Places We Love to Bird - Ritner Creek Bridge

This post is the first of which I hope to make a series of posts about places we love to go birding.  I have said many times that birding for me is as much or more about place as it is about birds.  In other words, there may be a rare bird at the water treatment plant, but I will take a pass, and choose to enjoy a common song sparrow at a scenic location in a stream-side park.

This trip on Friday afternoon, May 17, involved a stop to take a break and check out the bird life at the Ritner Creek Bridge Park, some 15 miles south of Dallas on Kings Valley Highway.  Jeanette set up chairs in the shade, made coffee, and provided cookies, as we sat and enjoyed listening to the birds sing, and we made an eBird Check List. 

 

One of 10 Polk County Parks, this historic covered bridge spans Ritner Creek just before it joins the Luckiamute River. Parking, picnic tables, a porta poti, and limited creek and river access, make this a delightful location to relax from busy Highway 223. Just a-heads-up, there is no cell service. 

It's easy to imagine that this entrance point of Ritner Creek into the Luckiamute River would undoubtable have been an important geographic location of the gathering of native Luckiamute bands of the Kalapuya tribes to share in the harvest of camas bulbs and berries, fish and deer and other mammals.