Rain. Our prayers across the PNW have been answered.

Of course, the rain arrived a little too late to save our Glacier plans, so I’ve been exploring the Flathead valley before heading down south to Missoula via the National Bison Range.

Monday I visiting Wayfarer State Park, one of the places my dad’s ashes are scattered (picture above). The hike was lovely, with the under story foliage starting to turn.

Then we turned east and explored Swan Lake.

Monday’s birding wasn’t exceptional. In fact, with the exception of some wild turkey’s I saw on the side of the road, I think the day’s checklists were pretty sparse.

Today, however, was better. I got up early to explore the Kalispell area. To the west of town there were some “ponds” that were supposed to be good birding. I saw Sandhill cranes, Trumpeter swans, and yellow headed blackbirds, so I agree!

After returning to pick up Mom, we headed to the National Bison Range.

In addition to bison, we saw…

But honestly, the most staggering thing is…

We are now in Missoula for the next couple days. I’ll keep you informed!

In spite of the fact that the entire Pacific Northwest seems to be on fire, my mom and I set off for our vacation to Montana yesterday. This trip had not even started when serious logistical problems challenged it.

The first was time. Mom and I had talked about hitting Yellowstone, Glacier, and the Bitterroot valley to see friends and family (Mom grew up in the Bitterroot.) I have this pesky job, and illness and various art classes have made racking up a bank of leave a challenge. But I have enough to take a week off, so we scaled back to Glacier and the Bitterroot.

Then Glacier National Park caught on fire. I was willing to chance it, but Mom made the (probably good) decision that a trip there might not be our best bet. So, we revamped our plans and decided to tour the Flathead.

Then, the Columbia Gorge caught on fire. I think it’s safe to say at this point both Mom and I thought about calling the whole thing off. But, I want a vacation and Mom wanted to see her friends, so we set off anyway.

We had to go down the Washington side of the gorge until Hood River, adding a little time to our first day of travel, but we reached Spokane with daylight to spare.

Spokane arrival

We went out to dinner with a college friend of Mom’s and then settled into a hotel. Where Key (yes, he came for the adventure, too) proceeded to keep us up all night telling us about every person who walked by the door.

Exhausted, I got up this morning to give him a bit of a hike and traveled to Liberty Lake county park. It was lovely, and I saw a Chipping Sparrow as well as several woodpeckers (it’s Ponderosa country, so it’s important to look for the little woodchippers.)

When I got back from the walk, we hit the road again. We had less distance to travel, so after crossing the pass, we stopped to look at the southern edge of the National Bison Range and saw four of the big guys. One, in particular, looked ready to meet mating season in heavy weight status.

From there we decided to tour the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge and saw many birds, including a Say’s Phoebe, prairie falcon, American white pelicans, and lots of water birds. Mom really liked the painted turtles, too.

A short break for lunch, then we arrived at our destination, the home of generous schools friends of my dad’s.

We all stretched our legs, especially Key. Deer roam here, and he made sure he enjoyed that.

The bed here is soft and the location quiet. That’s good… because after last night, we ALL need a good night’s sleep.

For the last few years it’s been on my goal list to go camping, but with one thing and the next, summer has come to an end without the camping gear breaking out of its box. When I saw the East Cascade Audubon Society was having their birding festival (Dean Hale Woodpecker Festival) the first weekend in June, something inspired me to log onto Recreation.gov and find a camping spot.

We drove over to Sisters Friday night and after a few false starts, found Allen Springs Campground.

My photograph of the camping spot didn’t turn out because I had the camera settings wrong, but it was GORGEOUS. Every spot had a river view and there was a lovely short hike just outside of camp. The site is along the Metolius and only fly fishing was allowed.

After we got the tent set up, we took the hike. Just a few hundred yards down the path we found the remains of a deer. It was fascinating because all that was left was this spine and the hair. That was IT!

There were also these knarly cocoon things around that had both bugs and caterpillars.

The wildflowers were blooming, including the sage.

After we got back from the hiking, we settled down to watch the river and veg out.

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to a couple of spots the Audubon Society had listed. Deer were everywhere at this time of day, including the parking lot of the coffee shop!

My real goal was to spot woodpeckers. I’ll save you the suspense; the only woodpecker I saw was a Northern flicker. Still, I wasn’t completely skunked. I saw a Calliope Hummingbird, a Red Crossbill, and a Western Tanager as well as few birds I’ve seen around here, but I still enjoy seeing.

