Over the last week I have taken the dogs on lots of walks. Well, a few. Good ones, though! Last weekend I celebrated the first day of an extra hour of light by visiting my local Great Horned Owl nest at dusk. I was overjoyed (yeah, I just wrote that) to find two parents and one fuzzy owlet! I checked on them again today and found the same...
Owl family, today
Last weekend I walked the dogs out to a new spot, possibly called Mason Wetlands.
It looked like great habitat and I counted 28 species including a couple recent arrivals- Violet-green and Tree Swallows. I went back over to the 162nd Ave Water Quality Facility also. This one tree was keeping chickadees and sparrows extremely entertained...
Back to yesterday's walk... I had just walked up to the Columbia and found no birds in the water- no scaup, no grebes, no goldeneyes, no loons... Disappointed I said to the dogs "Well, this is effing boring." Then a sea lion jumped out of the water!
It was hard to keep track of and eventually disappeared completely. But still awesome- only my second one in Portland! We stopped at a rocky spot I like to think of as my new beach. The dogs cooled off in the water while a Bald Eagle screeched behind us- probably the same one that was eating that raccoon a few weeks ago.
A Common Merganser swam by at one point...
That's about it. I added quite a few birds to my motorless list last weekend, and hopefully I will get my bike fixed up soon to really get going on it. Good times!
Owl family, last Sunday
Last weekend I walked the dogs out to a new spot, possibly called Mason Wetlands.
It looked like great habitat and I counted 28 species including a couple recent arrivals- Violet-green and Tree Swallows. I went back over to the 162nd Ave Water Quality Facility also. This one tree was keeping chickadees and sparrows extremely entertained...
Back to yesterday's walk... I had just walked up to the Columbia and found no birds in the water- no scaup, no grebes, no goldeneyes, no loons... Disappointed I said to the dogs "Well, this is effing boring." Then a sea lion jumped out of the water!
It was hard to keep track of and eventually disappeared completely. But still awesome- only my second one in Portland! We stopped at a rocky spot I like to think of as my new beach. The dogs cooled off in the water while a Bald Eagle screeched behind us- probably the same one that was eating that raccoon a few weeks ago.
A Common Merganser swam by at one point...
That's about it. I added quite a few birds to my motorless list last weekend, and hopefully I will get my bike fixed up soon to really get going on it. Good times!
Love the shot of the three owls tucked in the tree cavity; awesome!
ReplyDeleteJen, the owls with the cute owlet is awesome. Great sighting and photos. The Chickadee is a cutie and the sea lion is a cool sight to see. I am sure you dogs were happy on all these walks and their swim. Have a great weekend and happy birding!
ReplyDeleteI love the fuzzy baby owl!
ReplyDeleteI love owls. I wish I saw them more often. And a Sea Lion-so cool! great collection of photos Jen!
ReplyDelete