April 23-25, Walla Walla to Bandon, Oregon

Thursday, April 23, 2015
We left WW at 8:45 am on our way to the Oregon and California Coasts, Redwoods and interior National Wildlife Refuges to see birds.

The Columbia Gorge was at its best with new Spring fluorescent chartreuse leaves contrasting with the evergreen forest. We stopped  before Portland to stretch our legs and enjoy the beautiful old oak trees at the Lewis and Clark State Recreation Site at Sandy River.

Lewis and Clark State Recreation Site at Sandy River

It is difficult to identify many birds traveling the freeway at 65 mph, but we saw a few birds. We stopped for the night at Woodburn, OR, a total of 280 miles for the day.

Today our eyes were on Black-billed Magpie, Red-tailed Hawk, Common Raven, Dratted Starling, Kestrel, Rock Pigeons, Turkey Vulture, Coot, Osprey, House Sparrow, Mallards, Great Egret and Robins. 

Friday, April 24, 2015

It was a cold 47 degrees this morning and we left the motel at 8 am. We made a quick stop at Ankeny Wildlife Refuge. 

 Pond at Ankeny Wildlife Refuge

Oak Trees at Ankeny

We had a lovely but short visit with Paul's sister Barbara, her husband Harold and their daughter Nadine in Corvallis. Then on to Roseburg where we had a great visit with Paul's Mom at Linus Oakes Retirement Home. A total of 183 miles for the day.

Today our eyes were on a Great Blue Heron, Eurasian Collared Dove, Green-winged Teal, Canada Goose, Brewer's Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Dratted Cowbird, Dusky Canada Goose, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Northern Shoveller, Northern Pintail, Western Sandpiper, Dowicher sp, Killdeer, Mourning Dove, California Quail, Song Sparrow, Western Meadowlark, Savannah Sparrow, Dunlin. 

Saturday, April 25, 2015

It was a cloudy 51 degrees when we left Roseburg at 9:20. 

Our first stop was the Sandy Creek Wooden Bridge. Our surprise here was a Pileated Woodpecker that entertained us for several minutes. Paul saw a hummingbird, but the look was too fast to distinguish for sure, Rufous or Allen's. We also saw Steller's Jays, Anna's hummingbird, Northern Rough-winged Swallows and a White-crowned Sparrow at this stop.

 Sandy Creek Wooden Bridge

Pileated Woodpecker from the back

At Coos Bay we visited the Ferry Road County Park where we saw a temporary Double-Crested Cormorant rookery. The birds had been displaced from the other side of the bay bridge by work on the bridge. Also, we saw a Common Loon, Pelagic Cormorants, Western Grebes and Gulls sp?

 Cormorants displaced by bridge work. They moaned and groaned. We couldn't identify the sounds at first--we thought sea lions, bears, ? It turned out to be the cormorants--hundreds of them!

 Common Loon

 Western Grebe

Our next stop was the Bluebill Lake Loop Trail at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area north of Coos Bay. The hike along the beautiful lake was about a mile. A special treat was a Winter Wren as well as a Northern Flicker, Great Egret and Gadwall.

 Bluebill Lake

Salal 

We settled for the night at Coquille Point in Bandon where we had a stunning view of seastacks and the ocean. The seastacks were covered with Western Gulls, Brandt Cormorants and tightly-squeezed together Common Murres. Today we travelled 136 miles.

 Telephotos of seabirds on seastacks

 Seastacks at Coquille Point