Blue Goose ~ Day 36

July 6, 2014 ~ Florence, OR to Gold Beach, OR

Leaving Florence and family about noon, I drove south but took a route that I thought would be one of the scenic loops which rejoin 101. It was a scenic byway but not a loop, and it dead-ended in a state park, which was totally fine, as very near the park, I just happened on Simpson Reef and Shell Island Overlook which are part of the Oregon Islands NWR.

Simpson Reef and Shell Island - Oregon Islands NWR - OR

It was luck and involved no planning on my part. I had not expected to include the Oregon Islands as there are over 1800 of them up and down the Oregon coast, all offshore and protected by refuge status, and not open to visitors. Several species of birds nest on them, and the beaches and rocks are used by sea lions and seals.

Seals and Sea Lions on Simpson Reef - Oregon Islands NWR - OR

A couple from the Friends of the Southern Oregon Coastal National Wildlife Refuges were in the little parking lot with two spotting scopes set up, answering questions, urging anyone to look through the scopes, and generally giving their time for the sake of raising awareness and enhancing the viewing opportunities.

I then went on to Bandon Marsh NWR which is a tidal salt marsh in the Coquille River estuary used by migrating birds, of which there were none at this time of year, and the tide was out, so what I saw was a vast expanse of mud and grasses. But that's OK....it's a refuge, a place that excludes damaging interventions such as resorts. Most of the refuges are always in the process of acquiring more land. If the government doesn't, then often private developers do.

After briefly looking over the marshy mud flats, I drove through Bandon and continued south to Gold Beach, OR. I had made a Priceline motel reservation there but ate first and had a truly delicious meal: mashed potatoes, Dungeness crab done as a "Maryland crab cake" and placed over wilted spinach and buerre blanc, warm chewy bread and a glass of wine. I sat on an indoor porch with ocean views. I have passed through Gold Beach several times in my life, and it has always been wildly bright and sunny as it was tonight.

The motel was modest to the extreme, but updated and clean, and I worked a few hours by an open window with the ocean in the distance. A large, dusky-violet longitudinal cloud was moving fast just above the horizon from north to south, and when the sun went through and behind it, there was glorious light and color.

Blue Goose ~ Days 34 and 35

July 4 - 6, 2014 ~ Woahink Lake, OR

With my family....motor boating and rowing when (inexplicably) the motor would quit, the secret island, chowder and pasta and salads and salmon, reading The Goldfinch, fireworks (public and private), newts and salamanders, meeting neighbors, more good food, Dutch Bros coffee, lily pads, ospreys, Steller Jays, Spotted Towhees, sunshine the whole time...the best holiday....made even better by surprises in the mail from my sisters. Thank you both....and thank you SODAs..

(And a shower....)

Steve figuring it out

Woahink Lake - OR

Blue Goose ~ Day 33

July 3, 2014 ~ Newport, OR to Florence, OR

It was a short ride down the coast from Newport to Florence where I was to meet the SODAs.

Heermann's Gulls and Brown Pelican on the Siuslaw River at Florence, OR

I got there early and hung out on the south jetty (of the Siuslaw River) and watched Pigeon Guillemots and Heermann's Gulls and crab fishermen, who would haul up their cages, quickly pick through the catch, discarding most of it, attracting gulls and pelicans. The non-commerical daily limit of these Dungeness crabs is 12 males of at least 5.75 inches. They are easy to catch and who doesn't like Dungeness....Many of the Oregon rivers emptying into the Pacific have large bays and long jetties on the north and south protecting the harbors. Wherever the public has access to beaches or jetties, there is a list of rules, emphasizing the inherent dangers of the ocean...like "Deadly Waves At Any Time" and about a dozen other warnings.

The Pacific is not a gentle benign place but it is dramatic and stunningly beautiful. There is always a breeze and often significant wind; the sun shines fiercely, and when it doesn't, fog and mist, drizzle and rain shorten and obscure the views. Foghorns and bird cries and waves crashing....It's romantic for the passersby...the thousands of people who travel the coast via bicycle or in cars or RVs. There are hundreds of view points and pullouts for photographers, for beach access for surfing or poking about in the rocks and tide pools or just for hanging out. For those who work on the ocean though, there are always risks.

