Oaks Bottom in pictures (though I can't resist words as well)
The westward facing side of Oaks Bottom, along the railroad tracks. Behind me is the Springwater Corridor bike path/walking trail, frequented by dozens of people at any given daylight hour. Just beyond the bike path lies Oaks Amusement Park on the south end, and the Willamette River as near as 30 feet from the bike path. In the picture you can see the gravel along the railroad tracks I walked (allows great visibility for seeing into the swamps and the lower treetops, good for finding passerines and herons). You can also see the treeline, the grassy rushes, and then beyond that the open water.
I didn't have to go far to find this Northern Flicker -- to be exact, he was in a tree in the parking lot.
Walking down the heavily wooded trail to the level of the swamp usually yields warblers, goldfinches, bushtits, Western Scrub-jays, and robins, but due to the overcast weather it was impossible to get a decent picture of them looking up. This female Wilson's Warbler was lower down, in the trees bordering the swamp and the south plains area.
A Downy Woodpecker was in a nearby dead tree. My camera wanted to turn the tree and bird black against the white sky, but shooting the picture through my binoculars preserved the color, if not making for a great quality photo.
I walked along the field edge for a while, then clambered up an embankment to the railroad tracks, rather than going under the embankment to come out on the Springwater trail -- the tracks and the corridor are separated by a simple chainlink fence, but the view from each is markedly different. I wanted the view of the creatures down below in the swamp, which you can't get from the corridor. I had to sacrifice a good view of Ross Island and the Osprey and Belted Kingfisher I saw over that way last week, though.
This Anna's Hummingbird was in the exact same tree last week, singing his thin buzzy little song. Funnily, I couldn't see his pink iridescence at all, but my camera picked it up regardless. Another binocular shot, and as you can see it didn't do much good. Why are hummingbirds so freaking tiny???
Same hummingbird, same tree, one week ago. Clearly that is his territory! I left the hummingbird and continued to walk, at one point delighting in a Golden-crowned Sparrow foraging with a pair of Song Sparrows. A pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds surprised me, lurking in plain sight in a naked tree.
I came along to what appeared to be the end of the lake portion of the swamp, and last week saw this heron down there at an old tiny building. This week I didn't see the heron. But I heard a most bizarre thing -- something leaping and making the most enormous splashes in the water. It can't be a bird, I thought, no bird was ever so ungraceful! I kept trying to get a glimpse of the water through the trees, arching this way and that, crouching, binoculars held up. At last I realized what it was.
Carp! Boatloads of carp! All of them frantic, all of them boiling, all of them flinging themselves out of the water at one point or another to try and get past the little bottleneck to make it up into the lake. I stared in fascination. I had to get a picture of it! But the hill was extremely steep. There was a sort of path, though; if I could just make it down the embankment, then I could follow the path to the little building.
I found a spot that looked least likely to kill me, though it was still far too steep to go down upright. I looked at the bike path to make sure no one was nearby, then slid down on my butt. In retrospect I'm a bit embarrassed -- what if I'd hurt myself, misjudged the grade and found it too steep even for sliding??? People would have been able to hear me, but not to see me. :-/ I can be... too impulsive, when adventuring.
Once down safely I followed the trail, which was obviously a trail and made me wonder why there wasn't a better way to reach it. As I climbed up onto the little structure suddenly the heron from last week flushed out and flew off, kraaaaaaaaawking extremely pissily at me as he flew.
Heron: "Fuck you, bitch!"
I felt bad about the heron -- I hadn't been able to see him from above. However, I got to work trying to catch pictures of the carp as they flew up out of the water. I took about 40 pictures and only got carp in 5 of them. :-P
When I felt I'd exhausted the carp and should let the heron get back to his feeding, I followed the trail back... and then decided to see if it led around the lake. It did. I found many little watersheds and streams, most of which were full of Canada Geese and their goslings. At one point, glancing through the trees with my binoculars, I was startled and pleasantly surprised to discover a Bald Eagle chilling, most likely checking out the carp.
There was also another Downy Woodpecker, this one attacking a skimpy tree branch. I love those little dudes.
I kept following the trail and eventually came out into a wide open area where I could see mud flats, rushes, open water, and tons and tons of swallows and Vaux's Swifts. A Great Blue Heron parent and two large darker juveniles waded in the rushes. A Least Sandpiper came out and gave itself a bath. Two Killdeer ran around, occasionally bursting into flight with flashing white and black plumage. A nutria swam calmly by. Mallards quacked in the rushes. The swallows dove past me. Male Red-winged Blackbirds in the rushes fought each other both with song ("choke your neigh-bor") and with bold confrontation. It was awesome... I probably stood there for a good thirty or forty minutes.
At last I decided I should probably make my way around the other side of the lake. Once I got back into the woodsy trail, I saw bushtits, a White-breasted Nuthatch, a House Finch, some warblers, Song Sparrows, and, one of my favorites, a small flock of Cedar Waxwings.
Yay waxwing crests :-D
Hiding his face... but not the waxy red wing feathers he is named for.
After the waxwings I at last got my butt back up the trail and off to the car, my legs aching, my whole body exhausted after the 5-hour trip. I was pretty zonked the whole rest of the day... but man, it was worth it :)
Oh, and here's a baby:
Yay birds.