Portland | Cascade Locks 8/1--Vaux's Swift, California Gull, Glaucous-winged Gull, California Scrub-Jay, Violet-Green Swallow, Brewer's Blackbird

Because our flight was over 4 hours late getting off the ground (the reason we like to fly out the day before the tour is scheduled), we didn't check into our hotel until about 1:30 AM Pacific time which meant 4:30 AM real time. Hence, we weren't very ambitious in the morning. We were just hanging around the hotel patio, looking at whatever birds happened to pass by which was much. The only "western" bird was a single Vaux's Swift (fun fact: it doesn't rhyme with "faux"; the "x" is pronounced). 

I wandered into the lobby around 11:30 and saw that the hubbub around the check-in counter was caused by members of our group. With almost everyone already there, lunch and an impromptu birding trip was proposed and organized. Lunch was at a Radisson Hotel nearby with a lake (read: pond) that is an eBird hotspot. While having lunch and getting acquainted or reacquainted with the other members of the tour (we knew almost everyone there), I added California Scrub-Jay and Violet-Green Swallow to the year list. 

Multnomah Falls

We then all piled into the vehicles for the first of many, many piling-ins. Our first stop was a fly-by visit to Multnomah Falls, a local spectacle. Not exactly a Niagara, but all okay for something without feathers. Then it was on to Cascade Locks on the Columbia River. Since I have an aversion to to previewing a trip's itinerary, I was kind of surprised how close Portland was to the river and to the state of Washington. On the rare occasions that the Columbia River has come into my mind (probably through Woody Guthrie songs) I always thought of it as in Washington, not as forming the border between the two states. 

The park was where we got our first looks at California Gulls (cue Beach Boys song which kept running through my head "I wish they all could be California Gulls"). This also marked the beginning of my not being able to readily distinguish between California Gulls and the much larger Western Gulls which we were to see later in the trip. One gull out of the 50 or so on the river was different. It was our first Glaucous-winged Gull (not to be confused with the Glaucous Gull). Actually, it seems to me that all the large gull are to be confused with all the other large gulls and all the smaller gulls are to be confused with all the othr smaller gulls, unless you scope each one out and determine the 6 or 8 different possible molts it could be in and that doesn't pass the fun test for me. For some guys I know it sure does, though. 

Brewer's Blackbird

The last new bird for the day was Brewer's Blackbird, a very common icterid out there, but in NJ found rarely, usually in Salem County, except on the Great Backyard Bird Count in February when all the once-yearly birders report it at their feeders as "here all the time." And then, after an hour, we got back in the vehicles and drove east back to Portland. 6 year-birds on a bonus day.