Making the rounds

November 12, 2023

I’m just dipping my nose into my second cup at Lovejoy Bakers when the phone rings. It’s Rachael, calling to let me know she wants to schedule an appointment to have her nose CT-scanned, a procedure that she’s been scheduled for to try to sniff out the source of her breathing issues.

She assumed there’d be a lengthy wait until she could get an appointment for this test, but she found one available this morning (Sunday, of all days!) over @t the Kaiser facility in Hillsboro. She starts describing how she’ll get there on her own - walk downtown, take the Max, transfer, etc) but it’s obvious I should offer to drive her, an offer she immediately snaps up.

While I’m speed-sipping my second cup I draw up a couple of walk ideas for her, thinking I can drop her off somewhere after her appointment so she can walk home on a different route and get some variety. We talk them over when I’m back home, and she likes the looks of being dropped off at the top of Saltzman on Skyline Boulevard. From there she can drop down to Leif Erickson and walk south from there, seeing the other half of Leif Erickson that she’s never made it out to before.

An hour later we’re at the Kaiser facility, arriving exactly on time. I drop her off at the door so she won’t be late and then park the car and head over to the front desk myself to so where the cafeteria is, where I’m planning to wait. Once there I buy a cup of coffee, sit down and reach for the iPad in my rucksack. It’s not there because I forgot to bring it, so I pull out my phone instead. That’s an exercise in futility too though because the phone is dead. I must have let it run down again. So I just sit and stare at the wall for a minute as I sip my coffee until it registers that Rachael can’t call me when she’s done or to find me, so I head back upstairs. I’m just asking the receptionist if he knows which way she’s gone when I hear her voice way down at the end of the hall. She’s done already.

I dump what’s left of my coffee - no loss, since it wasn’t much good my way - and a half hour later we’re up at Saltzman drive. On the way we’re recharging the phone in the car, which juices it up all the way to 10%; and we’re reminiscing as we drive up Springville Road over all the many times we dropped down or climbed up it on our way home from a ride into Washington County.

I drop Rachael off near the Saltzman and pull off to pursue my own agenda. Before turning onto Skyline though I decide to stop while I can still see her to make sure she’s gotten started OK. It’s a good thing I did, because she’s standing there staring at her Garmin, and a full minute later she’s still staring so something’s clearly not right. As it turns out, she failed to load the route and isn’t sure what to do.

Rachael’s not great on navigation, but it’s pretty simple - just drop down Saltzman for about a half mile to the junction with Leif Erickson, turn right and stay on it until its end. After that she’s on familiar territory. We go over it a few times and she decides she’s fine and starts down the hill.

I’m sure she’ll be fine too, but I feel better when I’m at Cathedral Park and pull up the phone to check out her position on the invitation RideWithGPS sent out. I see that she’s a mile or more down Leif Erickson already, so everything is fine. And I find out just in time becUse the phone has run down to 5% again already.

Cathedral Park

While Rachael’s on her eleven mile walk home I make the rounds to a few more potential birding spots, still in search of the elusive short-billed gull. Or maybe a Bonaparte’s gull, or a white-fronted goose, or a varied thrush, or a brown creeper, or any of a few other unlikely species that are theoretical possibilities. I’m not picky.

I start with Cathedral Park, at the base of the Saint John’s Bridge. I don’t find any new birds of course, but I do get. Nice look at a glaucous-winged gull nd pt myself on the back for recognizing what it is right off the bat.

I’ve seen this mural on Pittsburg Street before, but never gotten quite such a good look at it without a car parked in front.

A glaucous-winged full, like we saw yesterday. I like being able to so easily identify this bird now. That research time yesterday was well spent.

Not the best lighting conditions, but I’ve never seen the Burlington Northern railroad bridge from this perspective. A pity the central span isn’t up to frame the city.

Kelly Point

Next I drive out to Kelly Point, another spot I’ve biked a number of times but never visited on foot. It’s a very nice walk, especially the stretch where I walk along the beach. You’ll notice though that no bird photos are being presented here.

At the mouth of Columbia Slough, which comes to its end here right by the mouth of the Willamette.

Not a bad way to pass the time. He can watch for gulls while he’s waiting for some action to jiggle his pole.

That mountain again. I don’t remember being able to see it so clearly from Kelly Point before.

Force Lake

I’ve put in my standard four miles by now nd the day is running down but on the way home I pull in at Force Lake, a small pond by the heron lakes Golf Club, the large golf club/wetland where historic Vanpoet used to be before it washed away in the big flood of 1948. And here I find some birds, without any more effort than it takes to just get out and sit on the hood of the car. Nothing new, but a good look at some old friends in their winter clothing. It’s a nice little spot, we’ll worth stopping by every now and then.

Green-winged teal. He almost looks like he’s been branded. There are about fifty others nearby, diving in the reeds along the shore.

Northern pintails. The male has water dripping from his beak, as he did in all ten shots I took of him. It’s because he only surfaced for about five seconds before submerging again - not really enough time for the water to stream off.

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marilyn swettMore beautiful pictures, Scott! Thanks for the information on your camera.
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11 months ago