Birding WA county continued...

On July 4th we started the morning in Jackson Bottoms. We continued on to Killin Wetlands. I had only been there once before. Our goal for the day was to photograph some butterflies, but alas the sun disappeared!


Hello snake, you are not a butterfly.
Killin Wetlands was a bit quiet. I've been told it's just the time of year. So we moved on...



We drove up Killin Road and saw this fellow. It's a Chipping Sparrow. I don't think I've ever seen one and he was quite a beauty.



You can tell I took this through the fence. We were actually in the car driving down the gravel road, so I rolled down the window and got the photo. Also along the road were Grey Diggers (California ground squirrels), Northern Flickers, and White-crowned Sparrows.



We are trying to collect more "farm" photos for our notecards and this will be a winner I think.
From there, we drove to Vernonia and refueled with a warm cup of coffee. We then headed up the Scappoose-Vernonia "Hwy". There were many turnouts to explore. This clear-cut was full of fun things to see. I'd love to visit it again. Sadly, the clouds continued and even a few sprinkles and NO butterflies.





I bet hummers like this flower, probably in the mint family.



This would be a great place to go back to pick blackberries.

Prunella

Cowslip?



I wasn't sure if this was a Olive-sided Flycatcher or Western Wood-Pewee, but one of my bird expert friends confirmed it is an Olive-sided Flycatcher. One of the things I love about this photo: see the bird on the left in the background? A Western Tanager! I saw one out there, but didn't see it when I was taking the photo.




A hummer liked this dead branch too.



A couple of deer were spotted trotting off.

Junco singing his heart out. Also seen at this site: White-crowned Sparrows, Towhees, Robins, Goldfinches, Cedar Waxwing, Song Sparrow, and heard Swainson's Thrush.


The flowery meadows added a bit of sunshine to the cloudy day.
We continued on to Sauvie Island...more next time.