Oregon Trails Part 4 - Finale (04June2021)

In the morning I had the chance to take a couple hours and hunt some species that I needed for my life list.  When using the Target Species tool on eBird, I could see woodpeckers were my main target.  Most of the sightings for these species were north of Bend near Sisters.  But that was a good hour drive.  So I made the lazy and wrong call of going back to Shevlin Park as some of the species did have hits there.

Shevlin was definitely birdy, but I didn't have anything new.

Townsend's Solitaire.

Mountain Chickadee

Western Wood-pewee

Hairy Woodpecker 

A couple of hours evaporated into the ether and I headed back to pick up the family and rejoin the caravan for the ride back to Eugene.  Our in-laws had planned one more hike in the Cascades half way back and we also stopped one more time in Sisters for some coffee and so the ladies could check out some of the shops.  I searched hard for Pinyon Jays and Woodpeckers but came up empty again.

Red Crossbills were literally at my feet.  I had to back up to take these pics.

Pygmy Nuthatch

Lesser Goldfinch

Well that's it for the birds!  Our hike was at the Blue Pool which was a really awesome way to end the trip.  The Blue Pool is a place where a river bubbles up from underground and that makes it freezing cold.  The average temp is 37 degrees F.

Some folks were jumping in and I even saw one girl jump 40-50 feet from a cliff into the pool, so I just had to do it myself.  I jumped in and it's hard to describe how cold it really was.  I can now see how people have died simply because the body stops working when it hits those cold temps.  

I can't wait to go back to Oregon.  Maybe someday to live there.

Oregon Trails Part 3 (02-03Jun2021)

We arrived in Bend on the afternoon of the 2nd and immediately were impressed with how the town was set up. Our hotel was right off the Deschutes River in the "Old Mill" district. So while the boys got caught up on some video games, Melissa and I headed down to the river for a walk.  The Deschutes River in downtown Bend is somewhat of a lazy river with a nice slow current winding around the downtown area.  Hundreds of young people were out in full force on inflatable rafts having a brew and drifting through town.  Another thing we noticed was that Bend has tons of traffic circles instead of lights so traffic was minimal and kept moving very well.  Overall I was really impressed and Bend would be on my short list of places to live if we moved to Oregon.

The birds as expected in the center of town were fairly common.

House Finch

Brewer's Blackbird male.

BBB female.

In the morning we headed to a hike called Whychus Creek Overlook just outside Sisters, OR which is only about 30 min North of Bend.

Green-tailed Towhee

The overlook of the "Sisters".

There are a bunch of Chipmunk species in this area of Oregon and apparently it is difficult to narrow it down without fondling them.

Hmm,  not sure on this one.  Normally I would say Pewee based on the lack of a strong eye-ring but the primaries don't look long enough?

Cassin's Vireo!

After that we headed to an awesome hike in the cascades NW of Sisters called the McKenzie River Trail.  We tackled a nice big loop hike centered around Sahalie Falls.

At one point on the river I decided to jump in and it was freezing!  As I got naked to change into something dry, the rest of the group (my family and my sister-in-law's) moved down the river.  That's when I had an intimate encounter with some American Dippers.

This little recently fledged dipper was making a fuss calling to its parents and allowed me to approach quite close.

Dad or Mom flew in and proceeded to feed baby some nymphs or other insect food items.

Anyhow, I took a million photos but will spare you most of them.

Eventually I said my goodbyes to the dippers and caught up with the gang.

It was hard to get them all in one pic and I am missing 2 kids from this one including one of mine.

WOW! What an enchanting place.

Maianthemum racemosum 

Yellowleaf Iris

It was getting hot and many of us were tired from the hikes so we headed back to Bend.  I elected to scope out a place just outside of town called Shevlin Park.

Black-headed Grosbeak on nest!

Lewis's Woodpeckers were everywhere.

Black-headed Grosbeak

I vowed to head back before the end of the trip.

Oregon Trails Part 2 (01- 02June2021)

After spending the first part of our trip in Eugene and on the coast, it was time to head over the cascades and experience some of the drier parts of the state.  Before we could do that, I needed a car!  So Chris drove me over to the airport in Eugene and I picked up a cheap rental using my points.  Now that I was free to explore on my own, I stopped over at some wetlands on the way back to the house called Fern Ridge.

Marsh Wren - they look a little lighter in color with less contrast than our eastern Marshies.

Brown-headed Cowbird

There were a bunch of waterfowl but nothing worth writing home about.  Definitely a spot to check out in the winter.

Lorquin's Admiral!  Lifer butterfly.

Melissa was already calling me only 30 minutes into my solo exploration so I pulled the plug and headed back to pick up the fam for a hike in the hills around Eugene.

I was pishing when this Barred Owl flew in right on top of me. Too bad it wasn't a Spotted Owl.  

The Steller's Jays were mobbing it incessantly and I think that is why it started hanging out with us.  Every time we moved, the Barred Owl would follow us, and the Jays kept their distance.

Imagine being a mouse and being tackled by those talons..

We had a great BBQ that night at my in-laws and set out next morning on a family day trip to Crater Lake.  The Cascade Mountains east of Eugene are gorgeous and we couldn't resist stopping a couple times on the way to Crater Lake.  Of course I neglected to take scenery pics and instead focused on the birds.

Audubon's subspecies of Yellow-rumped Warbler

Brewer's Blackbird

At Crater Lake I couldn't resist to take some cell phone pics, what a gorgeous place!

Crater Lake is what it sounds like, a massive crater caused by a huge volcanic eruption that blew off the top and over time filled with snow melt and rain.  The crazy thing is it blew only 7 thousand years ago, a blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things.  

An even crazier fact, the lake is almost two thousand feet deep!

Very strange that there was still so much snow with temps in the high 80s!

Clark's Nutcracker!  One of the few lifers I bagged on this trip.

Common Raven

Keeping an eye on the sky is always a good policy especially while traveling in new places...

Northern Goshawk!!

A full adult to boot!

Western Tanager!  Never had one in full breeding plumage like this so needless to say I was star-struck.

Good thing the family was able to hold back the snow banks while I birded.

Luke looked like he was the only one really putting his back into it.

California Tortoiseshell!  Another butterfly lifer for me.

Cassin's Finch 

I was not expecting Gray-crowned Rosy-finches and neither was eBird.

Gray/Canada Jay

Crater Lake was absolutely worth the drive and I would go back...

On the drive up to Bend I slammed on the brakes thinking I finally found my nemesis bird Pinyon Jay when a blue bird flew by us on the highway.

Mountain Bluebird

Pinyon Jays sadly continue to elude me after looking for them in Colorado, California and now Oregon.

Next post will be dedicated to our ramblings around Bend Oregon.