Columbia Slough - Falling Through Spain - CycleBlaze

September 3, 2023

Columbia Slough

Seeing the swifts last night made me realize that we’re at the front end of migration season.  If the swifts are back, maybe some other transients are passing through town now also.  With only a few riding days left here, it’s time to make a last trip out to Columbia Slough to see who’s wading around.  It’s cool, calm and overcast this morning -a fine day for a ride so we’re both getting out of course.  We decide on a trip out the Columbia to the Glenn Jackson Bridge and back, with us riding together until I drop out to poke around the slough on the way back while she continues home.

I hadn’t thought I’d post this ride really, since it’s just another iteration of an outing we’ve often seen here.  Events forced my hand though.  Having seen a new bird, of course a post is required.  It doesn’t need many words though; the photographic evidence is enough.

Pretty ordinary, but that doesn’t mean we can’t slip in a shot of pigeons from time to time.
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In the Columbia Slough: wood ducks, two of six.
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On the Columbia: two common mergansers.
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Two mergansers, a gull, and a crocodile.
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Well, that was fun. I’ve done pretty well for the first thirty miles, but if I’m going to start poking around and stopping every few minutes she’s moving on. And she’ll take the long way home, racking up another 49 mile day.
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At Smith Lake, which together with adjacent Bybee Lake makes probably the largest wetland inside the city limits.
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At Smith Lake: a Muckyfoot heron slowly slogs forward.
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Pacific tree frog, also known as a Pacific chorus frog.
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Patrick O'HaraWow! Great catch! These guys are very elusive.
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8 months ago
Moving on to the Columbia Slough.
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Big rodent.
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Bill ShaneyfeltInvader...
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/43997-Myocastor-coypus/browse_photos?place_id=10
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8 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Bill ShaneyfeltBut they’re so CUTE!
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8 months ago
Bill ShaneyfeltYup, like the fuzzy tailed rats in our trees that snatch tomatoes from the vine when they get an orange spot, run up the utility pole, eat a quarter sized hole in it, drop it to stink and rot with the other dozen or so that they previously stole...

A neighbor feeds them peanuts and has had a hole in his garage that he doesn't fix because they use it to raise brood after brood in it... Another neighbor who moved a few years back trapped two a day for over a week, and I could not tell any were gone... like deceased gone. But these are not invasive... here... They just don't have any more native predators to keep them from being invasive on home turf. I could go on and on about invasive species.
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8 months ago
So how many cormorants does it take to make a gulp? Two must be the logical minimum.
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Killdeer.
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#184: Lesser yellowlegs.
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Patrick O'HaraOoooo...lovely. Also, a nice catch!
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8 months ago
Scott AndersonTo Patrick O'HaraI was glad I got such a good photo so I could identify it with conviction. They’re quite similar to their cousins the greater yellowlegs.
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8 months ago

____________________

2023 Bird List

     184. Lesser yellowlegs

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 286 miles (460 km)

Rate this entry's writing Heart 13
Comment on this entry Comment 2
marilyn swettNice collection of birds, Scott!
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8 months ago
Scott AndersonTo marilyn swettThanks, Marilyn. It was a pretty satisfying day to be out.
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8 months ago