Oregon Birding - Day Five

Jackson-Frazier Wetland

We took a casual walk through the Jackson-Frazier Wetland north of Corvallis. There were lots of families out doing the same, so the birding opportunities were poor, since the foot traffic disturbed most chances to see birds doing their thing in the brush. All together, there were Cedar Waxwing, Black-capped Chickadee, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch, and Red-winged Blackbird. Here are a couple of bird shots, along with some other sights.

Black-capped Chickadee

Cedar Waxwing

Common Wood-Nymph

Poison Oak

Apple

Oregon Birding - Day Two, Morning

Oregon Ash woodland

A short walk from my daughter's home is an open area between the housing development and a new primary school complex. A drainage runs near the edge of the development, with a stand of Oregon Ash trees that are typical of the Willamette Valley wetland terraces. Just beyond the woodland, there is a nice stretch of open grassland that is highly disturbed - probably managed so there won't be fire late in the season, very few native prairie species grow there.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch are abundant, including these that were perched on plant stems while eating seeds of a dandelion-like plant and grasses. These birds were very wary of me, so they would keep moving ahead of me - not letting me get a decent close-up photograph. They would keep doing this until I had bothered them enough, and then they flew away. The goldfinch traveled in flocks of five or six, and typically would land high in tree tops where they would flutter around moving from one tree to another - never coming down close to me for some more pictures. Shown in the photograph are a male (left) and female (right). Seeing how the goldfinches hang up-side-down from the feeder at home explains how they also can attach themselves to plant stems in what-ever-direction-best-suits-them in a more natural setting.

Brown Creepers

These two Brown Creepers were the best siting I made this morning. I stood on the sidewalk close to the edge of the woodland when they landed on a tree and started making their way in tandem up the trunk. After a while they flew to a neighboring tree and did the same - eventually flying to another tree further into the stand. I saw at least two other species inside the woods. All of these birds don't seem to hold still for very long - constantly moving along whatever branch they happen to be on, or jumping from one tree to another. The coloration of these birds blends in with the bark of the tree. It is easy to see the bird that stands out in contrast to the lighted background - the bird to its left is well camouflaged.

Putative Song Sparrow

Even with the clouds today, the light inside the woods is very muted, except where bright patches of light show through the canopy. The contrast is great enough to make any photograph taken near the canopy margins difficult using the automatic exposure setting on my digital camera. I tried to get a good angle for me with the bird in the picture to right so that it would look like a silhouette. As it turned out, if it wasn't for the Adjust feature in the Edit tool of iPhoto, I wouldn't have been able to make out that this bird was likely a Song Sparrow.
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Map of local environs

Here is a Google Map for the housing development and the neighboring woodland mentioned above. The woodland is to the right middle of the map - grassland extends to the right half of the map. I did most of my birding this morning from the sidewalk along the road that cuts through the upper tip of the woodland. A feature of these woodlands that is important to remember: poison oak - when looking for birds, always pay attention to where you are walking and what you are walking up against.

Time Waits For No Man, But Some Commuter Airlines Do

The lunch menu

Back in February, I did a whirlwind work trip for meetings and site visits in Washington, Idaho, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Oregon, and then Iowa - on the last leg back to Maryland. The modes of transportation were planes, rental cars, cabs, and shuttles. I almost missed one of my connections between Pendleton and Portland, Oregon when my host and I were eating lunch in a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant. For some reason, my Blackberry started buzzing even though it was on silent mode. I checked, and it was a call from my secretary in Maryland trying to get hold of me because the SeaPort Airlines agent at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport was calling asking whether I was going to catch my flight.

I said, "Yes, the flight is an hour from now, and we are just a mile or so from the airport."

My secretary replied, "No, it's right now, and they are holding the plane."

After a few more clarifying statements, we were off to the races in a pickup.

"I'll drop you at the door, you go and check in." My friend said.

When I rushed in the door, the airport was empty. I found my way to the hallway that led to the boarding gate - no metal detectors, no TSA agents. The ticket agent was out on the tarmac caught a glimpse of me and then looked at the pilot and gave the "cut the engine" sign.

She came in with me, friendly as friendly could be, looked at my ticket and entered me in the computer, and then back out the door we went.

As I boarded the plane, the pilot and copilot were sitting casually in a couple of seats, and immediately as I sat down, the pilot began a narrative explaining where the fire extinguisher was, the handle for releasing the door, and other features of the plane. I was the only passenger on the plane - no wonder they were so patient - no other airline I know of provides just-in-time arrival accommodations like this. 

He asked if I had any questions, and said, "You fly a lot, don't you?"

I replied, "Yes." He and the co-pilot smiled, and climbed into their cabin. They continued with the small talk. I asked whether either flew in the military. The co-pilot said no, but the pilot explained he was a Marine helicopter pilot, and then when he got out, it was less expensive to rent a plane than an helicopter to take family and friends flying, so kept at it and got his commercial license, and now this is where he is.

