A visit from Nancy’s sister Karen, and a break in the rain, had us at Cooper Mountain Nature Park in nearby Beaverton. Just enough trails for a good walk, and plenty of views and critters.
Nancy writes about this trip on her blog.
(Click any image for a lightbox style slideshow of all the photos in this gallery.)
The PNW clouds get a lot more interesting when surrounded by blue. 
After a zig of a warm streak and and zag back to “wintery mix”, nothing says true spring like a greening oak against the blue sky. 
A California Scrub Jay hanging on to this spot in the breeze. 
A White-crowned Sparrow. 
This fluffed up Dark-eyed Junco seems to be wearing a borrowed fur coat. 
We heard lots of Purple Finch songs, but it took us a while to find this singer. 
The hummingbird kept buzzing the finch, who seemed aware but not too concerned. 
I’m thinking this might be a Red-tailed Hawk, from the lighter underbelly and the wing markings. On eBird, other birders at this park recently reported Coopers, Sharp-shinned, Red-shouldered, and Rough-legged hawks, so maybe there are a lot of different hawks in this area, or maybe everyone else has as hard a time with hawk ID at a distance as I do. 
I am amazed thinking of the processes and years behind this tree’s self-sculpture into this form.
Discoveries 
that scrubjay shot with the blue gradient is just GORG. love your work A
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Thanks, Mer. The gradient was provided by nature; I upped the exposure on the jay (thank you Lightroom subject masking!) to compensate for the camera trying to meter all the different skies in one frame. I’m seeing the world differently these days….
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