LOWER COLUMBIA RIVER
Following the footsteps of Lewis & Clark in Oregon & Washington
August 20 - 28, 2005
A complete listing of all sightings from this trip, in
PDF format, can be downloaded by
clicking here.
ACTUAL ITINERARY
Saturday, August 20: We met at our hotel in Portland
and made the short jaunt to Rocky Butte, which overlooks the
city and provides great views of Mount Hood and Mount Saint
Helens. There, we discussed our goals for the trips, as Vaux’s
Swifts circled overhead and a pair of American Kestrels
entertained us with aerobatics. We read part of Jefferson’s
instructions to Lewis and Clark, challenging instructions
indeed! Overnight in Portland.
Sunday, August 21: We began our day at Portland
Audubon, a lovely sanctuary with old-growth Douglas Firs and an
interesting selection of plants, including Oregon Grape (the
state flower), Youth-on-age, Wild Ginger, Sword Fern, Lady Fern,
and many others. A Winter Wren entertained us as we watched
from a bridge, and at the feeders we had stellar looks at
Stellar’s Jays, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, an itinerant
Wilson’s Warbler, and since every feeder must have its squirrel,
a cute Douglas Squirrel. From Portland we worked our way south
along the Columbia, making a brief stop at the Julia Hansen
Columbia White-tailed Deer National Wildlife Refuge, where we
had brief looks at Cinnamon Teal and Wood Duck, and longer ones
at a group of Nutria.
We reached the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at Cape
Disappointment, and the Pacific, in time to view the exhibits,
then watched from the overlook to spot our first Pelagic and
Brandt’s Cormorants and Western Gulls. The Woodland Skipper
butterfly we saw here was the first of many seen at nearly every
subsequent stop on the trip. We also encountered our first
temperate rainforest, featuring giant Sitka Spruces. We reached
our hotel, and after a nice dinner at a riverside restaurant,
retired for the evening. Overnight at Astoria.
Monday, August 22: Our first stop was Ecola State
Park, on Tillamook Head, where old growth forest fronts the
rocky Pacific coast. By viewing from Indian Point, we spotted
Harlequin Ducks, Black Oystercatcher, and thousands of Common
Murres, cormorants, and gulls. We then moved on to Cannon Beach
and Haystack Rock, knowing that the tide was very low and we
would be able to get close to the Rock, perhaps allowing
terrific views of Tufted Puffins. And we found them – many,
too, perched on the rock and flying about. Tide-pooling was
excellent with the water so far out, and we saw two species of
sea-star, green sea-anemones, sea cucumber, and other tidepool
species. After lunch in Cannon Beach and another brief stop at
Ecola, we headed north to Clatsop beach at the south jetty of
the Columbia, where Western Sandpipers and dowitchers circled it
great afternoon light and, offshore, Western Grebes, Common
Loons, Brown Pelicans, and other common ocean species
entertained us. Nite in Astoria.
Tuesday, August 23: We began our day by visiting the
world’s biggest Sitka Spruce (a species first described by
Lewis), a magnificent specimen, the enjoyment of which was
spoiled in part by a parade of logging trucks. Keeping to that
theme, we moved on to an area near Nehalen that had been logged,
and found relatively little activity: Band-tailed Pigeon,
Stellar’s Jays, Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker, and glimpses of
Western Tanagers. We talked about logging methods, and pros and
cons, and viewed an area recently replanted to Western Redcedar.
When birds seem scarce, go to a sewage treatment plant, so
that’s what we did, at Nehalem. There we found an array of
swallows including Violet-green, plus a cute pair of recently
fledged Barn Swallow nestlings. Also at the ponds were Northern
Shovelers, both scaup, Wood Duck, and Bufflehead. After an
excellent lunch at a riverside café in Nehalem, where one of the
servers was a Lewis and Clark re-enactor, we journeyed north to
tour Fort Clatsop, where in addition to the fort and
re-creations of the boats the Corps used, we found many of the
plants described by Meriweather Lewis. Night in Astoria.
