Ridgefield and Ecola
Monday, July 9, 2007: Although not on the original itinerary, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refugee had been in my mind. When Susan felt she wanted a longer Washington list, going to Ridgefield seemed like a good option, and it was! The highlight bird was American Bittern (several times), but we were also happy to see birds such as Scrub-Jay, White-breasted Nuthatch, Black-headed Grosbeak, and Yellow-headed Blackbird. We drove the auto loop and walked the trail. Oddly, most of the birds we saw on the trail were right at the beginning. We also caught a glimpse of what was probably a Great Horned-Owl. We added Nutria to our mammal list on the auto loop.
We crossed over the Columbia at Longview. We were on the lookout for a picnic table (we had sandwiches and other food in the cooler) and soon found one. This got us both started on our Oregon lists. In fact, it was the first either of us had set foot in Oregon (my 44th state).
We stopped a couple of times as we drove west along the Columbia. Once at Bradley ???, and later at the Twilight Eagle Sanctuary, where we saw Bald Eagles.
We drove through Astoria, then into Ft. Stevens State Park. This sounded like a good birding location, but just did not work for us. It started to go wrong when we found the jetty was being reconstructed, and did not recover.
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| Barn Swallow | View to Cape Falcon |
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| Cannon Beach Seastacks | Haystack Rock |
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| Seabird Rocks | View to Tillamook Head |
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| View from Ecola Point | Sitka Spruce and Haystack Rock |
Our last stop was Ecola Point, one of the iconic locations on the Oregon coast. Needless to say, I was happy to take many photos and I think we both enjoyed the visit there. By then it was getting near sunset, so we headed to Portland where I spend one night, and Susan stays two.
La Quinta, Portland, OR