Centennial Valley
Today we went for a long drive through Centennial Valley. We picked up boxed lunches (actually brown bag) from Ernie’s Deli across the street, and piled into Mike’s Tacoma for a full day of bird watching. We saw all sorts of birds… for example, we saw:
- Golden Eagles
- Bald Eagles
- Northern Harriers
- Kestrels
- Yellow-Rumped Warblers
- Curlews
- Pine Siskins
- Clark’s Nutcrackers
- Red-Naped Sapsuckers
- Cinnamon Teals
- Northern Shovelers
- Gadwalls
- Willets
- Sandhill Cranes
- Goldeneyes
- Buffleheads
- Yellow-Headed Blackbirds
- Vesper’s Sparrows
- Mountain Bluebirds
- Juncos (Oregon)
- Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
- Ringnecked Ducks
- Many Swallows
- Trumpeter Swans
- Canada Geese
- Pelicans
- Cormorants
- Caspian Tern
- Turkey Vulture
- Brewer’s Blackbird
- Red-Winged Blackbird
- Swainson’s Hawks
We also saw Moose, Ground Squirrels, Marmot, Pronghorn and a large herd of Elk. We pretty much spent all day in the car, stopping and looking through binoculars. We ate our lunch and watched Cinnamon Teal swim in a pond a few hundred yards from us. I can’t see us managing to get over the beautiful sight of the mountains for a while, and I rather hope we fail to do so entirely.