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?

More Beaverton Birding

Here are some more photos of Beaverton birds! Most of these were taken at Commonwealth Lake. Click here for more info on the Park. We hope you enjoy the photos.

Red-Winged Blackbirds were everywhere! Singing their songs and choosing nesting areas. I easily counted over 300 of them.


They were very willing to pose for some photos, too.


An American Wigeon. There were about 300 of this species as well.


Beaverton has lots o' Towhees! Such great looking birds.


You just gotta love the Song Sparrows.


This is about as close as I've ever been to a Red-Tailed Hawk. He was sitting in a tree about 20ft above my head.


There were at least 4 of the Red-Tailed over the park all day long.


This guy was sitting as little higher than 20ft, but I still had to take the photo.


A pair of Red-Tailed Hawks just cruising along the thermals.


A Cooper's decided that the Red-Tailed can't have all the fun.


This Downy Woodpecker was such a ham! He let me get within about 3ft to take his photo.


There was one lone Pied-Billed Grebe at the pond.


If you look closely, you can see a female Red-Winged Blackbird on the right, a Scrub-Jay in the middle and a Robin on the left.


This was a brave little Fox Sparrow. He just hopped around the leaves as I walked around and took photos.