Wednesday, August 24: We punctuated this day of
traveling from Astoria to Hood River with several interesting
stops. Women’s Forum Park provided an excellent view of the
Columbia Gorge. Here we discussed the floods of basaltic lava
exposed in the cliff faces and the Ice Age flooding by water
from Glacial Lake Missoula that subsequently shaped it, as well
as some of the trials it offered to the Corps of Discovery. An
American Pipit, rare at the “low” elevation of the 4000 foot
summit of Larch Mountain, was a highlight, along with a
spectacular view of the Cascade Mountains, including Mt. St.
Helens, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, Oregon’s highest peak, the
volcanic Mt. Hood, and Mt. Jefferson. The butterfliers in the
group enjoyed great views of a Lorquin’s Admiral. We dined
under the towering Multnomah Falls, and enjoyed an American
Dipper in the stream below. At Bonneville Dam we watched many
huge Chinook salmon pass through the underwater viewing area of
the fish ladder. We finally emerged at the town of Hood River,
which is positioned right on the border of the Cascades’ rain
shadow. Overnight at Hood River.
Thursday, August 25: We crossed the Columbia back into
Washington early today, and experienced excellent birding in
this land of rugged canyons and park-like forest groves, where
grasses intersperse groves of Douglas-fir, Ponderosa Pine, Garry
(or Oregon) oak, and quaking aspen. We found a number of Lewis’
Woodpeckers, enjoying lengthy scoped looks at two, as well as
many California Quail, Lesser Goldfinch, the ever-present
Western Scrub Jays, glimpses of Western Meadowlarks (first
described by Lewis), Swainson’s Hawks, and two Golden Eagles
soaring in front of Mount Adams. After a picnic lunch and some
butterflying (highlight was a Mormon Metalmark), we crossed back
into Oregon and visited the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center,
which featured an exhibit on the supplies carried by the Lewis &
Clark Expedition. Overnight at Hood River.
Friday, August 26: We began today by crossing the
Columbia back into Washington and traveling to the foot of the
towering volcano Mt. Adams,12,000 feet at the summit. Much
lower lies the Trout Lake Marsh, which gave us a very productive
morning walk featuring scope looks at Band-tailed Pigeon and
Evening Grosbeak, plus female Cinnamon Teal, Solitary Sandpiper,
Lesser Yellowlegs, Western Tanager, many Warbling Vireos, and
the western warbler trifecta of Black-throated Gray, Townsend’s,
and Hermit. Higher up, at the Bird Creek Meadows, we found late
season wildflowers such as the bog gentian, plus songbirds of
the high elevation zone including Clark’s Nutcracker, Mountain
Chickadee, and a glimpsed Townsend’s Solitaire. A Hoary Comma
butterfly sitting on the trailhead sign was followed by abundant
butterflies in the aster-rich meadows including the striking
Pine White and the Acmon Blue. Besides the awesome views, a
definite highlight was the magnificent Prairie Falcon soaring
overhead. Overnight at Hood River.
Saturday, August 27: We began our circle around
Oregon’s highest mountain, 11,000 foot high volcanic Mt. Hood,
with a stop along a stream colored with glacial “flour,” where
we found pink monkeyflower blooming. The Latin for this plant
is Mimulus Lewisii, obviously named for Meriwether Lewis. Later
we discussed what happened to the plants collected by Lewis and
Clark, learning that those found on the trip out to the Rockies
were lost and that a bit of intrigue followed those collected on
the way back. We hiked around one of Oregon’s most scenic
spots, Trillium Lake, where we found an Orange-crowned Warbler.
Lunch was delicious food combined with a bit of history at
Timberline Lodge, a depression-era project of the Works Progress
Administration. We explored the forests west of Mount Hood,
looking in vain for woodpeckers, but found Townsend’s Solitaire
and some delicious ripe huckleberries as a consolation prize.
Our tour together finished with a farewell dinner along the
Columbia River in Portland, Oregon’s largest city, where the
excellent fare was accented by an exuberant waiter and a
remarkable fireworks display across the river in Washington.
Overnight at Portland.
Sunday, August 28: Our journey concluded this morning
with flights home from the Portland airport.
For tour itineraries, to register, or for more
information contact:
NJAS Eco-Travel at: (908)-204-8998
9 Hardscrabble Road
Bernardsville, NJ 07924
or email
travel@njaudubon.org.
Members receive discounts on program fees. If you are not a member and would like to become one, consider Joining New Jersey Audubon Society.
|