The road to the south jetty is a lot like the road to the Ludington State Park in Michigan with massive sand dunes between the road and the ocean.  Here though the river is on the other side of the road, flowing west but also subject to the tides which change four times in 24 hours. So one has to be aware of these forces on the rivers and bays.

I sat there for a couple of hours before driving about five miles to Woahink Lake where I met the SODAs and spent the next several days.

Blue Goose ~ Day 32

July 2, 2014 ~ Seaside, OR to Newport, OR

While overcast early, it cleared by mid-morning. On the coastal highway, there was an accident which stopped southbound traffic for 20 minutes but I doubt it was serious. Still, there are always lots of police, ambulances, first responders.  The most damaged car looked like it had curtains blowing out the open windows.

In Tillamook, I drove around trying to find a place to get my hair cut but gave up that plan. I just wanted a quick chain hair cut place fluke Great Clips and couldn't find one. I am seeing too many very obese young women. There were a pair spending the morning on a bench in the shade outside Safeway,  laughing and smoking, eating and drinking, with pale, thin loser-type guys in attendance. These women weren't just overweight; they were young and really huge.

So, I headed to Cape Meares NWR. The main coastal route is the famous US 101, but there are often alternate scenic loops when 101 veers away from the coast, and one of these is the Three Arches Scenic Loop.  I headed for that and kept stopping in awe at view points to photograph the spectacular headlands.

Cape Foulweather - OR

I met a couple with birding scopes, looking for a Black Oystercatcher and they also were on their way to Cape Meares SP which is surrounded by Cape Meares NWR. The actual refuge boundaries are a bit vague, complicated by the fact that a landslide forced a road closure. The gentleman told me it had been closed a year. He then told me he had gone to Saugatuck for "55 years" in the summers. His mother, he said, had been a nanny to a professor from the University of Illinois who used to come to Saugatuck to study dune movement and who then ended up buying some land just north of town and building a primitive cabin there. His mother "helped build the cabin...." The birder woman with him was brisk and knowledgeable and determined to find the oystercatcher's nest.

I went on to the SP, where I forest hiked a small beautiful trail to the largest spruce tree in Oregon (unbelievably massive in girth and height) and then went to the cape/lighthouse itself.

WWW.CAPEMEARESLIGHTHOUSE.ORG

Captain John Meares was the first to sail into Tillamook Bay, naming it Quick Sand Bay because of the mud at low tide. Captain Robert Gray was the first American on the scene and he called it Murderers Harbor because one of his crew was killed by natives there. 
The lighthouse was built in 1889 and commissioned on January 1, 1890. The tower stands 38 feet high and is the shortest lighthouse in Oregon. It is constructed of bricks (made right on site at a cost of $2,900) with iron plates covering it...The lens is a first order Fresnel (pronounced "Fraynel") lens made in Paris, France. It was shipped around Cape Horn, up the west coast to Cape Meares and then hauled 217 feet up the cliff by a wooden crane that was built from local timbers native to the area...It produced about 30 seconds of fixed white light from the primary lens followed by a red flash of 5 seconds from the bull's-eye lens once every minute. This was the signature of Cape Meares Lighthouse. The primary lens produced 18,000 candlepower and the bull's-eye lens produced 160,000 candlepower. The light could be seen 21 nautical miles at sea. 
The oil lamp was replaced in 1910 with an oil vapor light similar to the Coleman lanterns of today. This was replaced in 1934 with electricity produced by generators and eventually by central power. The light today is automated and produces 57,000 candle power.

I saw the woman birder again and she pointed out a Peregrine Falcon nest on a cliff. There were month-old fluffy-white chicks. She had ound the Black Oystercatcher pair and excitedly talked on a walkie-talkie to her companion who was at another viewing spot, saying, "Johnny, come and take a picture through the scope..." There were also cormorants and Western Gulls nesting and on a nearby large rock, hundreds or even thousands of Common Murres.

