Beaver Creek Loop Trail

Every day we open the Welcome Center at noon and man it until four. This leaves our mornings free to explore, hike or bird or whatever. The Beaver Creek State Natural Area is well known and used for kayaking and canoeing.  What is not as well known or used as much are its many miles of hiking trails.  A complete network of trails is available to test all levels of hiking abilities. Yesterday morning we choose to check out the Beaver Creek Loop Trail. It’s an easy trail to follow and kind of forms a loop around the border of the trail system.  We were delighted to find the trees and shrubs filled with singing Wilson’s Warblers, Common Yellowthroats, and Swainson’s Thrushes. About half way around our route we came to this foot bridge that crosses Beaver Creek and connects to the Beaver Marsh Trail, a seasonal trail that is probably only accessible during the end of summer. On the far side of the Loop Trail we took an alternate route using the North Beaver Trail.  This short connecting trail has a more remote feel to it and we saw lots of Elk signs, skidding hoof prints and fresh poop, that indicated we had missed seeing them by only minutes.  As we finished the Loop we also spotted fresh bear scat.  We are looking forward to exploring more of the many connecting trails soon. Click here for a trail map. 

Changing of the Guard

The rangers had mentioned something to the effect that the lawn might need mowing.  I wasn’t much in the mood to mow, and Jeanette was wishing she didn’t have to be stuck in the Welcome Center. We agreed to switch positions.  I had a relaxing afternoon talking to visitors about the park,  it's trails, kayak opportunities and birds, and Jeanette had a ball riding the lawn mower!  Am I a lucky guy or what? 

Swallow on the Hunt

One of the more interesting things to see at the Welcome Center at Beaver Creek State Natural Area is a nesting box of Tree Swallows.  There is a remote camera setup in one of the nest boxes that is connected to a large screen TV inside the Center which allows visitors to watch and listen to what’s going on inside the box. Yesterday afternoon I decided to try and get a photo of the adults coming or going from the nest.  I got lucky and caught this adult, probably the male, just as he was jetting from the box to hunt for more bugs to feed their hungry brood of six young ones. 

      

Kayak Tours

Yesterday was our first day of working at the Welcome Center at Beaver Creek State Natural Area which is open 12 to 4. We had a busy afternoon with over 30 visitors.  One of the things we learned is that one of the busier aspects of the park is kayaking on Beaver Creek. From the Welcome Center we watched lots of kayakers navigating through the marsh.  Oregon State Parks also conducts daily kayak tours Thursday through Monday on Beaver Creek. The cost is twenty dollars and they supply the kayak (shown above), life vest, paddles, instructors and guides. All trips start at South Beach State Park. Call 541- 867-6590 for reservations.

Mike Miller Trail

Today was a day off for us, so we went hiking and birding at Mike Miller Park in Newport.  This forty acre Lincoln County park is located on the South end of Newport on 50^th Street. The dense coastal forest of spruce, hemlock and fir combined with a thick understory of rhododendron, salal, and huckleberry effectively block off the surrounding civilization, giving a wilderness feel to the trail. The downside of that was it gave the birds lots of safe cover, preventing us from getting good views to make a proper identification on a number of birds. We will be back.  Plus, we discovered two spur trails, one short one called the Emery Trail, and a longer one, the Wilder Trail which climbs up to the Wilder Estates and the new Oregon Coast Community College. Photo below
--- a male Hairy Woodpecker.

Misty Mornings

 Misty Mornings are what we are growing to expect here at the Welcome Center at Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  And with the inland valley currently baking away daily with temps in the 90’s we are considering ourselves very fortunate.  We are also getting a sense of what our responsibilities will be and an idea of what our daily schedule will start to look like.  We have the responsibility of opening the gate each morning at 8:00, which allows visitors access to the parking lot and grounds, but the Welcome Center which we will man does not open until 12:00, leaving us with basically free mornings to putter or bird.  We think today might represent a typical morning for us and start to be routine; after unlocking the gate we went birding for a couple of hours, around the Center, and down on the marsh. Below is a Common Yellowthroat, one of three males that we saw this morning.

Settling In

This is our RV site at Beaver Creek State Natural Area, which will be our home for the next two months.  It’s located adjacent to the Welcome Center which we will man 12-4 Wed thru Mon. We got set up and a little acquainted yesterday. We really like Brian, the ranger we will be working with, and love the surrounding area. We were surprised to learn that we have access to two kayaks, which you can see Jeanette trying out in the lower photo. We have many miles of water way to explore in the marsh, so should be fun.

There is very poor cell phone and internet service here at our site, but we have Wi-Fi in the Welcome Center building which is what I am using at the moment. This morning we will have an orientation meeting at South Beach State Park, which is the managing park for the 5 or so state parks in the area, and we will meet the rest of the volunteers and learn more about our responsibilities.