Oregon Part 3: The Tiny Owls of Portland

After my fun excursion east of the Cascades, I returned to Portland, which is where I would spend most of the rest of my trip to Oregon. The drive back over the mountains was... not terribly fun, through dark mountain roads in the snow in a 2-wheel-drive car. I'd been hoping for at least a little glimpse of the scenery, but the weather (and weather-related delays) meant that was not to be. 

I still had my rental car for one more day after returning to Portland, so I decided to spend my first day back in spots that would be harder to access via public transportation. My main goal of the day was to seek out the flocks of Snow Geese that had been reported in the area. The first stop, along the Oregon side of the Columbia River, produced approximately 0 birds but a lot of snow. I did, however, hear the cacophony of many, many waterfowl on the other side of the river. This could only mean one thing: a trip to Washington state. 

After a trafficky drive over the bridge, I got to Vancouver Lake, the area where most of the recent eBird reports of Snow Geese were from. There was very little there except for a few Buffleheads, but thankfully I was able to follow the sound of honking geese to a snowy field a couple of blocks away. 

I know for many birders reading this it's old hat, but seeing thousands of Snow Geese taking off from a field ranks high in my list of natural spectacles (and I've seen quite a few!). The fact it was snowing heavily wasn't great for visibility, but it did add to the ethereal quality of it all. 

Snow Geese!

Besides lots and lots of Snow Geese, there were dozens of Sandhill Cranes, a couple of hundred Cackling Geese and Canada Geese, and a flock of hundreds of ducks of various kinds, including Mallards, Gadwalls, and Northern Pintails. The bushes held big flocks of White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows, both beautiful birds.

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese

Cackling Geese (with a single Canada Goose)

Golden-crowned Sparrow

I stayed out in the snow for about an hour admiring the geese, but eventually had to head back because my camera battery was running low and I was getting wet from the snow. After having lunch and taking my dog-niece for a walk, I struck out for another outing in Washington State, this time further east for a hike in the Columbia River valley. My destination was the Catherine Creek trail, which had a reputation for good views and some decent birding to boot. Driving there required another hour or so of driving through a snowstorm, which I was simultaneously very used to and very sick of. Thankfully the snow cleared up once I got far enough east, although getting to the trailhead was still treacherous, requiring a drive uphill on a snow-covered dirt road- certainly not ideal terrain for the Prius I was driving. 

Thankfully, the hike itself was beautiful, along the rim of a rocky gully which itself was along the rim of the Columbia River gorge. Birding was less good- mostly lots and lots of Varied Thrushes and Red-shafted Flickers, along with a Red-tailed Hawk, California Scrub Jays, Golden-crowned Kinglets, and a couple of Audubon's Warblers. There had been Canyon Wrens and Lewis's Woodpeckers reported there in the past, but I unfortunately didn't run into any of those despite looking for them. Nevertheless, the Varied Thrushes were beautiful in the winter light, and sunset over the gorge was muted but lovely.

The Catherine Creek ravine

Looking east up the Columbia River

Varied Thrush

Red-shafted Flicker, the noisiest bird in the area

Looking westward along the gorge

The drive back was less fun, through terrible weather, but thankfully I made it back in time to drop off my rental car, leaving me car-less the rest of the time. Thankfully, there's decent Uber and Lyft coverage in Portland, because many of my next birding destinations were not exactly public transport-friendly. 

On the morning of March 7, I went across the Willamette River to the Wildwood Trail, a path going downhill (or uphill if you're a masochist) through some remnant temperate rainforest on the edge of the Willamette valley. There had been a Northern Pygmy Owl, one of the western birds I was most hoping to see, reported there recently, which was my main reason for visiting. Pygmy Owls are very uncommon and much more likely to be heard rather than seen seen, however, so I wasn't getting my hopes up. Mostly it was an excuse for a nice hike through the rainforest. 

The hike started out terribly, as it was raining and I could barely see any of the calling birds since my binocular lenses got wet as soon as I looked up. Thankfully the rain subsided after I started hiking, and I soon ran into a beautiful Red-breasted Sapsucker, easily my favorite sapsucker. A little after I ran into some very vocal and active Pacific Wrens and an extremely tame Hermit Thrush that was happy to pose for pictures. 