After birding for a while, it got too hot, so I decided to drive through Whychus Canyon (a preservation site) and then ended up basically lost and down by The Cove Palisades State Park. This meant to get home we had to drive down the rocky canyons to get back over to Redmond and then back to our campground.

Along the drive I came across this awesome blue roan draft horse. He was friendly and let me pet him as well as photograph him.

As far as birding, it hadn’t been a great day. Most of the birds I had seen, I wouldn’t have seen if I hadn’t come across an Audubon group and tagged after them for a while. Because I had Key, I assumed wouldn’t have been welcome, but they were very gracious and invited us along for a while.

Speaking of Key, he had a blast and garnered a new title. Key was in dog heaver because there were squirrels, chipmunks, and other rodents EVERYWHERE.

Key spent a lot of time explaining the dangers of this.

But I remained disappointingly unmoved and found these visitors charming.

Then… the incident occurred. After returning the camp, I put Key onto the long line and let him out of the car. He DARTED toward the tent and I thought, “How cute, he knows where he is” and did some unpacking. A few minutes later I realized I hadn’t heard back from my companion and followed the line to where Key was staring at… a dead squirrel in our tent. The tent was basically okay, but Key’s dog food bag had a big hole in it where the squirrel had helped himself. Obviously, this was too much for Key. He had dispatched the intruder and was now wagging his tail, proud of his accomplishment. I was less impressed and after disposing of the body took Key on another hike.

All this activity had the desired effect, and Key was tired at the end of the day.

Sunday morning we woke up and broke camp after another hike. These pictures are various pictures of the area around our site over the three days, but you get the idea. I wished so many times for my painting gear, but I assumed that with the birding I wouldn’t have time (I was right, but I always thing I can do everything.)

I’m getting back on Reserve America to see when I can go back! This time I’m taking my painting gear!

I went down this weekend to see my mom for Mother’s day. We had a great time. We watched birds, went out to lunch, and did an open studios tour around Lincoln City called “Art on the Edge.” It was a great weekend.

This seagull came down to the patio of our lunch restaurant and watched us through the window.

I ended up doing quite of bit of bird watching without Mom because I had to walk the dog.  On the Siletz I came across a pack of herons looking to feed the young back at the rookery (you could hear the babies, but not see the nests.) A flock of cormorants was also coming by.

I also saw band tailed pigeons, what i think is an orange crowned warbler, several song sparrows, a mallard with babies, and a pair of cedar waxwings.

I think this picture of a song sparrow in the mud of the brown Siletz might have some potential as a painting, just for interesting color of the water.

On the way back home on Sunday, I stopped at Basket Slough to see what there was to see. I lucked out and saw a pair of Black-necked Stilts, a bird not even in my much-loved “Birds of the Willamette Valley” book.

In total, I added five species to my list to make 104 species for the year.

I’ll leave you with this short video of a bird walk at nearby Fairview Wetlands I took on stormy Thursday. I don’t know which is more amazing… the swallows or the rainbow!

Some weeks are just too full, and this last week was one of them for me. As I said, I went on the lovely Seattle tour with the Traveling Ewe last weekend, came back for a day, then went back on the road to Eastern Oregon for work.

Eastern Oregon Trip

One of the parts of my job is to provide trainings around the state about the grant program I work for. I enjoy these trainings, but they can be exhausting. I am not a natural “public personality” and the work that goes into and out of these events really drains me.

Luckily, there is usually an opportunity somewhere to stop at the side of the road and take a picture of this beautiful state. While visiting Pendleton and John Day, I was able to take the following pictures out the car window or at the side of the road.

We saw elk, pronghorn antelope, deer, and coyotes. On the bird front, we saw Osprey, Golden Eagles, and Sandhill Cranes.

The pictures are a little blown out (sorry) because I had my camera settings wrong.

I think that last photo just might be a painting…

Art Contest Results

The results of “Other Opinions are ‘Out There‘” are officially back.

American Academy of Equine Art

• Strategy Session – no
  
• Chasing Dark.- no

Emerald Art Center Emerald Spring Exhibition 2017 – National Juried Show

• Scent of Season – yes
  
• Learning the Ropes – no

2017 Artworks Northwest call by Umpqua Valley Arts Association

• The Turn – no
  
• Night Racing – no

So, for this round my success rate was 16.67%.

