Huddleston Fish Pond

 Huddleston Fish Pond in Willamina was originally a log pond. Hampton Lumber Company donated the pond and surrounding land for a park to the City of Willamina. We first discovered the pond when we had a canoe back in the nineties, and I was interested in fishing.  I remember it as difficult to navigate the canoe around the remaining logs. The pond is so much more now than just a fishing destination. The path around the perimeter of the pond is used by many people just for walking. It is one of our long-time favorites for birding, we have been reporting our bird observations to eBird here since January 2014.

Jeanette is shown here using Merlin's Sound Identification app on her iPhone to record a Green Heron.

adult Green Heron

immature Green Heron

Great Blue Heron

female and male Mallards

This pair of Mallards put on quite a display of courtship for us. You can see our complete observation list here.

After Willamina, we continued on to Sheridan for a lunch stop at Subway, and then for birding at Sheridan's South Side Park and Fishing Pond.  You can see our observation list here. 

We took our usual loop route home, driving through the small communities of Ballston and Perrydale, enjoying the fall foliage and rural setting.

    

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

We took off on Saturday to spend a couple of days with our friend Glenn who volunteers for the Siuslaw National Forest in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  His current assignment is Camp Host at the Tahkenitch Landing and Campground at Tahkenitch Lake. We love to spend time with him because he is as crazy as us about birding.

 

lunch time

Red-breasted Sapsucker

We spent time with Glenn birding and touring the campground, had lunch and then took off to hike a section of the Tahkenitch Dunes/Three Mile Lake Trail. Our afternoon was spent at Glenn's camp counting birds.  Here is our afternoon bird list.

On Sunday, our morning began early in the dark listening to a pair of Great Horned Owls calling. After breakfast we traveled with Glenn down to Winchester Bay to bird first at Salmon Harbor and then at Lake Marie.

Jeanette is shown here glassing for birds across the Umpqua River from Ork Rock County Park in Salmon Harbor. Here is our Salmon Harbor bird list.

 

Brown Pelican

Double-crested Cormorant with fish still attached to fishing line

Our next stop was for a hike around Lake Marie in the Umpqua Lighthouse area. A more scenic hike around a lake buried in thick costal forest cannot be found. Here is our bird list.

Jeanette & Glenn

Hairy Woodpecker male

Many centuries old Sitka Spruce

Cell service was not existent for us at Tahkenitch Landing, so we parked for the afternoon and evening at Gardner where we had excellent cell reception, and I was able to get caught up on bird lists and photos.  On Monday, for our route back to Dallas we chose to go through Elkton, where we stopped for breakfast at Arlene's and got to meet up with our longtime friend Joan Smith and mom and friends.  After breakfast, Joan took us for a tour of their farm place and the town. Our time in Elkton with Joan was the highpoint of our day, and we left with many memories of our past life in Elkton.