Site Guide to Birding Columbia County (Oregon)
Site Guide to Birding Columbia County (Oregon)
This is the ninth installment of the “Site Guide”. It covers the second and third of five sites in the environs of St. Helens – St. Helens WTP and Knob Hill Park.
This guide will be published in a series of installments:
Overview of Columbia County (5/9/14 post)
Habitats of Columbia County (5/9/14 post)
Birds of Columbia County – Overview (5/9/14 post)
Birding Sites of Columbia County – Individual installments, and associated Bird Lists of the Sites in Columbia County:
Introduction (5/12/14 post)
Columbia River Sites – South to North
Sauvie Island (5/12/14 post)
Scappoose WTP and Kessi Pond (5/14/14 post)
Crown Zellerbach Trail – East End (5/15/14 post)
Scappoose Bottoms (5/19/14 post)
Scappoose Bay (5/29/14 post)
St. Helens WTP and Knob Hill Park (5/30/14 post)
(A link to a downloadable copy of this guide is found in the first installment of this series)
Columbia River Birding Areas
7) St. Helens WTP:
Location/Directions: (45.856638, -122.799887) In St Helens turn west on to Columbia Blvd off of Hwy 30 and go 1.3 miles to St. Helens St (Old Portland Rd), turn right and go .4 miles to 7th St., turn left and follow 7th for 0.25 miles, past the Armory to Plymouth St. Then turn left down to the St. Helens WTP and Knob Hill Park.
Habitat and Birds: The main attraction is the water works ponds for ducks and gulls in winter. Mew Gulls can number in the 100’s in winter. The edges of the empounded water can have an irregular shore bird in the rip rap… Rarities include Heerman’s’ Gull, and Surf Scoter.
8) Knob Hill Park:
Location/Directions: (45.856638, -122.799887) Adjacent to the St. Helens WTP
Habitat and Birds: This is a small scrub Oak grove with a walking loop trail. Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatch, migrant and breeding passerines can be expected here. A couple of vantage points allows for a scan of the Columbia which can have all manner of river birds; loons, grebes, gulls and ducks in season. Frequently Bald Eagles can be seen soaring past or perched in the area trees. Purple Martins nest in the pylons at the river’s edge.
7 & 8) St. Helens WTP & Knob Hill Park (PL) – 67 species, 11 (5/25/14)
Cackling Goose | Canada Goose | Tundra Swan |
Wood Duck | Gadwall | Mallard |
Northern Shoveler | Green-winged Teal | Lesser Scaup |
Surf Scoter | Bufflehead | Hooded Merganser |
Common Merganser | Western Grebe | Double-crested Cormorant |
Great Blue Heron | Osprey | Bald Eagle |
Red-tailed Hawk | Killdeer | Spotted Sandpiper |
Wilson’s Snipe | Heermann’s Gull | Mew Gull |
Ring-billed Gull | Western Gull | California Gull |
Herring Gull | Glaucous-winged Gull | Rock Pigeon |
Eurasian Collared-Dove | Mourning Dove | Anna’s Hummingbird |
Belted Kingfisher | Red-breasted Sapsucker | Downy Woodpecker |
Northern Flicker | Steller’s Jay | Western Scrub-Jay |
American Crow | Common Raven | Purple Martin |
Tree Swallow | Violet-green Swallow | Barn Swallow |
Black-capped Chickadee | Bushtit | White-breasted Nuthatch |
Brown Creeper | Pacific Wren | Bewick’s Wren |
Golden-crowned Kinglet | Ruby-crowned Kinglet | American Robin |
Varied Thrush | European Starling | Cedar Waxwing |
Common Yellowthroat | Yellow-rumped Warbler | Townsend’s Warbler |
Spotted Towhee | Song Sparrow | Golden-crowned Sparrow |
Dark-eyed Junco | Black-headed Grosbeak | Red-winged Blackbird |
House Sparrow |
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