Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge

This wildlife refuge is another great close-to-home natural area, that is a good place to walk and check out flora and fauna. It is basically a wetland half of the year, with more open trails during the dry months. It has a fairly large, new visitor center and seems to be a place where many local school field trips go to learn about nature. About four miles of trails open in the dry months cover the refuge. See links below for more information.

We had been here once or twice before, but not during bloom season. On this day (6/17/2014), we saw some young eagles, several duck families, a nutria, a few red-winged blackbirds, and many, many songbirds as we hiked the three mile trail network.

Duckings hidden in the floating debris.

As for plants, we spotted a couple of dozen interesting blooms along the way, with a few new ones as well. Quite a few of these were non-native plants which was not surprising given the non-managed history of the area. For the photos, it was a cloudy day, so some of the exposures are a bit bland. Here's a summary of the findings.

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Links:

TRNWR Official Site

Trail Information