Kelley Point / Balch Creek

June 4, 2025 to June 5, 2025

Wednesday

Wednesday was pretty much a washout, so we'll just plow through quickly and be done with it. The day begins with Rachael croaking weakly from the bedroom, her voice so faint I can barely hear her. I haven't mentioned before that among other things I returned from France with a moderate cold, one that never really developed into anything but that apparently was virulent enough to pass on to my bedmate. Sorry, Rocky!

So she's down for the day obviously, her three day streak of 12 mile hikes sadly brought to an end. My plan though is still on - to bike out to Kelley Point, after first biking over to Caffe Umbria for a coffee date with Elizabeth. The sky is strange though - overcast and foggy, a break from the string of sunny days we've enjoyed since returning home. And even though Weather.com asserts that there's no chance of rain today, it's lightly sprinkling as I bike over to the coffee shop.

An hour or so later Elizabeth and I are catching up on the eventful last two months when I look out the window and see it's no longer misty - there's real rain coming down, and Roddy is getting a drenching across the street. Out of curiosity I check Weather.com again and it still says there's zero chance of rain.

So is this all DJT/Elon/Doge's fault, and we're starting to see the fallout from slashing the NWS budget and staff? It's going to be a long, bleak four years at this rate.

So the weather puts an unexpected damper on my plans; but there's another issue too that completely deep sixes them: I've lost my Pendleton again. Again! I knew it was missing last night when I was preparing to drive over to Nuestra Cucina, and a thorough search this morning confirmed it. Thinking back (and rereading the latest blog entries to refresh my memory) convinces me that there's only one place it could be - up at Salmon Creek, left behind after my ophthalmologist visit. I could call up and ask if it was turned in at the lost and found, but it's close enough that I decide to just drive up and take a bike ride up that way afterwards.

I'm wrong though. It's not there, and I'm convinced that they've done a thorough search; so I must not have worn it up there at all. The only other possibility is that I left it somewhere on the day before that, which opens up several possibilities: I could have set it on a rock at Force Lake when I was bird watching in Vanport; or I could have left it at the Interstate Kaiser when I went there for knee X-rays and my blood test; or I could have left it at the Lucky Lab.

It's on the way, so I stop off at Force Lake on the way home, after first also stopping at Hayden Island for a walk around the point. That's a bust in all regards - no shirt, and no birds to speak of either. I'm not sure I've understood before what a dry period mid-summer is for birding in Oregon. It must be the worst season, unless I want to force myself to get out somewhere at the crack of dawn.

Nothing happening in the Columbia River this morning. No grebes, no scaups, no mergansers, no nothin'.

There's a little more action at Force Lake at least: mallards, sparrows, blackbirds, a few gadwalls, a few redheads, an egret - but no Pendleton, hanging in some prominent spot by someone hopeful that I'd be returning for it.

Just another song sparrow, but I liked the way it caught a small patch of light.

I end the day by biking over to Lucky Lab again, ever the optimist that I am hoping the shirt will be there. It's not of course, but at least they're still stocking NA beer to supplement my salad and slice. So that leaves me just one hope - at Interstate. I'll check there when I go back for my next blood test in the next day or two.

Nice, but I wish we'd get some variety. These two Athletica choices seem to be the default ones I've seen at three or four different places here.

Thursday

Hmm. I didn't do so great at buzzing through yesterday. Let's see if I can do better on this one. The short story: the sun is back, Rachael's voice and energy level is back, and we both make the most of it. I set off on another another birding run, a longer one this time: up the west side of the Willamette to the Saint John's Bridge, then north to Kelley Point and back by way of the Columbia Slough and Vancouver Avenue. A nice loop and one that produces a respectable list for the day, but nothing new. The odds of hitting 200 for the year are fading fast.

The view toward downtown from the Saint Johns Bridge.

In the winter Bybee Lake would be teeming with a variety of waterfowl. Today I see only a single bird, a heron standing out in the center of an algae raft.

Do you think he's trying to decide if he can swallow a turtle? And it's interesting that the turtle is crawling a long, straight line like the one we saw two days ago. This must be turtle behavior that I haven't noticed before.

Three cormorants. The whitish one is an immature. Wing spreading is their method for drying their wings after immersion. The one in the lower right is exhibiting 'gular fluttering', its beak open nd apparently gasping for air - a method for regulating their body temperature by expelling excess heat.

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Rachael's feeling much better but is prudent and holds herself back, walking a mere nine miles (and in case you might not have noticed, I take pride in having biked more than three times as far as she walked today). She has a terrific walk though, up Balch Creek to the Wildwood Trail and back. As near as I can recall this is only the second time she's taken this walk but it's really a great one, climbing slowly along the creek and looking up in awe at the massive Douglas firs and other old growth species. Portland is so fortunate to have a place like this right on its doorstep.

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Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 1,009 miles (1,624 km)

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