Site Guide to Birding Columbia County (Oregon)

This is the twelfth installment of the “Site Guide”. It covers the area between Trojan Park and Laurel Beach County 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)
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)

(A link to a downloadable copy of this guide is found in the first installment of this series)

Columbia River Birding Areas

15) Trojan Park (OBT):
Location/Directions: (46.03591, -122.89386) Entrance to the park is 1.5 miles north of Gobel off of Hwy 30 (old Trojan Nuclear Plant site).

Habitat and Birds: There are a few ponds and a cottonwood gallery forest with walking trails for woodland birds. Ponds hold ducks and the occasional Horned Grebe. Bald Eagles nest in the area. You can also walk north along a paved trail that will take you to a blind and over look of the Carr Slough wetlands.

Trojan Park: (PL) – 38 species, 5 (5/14/14)

Greater White-fronted Goose	Snow Goose	Cackling Goose
Canada Goose	Wood Duck	Gadwall
American Wigeon	Mallard	Green-winged Teal
Ring-necked Duck	Bufflehead	Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser	Pied-billed Grebe	Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron	Osprey	Bald Eagle
American Coot	Killdeer	Belted Kingfisher
Northern Flicker	Steller’s Jay	Western Scrub-Jay
American Crow	Common Raven	Tree Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee	Pacific Wren	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin	Varied Thrush	European Starling
Orange-crowned Warbler	Yellow-rumped Warbler	Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco	Red-winged Blackbird

 

16) Carr Slough – Graham Rd (OBT).
Location/Directions: (46.04791, -122.89784) 0.9 miles north of Trojan Park turn east onto Graham Rd. There is a small parking area just as you start on Graham Rd. on the south side. Graham Rd. is 0.4 miles long to the RR tracks.

Habitat and Birds: This is excellent duck habitat in the winter. It is a major wintering ground for Tundra Swan – Trumpeters can be mixed in as well. Scan tree tops for the local Bald Eagles. Great Egrets and Great Blue Herons can be thick at times, congregations of Hooded Merganser can get north of 50 birds, the roadside kack is productive year round for passerines swallows are numerous in the spring and Purple Martins have been recorded here.

Carr Slough (Graham Rd) (eHS) – 105 species, (5/14/14)

Greater White-fronted Goose	Snow Goose	Cackling Goose
Canada Goose	Trumpeter Swan	Tundra Swan
Wood Duck	Gadwall	Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon	Mallard	Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler	Northern Pintail	Green-winged Teal
Canvasback	Ring-necked Duck	Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup	Bufflehead	Common Goldeneye
Barrow’s Goldeneye	Hooded Merganser	Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe	Horned Grebe	Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant	American White Pelican	Great Blue Heron
Great Egret	Turkey Vulture	Osprey
Bald Eagle	Red-shouldered Hawk	Red-tailed Hawk
American Coot	Sandhill Crane	Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs	Long-billed Dowitcher	Wilson’s Snipe
Ring-billed Gull	California Gull	Herring Gull
Thayer’s Gull	Glaucous-winged Gull	Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove	Vaux’s Swift	Anna’s Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher	Red-breasted Sapsucker	Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker	Northern Flicker	American Kestrel
Western Wood-Pewee	Willow Flycatcher	Steller’s Jay
Western Scrub-Jay	American Crow	Common Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Purple Martin	Tree Swallow
Violet-green Swallow	Barn Swallow	Cliff Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee	Chestnut-backed Chickadee	Bushtit
Red-breasted Nuthatch	Brown Creeper	Pacific Wren
Marsh Wren	Bewick’s Wren	Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet	Swainson’s Thrush	Hermit Thrush
American Robin	Varied Thrush	European Starling
Cedar Waxwing	Orange-crowned Warbler	Common Yellowthroat
Yellow Warbler	Yellow-rumped Warbler	Black-throated Gray
Wilson’s Warbler	Spotted Towhee	Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow	Lincoln’s Sparrow	White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow	Dark-eyed Junco	Western Tanager
Red-winged Blackbird	Brewer’s Blackbird	House Finch
Purple Finch	Pine Siskin	American Goldfinch

 

17) Prescott Beach County Park (OBT):
Location/Directions: (46.05076, -122.88797) On Graham Rd. 0.6 miles from Hwy 30 is the entrance to the park. Day use fee is required.

Habitat and Birds: The river view can have all manner of river birds, loons, grebes, gulls and ducks in season. There is decent passerine habitat in pockets. No patch list has been generated.

18) Laurel Beach County Park:
Location/Directions: (46.07097, -122.899504) – This park is poorly mapped on Google Maps. Access is from Laurel Wood Rd. Turn north onto Laurel Wood Rd. stay left at the fork and go about 0.1 miles to the park entrance road – there is a sign for the park. Follow the gravel road down to the parking area.

Habitat and Birds: Rafts of ducks can be found in winter as there is a bit of a sheltered cove. Both Scaup and Common Goldeneye are regular. Some woodland birds can be found in the parking area. This is the easiest place for Goldeneye in the county with Barrow’s possible as a report of one comes from this vantage point.

Laurel Beach County Park (PL) – 27 species, 6 (5/14/14)

Canada Goose	Greater Scaup	Lesser Scaup
Common Goldeneye	Common Merganser	Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant	Herring Gull	Downy Woodpecker
Steller’s Jay	American Crow	Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee	Bushtit	Red-breasted Nuthatch
Pacific Wren	Golden-crowned Kinglet	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
American Robin	Varied Thrush	European Starling
Spotted Towhee	Song Sparrow	Dark-eyed Junco
Pine Siskin