Amazingly, we encountered beautiful and sunny weather while we were in the Portland area. It did rain on one of the five days we were there but who can complain when we were there for the only days it didn’t rain in the past two months?
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Oregon Coast
Glaucous-winged and Western Gulls were overly abundant along the coast. Didn’t find any Thayer’s Gulls the first day but did find a single Eurasian Wigeon on a golf course pond.
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Western Gull
The second day we checked out Westmoreland Park near SE Portland and found several adult Thayer’s Gulls in addition to 1st cycle Thayer’s, a flock of 12+ (minima) Cackling Geese, Eurasian Wigeon and many Wood Ducks.
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Cackling Goose (B.h. minima)
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Wood Duck
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Eurasian Wigeon
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Thayer’s Gull (adult)
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Thayer’s Gull (adult)
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Thayer’s Gull (1st cycle)
We ended the trip with a beautiful stay in the Willamette Valley wine country. We’ve been up to the area several times before but the beautiful weather in the middle of December was a lovely treat.
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Willamette Valley