Rainier, OR and Sauvie Island

Here are photos from our trip to Rainier, OR and Sauvie Island yesterday. We were up and around Camp Wilkerson in Rainier and only spent about an hour on Sauvie Island. We hope you enjoy these.


A Gray Jay! This was a life list bird for us. This was our first birding trip to a higher elevation.


More Gray Jays


They were such fun birds to watch.


A Red Fox that we spotted on Sauvie Island.

A Red-Tail Hawk. One can never have enough photos of Red-tails!

A Northern Harrier! There were actually 4 Harriers all hunting a relatively small field between Mile Post 2 and 3 on Sauvie Island.

If you look closely you can see one of the Harriers just about to land on the right and one that is just sitting on the ground on the left side of the screen.

Another one of the Harriers. Just off the road.

Just sitting and watching us watch him.

A Sandhill Crane in the same field as the harriers. We saw 6 Sandhills (including a juvenile) in all.

An American Robin. We just really liked this photo!

An Osprey!

Another Osprey...

These guys seem to have claimed the pylon just across the road from Kruger's Farm Market.

They were giving a lot of loud calls the closer I got but they didn't fly off.

A (juvenile?) House Finch on Sauvie. His beak seems to be a little misshapen.

And finally, a couple of pics from the back yard. Here are 2 chickadees but notice that one is a Black-Capped and the other is a Chestnut-Backed! We just thought that was pretty cool.

Here are 2 of the 12,625,313 Bushtits that come into the yard everyday and they seem to have a lot of juveniles with them lately!

What is this little guy?

This little guy flew into the yard early this evening and from the moment we saw him, we felt that something was different. Who knows? Maybe we're crazy. Alas. The life of a birder.

American Goldfinch

Here's a photo of the first juvenile American Goldfinch that we've seen this season! Much earlier than last year. And you know, where there is one there are a hundred! Kepp comin' little guys!

Here's a photo of a Black-Throated Gray Warbler. He was also earlier than last year!

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge

Here are a few photos from our trip to Oaks Bottom. We went out on Sunday around noonish and stayed for about 3 and a half hours. We didn't know how much we would see in the mid-day sun but we were pleasantly surprised. We visually identified a total of 29 species but we heard many sounds that we are not familiar with. We are hoping to take some birding-by-ear classes in the near future, but until then they will remain unidentified. Take care and good birding!!



Juvenile Scrub-Jay


Least Sandpiper


Cedar Waxwing

Lesser Yellowlegs

Long-Billed Dowitchers

Long-Billed Dowitchers

Nesting Osprey juveniles. We have a picture of this same tree and nest from earlier this year that has a pair of nesting Canada Geese in it!

Belted Kingfisher

A very blurry Green Heron. As soon as I got the camera up and focused for a good shot, the above Kingfisher flew in and scared the Heron away.

A female Wood Duck

This Blue Heron was wading around looking for prey, when it suddenly plopped it's butt down into the water and started swimming like a goose! We had never witnessed this behavior before.