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Date:  September 12, 2010

Location  Luckiamute State Natural Area Explore

Where:  Luckiamute State Natural Area

 

 A booklet I picked up at ODFW a couple of weeks ago put me on to this brand new State of Oregon Natural Area. It was listed as a part of the Luckiamute Loop of the Willamette Valley Birding Trail. I was immediately interested because I had never been there before and because of its close proximity to where we are staying.

Jeanette looking for birds

From the parking lot we decided to take off on a chip covered trail to the southeast. It wound through a plantation of mixed fir and cottonwoods paralleling the Willamette River. We started counting birds right away, accumulating around a dozen different species, with many of the same species repeated numerous times. Lots of sparrows and flycatchers we didn't get a good enough look at to identify.

Buster ckecking out the bear scat.

Black Bear scat laced with blackberries occurred at regular intervals along the trail. In fact it struck me as unique to be on a trail where bear scat outnumbered dog poop.

Jeanette at the gate

The official one-mile trail ended but we continued along the edge of a field and came to a dirt road with a gate that appeared to lead on towards the confluence of the Luckiamute and the Willamette. We eventually ran out of time and turned around before getting to the river. We will have to come back on another day with more time.

Birds we identified for the day were: Great Blue Heron, Scrub Jay, Osprey, American Robin, Grasshopper Sparrow, Steller's Jay, Northern Flicker, Belted Kingfisher, Black-capped Chickadee, Turkey Vulture, and Red-tailed Hawk.