The midway point of my wildlife week vacation was also the 750th day hiking for me since 2006. Given these milestones, and a sunny forecast, I headed to William L. Finely National Wildlife Refuge for the longest hike of the week. The refuge is located south of Corvallis just under an hour drive from Salem.
This was my fifth visit to this refuge (2017, 2020, 2021, 2024) and my plan was to repeat my October 2024 route and add the 1.8-mile Mill Hill Loop. This resulted in a 14.8-mile hike with a little over 950′ of cumulative elevation gain. For a more detailed description of the route you can click the 2024 link above.
The orange loop is the Mill Hill Loop.
I wound up not entirely retracing my 2024 route due to a herd of elk rerouting me around a field. (Oddly today’s route followed the trail whereas I’d gotten off of it in 2024.)
The orange section on the right is my detour with the solid cyan representing the 2024 route. (Other colored lines are from the other previous visits.)
Since I described the majority of the route last October this post will be light on details and even heavier than usual on photos. I set off from the Turtle Flats Trailhead just before 6am and quickly found that the grass was longer and a lot wetter than it had been in October.
Rabbit
Sunrise view
Mt. Jefferson
I hadn’t gotten very far before I spotted a couple of elk ahead.
As I scanned the tree line I realized there was a whole herd out there and then moving across the field I noticed something smaller.
Coyote
The coyote spotted me and decided to head the other way. The elk on the other hand didn’t appear to be too bothered by my presence, at least yet.
I slowly continued in their direction since that was where the Prairie Trail led.
They finally started to take note as more and more elk emerged from the tree line.
I stopped here not wanting to get any closer and waited to see what the elk would do.
The lead bull here seemed to have a leadership role because once he emerged and headed across the field the herd followed and then circled up.
They were still a little too close to the route of the Prairie Trail for my liking and I was doing my best to follow the Leave No Trace principle of respecting wildlife so I turned around and started to head back the way I’d come. As soon as I did that the herd started off in the opposite direction.
I decided to continue on now that they had moved further away and I wouldn’t be following them. They had gone behind a stand of trees and the Prairie Trail cut through the trees several hundred yards from the end of the woods.
Shortly after I exited the trees into the next field the elk herd came around the trees giving me one last look at them as I headed away.
On my 2024 hike I had turned left here on the track at the edge of the photo, but with the elk out there I stayed straight(ish) along the tree line. Apparently that is part of the Prairie Extension Trail, but it was a more obvious path and there was an equally obvious path that angled off the extension trail back to the main Prairie Trail.
The next mile and half was pretty uneventful except for my feet freezing. They were soaked and it has only in the upper 30s Fahrenheit. Once I reached McFadden Marsh the wildlife sightings picked up again.
It was a wet muddy hike this time of year.
Camas and buttercups
McFadden Marsh sending up a light fog.
Wood ducks
Northern shoveler
Mallards, a green winged teal, a cinnamon teal, and a wood duck.
Ruddy duck
I’m sure it’s a nutria, it’s almost always a nutria.
Cinnamon teals
Female wood duck
Bald eagles on the far side of the marsh.
Blackbird
Buffleheads
Great blue heron
Green winged teals and American wigeons
Dove
Marsh wren
Heron hanging out near the Mcfadden Marsh blind.
Egrets and ducks
Egrets
Robin
I left McFadden Marsh behind, and the next wildlife action happened along Cheadle Marsh when an American bittern landed in the reeds ahead of me.
There were actually two bitterns.
It took me a moment to realize there was a second bittern.
Their camo is so good.
American coot
Swallows
Pied billed grebe
Ring-necked duck
Cinnamon teals
I passed Cheadle Barn and saw a few birds near the Cheadle Barn Pond.
Manroot and the Cheadle Barn
California scrub jay
Bittern flying over the Cheadle Barn Pond with Pigeon Butte in the background.
Wildlife and wildflower sightings were scattered along the rest of my route.
Iris and golden paintbrush on the side of Pigeon Butte.
Golden paintbrush and I guess the beetle counts as wildlife.
Savanah sparrow near the Finger Ponds.
Geese in a field near the Finger Ponds.
Turkey vulture
Goose and goslings in Cabell Marsh.
Great blue heron at Cabell Marsh.
American goldfinch near Cabell Marsh.
California quail near Cattail Pond.
Pied billed grebe at Cattail Pond.
Camas along the Cattail Pond Trail.
Pacific waterleaf along the Beaver Pond Trail.
Checker lily along the Beaver Pond Trail.
Fairy lanterns along the Beaver Pond Trail.
Giant white wake-robin along the Beaver Pond Trail.
Bullfrogs and blackbirds were all I saw at the Beaver Pond.
Turkeys along the Beaver Pond Trail near Park Headquarters.
The start and end of the Mill Hill Loop.
Yellow violets in the midst of invasive herb robert.
Bleeding heart
Gray squirrel
Star flower
Spotted coralroot
I’d once spotted a turtle on this log in a pond below the Mill Hill Loop so I took a picture hoping for another one. Instead I got a bullfrog.
Mallards in the same pond.
Solomonseal
Tolmie’s mariposa lily
The forest is pretty along the Mill Hill Loop.
Poet’s shooting star
Small-flowered woodland-star
The end and start of the Mill Hill Loop.
Tough-leaved iris
There were a bunch of bullfrogs sunning at the little pond along the Woodpecker Loop.
Lomatium on the Woodpecker Loop.
Woodpecker Loop Overlook. I took a break on the bench here and changed into dry socks after having a snack.
This northern harrier was putting on an aerial display while I took my break.
Wildflowers along Bald Hill.
Wild rose
Checkerbloom
Tough-leaved iris and golden paintbrush
More turkeys along Finley Refuge Road.
Cabell Barn across from the entrance road to the Cabell Marsh Trail.
Honeybee swarm along the road to the Cabell Marsh Trail. It looks a little like a heart.
This end of Cabell Marsh was practically deserted. My guess was that there was plenty of water right now in less visited areas, so the birds were avoiding this area for now.
You can almost always count on a coot though.
Cormorants out on a log in the middle of the marsh.
Homer Campbell Boardwalk
Wood ducks. These might have been the first significant wildlife I’d seen from the boardwalk. It’s a really neat trail I just rarely see any wildlife from it (with the exception of the shelter).
Turkey vulture flying over Turtle Flats.
Turtles at Turtle Flats!
Ending the day with turtles put a nice bow on a great day of hiking. Finley is a great place to hike and see wildlife. The Mill Hill and Woodpecker Loops are open year around along with the Homer Campbell Boardwalk while the remaining trails are open seasonally from April 1st to October 31st. With over half of wildlife week done it’s going be hard to top today. I’m planning on heading north for the next couple of hikes which might mean a couple of species I haven’t seen yet this week which I’ll be on the lookout for. Happy Trails!
Flickr: Finley Wildlife Refuge 2025
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