next two Sundays and one Saturday. Right after that starts Birding By Ear-Residents with an evening class then three 7am field trips. I have scrapped the previous format of "Here's 10 birds - let's learn them!" for a Residents Only and Migrants Only curriculum and moved the classes up a few weeks. The idea is to be able to concentrate on just the locals before the migrants show up. Learning birdsong is great fun but takes time and patience. Well, I guess I don't know that learning it is great fun.....but I know that teaching it is so I try to make it fun for my students. Repetition is the name of the game and I can repeat "That's a Song Sparrow" as many times as needed.
My afternoon has been spent editing song tracks to remove the introduction so I can use them in a quiz, rewriting handouts, rewriting my outline and wondering how the heck I can get it all across in such a short period of time. Well, I'll do what I can and then it's up to the birds to show up and sing for us!

Where's that Marsh Wren??

Does a bear dance in the woods?