Spring Break Camp on the Island

Yesterday I led an Audubon Spring Break Camp. With the help of a volunteer, I drove 12 second and third-graders to Sauvie Island to look for some birds.

The morning was quite rainy, but it started to clear when we reached the island.

We started by birding the Multnomah Channel.

A belted kingfisher and a group of common mergansers captured their attention.

We drove to Wapato Greenway, Oak Island, and several stops on the east side of the island. At a couple of covered areas, we made maps of the island and recorded the birds we saw at each site.

Though I was busy keeping the kids in sight and interested in the birds, I enjoyed one of the best days of birding I have had at the Island. Sandhill cranes were everywhere, ospreys and turkey vultures had returned from their winter country, and bald eagles were sitting on sedan-sized nests. The highlight for some of the boys was a "duck fight" between squabbling buffleheads. The boys embelished the story to include flying blood and death from an epic battle that lasted much longer than I recall, but I guess we create our own reality at that age.

Our final stop was the Columbia beach.

As I kept an eye on the kids playing in the sand, I spotted the best bird of the day.

It was a juvenile red-throated loon cruising up the River. The children whose attention had not yet waned were able to get good looks at it in the scope. This small loon usually winters along the coast, but a few stray up the Columbia to Hood River and beyond. It was a great sighting to cap a very productive day of birding for all ages.

Wednesday Wanderings

On Wednesday morning, I dropped Sarah off at Sauvie Island where she joined others scouting for Raptor Road Trip (8 days away!).

The trees, such as this asymmetrical oak, looked great in the fog and early sunlight.

I spent the rest of the day working at the grandparents-in-law house dreaming of planting this year's garden in the spring.

I picked a few scarlet runner bean pods that had dried out on the garden fence.
I kept some of the the pink and black seeds to dry and plant next year.

I turned over a log behind the house and found a tiny salamander. I think it is an Ensatina.

Junior Raptor Road Trip

Yesterday I woke with a raging cold and led a day of Portland Audubon's Winter Break Camp called Junior Raptor Road Trip. My helper, Marianne, and I loaded twelve second and third-graders into a van and drove to Sauvie Island. My voice was too cracked to carry to the back of the van, so I was lucky to have Marianne along.



We stopped at the same birdwatching locations visited during the actual Raptor Road Trip event in February and we saw almost all of the birds expected. We spotted 32 species of birds with highlights including numerous bald eagles, a female merlin, northern harriers, thousands of snow geese, and a few sandhill cranes.



The day started out rainy, but we had a few sunbreaks between storms. A large one was looming towards the end of the day, so we returned to Audubon for some bird-drawing and games until the parents returned to pick up the campers. By the time I put away all of the camp supplies, I was completely wiped out. Today, I am moving pretty slowly and doing as little as possible to recover from the cold.

A New Home and a New Bridge

Last week, I spent a day at the Audubon Society of Portland preparing for the week of summer camp I am leading starting next Monday. I will be taking a dozen fourth and fifth graders to field research sites to introduce them to wildlife biology in action. I still have a lot to organize, and I am trying not to stress out.

While at Audubon, I was able to check out their newest structure. The Wildlife Care Center has several unreleasable education birds. Julio the great horned owl once had a large enclosure all to himself.


Last year, however, Ruby the turkey vulture arrived and was moved into the enclosure while a bitter Julio was relegated to a smaller cage inside.


During the last few weeks, staffers and volunteered built Julio a splendid new enclosure just down the hill from his old one.


He seems much happier now.

Yesterday, I drove to Sauvie Island for a job interview with the Department of Fish and Wildlife. As usual, the interview was a tense process, so I had a much better time viewing the island's sites.


I crossed the new Sauvie Island bridge for the first time. The old, green bridge is still in place. Some want to move it to downtown Portland for a bicycle commuter bridge, but the plan seems to have stalled.

The volcanic peaks of Mount Hood, Mount Saint Helens and Mount Adams are all visible from the island. A forest fire is currently burning on Mount Adams. This weekend, the plume of smoke resembled an eruption and fooled many, including myself, into thinking that one of the giants had reawakened.

Unfortunately, the local news stations show many bemoaning the "loss" of the forest. Apparently many people still think of forests as a static entity that will not recover from a natural disturbance.

I also spotted a purple marten perched near this marten condo complex. The small bird on the bar is a black-headed grosbeak. I only saw house sparrows enter the nests, but hopefully there are some marten babies in there as well.