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Pacific Wren

Hermit Thrush

Just then, I heard a distant tooting noise- Northern Pygmy Owl! It was a ways away and off the trail, so pursuing it seemed rather unwise. On the other hand, it was the only time in Lord knows how long that I was going to have the chance to see a Pygmy Owl, so my birding instincts prevailed over rationality and soon had me struggling through thick underbrush toward where I heard the tooting. Suddenly, I saw a small bird flying into the tree in front of me. I looked through my binoculars and was shocked to see that it was, in fact, the owl! It was soon surrounded by a cloud of extremely angry Black-capped Chickadees and White-breasted Nuthatches, small birds that hate small owls. I was amazed by how small the owl was- probably even smaller than the Negros Scops-owl I saw last year. It was easily one of the top 5 best birds I saw in Oregon, and probably of this year so far- certainly one of the more unlikely ones. 

Northern Pygmy Owl

The rest of the hike was much less eventful, though the views were beautiful and I was finally able to get a decent picture of the Oregon subspecies of Dark-eyed Junco. Still, I was happy enough with my Pygmy Owl sighting that it didn't really matter how the rest of the day went.

Dark-eyed Junco

My last big birding outing of the trip was the next day, when I made a trip to the Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in downtown Portland. It was another cold, rainy day but I was determined to make the most of my time there and see my last couple of possible (but difficult) lifers in the area like Hutton's Vireo and Western Screech Owl. As luck would have it, I ran into Josh and Linnea, some local birders, who were gracious enough to let me join them and share their expertise. 

Despite the bad weather, the birding was excellent, with some nice additions to my Oregon list like American Coot, Brown Creeper, White-throated Sparrow (apparently a rare bird for that site), and Green-winged Teal. There was also a pair of Say's Phoebe, only the second time I'd seen one, some Hooded Mergansers, and a female Anna's Hummingbird already sitting on her nest. Best of all, Josh knew the hiding spot of the resident Western Screech Owl and showed it to me on the condition of secrecy (not difficult as I didn't know any other Portland birders). 

Say's Phoebe

Green-winged Teal

Brown Creeper

Hooded Merganser

Nesting Anna's Hummingbird

Very well-hidden Western Screech Owl

Along the lake were lots and lots of Audubon's Warblers with a couple of Myrtle Warblers mixed in, while in the middle of the water was a huge flock of Violet-green Swallows, as well as some Lesser Scaup and Canvasback. We ran into a flock of Western Meadowlarks and had a flyover from a Merlin, both of which were uncommon birds for the area. My favorite was a male Anna's Hummingbird displaying with his throat patch out, the first time I'd ever seen the brilliant amethyst color.

Audubon's Warbler

Anna's Hummingbird- the throat patch is only visible in certain light, but when it is...

Boom!

Seven-spotted Fishing Spider

Further along, we saw a flock of American Bushtits, which surprisingly had a number of banded birds. I was able to get pictures of the bands on at least 3 different birds, which I sent to Josh to pass to someone who can track bird bands. There were also lots of Downy Woodpeckers of the darker Pacific subspecies. Best of all, just before we finished at the original trailhead we happened on a Hutton's Vireo, an uncommon bird and one of the last of my "long shot" lifers I was hoping for. It disappeared before I could get a decent lifer, but it was a great way to wrap up the morning.

American Bushtit

You're just gonna have to believe me that this is a Hutton's Vireo

I flew back to DC the next day, but since my flight wasn't til around noon, I decided to wake up early and make one final birding outing. I headed to Broughton Beach on the southern shore of the Columbia River to look for the vagrant Tufted Duck that was supposedly hanging out in the area. Though there were some Greater Scaups and Lesser Scaups hanging out there, the main raft of Aythya ducks was on the opposite end of the river, far too distant to pick out a Tufted Duck (and indeed, it was reported from the north side that morning). There were some Horned Grebes closer in to shore however, which was nice to see.

Greater Scaup

Horned Grebe

There were no Tufted Ducks to be seen, but about 30 seconds before my Uber back to my sister's apartment arrived, a flock of birds flew into the field across the road from the beach. I raised my binoculars to see that they were Horned Larks and, incredibly, some American Pipits, one of my US "nemesis birds" that I had constantly missed before. It was the perfect way to finish up my amazing trip to Oregon, easily one of the most successful birding trips I've ever had.