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Enjoy the winter wonderland

Places and activities  ›  Nature guides  ›  Winter wonderland

A naturalist's guide to winter in the region.

By Metro naturalist James Davis

Waterfowl and raptors

Winter turns the region into a waterfowl wonderland. Tens of thousands of ducks, geese and swans spend the winter in the northern Willamette Valley and lower Columbia River basin. Places like Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area, Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge, Sauvie Island and Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge offer spectacular viewing of large flocks of many different species. All hunting is finished by the end of January, so February provides the most hassle-free viewing.

By December, all the leaves are gone from the deciduous trees. That means it’s a great time to see wintering raptors. Not only are the birds of prey easier to see in the bare trees, there are actually more of them here in the wintertime. Red-tailed hawks and bald eagles arrive in the Portland area in large numbers for the winter, joining the year-round residents. Expect to find eagles hanging out in areas with lots of wintering waterfowl, feeding on the ducks and geese that don’t make it through the winter. Two other raptors seen here in winter are the rough-legged hawk and the merlin. Raptor Road Trip, the first Saturday in February, has become the premier raptor-viewing event of the season for our region.

Night crawlers and moles

Winter rains bring a big increase in the activity of two underground animals – earthworms and the moles that prey on them. You will see more of the fresh piles of dirt that moles push out of their tunnels and up to the surface. We have the smallest and the largest moles in the world right here. Harder to see are “worm piles” made by night crawlers as they drag food into their burrows. Look for little clumps of tiny twigs and leaves about the size of half a ping-pong ball. They are especially common in thin parts of lawns under trees.

Crows and dreys

Look up in the big, bare deciduous trees in old neighborhoods and parks and you are likely to see two different kinds of clumps of plant debris. These are crows’ nests and dreys. Think of a pirate ship and you’ll know where to look for the crows’ nests – they are near the top of the tallest trunk in a small group of trees (small wonder how the ship’s lookout got the name). Crows’ nests are made of little sticks and are basically cone-shaped. A drey is the nest of a tree squirrel, but the term is not commonly used in the United States. The dreys seen most frequently in Portland are the balls of leaves made by the introduced Eastern fox squirrel and the Eastern gray squirrel. Their nests are about the size of a soccer ball, made almost entirely of dried leaves with a few sticks, and are usually placed close to the trunk and lower in trees than crows’ nests. Each winter, you will see a new batch of these structures since they rarely survive winter weather.

Feeding birds in your backyard

Winter is the time of the most activity at bird feeders. Birds need more calories at the same time that food is getting scarce, so they come to your feeder for those tasty and energy-rich sunflower and other seeds. Some common “feeder birds” are not seen much at other times of the year. Dark-eyed juncos are even called “snowbirds” by some folks since this little sparrow is usually at feeders only during winter. Other winter visitors are the plain pine siskin, often mistaken for a female house finch, and the varied thrush. These winter visitors join the regulars seen at feeders any time of year such as song sparrows, house sparrows, house finches, spotted towhees, chickadees, scrub jays and Steller’s jays. If you are lucky, you might also get white-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows and American goldfinches. If you put out suet, expect to see downy woodpeckers, red-breasted nuthatches, bushtits and more chickadees.

See for yourself

For more information about visiting Metro parks and natural areas with a naturalist, check out the Metro GreenScene. More