Today, Shawneen, David Mandell and I spent the day birding our way east to west
from Hood River to Troutdale. We arrived in Hood River shortly after sunrise
and started the day around the mouth of Hood River. We started along the
waterfront down to "The Hook" on the west side of the river. Nothing too out of
the ordinary other than five Western Meadowlarks on the lawn at "Waterfront
Park." After a reload on coffee and some pastries at "Stoked Roasters" across
from Waterfront Park, we headed to the east side of the river mouth, where we
ran into John Bishop. Almost immediately after getting out of the car out by
river mouth we heard and saw our first of five Say's Phoebes. Being that the
weather was already pretty nice, multiple people and dogs were out running
around on the gravel/sand bar, so there were only few gulls. Near the parking
lot for the museum we explored around under several larger conifers looking for
signs of roosting owls. We didn't find much whitewash, but we found a
decapitated American Robin (likely predated by an owl) under one tree and upon
looking up into the tree we saw a dead Western Meadowlark laying over a limb.
Clearly some bird of prey has been dining here, but the absence of whitewash
and pellets suggest it is roosting elsewhere.
From Hood River we started west along I-84, getting off at Wyeth and birding
the peninsula at Government Cove. We didn't find much there. We hit a few more
grassy areas just off the freeway and then took the back road that parallels
the freeway towards Cascade Locks. This road is variously labeled "Wyeth Rd."
"Herman Creek Rd." or "Frontage Rd." depending on which map you use. We found
one spot along the frontage road with an open hillside covered with blackberry
mounds. We had at least 20 Sooty Fox Sparrows here, along with two Pileated
Woodpeckers and Red-breasted Sapsucker. The variation in appearance of the
Sooty Fox Sparrows was impressive.
Just west of Cascade Locks we veered right on Forest Lane and then went down
Industrial Park Way to the disc golf course and a large open grassy area, then
continued down to the river. Here we found another Say's Phoebe and at one
point I thought I saw two together, but we could never confirm the second bird.
We found another 11 Western Meadowlarks here, along with assorted other
passerines and waterfowl along the river. We then birded the island at Cascade
Locks Marien Park, where we saw two Pine Siskins, a Varied Thrush, some ducks
on the river and not much else.
Our next stop was Bonneville Dam. We checked Bradford Island and didn't find
much, then hit Robins Island where we encountered our third (or perhaps 4th)
Say's Phoebe of the day along at the far end of the loop out by the river. From
here we headed directly to Troutdale. Starting from east end of the airport we
took Graham Road to the east end of Swigert Rd. Just before reaching Swigert I
spotted our fourth Say's Phoebe out along fence line by all the pastel green
buildings inside the airport property. We checked all the usual spots along
Swigert and found no interesting sparrows, or even uninteresting sparrows. It
was pretty dead. We scanned in all directions for Loggerhead Shrikes and came
empty there too.
We then went out towards the end of Sundial Road and up onto the levee, where
David M. spotted our final Say's Phoebe of the day. He also noticed a single
white goose in with a large flock of Cacklers and Canadas nearly a mile away
down towards Chinook Landing. It turned out to be an immature Snow Goose. We
drove down to Chinook Landing and re-found the large flock with the Snow Goose
just after taking the exit off Marine Drive towards Chinook Landing. The geese
were just down over the hill from the road and in the slough and the Snow Goose
was in the closest group only about 50 yards away. We got great views and
photos while the geese actively fed just down the hill from where we stood.
We took a short jaunt down Interlachen Road, which borders the west end of Blue
Lake Park. While there, I noticed a large grassy field off in the distance to
the wsw. at the edge of an industrial park. It looked like a good open spot for
one last try for Loggerhead Shrike before heading home. We continued west on
Marine Dr., turned south on NE 185th and then turned back to the east on NE
Portal taking it to where it dead ends in a cul-de-sac in front of an office
building. While scanning the far end of the field with my bins I noticed what
appeared to be a shrike fly up and land in a small tree. We tried to get scopes
on it, but it flew. Fortunately, David M. refound it perched low on a
blackberry mound. It was a Loggerhead. We got some decent digi-scoped photos
and video. Finally and eastside bird that wasn't a Say's Phoebe. On the way
back to David M's house we saw an immature Rough-legged Hawk along Marine Drive
just west of the fire station entrance.
Obviously the phoebes and the Loggerhead Shrike were the highlights of the day.
We were really disappointed at how few migrant sparrows and sparrows in general
that we found. We saw just two Savannah Sparrows all day, which was a surprise
after seeing several small migrant flocks down in the Willamette Valley last
weekend. We had only a smattering of White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows.
It was interesting to study the Song Sparrows going east to west along the
river. The birds around Hood River seemed to be mostly montana/merrilli types
with just one or two that could be assigned to the "rufina group" (the larger
darker reddish-brown birds that we typically see in western Oregon (presumed M.
m. morphna). By the time we reached Cascade Locks every Song Sparrow that we
saw appeared to be M. m. morphna.
Dave Irons
Beaverton, OR
