Oregon and Washington Part One

I'm in Washington now, near the border with Oregon.  It's very beautiful here.  There are often chickadees in the trees, and near the rivers there are a lot of ospreys.  I'm going to post about this trip in parts, like I did with the whale-watching trip.

My mom and I flew in a very small plane with propellers.  It was a nice, short flight.  There were many beautiful views from the plane.  Below is a photo I took from the plane of some mountains.

On the first day we got here, we went to the Washington State University campus to go for a walk.  We didn't see many birds there, but when we were driving, I saw two pileated woodpeckers fly by.  At the campus, we saw mountain cottontails and a white-tailed deer.  Below is one of the rabbits.  I believe it was a mother, because there was a little bunny nearby.

Mountain Cottontail

There were many fields and trees on the campus.  This area is full of really tall trees and wide fields.  Below are two photos.  The first is of a field with trees in the background.  The second is of more trees.

There are also tons and tons of blackberry bushes.  There are blackberries that have been introduced here, but I believe most of the berries we've seen are native.  Native bushes are low-growing and vine-like with hair-like thorns, which is what the berries I've been seeing look like.  Below is a photo of some blackberries.

On Thursday, we went to Multnomah Falls in Oregon.  It is a tall, thin, beautiful waterfall.  There are some trails in the forest surrounding it.  The only problem was that it was pretty crowded, and it gets even more crowded on weekends and when the weather is better.  We went on a cloudy, foggy day.  Below are three photos.  The first is of the waterfall.  The second two are of views from the trail.  The water beyond the trees in the third photo is the Columbia River.

After seeing the waterfall, we went to a restaurant.  In the parking lot, I saw a bald eagle fly over, though it flew too fast for me to take a photo.  Then we drove for a while beside the Columbia River.  Below are two views of the river.  The first is from the Oregon side, and second is from the Washington side.

Besides the bald eagle, I saw some other birds.  At the waterfall, there were many Oregon juncos.  Oregon juncos are sparrows and a subspecies of the dark-eyed junco.  They are found in the western United States in the winter and southwestern Canada in the summer.  Along the Pacific coast and much of Oregon, Washington, and northern California, they are around all year.  They are found in woods with some open and brushy areas.  They are brown on their backs and sides with white below, and have dark gray heads and pale pink beaks.  Females are paler overall compared to males.  Below is a male Oregon junco.

Oregon Junco

It's hard to believe how many ospreys there are here, since in southern California, they're somewhat uncommon.  Every time we cross over a bridge over water, there are one or two ospreys flying around.  Below are two photos.  The first is of an osprey flying.  The second is of an osprey standing on a nest.  The nest was right by the road at an intersection on a tall, manmade platform.  The photo isn't great because I took it as we were driving past it.

Osprey

Osprey