Canoeing at Smith and Bybee Wetlands

Every spring, Metro naturalist James Davis has been leading a bimaran canoeing adventure at Smith and Bybee Wetlands.  Bimarans are two canoes secured together to create a very stable vessel.  Mr. Davis will be "officially" retiring this year and Metro will soon have a new naturalist for Smith and Bybee.  His will be tough shoes to fill!   We love canoeing opportunities because they are really fun and provide a totally different perspective on our natural areas.  This year the weather was picture-perfect.  We saw herons, egrets, osprey, and bald eagles.  Mr. Davis says that this year there are two nesting pairs of egrets at Smith and Bybee.  Afterwards, when we told him we'd be rambling around in search of the famous painted turtles that live there in large numbers, he cautioned us that on especially warm days the turtles take a siesta in the afternoon and are not to be found.  So we'll just have to come back!

Mt. Hood.

Coot.

A beaver lodge.

Osprey.

Egret.

Great blue heron.

Osprey with its nest.

Jasper's friend Jeff took this picture with my camera- while Jasper still had the strap around his neck!

Cedar waxwing.

Great blue heron.

Wild rose.

Fancy feather.

Tiny Pacific chorus frogs were hiding in the fence posts.  We couldn't figure out what they were sitting on but my guess is, some kind of hardened goo left by insects.

Cyanide millipede.

Wood ducks.  

Rabbit foot clover.