The top of this rock is covered with nesting Common Murres at Cape Meares NWR/ SP

I watched for an hour...easy to do in this exquisite venue.

Other tourists walked by. We all took photos; it's an irresistible impulse. One gentleman had his iPhone and showed me pictures he had taken of peregrines in flight that were amazing!  The oystercatcher lady got "cold and hungry" and left, but I ran into her again down the road. She and Johnny were off to an eagle's nest and asked if I wanted to follow. I didn't but it was a compliment that she invited me.

Back at Cape Meares, as I was walking uphill to my car, I stopped in the shade and saw another life bird: a Hermit Warbler, just like that. So damn cool, especially as this is a colorful and distinctively marked bird.

It was late afternoon when I chanced upon Mo's West right next to The Devils Punch Bowl and stopped by for seafood sliders, clam chowder and a glass of wine. The deal was that this is off the main route and not crowded, the Flying Dutchman Winery next door (although closed) and the restaurant pretty much on the cliff. It was a small place with eight family style tables. I sat by a window that I could open or close to my comfort level. The sun was shining, the ocean so close...one of those times when everything is perfect. (Mo's is legendary on the Oregon coast for seafood, especially clam chowder...but their places are usually much larger and busier.)

Oregon Coast near Newport

Newport was only a few miles south and there was a Walmart there with several other obvious fellow travelers. I am learning to pick them out, along the periphery of the parking lots, near the trees. I spent an hour and finally getting my trip bird list in order and then read and fell asleep, sticky and dirty and badly in need of a shower, which should happen tomorrow night as I will be with the SODAs!

Blue Goose ~ Day 31

July 1, 2014 ~ Aberdeen, WA to Seaside, OR

Foxglove - very common along the roads in the Pacific Northwest

My first stop not far from Aberdeen was Willapa NWR, near the Columbia River with habitats of an estuary and old growth forest. Students from the University of Washington have made an Art Trail beginning at the main office, and from that, one can access the Cutthroat Trail. It was only 2/3 of a mile, so I figured I could hike that. There was a warning that it was "strenuous" but this is my job.... It wound through old-growth trees with steep steps cut into the trail which were covered with roofing shingles to help the grip, which I appreciated. I definitely paid attention, which I did even more so after reading one of the interpretative signs about mountain lions. The pay-off was a little bird I saw and heard simultaneously, adding to my life list. The day before, at Dungeness, I had read about the Pacific Wren which sings a long, lovely, complicated song. Look for it "on the forest floor" I read, at which point I had to laugh...since the forest floor is totally obscured most of the time by a billion green things. 

But here at Willapa, I saw one, singing its wee heart out. So the sweating and heart pounding was nothing... The sun was shining through these gigantic trees and short brown needles covered the damp trail which helped with traction. There was a small labyrinth and salmon on the trees and

representative sculptures of local birds.

Salmon on the Art Trail at Willapa NWR - WA

I continued on to Julia Butler Hansen NWR, one of 57 refuges maintained specifically for the protection of an endangered species, in this case the Columbian White-tailed Deer, a subspecies of white-tailed deer. I, unfortunately, was getting hot and weary, the deer were lying low and my thoughts were just to keep moving. I made a token 100-foot walk to the fenced-in fields (to keep the elk out) but it was mid-day and in the high 80s and to be truthful I had no interest in seeing a deer whose tail was brown on the top rather than black.  Not that they aren't important, and I should have wanted to see one....So it goes. 

A guy came into the office and loudly asked, "Are there supposed to be deer around here?" Anyway, this is a quiet, less glamorous refuge but with a specific mandate, definitely a place of shelter. Julia Butler Hansen was a politician from the area, serving 14 years in Congress. 

