One more foray - TRNWR

We made another trip out to the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge this morning in an attempt to see the Emperor Goose.

Finally success! It was a really striking bird and a first for both my wife and myself.

There wre still plenty of birds in the area, but probalby half the number of the previous 2 days. We ran across the Emperor Goose in a flock of canada geese just north of the main visitor center. After it finally left with it's gaggle, we went to the center observation deck. still plenty of pintails but less than half of what had been there the prior two days. The number of American Wigeons was way down too, but the Eurasian Wigeon was still there.

The adult Bald Eagle made a couple sweeps over and we spotted a trio of Greater White-Fronted Geese on the near shore under the visitor center.

At around 3:00 I went over to the Coffee Creek Lake area between Tualatin and Wilsonville to see if a reported Bewick's Eurasian Tundra swan was there - no sign and very few birds on the water anywhere.

Conditions: 9:00 AM sunny and cool at about 45 degrees. very nice weather, but a front moved in at 12 noonish and it's started raining.
3:00 PM overcast, light rain / drizzle and about 50 degrees.

Posted on January 4, 2012 11:56 PM by loren