Including the spring WSO show and the NWWS show, that’s 10%. Actually, that’s not too bad. We’ll see if I can keep the up for the rest of the year and maybe improve for next year!

Tax March

Warning: This is about politics.

As I have said earlier this year, I am not supportive of the current President of the United States, a feeling that has only intensified as his administration has progressed. This particular month, I have committed to three marches: one regarding the failure of Mr. Trump to release his tax returns and allow us to watch for conflicts of interest; one regarding the attack on science, particularly around global warming; and one billed as the People’s Climate Movement.

The first of these marches was the Tax Day March this weekend up in Portland. I was not excited about it, but I felt like it was my civic duty to protest the lack of transparency the current President embraces.

Like the first march I attended, there was a lot of amusement to be had in the signs and costumes.

My sign was pretty boring, but I won’t do anything to make fun of the President and I don’t care about how much he does or does not make. I’m only interested in the potential for conflicts of interest.

This  march was slightly more sophisticated than my first protest, with chants and a marching band. Still, the basic concept is the same.

Apparently, Mr. Trump responded in his usual fashion, Tweeting (I don’t know the emoji for eye rolling) a reply that completely missed the point and was filled with the usual… whatever.

I just have no words for all this that comply with my goal of a PG site, so I’ll stop here.

Sigh.

As always, I am behind on so many things it hardly seems time efficient to list them all. So, I’m going to gloss over them all in the hopes the waving something shiny in front of what’s left of my loyal blog readers will cause you all to forget my appalling lack of new blog posts.

2017 is off to a rocky start in more ways than just my blog, and this weekend I went down to see my mom to take care of her after a knee surgery. Now, for her, this knee surgery was much anticipated, but this is just the kind of thing I hate.

Now, I don’t want anyone to think I’m not a perfect daughter, but as she was mostly sleeping, I asked her if I could sneak out and attend the February 11 Audubon Society of Lincoln City Birder’s Walk.

The weather has lightened up (so many places are flooded right now… but that’s another story) and I think all of us were dazzled by a big warm thing up in the sky that allowed me to do my birding in jeans and a T-shirt.

Herring gull

We started at the Mo’s dock (seen above) and then moved to the new Siletz Bay pull out (not even open to the public yet!) It’s a small little area, just off Highway 101, with about 10 parking spots. Plans for a kayak put-in were obvious, but we walked a well-graveled and flat trail around some alders to another kayak spot. The entire trail was about 1 mile. With so many birders, most birds did stay away, but we saw a Red-Shouldered Hawk, both kinds of kinglets, and ravens.

I look forward to making this trek again with a quieter, smaller group!

From there we went to the Salishan Nature Trail (this is actually a frequent stop for me when I’m visiting Mom.) But it disappoint. We say many Bufflehead, but also a Hermit Thrush, Horned Grebe, and a lovely displaying male hummingbird.

It was almost low tide and a seal put in a bit of a show before pausing to say hello.

The bay was like glass (a rare site) and I enjoyed a towering display of cloud. Future painting? I can only hope…

Total birds seen this year: 66!

Because of the pneumonia, I missed the Salem Audubon Society‘s New Year’s birding trip around Minto Brown. Today was their regularly scheduled monthly outing to Ankeny. While I am still not feeling 100%, I know this trip usually involved more driving than anything else, so I resolved to get up and go see what I could.

At 8:00 we gathered at the hilltop to see the sun peaking over the Cascades and illuminating the Coast range.

Because of the recent cold weather, open water was in short supply. All the birds were gathered around, but the sleeping Tundra swans really took my breath away (pneumonia joke…)

With the birds in such close proximity, we saw a great variety of waterfowl. Red-winged blackbirds industriously supplied the background soundtrack. Spotted towhee were also particularly outgoing in the cold.

I marked 44 species off my list, including a Wilson’s Snipe, American Pipit, and Bald Eagle. I caught a very long distance shot of what I think may be a Shrike, but at this distance I can’t confirm.

As always, we ended the outing at Pintail Marsh, which yielded the greatest variety of waterfowl, including “Duskies”.

Returning home, I noticed a Yellow-Rumped Warbler hanging out by my new suet feeder.