I had intended to cross over into Oregon and go down I5, eventually getting to Eugene, but after cooling down in a Starbucks that just happened to pop up, I adjusted my loose plan and went west to Astoria after crossing the Columbia. The temperature which was in the 90s dropped 10-12 degrees at the coast. I drove slowly through Astoria looking for a place to stay. I thought about going to Fort Stevens SP, but decided it was too early to stop so I went on to Seaside instead, a busy tourist town, and ended up for the night in a Safeway parking lot. I had jambalaya soup and chicken teriyaki from the deli. The soup was good; the teriyaki wasn't.

Blue Goose ~ Day 30

June 30, 2104 ~ Shelton, WA to Aberdeen, WA

The Olympic Peninsula! I had never been here before and was astonished by my first glimpse of rugged mountains with snow. I expected more modest mountains. It was a perfect day with warm but not hot temperatures and bright sunshine. I drove north along the Hood Canal, looking at the map frequently to get the bigger picture, and got to Sequim (pronounced Squim) mid morning, but then lingered in a coffee house for a couple of hours. 

Dungeness NWR is a few miles NW of Sequim and is another stunning refuge with dense coastal flora, immense trees, the beach and a 5.5-mile sand spit out to a lighthouse with Mt. Baker is in the distance.

Dungeness NWR - WA

One can walk to the end of the spit but I only went a mile…maybe not even that. It was very calm but the ocean waves still were significant, continually crashing onto the beach but at a slight angle so one could see the same wave move up the beach. The harbor side of the spit was perfectly calm. Huge driftwood, so common on Pacific beaches, showed high tide lines. No one was actually swimming, but kids were frolicking in the shallows. I thought I was lucky with the weather but was told by a woman volunteer that Sequim is called “sunny Squim” and that it is in a “blue hole.” When I was in the coffee shop and driving through town, I realized the town is a mecca for retirees with means like Sanibel in FL or Sedona in AZ. Though retired, they are physically active and involved in their communities. I was surprised, thinking Sequim was a quaint but working fishing outpost. Not so…lots of shopping opportunities, all with cute names, neat and tidy…flowers and condos and bicycle racks painted a deep rich plum. 

The birds were scarce though - a few White-crowned Sparrows, a pair of loons far out on the water, a couple of gulls flying by. But in spring migration, there are thousands of Brants and other shorebirds fueling up on Dungeness before flying north. Brants nest on the far northern edge of Alaska and the Canadian provinces. 

I drove way too much today, essentially the pheripery of the pennsula. Not that there are a choice of roads through the middle, much of which is Olympic National Park / National Forest.  I hadn't realized how big this roughly square peninsula is. Curiously, there is a rain forest here also, the Hoh Rain Forest, which gets 12-14 feet of rain annually. Several Native American tribes still claim small parts of their ancestral lands on the peninsula. I came down the west aide skirting Lake Crescent, going through the towns of Humptulips and Forks and several hours later, arrived at Gray’s Harbor NWR. I never know what to expect of a refuge; they are usually quite different from any notions I had had. The one was next to an airfield. In fact, I had to walk though that to get to the Sandpiper Trail, a loop boardwalk which goes partly through the thick native brush that looks pretty much impenetrable (to me) before opening onto the marsh.

Gray's Harbor NWR - WA

Because of tides, the mudflats and marshes and water are dynamic. During spring migration, 500,000 shore birds stop by - mostly Dunlins, Westen Sandpipers and Red Knots, reason for a local birding festival. Tonight, though I heard birds in the dark leafy cover and saw a few Marsh Wrens and a Bald Eagle, it was quiet, and I was just a bit apprehensive as I didn’t think another soul was anywhere close but then saw a couple returning on the boardwalk and a gentleman at the far end. I was about to turn back but forced myself to do the whole loop and talked to the lone gentleman, who was nice and all, but…… Do most women feel vulnerable in a situation like this? And if so, what a burden. 

Logging is huge here with loaded logging trucks and immense piles of cut and stripped trees waiting processing in the lumberyard. I saw numerous clear-cuts with leftover gigantic stumps in fields of new growth and debris and scraps left behind. Is this still legal? to clear cut? Sometimes, the areas are replanted but often with just one species crowded together. The diversity and beauty of the old growth forests that have survived are breathtaking. 

