4/2/16
Hi All,
After driving around locally in Polk County on Thursday, and seeing the Luckiamute River nice and full, I hatched a plan to canoe it Friday since the weatherman was promising great weather. My wife was even agreeable, so was looking forward to another nice time on the river.
I have canoed down this river from Helmick Park to Buena Vista, which is on the Willamette River, every spring for at least the last 10 years, sometimes 2 or 3 times, usually with my wife, and twice we have been accompanied by friends in another canoe. As the crow flies, it is only about 6 miles, but by river it is 15. One needs to go in the spring when the water is high as if you go in summer it is generally going to be too low and hence there will be more fallen trees to deal with which are submerged when the water is higher.
This is one of my favorite activities as it is always so peaceful on the river. A 200 yard straight stretch is the exception from the constant bends along the way. Once you are in the boat away from Hwy 99, the only thing you hear are birds and water lapping against the boat, which are occasionally disturbed by an airplane, car or motorized boat. I knew it would be a little early for most migrants, but it would be worth it - just plain therapeutic! I usually try to make the trip in early May when migrants are much in evidence but the water is usually lower then. I have never found any rare birds on this trip, but one of these day I suspect I will. As far as animals go, we have seen deer crossing the river in front of us, beaver, mink, otters and raccoons.
Well, my wife Rosie woke up with a headache so it was going to be a solo trip after all. She does not like me going alone, so ends up begrudgingly going anyway, but not today. She asked me if I had the “invasive species permit.” I have to admit this is one of my pet peeves. Just to take a canoe on the river I now need a permit. If I understand the name of the permit, I assume the cost is supposed to defray dealing with or preventing “invasive species.” What a joke. Anyway, I dug out last year’s permit, wondering if I paid for 2 years. It said, “Good for the year of 2015.” I figure it was not too much trouble to change the 5 into a 6, and wha-la! I was now ready to go.
One great benefit of having my wife along is that it is easier to take the canoe off of the truck. I would have to muscle it myself now. At least it is only 70 pounds, so there are ways to handle the awkward thing. I have found the best place to put in is on the south side of the bridge going over the Luckiamute right on Hwy 99. Then you can leave your vehicle just north on the corner of Old Fort Road.
I was glad to be off, alone on the river. Most of you probably know that going quietly down a river is a great way to see wildlife, as you can sneak up on something without them noticing you. If you have read my last 2 posts, you may remember my buying a new camera, and so I had some grandiose ideas about a fabulous photography trip, coming back with proof of what birds and animals one can find along the riverbanks.
No sooner had I rounded the first bend when there before me was a large log jam. Hmm. The last few years the river has been free of such, so this is probably just a fluke (or so I thought). And the father along you proceed down river, the less likely you will find a log jam because the river widens, making it less likely for one to develop. Usually there is a way around these, or, through them, and I was lucky that there was a narrow channel on the right side of it.
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| THE FIRST LOG JAM. ON THE EXTREME RIGHT SIDE WAS A NARROW CHANNEL |
Shortly afterward I spied a Turkey Vulture sunning himself on the top of a tree.
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| LOOKS LIKE HE IS WAVING ME ON |
Ah, a good photo opportunity. It was then that I realized taking pictures in a moving boat was not as easy as I imagined it would be. Once you were in focus you had better snap the shutter, for one second later it was out of focus. This was also when I realized steering the boat was going to be more of a challenge without my wife along. More than once while taking pics I ended up going backwards when I was done. Needless to say, not too many bird pics were taken, and of those most are not good enough to include here. There was some nice scenery though. This next shot is where the river narrows and, depending on how high the water is, there can be rapids. If the water is low there are none, and if it is high, there are none. Somewhere in between low and high, there can be a few 2-3 foot high swells. Last year this trip was one of those in-between times and as we bounded over the first wave, the bow dove into the next one, sending a flood of water all over my wife. She was drenched from the neck down, and the canoe was literally half full of water. Luckily there was a place to pull over just after, and fortunately my wife had packed extra clothes in the dry sack. But today the water was high, and there was nothing but smooth (and fast) sailing.
