Today we start the day with the Portland Arboretum. Even finding the entrance is difficult but then we also have to find parking as everything seems occupied. We drive up and down the road for some time until we finally find a place to park where it is not forbidden and not blocking the traffic either. Then we walk the road which has lots of blind spots to the arboretum and finally escape on the pedestrian trails.
There is a network of trails in the Arboretum but quite a few of them follow busy roads. Or maybe there are way too many roads in the arboretum and no matter where we go we somehow end near one :).
As we get further away from the visitor center there are fewer people and especially fewer dogs which makes birds more likely to appear.
And there are suddenly quite a few birds. Especially beautiful and more uncommon for us is the red-breasted sapsucker. It stays for quite some time enjoying the trees in the arboretum near a robin.
On the ground we see a flicker and multiple dark-eyed juncos searching for nuts and likely grubs on the ground. It is fun to watch them for a while until someone with a dog comes and scares them all away.
We are also searching for a cache in the area and when we find it it is quite funny, a plastic lion in a small cage near the zoo.
The return is via a different trail through the forest. This one is at least for a section further away from the road noises and we can hear the birds all around us. Especially active is a Stellar’s Jay that unexpectedly comes up to eye level and relatively close to us, fun!
We notice from the map that this trail actually loops around an area that might be near our car shadowing a nearby road. We folllow it enjoying the many birds and even a couple squirrels eating flowers from a tree, cute! And the exit to the road from this trail is much closer to our car and soon we are back at it and on the way towards the downtown and the Art Museum.
