Thanksgiving 2015: Baskett Slough & Sand Lake

November 25, 2015

I spent Wednesday with Pongo and my Dad.  The plan was to drive down the coast from Tillamook to Newport.  We made it as far South as Pacific City.  If you look on a map, that means we covered around thirty percent of that drive.  Too much cool stuff to see in an afternoon.  It was a pretty awesome day.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Canada Goose

Pongo and I started our day at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge.  It's an amazing place for seeing Canada and cackling geese, but you have to get there early.  In California's Central Valley, the snow and ross' geese are present at the refuges throughout the day.  At the Ankeny and Baskett Slough refuges near Salem the geese take off to find food in the morning and return at night.  The early morning take offs at Baskett Slough are loud and exciting.  On this particular morning we caught the tail end of it.

Cackling Goose -- Baskett Slough National Wildife Refuge, OR

I really struggled to get good shots at Baskett Slough.  Now that I think about it, I've always struggled to get good shots there.  The early morning light is dramatic but it's also a little tough for me, at least at the Slough.

Canada & Cackling Geese -- Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Dad, Pongo and I started our coastal adventure at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  I love that place.  watching the production line is fascinating.  The samples are fun.  The gift shop has an amazing selection of cheese and other goodies.  I bought a pound and a half of fudge.  I didn't think we'd ever be able to eat all of it but it didn't make it past Friday night.  Dad bought some ice cream and it was delicious.  I bought some cheese too but I left it at Mom and Dad's.  I hope they enjoy it!  :-)

Dad & his ice cream -- Tillamook Cheese Factory, Tillamook, OR

After the cheese factory we drove to Netarts and Cape Lookout.  This is Dad's stretch of coastline.  He had a story to tell around every corner.  I enjoyed listening to his memories.

Cape Lookout State Park, OR

Cape Lookout State Park, OR

Cape Lookout State Park, OR

Sand Lake Recreation Area, OR

Dad used to take us four wheeling in the dunes at Sand Lake when we were kids.  My brother and I still talk about that.  I didn't recognize much about this area except for the gas station where we'd turn off the highway to go to the dunes.  I recognized it immediately.  That was cool.

Sand Lake Recreation Area, OR

Pongo spent the day warming up to Dad.  He's always been a little wary of Dad, but by the end of the day he had his head in Dad's lap.  I was happy about that.  Pongo is a special dog but he's very high strung and while not exactly a special needs dog, he's a rescue who was found as a stray puppy and still seems to suffer from the effects of that trauma.  He doesn't warm up to people easily.

Sand Lake, OR

Clay Myers State Natural Area at Whalen Island, OR

Pacific City, OR

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge & Silver Lake

Day Three

February 23, 2014

Soundtrack:

• The National -- High Violet
• Bob Dylan -- The Rolling Thunder Revue

Sunday.  My parents attend church regularly.  I avoid church regularly.  I was on my own for the day.  So, I planned to head up to Rainier.  It's about three hours away from my parents' house.  That's a reasonable day trip distance for me.  I've never been there.  It should be fun.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I didn't make it to Rainier.  I got distracted.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Pied-billed Grebe

When I saw the sign along I-5 for Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, I immediately changed my plans.  Well, not quite immediately.  I thought I might have time to do both, but if not I would fall back to plan B, which was to see how close I could get to Mt. St. Helens from the North (suspecting that the Johnston Ridge Observatory would be closed for the season).  One of the great things about travelling alone is that plans can be just rough sketches that are tossed out on a whim if something interesting comes along.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

Nutria

I began with the Ridgefield auto tour.  I saw three bald eagles on the drive.  They sure have made a comeback.  I grew up in Salem and spent plenty of time going up and down the stretch of I-5 between Seattle and Salem.  I never saw a bald eagle when I was a kid.  Now they're downright common in Washington, and almost as common in Oregon.  If you need proof that taking environmental action can have a positive impact, look no farther than our national symbol.  Nice to see the bald eagle isn't going the way of California's official animal the grizzly bear, which can no longer be found in the state.  There is hope for the future.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

I enjoyed the auto tour.  There wasn't a huge number of birds and animals to see, but there was enough to keep it fun.  It's a beautiful area.  I'm going to have to visit in the summer.  I suppose there won't be a lot of birds, but I'd like to see how this place changes through the seasons.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

There's a nice walking tour at Ridgefield as well.  It winds through both forest and wetlands.  I didn't see a whole lot of animals, but it was the middle of the day so that wasn't too surprising.  There was a beaver lodge in one of the large ponds.  Beaver have made a big comeback, too, at least around Salem.  That's another animal I never saw as a kid.  We spent a lot of our summer days on the Willamette River, too.  I went canoeing with my brother a few years ago and they were all over on the river.

Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, WA

After wrapping up the walking tour, there was no chance of making it to Rainier with any amount of light.  So, I headed toward Mt. St. Helens.

Silver Lake, WA

There's a visitor's center at Silver Lake.  It has a nice one mile trail that makes for an easy, peaceful hike.  Don't bother paying admission to see the visitor's center's exhibits, it's a half-assed experience.

Hoffstadt Bluffs, WA

I continued up 504 toward St. Helens until I got to the forest learning center.  It was raining and I was entering the snow zone and it was starting to get dark, so I decided to turn around and head back.  For the second visit in a row for me, I'd made a trip to Mt. St. Helens without getting a single photo of the mountain.  At some point in the early afternoon the clouds had come in and completely obscured the damned thing.  I'm sure I'll get another crack at it someday.

Hoffstadt Creek, WA

Thanksgiving 2013: Birds, Birds, Birds . . . and a Nutria

Birds, Birds, Birds . . . and a Nutria

November 30, 2013

Soundtrack:

• Wire Train -- Between Two Words

Saturday was the day for the long drive home.  Not before taking in some of the local wildlife, though.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Great Blue Heron

I've driven by Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge countless times.  It's on the way to the coast and the casino from my parents house.  There are few trips I make to Oregon where I don't end up going to one of those two places.  I'd never stopped at the refuge before this visit.  I had no idea there was so much wildlife so close to my childhood home.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

I visited Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge a couple of times in November.  There are some interesting similarities and differences.  Sacramento has a lot more ducks.  The selection was exactly the same, though.  In both places I saw mallards, northern pintails and northern shovelers.  Both places have a lot of coots.  I didn't notice any grebes at Baskett Slough, there are plenty in Sacramento.

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

The goose populations were very different.  In Sacramento, there are snow geese, ross' geese and white-fronted geese.  It was all canada geese and cackling geese at Baskett Slough.  I read that the Willamette Valley is the exclusive wintering home for certain types of canada geese.  The goose populations were a lot closer in size between the two refuges than the duck populations.  

Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Red-tailed Hawk

Both refuges attract a large number of northern harriers and hawks.  I guess they hang around to eat the ducks and coots?  I saw a harrier buzz over the ducks and geese a couple of times and the waterfowl scattered when they saw the harrier.  The northern harriers I saw in Sacramento all seemed to be interested in the critters in the fields, mice and snakes I assumed.  I saw a  couple of american kestrels at Baskett Slough.

Northern Harrier Buzzing the Geese -- Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge, OR

After visiting Baskett Slough, I went back to Salem to have breakfast with the family before heading South for the winter.  Before I left the Salem area, though, I stopped at Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge.  It was a different experience.  There were still a lot of canada/cackling geese (they sure are hard for me to tell apart unless they're right next to each other), but there was a wider variety of other waterfowl and there were bald eagles.

Canada Geese (or Are They Cackling Geese?) -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Nutria

 Like Baskett Slough, Ankeny didn't have a lot of ducks.  It had a wide variety, though.  It had mallards, pintails and shovelers, but it also had canvasbacks, buffleheads, hooded mergansers and scaups.  I saw a couple of tundra swans at Baskett Slough, but at Ankeny I saw at least a dozen.  I also saw a nutria.  It's basically a giant South American water rat.

Why do I find this picture to be so funny?  Tundra Swan -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

Canvasback

I always think of swans as being graceful, elegant birds.  These swans?  Not so much.  These swans spent a lot of time with their asses in the air feeding on something beneath the water.  Awkward.  They were always surround by small fleets of ducks.  I suspect the ducks were hoping to grow up to be big and beautiful like the swans some day.  Isn't there a story about that?

Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

I saw a juvenile bald eagle in a tree as I was leaving the refuge.  He posed for a while, and then he was joined by another bald eagle.  They flew off together, wrestling in the air as they flew.  It reminded me of our dogs.  So silly.

Bald Eagle -- Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge, OR

After that I headed home.  I took the back way through Oregon, cutting over to Highway 97 at Eugene.  It was an uneventful drive.  Pretty, though.  As always, it was good to get back into California.  For the first time, I think I had an appreciation for the beauty of California's Central Valley.  It's so different from the forested land I'd been driving through for the last week.

Mount Shasta, Highway 97, CA