June, 2021
First off, if you haven’t read all of the comments on my last blog post, the one about the Peter Iredale, then you might want to go back and read the rest of the story. Great questions from you folks!
But after you do that, come back here, and then let’s head out in a different direction this afternoon. Let’s just go wander around the countryside outside the boundaries of Fort Stevens State Park. Let’s drive through the small towns of Hammond and Warrenton, and then let’s head up around Youngs Bay, crossing the Youngs Bay Bridge, almost into Astoria but not quite … that’s the bridge where blog reader Fran reported seeing birds standing on sandbars out in the bay.
In the last blog, reader Jan reported seeing birds standing on sandbars as she drove across the big Astoria-Megler Bridge. How could there be a sandbar out in the middle of the Columbia River? There must be a bazillion of gallons of water pouring through there every second! But indeed, there is a huge sandbar out in the middle of the Columbia River right off of Astoria. That’s why they built the TALL part of the bridge, for ships to go under, way over by Astoria and not out in the middle of the river … that huge sandbar is out there in the middle of this humungous river. What a surprise that would have been to see birds out there if you didn’t know about that sandbar, which I didn’t until Jan commented. Thanks Jan. 🙂 And thanks Fran.
Ok, let’s go for a drive. Let’s just go see what there is to see with no destination in mind.
First, we have to drive out of the state park. Sigh … oh me … I didn’t even get from my campsite to the state park boundary when I found something lovely to take a photograph of. I am so distracted by pretty things. 🙂
The lush waterways below are right next to the main road into (and out of) the state park.
Eventually I managed to get outside the state park and onto the country road heading through the small towns of Hammond and Warrenton.
People who live in this part of Oregon commonly have a lot of experience with boats and fishing and such things, given that they live right on the corner beside the mighty Columbia River and the magnificent Pacific Ocean. A number of homes/garages in both Hammond and Warrenton had collections of fenders/buoys/floats … fishing floats, or boat fenders, or marker buoys, or things of that sort. But this garage below outdid all the others.
There were lots of shallow fresh water lakes and ponds and creeks hereabouts … lots!
What might look like rocks along the edges of the waterway above are water plants, similar to water plants seen in the photos up above.
Later in the afternoon I came across these folks below … Roosevelt Elk. A couple of human neighbors were out for a walk and stopped to chat with me. They told me this herd of elk usually spends all night here, from late afternoon until early morning, this time of year. In mid-summer when it’s hot, the elk head up into nearby hills for their evenings and nights, where there are cooler forests. When there’s snow in winter, they stay in the forests then too. The owner of this property considered fencing it, but decided the elk weren’t doing any damage so left the property open.
In the video below, you’ll notice mom and dad and the two kids. Turn your sound on.
From there I drove north across the Youngs Bay Bridge (northbound on Highway 101). The tide was in by then, so there were no sandbars for birds to stand on, but I practically drove off the bridge when five or six very large white birds flew right past me, right next to me!, right in line with the bridge, but they were flying in the opposite direction that I was driving so I had no chance at all of getting a photo. There was no place to pull over and stop on that bridge.
So I kept going. At the north end of the bridge, I turned off the main road and headed around the very edge of Youngs Bay. At one wide spot in the road, I pulled off to the side and just stopped for a bit, opened the passenger side window and enjoyed the smells and sounds and sunshine.
There was a breeze so there were small whitecaps out on the water. After a few moments, I noticed one “whitecap” simply stayed in one place … it didn’t move like the others did. In the photo below, I’ve placed a small red arrow pointing at that “whitecap”.
I zoomed in with my camera and hoped that whatever it was would come out from behind that piling soon.
A swan? An egret of some kind?
Ah ha! A pelican!
What an interesting face. That beak must be able to hold large fish. I’ve seen brown pelicans, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a real live white pelican before.
It was getting late in the afternoon so I headed back to Fort Stevens State Park and to my campsite.
On the drive back in through the park, I stopped on the road beside this female elk. She paid no mind to me.
And then I continued on to my campsite and backed the big white truck into my spot in front of Towhee the Trailer.
A very good day. And a very cozy home.