Being in a small plane, I was able to take pictures during the one hour flight from eastern Oregon to Portland. As I looked over the shots, I thought of a blog I wrote back in January 2010, with these photographs from that short trip fitting the verses.

We travel back west every December,

Home for Christmas,

Grown kids and and grand children in their homes,

No house of our own. 

Accommodating co-pilot and pilot

Early-morning drive to BWI,

Connecting flights through Midwest cities,

Hoping for good weather,

Eventually landing at PDX. 

Aerial boundaries - above the clouds

Whether clouds or not,

There, out the window, when

The plane gets low enough to the ground,

Postage-stamp-sized farm fields come into view.

Willamette Valley in February

Subtle brown earth tones where vegetables will grow in summer,

Accented dark and light-green hues of Douglas firs and lichen-covered oaks,

The approach skirts the Columbia River,

Parallel to the runways.

Vancouver, Washington across the Columbia River

Oregon on this side, Washington the other,

Only minutes earlier Mount Hood was eye level,

Adams, Rainier, and Saint Helens peak above,

Rolling mountains beside and beyond.

Mt. Hood, looking south

No matter how settled we feel in the east,

Living so far away from what is still familiar,

Even without our own house to gather,

This place we still call home.

West of the Cascades

The check-off list results of a couple of hours of walking the board walk through Jackson-Frazier Wetland, and other environs between Portland and Corvallis are shown below.

a. Brewer's blackbird
b. Red-winged blackbird (female)
c. American crow
d. Western scrub jay
e. Dark-eyed junco
f. Bewick's wren
g. Glaucus-winged gull
h. Mallard duck
i. Rough-legged hawk
j. Rock pigeon
k. Dusky goose
l. Purple finch
m. Red-tailed hawk
n. American robin

It was a nice late-morning to slowly work my way around the wetland between 10:00 and noon. The view was difficult for the birds perched high in the trees when I faced east and south. Since I hadn't been to the wetland before, I didn't know what to expect. The meandering board walk "trails" were great, and since they are elevated, it would be easy to move through the area any time of the year. There were a number of vegetation assemblages in this western Oregon wetland habitat to observe that ranged from a brush woodland to Willamette Valley Wet Prairie.

I had taken my National Geographic Field Guide of Birds of North America (hard cover version) - that was a mistake. It was too large to fit easily in my coat pocket, and had too many choices to look through when I tried to make an identification. There were a number of small-sized species that I hadn't seen before, and the female red-winged blackbird through me off for a while. Mallards among the cat tail reeds played hide-and-seek as I tried to get close to them. The male red-winged blackbird had a distinctive call that I was able to learn by watching and listening. There were a lot of other calls that I didn't know - it would have been helpful to have an experienced birder along for the watching (and listening). After getting back to my car, I drove to the Border's Bookstore on Ninth Street, and bought copies of Birds of Oregon Field Guide, and Field Guide to Birds: Washington & Oregon - the later was on sale and only cost $2.99. Either would have been helpful and easy to handle while watching - next time.

Sudden Snow

We travel back west every December,
Home for Christmas,
Grown kids and and grand children in their homes,
No house of our own.

Early-morning drive to BWI,
Connecting flights through Midwest cities,
Hoping for good weather,
Eventually landing at PDX.

Whether clouds or not,
There, out the window, when
The plane gets low enough to the ground,
Postage-stamp-sized farm fields come into view.

Subtle brown earth tones where vegetables will grow in summer,
Accented dark and light-green hues of Douglas firs and lichen-covered oaks,
The approach skirts the Columbia River,
Parallel to the runways.

Oregon on this side, Washington the other,
Only minutes earlier Mount Hood was eye level,
Adams, Rainier, and Saint Helens peak above,
Rolling mountains beside and beyond.

No matter how settled we feel in the east,
Living so far away from what is still familiar,
Even without our own house to gather,
This place we still call home.

Hoar frost on trees in the
Willamette Valley, Oregon

It is funny how such simple weather phenomena as hoar frost still catches my attention. I first saw it in Oregon - white edged everything in view - when driving back from California from Christmas, right before New Year 1979. We had driven straight through from Visalia, and it was 13° in Corvallis when we pulled into town around 1:00 AM. Our house was so cold that we could see our breath, and when climbed into bed, our blanket crackled with little lightning bolts. Fortunately the pipes hadn't frozen - we never did that again. The last time I saw hoar frost was in Albany right before New Years. Driving from my daughter's house for some guest supplies, past Waverly Park, everything was tinged in frost - like over 30 years ago - but in the time going and returning from Costco, the white dust was rapidly disappearing - gone like years past.