I'm not dead and I love puffins

Dearest readers, I am not dead although I know it's been days since I posted anything substantial. I've been working my tush off at my job. I'm on a huge project that is insanely complex and keeps me very busy. In any event, to temporarily satiate your insatiable desire for my writing and pictures (hehe), here is an awful picture of two Tufted Puffins from Cannon Beach, Oregon. Lifer!

Israel's New National Bird (FUNNY!)

Ok folks, you definitely have to have a non-politically correct sense of humor to enjoy this one. You gotta love Stephen Colbert!

Lewis & Clark's Birds

I found this really cool Lewis & Clark interactive web site. It has a neat page on the birds and other natural history encountered along the way.

Mt. Hood Birding - Part 2

For the few of you waited with baited breath for this post, thank you and I'm sorry it's been so delayed. I had the joy of spending my weekend with my laptop doing work instead of outside enjoying the 90+ degree heat.

Continuing from my last post, we left Larch Mountain having heard some nice birds but having seen very little. We headed toward the Columbia River Gorge on the more scenic "Historic Columbia River Highway" that parallels the major highway through the gorge tracing the reverse route of Lewis & Clark. The road stops along many scenic viewpoints and several waterfalls.

Our first stop was Vista House. While not a birding hotspot by any means, it did offer exquisite views of the river, a bathroom stop, and some very close Violet-green Swallows. An Osprey also made a brief appearance.

We headed back to the highway and came to our first waterfall: Latourell Falls. The falls were a short walk from the parking lot. It was a breathtaking waterfall with great rock formations around it and a neat moss-covered wall. I was hoping for a miracle Black Swift, but I don't think they exist in this part of Oregon. I did find our only Western Tanager of the trip here though. I didn't have "the big camera" here due to the mist from the waterfall.

Our next stop was Wahkeena Falls, not quite as scenic as Latourell, but nice nonetheless. A little further up the winding highway was the real show of the gorge - Multnomah Falls. Plummeting 620 feet from its origins on Larch Mountain, Multnomah Falls is the second highest year-round waterfall in the US. Here are some photos:

On part 3 of our trip, we will visit Mt. Hood itself in all its glacial goodness. Stay tuned!

Mt. Hood Birding - Part 1

Last Tuesday we took a drive from Portland east towards Mount Hood through the Columbia River Gorge essentially making a big 150-or-so mile loop. With my trusty Oregon birding book by my side, I had a planned a few stops along the way. We started just east of Portland in an area called Larch Mountain (although I didn't see a single Larch tree). The road up to Larch Mountain was relatively quiet bird-wise, but boy was it pretty. It was a rainy, overcast day but the moss and lichen-covered trees of this old-growth forest were beautiful in the misty light.


Winter Wrens were the most numerous bird by far - singing their bubbly song every 100 yards or so. We stopped at a gated logging road and walked up to look for a clear-cut that the book said might have birds.


We heard the distant fluting of a Varied Thrush here which got my heart racing. Unfortunately, this denizen of the moist woods was not to be seen this day. We did find a Gray Jay, Stellar's Jay, and a Common Raven along this road. This road also had two gastropods for us to photograph. See below, but be sure to keep reading.


The second one is a Banana Slug, but I've got no clue on the first. Any takers? Trilliums were also plentiful all along the road up Larch Mountain. Here's a nice picture that Beth took of one.


Bird-wise, Larch Mountain was a disappointment. I found the clearcut written about in the book, but it was pretty overgrown, tough to walk through, and VERY wet. I had hopes of finding Northern Pygmy-Owl and MacGillivray's Warbler, but I was unsuccessful. Look for my next Mt. Hood post in which we visit the Columbia River Gorge and all of its waterfalls!

Lots of Bird Books

On our first day in Portland, we visited the famous Powell's City of Books. This place is HUGE. They literally give you a map at the door. This is the bird book section shown here. They had TONS of awesome books including interesting local birding texts, world field guides, and many older books I have never seen. I spent quite a lot of time there looking through them and chatting with a local birder. I also got a kick out of their men's room where people had written every possible play-on-words on the word "grout" on the tile grout above the urinal. It included things like "grout it out loud," "grout at the devil," and tons of others.

Powell's also has a separate store in Portland that just sells technical books. I'm told there's a whole section of ornithological books there. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see that store since I found out about the ornithology section after we had visited the area where it's located.

Predatory Blue Jay

I stole this from Treehugger. Warning: It's not for the squeamish.

Any takers on what species the prey is?

Audubon Society of Portland

Black-headed Grosbeak

Last Sunday we visited the Audubon Society of Portland on a somewhat rainy day. Their headquarters is located just outside the city within Forest Park, the largest urban forest reserve in the US. It's a really nice building with a large nature store, many displays, a rehab facility, and feeders! We spent a lot of time watching the feeders there. Here are some of the highlights:

Anna's Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Dark-eyed Junco

Douglas Squirrel