Did you know that there are all kinds of species that live within urban areas, and even in your backyard? In order to catch a glimpse of these animals, all you need is to know where to look and have the patience to observe them in their natural habitats.
At the Wild Gresham event last month, we partnered with the City of Gresham and learned all about local animals from watershed scientist Katie Holzer and wildlife photographer Caz Zyvatkauskas. They came together to talk about stormwater, wildlife sightings and wildlife behavior in the Gresham area. They presented a slide show that included striking photos, entertaining videos and a wealth of knowledge about wildlife including birds, beavers, deer, coyotes, frogs, salamanders, muskrats and mink. All of the content was photographed and filmed by Katie and Caz. Additionally, they shared collections of wildlife skulls, pelts, birds nests and, to everyone’s excitement, a live tadpole freshly caught the day before.
Below, you’ll find photos taken and captioned by Caz in and around the Johnson Creek area.
The first otter photo taken with [my] small Nikon Coolpix. Proof that a family of otters is making good use of Johnson Creek in Gresham.
There was quite a lot of high pitched screeching coming from the creek. When I grabbed my camera to investigate it turned out to be a pair of otters “wrestling” on a riffle in Johnson Creek.
On closer inspection this turned out to be proof that we had catfish in the Fariview Creek headwaters. If you look close you can not only see the otter’s amazing canines but also the drooping whisker of a doomed catfish.
Last March when Largescale sucker fish were making their way up the creek to spawn they attracted the attention of otters. This one was such a citified creature that it munched away on its catch in the full view of onlookers from Gresham’s Main City Park bridge.
A big thanks to the City of Gresham, the Gresham Library, to Katie and Caz for making this event possible !