Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Salish Ponds

This Sunday evening, Michelle and I decided to run up to Salish Ponds in Gresham to see if the Osprey that nest nearby were back for the Summer. No such luck, but Salish Ponds are always nice and it's a great little hike around them. Sometimes, the birding is great, other times, not so much. This time wasn't too bad. We didn't see many songbirds but there was a lot of waterfowl out and about.

Here's how the city describes the ponds "Located between Halsey and Glisan streets at the site of an old rock quarry, the 70-acre Salish Ponds Wetlands Park opened in October 1999 and is Fairview's largest city park.
Visitors can see hawks, geese, ducks, rabbits, coyotes and other wildlife. The Salish Ponds Trail connects to the Reynolds Middle School Campus and the Gresham-Fairview Regional Trail to the west. TriMet bus 77 serves Salish Ponds Wetlands Park. Get off at 207th Avenue and walk south two blocks to the Salish Ponds Trailhead."

You can actually see quite a few more birds than they list, if you go at the right time. Anyway, here are a few photos from our walk. Good birding!

This was a nice surprise, there are still some Ring-Necked (we still think they should be called Ring-Billed, but that's our opinion) Ducks hanging around. Usually, they are gone by late March, early April.


This is a photo of 2 silhouetted Robins. We really like how this one turned out.


There was a lot of Mourning Dove activity at the ponds. Here is just one of the many we saw.

Here is a pair of Mourning Doves in a distant tree.

Canvasbacks are also usually gone by now. Everything seems to be a little off schedule this year. We have our assumptions that it was that nasty winter we had.

A female American Wigeon. There was also a single male swimming around.
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I could resist throwing a photo of the female Rufous Hummingbird in the mix. Can you blame me?

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4 comments:

Di said...

Our very first volkswalk was around Salish Ponds and neighboring areas. I saw a king fisher there once.

I did spot a Red-breasted Merganser female in the ponds behind Gresham Station today on my daily walk from Gresham city hall.

Anonymous said...

Salish Pond was an old dual gravel pit (200 ft) where they hit water and filled the pit. Fish are planted regularly. On the Columbia near the Sandy river and up the river, reachable by bus #77;you can watch the various birds feed all day long, just 3 miles east of the ponds.

North West Birds said...

It seems strange that whoever named those ducks ring-necked. There are canvasback's Still hanging out at Koll wetlands!

P.S. Love the hummer!

Anonymous said...

Would anyone be willing to speak in favor of keeping the wetland park a wetland park instead of a regional fishing park? The original vision was to have people like yourselves who enjoy and respect the wildlife and it's surroundings. Once the City decided to make the West Pond a premiere regional fishing site, the vegetation has been trampled damaging nesting sites. If you would like to support the natural wetlands, please email Lindsey Nesbitt at the City of Fairview or call 503.674-6230 and ask to speak to Lindsay. We only have a couple of days to give public comments. Thank-you! Salish Pond Wetlands supporter.