Spring is Starting in Central Oregon

We love to hike and walk and Bend is a great location for that, being close to so many wonderful outdoor venues. It's also a highly walkable city (in the north-south direction; east-west not so much). Bend is bisected roughly on a southwest-northeast axis by the scenic Deschutes River and along the river runs an entire system of trails. Living in southwest Bend right on what is known as the south canyon, we often find ourselves walking into downtown Bend, "earning our beers" as we say. Our round trip will be 10-12 miles.

Traveling Bend at three miles an hour gives us plenty of opportunity to observe nature along the trails. And while we have been making the trek for months now, our trip downtown yesterday is really the first one that has prompted us to think that spring is coming at last. At about 3900 feet, spring comes slowly and even now at the very end of April, we got snow showers last evening.

The biggest and showiest harbinger of spring around here is our Oregon state flower, the gorgeous Oregon-grape. In sunnier locations, they have been putting on a show for a few weeks, but in the more forested areas such as along the banks of the Deschutes, they are finally in the midst of their glory.

Tall Oregon-Grape in Full Bloom

Although the state legislature adopted one species of Oregon-grape, Mahonia aquifolium (known as Berberis aquifolium when the legislature voted in the 19th century), as the state flower, we have three distinct species here in Oregon, only two of which are common here in Bend growing in the shade of the ubiquitous Ponderosa pines. Besides M. aquifolium (meaning holly-leaved), we also have a low-growing species called M. repens or Creeping Oregon-grape. Here along the river, these two grow side-by-side and apparently they do hybridize somewhat readily.

Low Growing Creeping Oregon-Grape

Back in the Willamette Valley from which we just relocated, there is a beautiful west side (of the Cascades, the giant mountain range that separates the wet valley from the arid high desert) species called M. nervosa which grows in sunnier and lighter locations under the canopy of Douglas firs.

Lovely Dwarf Oregon Grape Foliage, Mahonia nervosa

We noticed a lot more wildflowers in bloom during our walk yesterday than we have before, but we are still very early for most spring flowers. The greenleaf manzanitas (Arctostaphylos patula) have been blooming in sunnier locations for a few weeks and while some plants are bloomed out, many are displaying branches full of delicate heather-like bell-shaped pink-to-white flowers. Joining them in the last few days are the wax currants with their white-to-yellow tubular blooms.

We're finally starting to see leaves on the bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) and rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) and the evergreen sagebrush is starting to look a little less drab too. The local iris, Western Blue Flag, Iris missouriensis, is finally starting to send up new leaves. Down on the river, the various willow species are starting to sport some catkins while the Woods' roses, alders, and the red osier dogwoods all have hints of leaf buds. We don't have a lot of deciduous trees here because the beavers pretty much wipe them out, but the aspens and vine maples still look pretty barren. The larches, our only deciduous conifers, are starting to get tiny bright green needles.

Speaking of beavers, new damage is everywhere where the water is slower. We haven't seen any of them, but their cousins, the muskrats, are pretty evident and busy, paddling along the slower water. As for other mammals, we saw a few chipmunks, a couple of massive western grey squirrels, a couple of tiny Douglas' squirrels, and a black-tail doe.

Bird life is starting to wax too. We're seeing lots of kinglets and warblers come through on their annual migration up the river. We saw one male yellow warbler that we could identify without binoculars, but we heard and saw dozens of others flitting along the riverbanks. Also flitting along the alders are scores of tiny flycatchers and a few goldfinches.

The resident Pygmy Nuthatches and Mountain Chickadees are much more vocal now than a few weeks ago as are the killdeer and ospreys that patrol the skies above the river. The ospreys, having returned a few weeks back, are now sitting on or building nests. The swallows have returned in the last few days. We saw gangs of barn swallows and northern rough-wing swallows working inches above the water, while the violet-green and tree swallows were setting up nesting territories along the banks.

Both California scrub jays and Steller's jays are quite evident on our walks, the Steller's being much more stealthy than the scrubbers, until they aren't and they break out into their obnoxious braying. We don't really see any crows, but the ravens amuse us with their antics as do the rare turkey vultures that work the thermals above the southern canyon.

We hear many more woodpeckers than we see, especially downies and hairies up in the trees. This time of year, we can't miss the super vocal flickers as they call and drum for mates.

The ducks and geese have really disappeared from the river, most of them now sitting on and protecting nests. The Canada geese are fairly obvious sitting on their nests out on islands, away from the humans walking along the trails, but we only saw a few babies. Mergansers, both common and hooded, are still staking out the faster water where they catch their fish.

We generally will see a couple of great blue herons, but none appeared yesterday. In a surprise, we did see a black-crowned night heron standing in shallow water near the far bank. They're not too common here and are mainly active at night.

Along the slower water and riverside ponds, the blackbirds, both red-wing and Brewer's, are setting up nesting sites. The males of both species are quite vocal and showy, looking to attract a mate and warn off other would-be competitors for their nest sites.

While it flurried a bit last night with more in the forecast over the next few days, it seems that spring is coming to Central Oregon. And three miles an hour is the perfect speed to watch it arrive.