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?
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
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.
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