Kay and I took a hike today from the upper end, off 56th St from Portland Ave entrance, down the creek trail to Pioneer today, starting a very civilized 9 AM, ending just after 11AM.  It’s a fairly easy hike, but just beautiful, dappled light, not much outside noise so a great place to hear many of the common local breeding birds.

The upper part of the trail was especially alive, with Hutton’s vireo, several Pacific slope flycatchers, BTG warblers, and Wilson’s warblers especially well heard.  I strongly recommend this as a great place this time of year to work on learning and reviewing the local breeding bird songs.  The outside noise is minimal, the walk easy but enjoyable, and the variety and numbers of birds pretty darn good.   Hope you get a chance to go.  It’s best to do with 2 vehicles, leave one at the Pioneer entrance, and go up to the end of 56th off Portland Ave to park the other car and hike down. If it’s your first time, be sure to start by turning on the trail to the right, heading up stream, then in a while it curves back downstream going down some stairs to the creekside. The best bird song area is really the first half mile, but the whole hike is beautiful.  Here’s our list form e-bird.