The Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District covers more than 50 square miles and serves over 200,000 people just west of us in Washington County, making it the largest parks district in Oregon. They have 95 park sites, 70 miles of trails, and 1,500 acres of natural areas, in addition to their rec centers and programs. I recently spent a morning exploring two of their sites: the Tualatin Hills Nature Park and the nearby Beaverton Creek Wetlands Natural Area.
(Click any image for a lightbox style slideshow of all the photos in this gallery.)
A shy spotted towhee 
I wondered why this squirrel was paying such close attention to me, and then I saw that someone had tossed some birdseed on the path just ahead of where I stopped.. 
This Pacific Wren and its kin were busy rustling the dense underbrush, and were in the same location when I returned an hour later. 
Green-winged Teal 
Pintail 
A gosling? 
I heard a red-winged hawk cry from a tree, and I’m pretty sure it came from this Stellar’s Jay! 
A Canada Goose at the Beaverton Creek Wetlands. 
A mallard flapping its wings 
An egret hunting at the pond’s edge 
The egret moved to the reedy patch in the center of the pond to preen and check out whatever swam by. 
A juvenile bald eagle scoping out the whole wetlands from a central position. 
For context, this wetland area was tucked in between several business parks. 
A brown creeper climbing a trunk at the edge of the wetlands. 
I heard a tree full of chattering birds, but I couldn’t catch any details. When they moved to a closer branch, I was able to take this picture, which shows more than I could see at the time. Probably a Lesser Goldfinch, making the original tree full “a charm of goldfinches.” 
A heron took the hunting spot at the pond’s edge when the egret moved to the center. 
Heron, hunting 
Egret
Discoveries 