Surprise! Today was a holiday for me, so with a full day off, I decided to ride out to Sauvie Island, one of my favorite winter places. It’s just far enough that I don’t do it that frequently, but I try to go at least once or twice a year, usually in late fall/winter (to welcome the sandhill cranes) and the beginning of spring (to welcome the osprey and say bye to the cranes).
This might have been a little later in the season than I usually go, though honestly I’m not sure. At any rate, despite being the end of December, it was a totally beautiful overcast day, where the clouds were high enough to see all the mountains. I started off wearing a sweatshirt and my jacket, but by the time I’d ridden a while I was warm enough to take off the sweatshirt, which left me in a t-shirt and rain jacket, basically balmy, and very un-Decemberlike. Though once I got to Sauvie Island and my pace slowed way down to watch birds, I had to put the sweatshirt back on;)
.
(Mt. St. Helens looking lovely across the Columbia River and a little inslet by the Portland Yacht club (I think it is). Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood were also out, and they all took turns shining in the limited sun)
.
I ride out here infrequently enough to not have a good sense of what is overall trends and what is daily variation. Today, for example, there were so many cranes everywhere. I saw them all over all the spots I usually stop (and heard them everywhere else:), and even saw some along Gillihan Rd, which I usually think of as the not-as-birdful, bike-fast way home. But there were not very many winter ducks. Or rather, there was a semi-wide variety, but not so many numbers. And though I saw lots of cackling geese, there were not nearly as many snow geese as I remember. This is the second or third year actually that I haven’t seen as many snow geese as I expect. But I was thinking as I rode that when I’m only out there once or maybe twice a winter, I’m really not sure if I can say with certainty that the snow goose and winter duck population is declining, or if I just catch them on a day where most of them are hiding in the grasses somewhere that I don’t see.
.
(this is one of my favorite things, the moment when all the geese rise into the sky en masse, frequently in response to a bald eagle flying overhead) (also, doesn’t that just LOOK like winter? This is probably at 1pm but it totally looked all day like the sun way about to set)
.
Anyway. It was a fully delightful day, and I always love the peacefulness out there, the sound of nothing much other than birds as I ride. (For realz, there is nothing better than biking to the crazy gargle of sandhill cranes and cackles of thousands of geese.) It’s also pretty chill riding: totally flat, and though there is mostly no shoulder the traffic is light and the drivers courteous (ha, many of them are also birdwatching;) Also, there are so many birds, not just the cranes and geese and ducks, but eagles and hawks and harriers and kestrels and kingfishers, quail, a million sparrows, all the littles like bushtits and kinglets… and you can actually see them all right now, because the trees are bare. There are frogs croaking, I saw three deer; when it warms up, there will be turtles. It truly feels like a wonderland, even when I fret about things like whether I will see a year in the future where finally the snow geese don’t return, or any number of other tragedies of climate.
I love it so dearly, maybe in part because it feels so resilient and at the same time so fragile.
.
(sweet little bikey birdwatching with me:)
.
(and one more picture of Mt. St. Helens cuz I can;) Also, check out all those leftover pumpkins)
.
I rode home over the St. Johns Bridge as I often do, since by the time I get to that turnoff I’m usually ready to be off of Highway 30. All told, it was just about 60 miles of riding, interspersed by many binocular stops on the island: an excellent day off.
And, belatedly, welcome back to your winter home, sandhill cranes! :)
Lovely! I haven’t been out to Sauvie in like forever, so a visit is long overdue. I just wish that it wasn’t as far as it was and that riding 30 didn’t have to be involved. (There is the bus, but that’s if the rack isn’t full, etc etc)
Oh! Thanks! Heh, I meant to mention the #16 bus that goes to Sauvie Island since I always think maybe I’ll try it in one direction or the other, but then I got distracted talking about birds. ha. But yeah, it looks like it actually runs on weekends now. Maybe it always did; I guess I had it in my head that it didn’t. But it DOES, though only about every hour. But it still would be a viable option to get out there, anyway!
You were probably confusing the 16 with the 17, which was the bus that used to go to Sauvie via NW Industrial. The 17 still does the Holgate segment, but now goes up NE Broadway instead. The 16 has always been a NW Industrial bus, but used to be like a commute hours only one. I’m glad that it has more service, though not a lot.
How do I know this? I once used the 17 to get to Sauvie…almost twenty years ago:
https://urbanadventureleague.wordpress.com/2005/07/21/39/
Fun fact: The hyperlink for the 17 bus in my old blog post still works. Thank you, Tri-Met!
Woah, I was very surprised that that post started with you getting up at 4:30am! ;)
Also, I love this very old blast from the past. This is the best thing about blogs, when they still exist almost 20 years later to remind you of what was important for you and what bikey life was like back in the day (though that interaction with the SUV I feel like could have also happened yesterday, ha, how far we haven’t come in some respects). Thanks for linking to your old self! :)
Yeah, the promise of free coffee and to “be in a movie” can motivate me, sometimes. FYI: That movie has never seen the light of day. One thing I learned about Petr the hard way: He was mercurial with his art, and would often shelve things he worked on. This became a sticking point with folks who put a lot of work into whatever he was doing, as their effort would never see the light of day. But I’m not worried about never seeing footage of me riding in a field on Sauvie! ;-)