Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

While visiting family in the Portland area, I decided to find a new location to photograph wild life. On the trip down we stop at Nisqually National wildlife refuge between the two cities of Tacoma and Olympia and also visited Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge which is located in the westernmost part of Clark County, twenty minutes North of Vancouver WA. Both the locations are wonderful and have abundant wildlife to photograph. However I have visited both places in the past and always enjoy the time I spend at them, but on this trip I have a extra day in the area that I wasn’t going to spend in the indoors watching TV, besides I would make it back in time to watch Sunday night football after the sun has set. So the searching began to find a new location that could be explored, while scouting its potential for the upcoming Spring Migrations. After checking the Audubon Society of Portland website, there were two options to explore in the allotted time frame.

The first option was Sauvie Island Wildlife Area which is twenty minutes east of down town Portland. The other option was Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, which ultimately was decided as the location to visit. Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge is located within the floodplain of the Tualatin River basin near Sherwood, Oregon, at the northern end of the Willamette Valley. The complex consists of various walking trails, a wildlife photo blind, education study sites, and Refuge Office and wildlife center. There is a viewing location between the refuge office and wildlife center that has an overlook of the refuge. The refuge has the luck to have a mating pair of Bald Eagles in a tree right across from this viewing location out in the open in the middle of a marsh area. While we were out observing from this location we spotted the pair of eagles sitting on one of the dikes in the refuge. Scattered throughout the marsh was various ducks mostly Mallards and American Pintails. After speaking with the knowledgeable and friendly volunteers in the wildlife center we decided to walk the the trail that ended at the wetland observation deck. Along the way to and from the observation deck we spotted a cormorant resting on a tree in the river, several red tailed hawks, several Western Scrub-Jays perching in the trees and my favorite the American Kestrel. On the way going to the observation deck there was the wondering of where were all the raptors, however on the way back to the parking lot, we started to notice the raptor activity increasing throughout the refuge. This is when we spotted the hawks in the trees changing locations frequently and the hovering of Kestrels. By seeing so many Kestrels out in the open has move this NWR high on my list of places to revisit and I cannot wait to see what this place will be like during spring migration with all the trails open.

EXIF Data

Aperture – ƒ/6.3

Camera – NIKON D800

Date Created – 2013:12:29 15:33

Focal length – 500mm

ISO – 100

Exposure Time – 1/20