Hayden Island

March 5, 2025

My day begins as I suspect most of them will in our stay here, with me waking up before dawn and closing the bedroom door behind me so I can be up and about without disturbing Rachael’s sleep. It sounds like a small thing, but it makes an enormous difference in the livability of this place - especially when we’ll be here for five weeks.

As I’m out, I keep an eye on the views to the northeast to see what’s happening with the sky. I imagine it will have a different look every morning and evening.

We knew the views in this direction would be better than our studio apartment, but this looks like it’s going to be amazing.

Both of us begin our day with medical appointments. Rachael has a physical therapy appointment to focus on her arthritis pain issues with her right foot, and I’m off to the dentist to finally get the permanent crown placed for the temporary from last winter. I drop Rachael off at Keiser and I then drive back for my appointment, which will be the last we’ll see of each other until mid-afternoon.

Rachael gets her 7 miles of exercise for the day by walking home from her appointment and then continuing on to Zupan’s Market and Fred Meyers, and gets her weight bearing exercise and a sore shoulder by lugging a half-ton of groceries home afterwards. Later she’ll talk with enthusiasm about how the therapy session went, and came away with a set of stretching exercises she’ll start fitting into her daily routine. Somewhere along the way she stopped stretching, but we can start looking forward to a gallery of stretching break shots like we used to see in the months ahead.

For myself, I decide to drive out to Hayden Island on the Columbia River for some birding. There are a half-dozen good birding spots along the river and I’m sure I’ll be out multiple times, hopefully on the Rodriguez next time. I’ve got a list of about twenty birds I could see if I’m lucky while we’re here this month, and today I pick up the one I was most hoping to see at this spot: a Barrow’s goldeneye.

Looking across the small bay at the mouth of Schooner Creek.

The Burlington Northern Bridge, from the Schooner Creek footpath.

The Interstate Bridge, the from Schooner Creek footpath.

Eastern fox squirrel? Probably, although it could be a gray squirrel. It needs a better photograph with more of a frontal view to be sure.

After we’re back he done with the post-mortem of our day we drive over to Eleni’s, the Greek restaurant we’ve patronized for years, beginning the process of knocking off favorites. Tonight’s meal proves disappointing though. We’re here on the first night of the week they’re open, so maybe they have a different chef? In any case, we’re done with this place for another year.

Afterwords we stop off at World Market to take home some pistachio halvah and a couple of cartons of NA beer, new ones I haven’t seen before from their surprisingly broad inventory, and then round out the day opening up the second season of Miss Scarlett.

Today’s list: American crow, Greater scaup, Common goldeneye, Double-crested cormorant, Glaucous-winged gull, American coot, Mallard, Pied-billed grebe, Song sparrow , House finch, Common merganser, Canada goose, Eurasian starling, Northern flicker, Dark-eyed junco, Red-winged blackbird, Barrow’s goldeneye, House sparrow, Ring-billed duck, Cackling goose, American wigeon, Northern shoveler, Gadwall, Green-winged teal, American robin (25)

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Karen PoretThanks for the education! You get an “A”, and I just “pass”😁
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