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| A NARROW CHANNEL WHERE RAPIDS CAN FORM |
As this was a birding trip, I should mention there were plenty of birds around. ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLERS were singing everywhere, and a close second were BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES and BEWICK’S WRENS. Other birds in evidence were CROWS, STELLAR’S JAYS, RED-TAILED HAWKS, SONG SPARROWS, WHITE-CROWNED SPARROWS, SPOTTED TOWHEES, RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS, MALLARDS, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANTS, BELTED KINGFISHERS,ROBINS, and HOODED MERGANSERS. At one point, I flushed a female Mallard who was perched on a large limb some 30 feet above the water. Now that was a first! Later along on the trip I flushed a pair of SNIPE, a first for this jaunt.
About 1/3 of the way, there is a railroad trestle going over the river. I always remember it because the first trip down there was a log jam there, and we had to portage around it. Since there is one piling right in the middle of the river, a log jam would seem likely to be encountered here all the time, but since that first trip, we have not had to deal with such again…….until today that is.
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| LOG JAM AT RAILROAD TRESTLE |
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| THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE! |
This was no little one either. It must have been 40 feet from the front of it to the back, and there were no small passages through. I had to sit there in front of it for a while trying to figure out how I was going to get past it. I have to admit here that there were 2 reasons I was glad my wife was not along now. She simply hates having to deal with such, and the other is that since she was not along, my weight in the back of the canoe lifted the front up just enough to that I could get a running start and propel the boat onto most anything that was only 3-4 inches high. That way, once you are half way over something, you can go to the front of the boat and are that much father along. This enabled me to get the first jump on the jam. I decided it was going to be the easiest simply going over it in the middle section, so pulled and pushed it until I reached the other side. One benefit (if there is such) of a log jam is that it is easier to take a leak on one rather than standing up in a canoe…
With the jam behind me, I figured it could not get any worse. But about a mile down river, I ran into another. This time it was due to a large fir tree which had recently fallen across. In some ways it was worse than the last one, because it was more of a jungle to get through due to all the limbs sticking every which way. Once on it, I could see the work of a beaver who had been eating away at the bark. At least it seemed at the time to be the work of a beaver, but my wife was wondering if it may have been a porcupine. I doubted such, but I guess it is not too far out of the question for one to cross a fallen log. And I thought beavers did not eat conifer trees. Seems like the bark would get rather caked in your mouth with all that sap. With two jams out of the way, I sure hoped there would be no more.
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| THE NEXT LOG JAM, CAUSED BY A LARGE FIR TREE |
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| SUSPENSE OR SUSPENDED? AM I SERIOUS OR DELIRIOUS? PRECARIOUS? |
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| EVIDENCE OF BEAVERS |
One pleasant thing I have always run into on this trip was flushing GREAT-HORNED OWLS from some of the larger trees along the banks. I have dislodged as many as 6 on one trip in the past. Today was no exception. Not long after the last log jam one flushed on my right, and flew across the river, Stellar’s Jays in hot pursuit. They always seem to perch where you can’t see them very well, so I did not even ready the camera. Too bad, for this one perched right out in the open and, even though I was scanning for him, I did not see him until it flushed again, this time flying right over my head. I ended up flushing one more a few more miles down river.
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| HOODED MERGANSER AND MALLARD |
Around that time I scared a raccoon who must have been scrounging for food in the thickets to my right. They seem so cute with that black mask, but I hear they can be quite feisty when confronted. In the vicinity I also flushed a beaver, who let me know he was unhappy with my intrusion by flapping his tail on the water. I would flush two more later in the trip.
