My Favorite Moments Outdoors

When I go exploring, there are some moments that are more memorable than others. Three of my favorite memories are seeing a gopher snake, white pelicans, and bald eagles and a sea lion.

Gopher Snake – May 2022

I saw the gopher snake at Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge. I have seen a lot of other snakes that were smaller, but this was my first time seeing a gopher snake. It was moving out of the grass and across the trail. It was so slow that we thought it had either just eaten something or was just soaking up the sun’s rays.

Fun fact: Gopher snakes look a lot like rattlesnakes, and one way to tell them apart is the tail. Gopher snakes don't have rattles at the end of their tails.

White Pelicans – August and October 2022

The white pelicans were at Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge. We hadn't seen much wildlife activity that morning, so we decided to go home. But then we saw large white birds in a pond in the distance. We were surprised to find that they were pelicans. They swam together getting food, and then all but one flew away. They flew back and forth over the water, waiting for the last one to join them. When the last one flew up, they circled two more times and flew off. We went back several weeks later and there were more than 20 pelicans in the pond near the visitor center.

Fun fact: White pelicans will help each other to catch fish. As a group, they will scare schools of fish into the shallow end of a body of water where the rest of the pelicans are waiting.

Bald Eagles and a Sea Lion – February 2022

It was an exciting moment when we saw two eagles and a sea lion at the same time while we were at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge along the Willamette River. The eagles flew over the river and one of them landed in a tree above us. Then, suddenly a sea lion came up to the surface of the water with a fish in its mouth. It was my first time seeing a sea lion in the river. Some people are concerned about sea lions eating endangered fish in local rivers. I didn’t get a picture of the sea lion, but our friend Jason did, and he has given me permission to share it in this post.

Fun fact: Sea lions' ancestors were land dwellers and were similar to bears.

I'll always remember these exciting moments, but I know that I will have many more experiences like these in the future.

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