There is an odd little bird called the marbled murrelet. I learned all about it from the book Rare Bird: Pursuing the Mystery of the Marbled Murrelet by Maria Mudd Ruth 

 WWW.AMAZON.COM

Part naturalist detective story, part environmental inquiry, this vibrant narrative celebrates the fascinating world of an endangered seabird that depends on the contested old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest for its survival. "This chunky little seabird stole my heart." So confesses Maria Mudd Ruth, a veteran nature writer perfectly happy to be a generalist before getting swept up in the strange story of the marbled murrelet. This curiosity of nature, who flies like a little brown bullet at up to 100 miles an hour and lives most of its life offshore, is seen around land only during breeding season, when the female lays a single egg highon a mossy tree limb in the ancient coastal forest.

This murrelet has webbed feet and "swims" underwater but flies inland to nest and this book tells the fascinating tale of how scientists finally fingered out this unusual nesting behavior.  I saw a stuffed specimen the next day at Willapa NWR and regretted not taking a photo. They are small, chunky black and white, vaguely duck-like birds with squat rear ends.

I found a Walmart in Aberdeen that was a little “worn” inside,but parked near an RV. When I woke up the next morning, a vehicle next to me was almost exactly like mine. It had a blanket and towel over the front seats so the back was more private. (I have put a blanket up once but only because of bright lights. I feel part of “stealth” traveling…the under-the-radar way of car camping...is to not draw attention to your vehicle. As I left, I noticed the license plates were from Quebec. 

Dungeness NWR - WA

Blue Goose ~ Day 29

June 29, 2014 ~ Sunnyside, WA to Shelton, WA

It was a lovely June morning but on my way to Toppenish, NWR, I was diverted by the police due to an accident. I could see an overturned vehicle on the road ahead. I read later that two men had died. Always sobering. And this was just a minor country road.

Toppenish NWR - WA

The gate to the refuge never did open; however, there was a wide mowed trail along a creek but the shrubbery was dense, and I could barely see the water and seldom the birds that were twittering and singing. So I walked a very short paved trail to a shaded overlook and stayed an hour, with my scope, looking over the riparian habitat and the sage and tried to ID a flycatcher which basically was there an hour also. Flycatchers return to the same perch over and over, briefly flying out and catching insects. This genus is difficult; there are about 6-8 species that look similar,  and I never did decide what it was, but the rewards for my discipline were two: A California Quail which perched briefly on dead brush in the sage and a fly-byYellow-breated Chat, a good-sized colorful bird but usually hard to see. They are bright yellow underneath and gray on top with bold white spectacles and are skulkers. I have seen them before but never well and certainly wasn't expecting to see one in this habitat.

And then the Army showed up in the parking area and I left. No, I have no idea...











I got on US12 and drove west from Yakima over White Pass through the Cascades (beautiful) and north on I5 to Nisqually NWR near Olympia.

Finally, were were people and no wonder as this is an impressive refuge for several reasons. Fresh water from the Nisqually River meets salt water from Puget Sound and creates a tidal estuary / delta with a mile-long (one-way) boardwalk. One can hear and see the constant traffic of I5 which is definitely a juxtaposition but oddly not intrusive.

Caspian Tern and gulls at Nisqually NWR - WA

Nisqually NWR - WA

This refuge reminded me of Minnesota Valley near St. Paul / Minneapolis...retreats for the urban-weary, close to major cities. There was also a one-mile boardwalk loop around fresh-water wetlands and through deep green woods.

It had started to rain HARD as I drove into the parking lot, but in five minutes the sun came out. It was peaceful, ambling along the boardwalks in the late afternoon light with sunset only a couple of hours away.

I intended to drive up to Port Angeles on the northern coast of the Olympic Peninsula before stopping, but realized it was farther than I thought and it was getting dark, so I settled for a Walmart in Shelton, only 30 minutes from Nisqually. No bother trying to find a motel; no checking in, hauling stuff in and paying $100 - $200. Easy.....