Bike Ride - Frenchman's Bar

Frenchman's Bar Bike Ride - Sept 23, 2021

Video of one of my favorite local bike rides to Frenchman’s Bar Regional Park taken on September 23, 2021. The ride usually takes about 60 minutes round trip but the video has been sped up 5X and lasts about 12 minutes. The first half of the ride follows local roads which eventually connect to a paved trail that ends at Frenchman's Bar Regional Park. The park is located about 5 miles down river from Fort Vancouver on the Washington side of the Columbia River and was named after Frenchman Paul Hauray who, in 1915 purchased the land in hopes of making money in the salmon fishing industry.Video was shot using an iPhone mounted on the bike handlebars and edited with the Videoshop iPhone app.

Birds - House Wren

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon)

I’ve seen a lot of House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) at Vancouver Lake Park but this is the first time I’ve seen one with a nest hole full of babies. I must have taken at least 100 photos before I was able to get this one with the momma and her babies with their mouths wide open.

House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) nest with mother and babies

Mammals - Columbian Black Tailed Deer

Found these two Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus) grazing in a slough at Vancouver Lake Regional Park, Washington. It was late on a cloudy day but a break in the clouds gave an almost surreal lighting that made them look like they were in a museum diorama.

According to Wikipedia, there are two forms of black-tailed deer that occupy coastal woodlands in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Columbian black-tailed deer are found in western North America, from Northern California into the Pacific Northwest of the United States and coastal British Columbia in Canada. The other, Sitka deer (O. h. sitkensis) is found coastally in British Columbia, southeast Alaska, and southcentral Alaska. Photographed with a Sony RX10IV on December 12, 2019 

Birds - American White Pelicans

Had a surprise encounter on the road to Vancouver Lake Regional Park with a large flotilla of American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) . White Pelican are seasonal visitors in SW Washington. According to Wikipedia, White pelicans are a large aquatic soaring bird that breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America and South America, in winter. Preferred habitats include shallow lakes and coastal lagoons.

Note: The Trump administration recently finalized its deconstruction of clean water rules that protect wetlands such as this. The new rules would limit or remove protections for vernal pools or ephemeral bodies of water that appear during the rainy season.

As a result, polluters will no longer need a permit to discharge harmful substances into these bodies of water. Developing or polluting these areas could destroy critical habitat for species that depend on vernal pools for water and food. According to The Center for Biological Diversity, the new rules could accelerate the extinction of more than 75 species. Polluting these ephemeral bodies of water and wetlands could also have impacts on drinking water. An EPA study found that 1 in 3 Americans get some of their drinking water from ephemeral bodies of water. 

Birds - Barred Owl

Had a close encounter of the best kind with a Barred Owl (Strix varia) on a walk at Vancouver Lake Regional Park. I often wonder how many times I've walked by birds like this without a clue due to their excellent camouflage.

Barred Owls are fairly common in woodlands throughout eastern and northwestern US and Canada. In recent decades Barred Owl have expanded their range in northwestern US where it now competes with endangered Spotted Owl. 

Autumn Leaves - Haiku

Vancouver Lake Park ~

Autumn leaves are beautiful ~

A leaf blowers dream!

Autumn leaves cover path at Vancouver Lake County Park, WA