Eventually I made it to the bridge where the Corvallis Road crosses the river. There were a few Cliff Swallow nests on the underside of it, but I did not see any today. Matter of fact, I did not encounter any swallows until I reached the Willamette River where there were a few NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOWS, probably the same ones Joel Geier saw the previous day. The next bridge is not very far away, the one where the Buena Vista Road crosses the river. Immediately before the bridge an eddy takes off to the south and is about 100 yards long. This is where I have eaten lunch on past trips, and was planning on doing so today. As I entered it, looking for a shady place, a pair of COMMON MERGANSERS at the far end saw me. Now if they were Mallards, they would have simply been able to raise up off the water, flying almost straight up. But Common Mergansers cannot do such, and need a long unobstructed path to gain altitude, and since the banks were lined with tall trees, they had no choice but to fly my way and were only about 30 feet above me when they flew over.
After lunch I got caught up on communications. When I started this trip down the Luckiamute, I had texted a few people who I thought would be interested in knowing about it. A certain friend who we had canoed with in the past was one, and she had replied as follows: “Lucki - am- u. I am envious!” I decided to send her a picture of the log jam and figured she would be a few shades less green with envy than the fir bows I had to deal with. I also told my wife where I was who by now would probably be starting to worry some.
Going under the bridge of the Buena Vista Road lets me know I am on the home stretch. I used to flush a Barn Owl from here, but have not seen him in a few years now. Lodged in the support beams of the bridge are debris from the flood of ’94, and that was some 20 feet over my head now, so I could only imagine how the area looked back then. You also paddle by the Luckiamute Landing area, so you know you are getting close to the Willamette River. I got to see where the river washed out the area much too close to the road going in to the parking area.
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| BRIDGE FOR THE BUENA VISTA ROAD |
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| DEBRIS FROM THE '94 FLOOD, AND OLD CLIFF SWALLOW NESTS |
About a half mile from the Willamette River a landowner has some peacocks which I always hear, and today they piped up as if on cue. When the big river comes into view, there is also an eddy off to the south of the Luckiamute where bass fishermen patronize, but there were none today. A small flock of cormorants were at the far end, who took off when they saw me, most, like the mergansers, needing a long runway to get airborne, flew quite close.
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| ONE OF MANY STELLAR'S JAYS |
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| WHERE THE LUCKIAMUTE MEETS THE WILLAMETTE RIVER |
Once on the Willamette, you can look up-river and see the Santiam River entering from the east. My wife does not particularly like this part of the trip either, because the turbulence of the river tosses you around a little bit, making you feel like you don’t have control of the boat.
From the confluence of those rivers, it is only 2 miles to the park in Buena Vista, and is easy. At this time of year you can just drift along, letting the current take you all the way. I had texted my wife to head over to Buena Vista, as planned. A couple of motor boats and a jet ski awakened me to the reality that I was back in civilization. I sure hoped one of the boats was not the river patrol, or I might have to show him my “permit,” and neither was, so I was relieved. My wife showed up shortly after I docked, so it was nice to have two people to load the canoe on the truck.
Birds - here is a list of what I saw.
Double-crested Cormorant ~25
Great Blue Heron 1
Canada Goose one large flock, plus 2 pairs
Mallard 5
Hooded Merganser 2
Common Merganser 2
Turkey Vulture - many
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 4
Northern Harrier 1
Red-tailed Hawk ~10
Wilson’s Snipe 2
Killdeer 1
Rock Dove 1
Mourning Dove 4
Great-horned Owl 2
Rufous Hummingbird 1
Red-breasted Sapsucker 3
Downy Woodpecker 6
Hairy Woodpecker 2
Northern Flicker ~8
Tree Swallow 1
N Rough-winged Swallow 4
Stellar’s Jay - many
Scrub Jay 6
Crow 4
Raven 1
Black-capped Chickadee - many
Bushtit a few
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Brown Creeper a few
Bewick’s Wren - many
Pacific Wren 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet a few
Robin a fair amount
Starling not too many
OC Warbler many
Yellow-Rumped Warbler 1
Spotted Towhee a few
Song Sparrow - many
White-crowned Sparrow a few
Red-winged Blackbird a few
Purple Finch 1
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