Site Guide to Birding Columbia County (Oregon)
Site Guide to Birding Columbia County (Oregon)
This is the thirteenth installment of the “Site Guide”. It covers the area in the Rainier area.
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)
Gray Cliffs Waterfront Park and Dalton Lake (6/1/14 post)
Dalton Lake Trail, Columbia City, Dyno Nobel, Nicolai Wetlands, Gobel Marina (6/17/14 post)
Trojan Park, Carr Slough, Prescott Beach, Laurel Beach CP (6/22/14 post)
Rainier Waterfront, Dibblee Point, Rainier Dike Rd (6/24/14 post)
(A link to a downloadable copy of this guide is found in the first installment of this series)
Columbia River Birding Areas
19) Rainer Waterfront:
Location/Directions: (46.09025, -122.93352) This is a small downtown park. Turn North off of Hwy 30 onto 3rd St and go one block to the park.
Habitat and Birds: The river view can produce Ducks, Gulls, and Grebes. If you get lucky the docks will have roosting gulls in the winter that can be easily picked through. If not, there are still a ton of gulls around but usually on the wing or way out in the channel. This is the best chance of finding a Thayer’s gull in the county, especially if the gulls are roosting on the docks. The Waterfront road to the south of the commercial district can have decent passerines around the buildings and residences.
Rainier Waterfront (PL) – 48 species, 9 (5/14/14)
| Cackling Goose | Canada Goose | American Wigeon |
| Mallard | Northern Pintail | Green-winged Teal |
| Ring-necked Duck | Greater Scaup | Lesser Scaup |
| Common Merganser | Western Grebe | Double-crested Cormorant |
| Great Blue Heron | Bald Eagle | Red-tailed Hawk |
| American Coot | Killdeer | Mew Gull |
| Ring-billed Gull | Western Gull | California Gull |
| Herring Gull | Thayer’s Gull | Glaucous-winged Gull |
| Rock Pigeon | Eurasian Collared-Dove | Northern Flicker |
| Western Scrub-Jay | American Crow | Tree Swallow |
| Violet-green Swallow | Black-capped Chickadee | Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
| American Robin | Varied Thrush | European Starling |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | Spotted Towhee | Fox Sparrow |
| Song Sparrow | Lincoln’s Sparrow | White-crowned Sparrow |
| Golden-crowned Sparrow | Dark-eyed Junco | Red-winged Blackbird |
| Brewer’s Blackbird | House Finch | House Sparrow |
20) Dibblee Point:
Location/Directions: (46.10775, -122.98419) Access off of Rainier Dike Rd, 1 mile past the L&C Bridge, turn right over the RR Tracks.
Habitat and Birds: There are river views and a Cottonwood gallery forest. There are rafts of ducks on the river, with gulls, loons and grebes in winter. The Cottonwoods have typical gallery birds. It’s a good place for woodpeckers as well. No patch list has been generated.
21) Rainier Dike Rd:
Location/Directions: (46.09972, -122.96686) Starting from under the Lewis and Clark Interstate Bridge, it is 3.6 miles to the end of the road. – Access from Hwy 30, west of Rainier city center. Look for Mill St or Rock Crest St. to access the Dike Rd.
Habitat and Birds: This area has agricultural fields along the road which flood in winter and make for great duck and goose habitat. Scan the tree tops for raptors. A slough in the middle holds some diving ducks in winter. The roadside kacks harbor sparrows. Short-eared owls have been reported here. There is parking at the end of the road and a dike trail can be walked.
Rainier Dike Rd (PL) – 44 species, 3 (5/14/14)
| Snow Goose | Cackling Goose | Canada Goose |
| Gadwall | American Wigeon | Mallard |
| Northern Pintail | Green-winged Teal | Ring-necked Duck |
| Hooded Merganser | California Quail | Double-crested Cormorant |
| Great Blue | Great Egret Heron | Northern Harrier |
| Cooper’s Hawk | Bald Eagle | Red-tailed Hawk |
| American Coot | Killdeer | Eurasian Collared-Dove |
| Belted Kingfisher | Northern Flicker | American Kestrel |
| Peregrine Falcon | Steller’s Jay | Western Scrub-Jay |
| American Crow | Black-capped Chickadee | White-breasted Nuthatch |
| Brown Creeper | Pacific Wren | Marsh Wren |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | American Robin | European Starling |
| Spotted Towhee | Fox Sparrow | Song Sparrow |
| White-crowned Sparrow | Golden-crowned Sparrow | Dark-eyed Junco |
| Red-winged Blackbird | House Sparrow |
field studies from portland 
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