I didn’t come to Oregon to find Snow Plovers, but once I was near them and knew they existed, I had to find them and add to my 2026 goal of finding 500 species.
It’s not exactly ‘Snowy Plover Season’ in Astoria, Oregon, but the area where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean is a breeding ground for these cute critters from March to October and eBird noted they had been seen recently.
What eBird doesn’t tell you is how many had been spotted. My first attempt to find them ended in rain and retreating to the car. My second attempt, in beautiful sunshine (the Oregon Coast is almost unbeatable in sunshine) and persistence resulted in seeing five birds a fair ways off, not the best photo subject.
Another 45 minutes of walking and patiently searching (they are small and don’t move a lot sometimes) brought me to this fine feathered friend.
We have Snowy Plovers in Malibu, so they are only a 30 minutes drive from me, so it’s not like I’d never seen them before. But they are a cute critter worth the effort wherever you find them.
This was #226 for the year so far. I need to pick up the pace!
