This is the fifth installment of the “Field Guide”.  It is an account of one of the three sites found in proximity to the town of Scappoose; the area around the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP).

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)

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

Columbia River Birding Areas

2) Scappoose WTP and Kessi Pond:

Location/Directions: (45.752803, -122.857377) A parking area is located next to a pretty useless observation platform 1.0 miles east of Hwy 30 on Columbia Ave.

Habitat and Birds: The pond to the north is marshier than Kessi pond to the south. It tends to hold a different set of birds. This area is good for Ducks, Geese and Swans in the winter, and Green Herons are regular in the spring. Rarities include Black Pheobe and American Tree Sparrow. The area is pretty good for migrant and breeding passerines in the willows and cottonwoods along the road. The Cottonwoods have hosted all of the local woodpeckers. Kessi pond is getting harder to scan as vegetation grows in along the road. Great Horned Owls have nested in the woods to the north.  Obviously any couple of acres that can produce over a hundred different species is worth the stop.

2) Scappoose WTP and Kessi Pond (eHS) – 108 species ( 5/12/2014)

Cackling Goose	Canada Goose	Tundra Swan
Wood Duck	Gadwall	Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon	Mallard	Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler	Northern Pintail	Green-winged Teal
Canvasback	Ring-necked Duck	Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead	Hooded Merganser	Common Merganser
Pied-billed Grebe	Double-crested Cormorant	Great Blue Heron
Great Egret	Green Heron	Turkey Vulture
Osprey	Northern Harrier	Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk	Bald Eagle	Red-tailed Hawk
Virginia Rail	American Coot	Sandhill Crane
Killdeer	Spotted Sandpiper	Greater Yellowlegs
Long-billed Dowitcher	Wilson’s Snipe	Glaucous-winged Gull
Rock Pigeon	Band-tailed Pigeon	Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove	Vaux’s Swift	Anna’s Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird	Belted Kingfisher	Red-breasted Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker	Northern Flicker	Pileated Woodpecker
American Kestrel	Peregrine Falcon	Western Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher	Warbling Vireo	Steller’s Jay
Western Scrub-Jay	American Crow	Common Raven
Northern Rough-winged Swallow	Tree Swallow	Violet-green Swallow
Barn Swallow	Cliff Swallow	Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed Chickadee	Bushtit	Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-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 Warbler
Townsend’s Warbler	Wilson’s Warbler	Yellow-breasted Chat
Spotted Towhee	American Tree Sparrow	Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow	White-throated Sparrow	White-crowned Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow	Dark-eyed Junco	Black-headed Grosbeak
Red-winged Blackbird	Brewer’s Blackbird	Brown-headed Cowbird
Bullock’s Oriole	House Finch	Red Crossbill
American Goldfinch	Evening Grosbeak	House Sparrow