It’s National Pollinator week. I have been saving pictures of bees for a while now to do a big post about bees. So when I went for a hike this evening after work, my goal was to get just a few more bee photos.

And the first thing I saw was this gorgeous Beswick’s Wren.

It was a good birding day in general at Canemah. I also saw a Bald Eagle, hummingbirds, song sparrows, blue jays, robins, flickers, and Cedar Waxwings.

I also saw a lovely Downy woodpecker (one of my (many) favorites). I didn’t see my Great Horned owl again, though.

I’m glad I’m blogging this, because next year around this time on a similar kind of overcast day, I’d really like to take my chair down and just watch for a while. It was really a good day because all the birds were really chattering and singing away.

I also saw my nemesis for identification. I’ve asked everyone what this creature is, but no one is sure. I think California ground squirrel. A mountain beaver has been suggested and sighted in Canemah (not by me), but I don’t think so.

Okay. Onto my original topic… pollinators (specifically bees).

Bees

There is a page that I love called Bees of Oregon. I love it because I can’t identify anything and I’m amazed the author can! It’s truly amazing.

As I’m sure everyone has heard, pollinators like bees are under threat. They are too amazing and vital to lose! Don’t use pesticides!

I don’t get down to the beach to visit  my parents as much as I probably should, but this weekend I made my way down for a quick visit. The Audubon Society of Lincoln City was offering their monthly Saturday morning walk and Mom and I decided to spend the morning birding.

The group went to two restoration areas at Tamara Quay and Pixieland Restoration Site on the Salmon River.

The last time I went birding with this group was in November and on that day I saw many birds as well as river otter. I was blown away by the group leaders.

On this trip I was again amazed by the group leaders, but we didn’t see as many birds… but we could sure hear them, and the leaders helped us with ID.

Here are a few birds we did see. Additionally, we saw (but I didn’t get good pictures of): Rufous Hummingbird, Belted Kingfisher, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo.

After this trip, Mom and I went home to check on Dad and make lunch. When he took a little nap, Mom and I headed to Salishan for a little more bird viewing.

This time we took Finn, who as always seemed to enjoy himself. On our way back to the car, we did a little window shopping through the Salishan Marketplace, but mostly we just enjoyed their flowers.

It was a great day. We got some strawberries in Otis and had strawberry shortcake for dessert. I only wish Dad could still participate and that I could get down to see them more often.

Since taking a hike with Ashley, I’ve been traveling a little extra during Canemah hikes to see if I can spot the dark visitor we spotted but couldn’t identify. And today… I found him! In almost exactly the same place, stalking a squirrel (apparently he had one squirrel pinned and the other was chattering vociferously at him). When I walked by, he took off into a tree and the squirrel darted out a few minutes later.

I marked the tree and stepped off the path to see if I could see him.

It’s pretty dark back there, so the photo quality  is not the best. But I’m going to tentatively ID this as a Great Horned owl.

I’m a little unsure because I don’t see “horns”, but nothing else in my ID book fits.

I’m going to email this to the Audubon society to get a firm ID.

This is so exciting for me! I’ve always wanted to see an owl in the wild.

It was really cool the way he waggled his head checking me out.

I just couldn’t be more thrilled!

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• Canemah with Metro’s Ashley

After the excitement of the show this weekend (the last day was a great cap to an awesome weekend) I took an extra day off to do exciting things like laundry, grocery shopping, etc.

At the farmer’s market on Saturday I had bought a zucchini in hopes of making a Weight Watcher’s recipe that had been featured a couple weeks ago.

This desire to bake something is unexpected. The motto in our family is more along the lines of “When it’s smokin’ it’s cookin’, when it’s black it’s done” or “The fire alarm is the dinner bell.”  If I was to appear on a Cooking Channel program, it would probably be Worst Cooks in America rather than Chopped. Still, something about this recipe appealed to me.

I remember the first time I had quiche; it was at my friend Anna’s house and I didn’t know what it was. It took a lot to talk me into it.

So what inspired this desire to make a zucchini quiche? Got me.

And it was good. My only comment is that when they tell you to chop the zucchini fine, they mean a lot finer than I did! Didn’t effect the taste though.

Other Dinners

I also took Finn for a hike. We saw a robin fighting to kill a little snake. It was gruesome, but a little funny because the snake was so big the robin couldn’t fly off with it as we approached. He kept dragging it down the path. I was glad when we turned so the robin could rest!

Not too many flowers are blooming now, but there are still a few beauties.

Ashley shows the group poison oak.

Monday I went on a guided hike of Canemah with Metro naturalist Ashley.

It’s amazing how much difference training can make! Ashley demonstrated some significant geographic features of the area. She answered myriad questions about plants, and showed me birds that I didn’t even know were in the area!

For example, I had no idea that Cedar Waxwings were in the area; I thought the gray/brown birds that I saw eating berries up the in trees were robins. Ashley knew they were Cedar Waxwings by their song! She was also able to identify black headed grossbeaks, marsh wrens, brown creepers, woodpeckers, Anna’s hummingbirds, robins, and towhees the same way!

One of several large Pacific yews overlooks the historic graveyard.

Ashley also showed the group how to properly focus their binoculars (worth the $6 all by itself). She pointed out trees that I had seen, but I didn’t know they were interesting. I have walked by this Pacific Yew lots of times without knowing what it was or that it was such a big specimen.

It was really exciting to walk this familiar terrain with someone so knowledgeable, but also with other people just as excited about nature. I will look for more of these Metro walks.

The most exciting part of the walk (at least for me) (and it was all pretty exciting) was that we (probably) saw a great horned owl! We were walking and we saw a large raptor in a heavily forested area. A few minutes later we saw it again. Neither Ashley or I was able to get a good enough view to positively identify it, but based on its size and coloring, and owl is the most likely visitor. At Ashley’s suggestion I will go back and set up camp to look for him again!

Last week was a very long week and Friday capped it off with a variety of small computer disasters. The minute I got home, Finn and I hit Canemah.

Immediately the day vastly improved.

Saturday was marked by the farmer’s market, a TRAG board meeting, and a shift as an SEO volunteer. Once I got those obligations out of the way, I did some major gardening. I did so much gardening I actually woke up last night because of soreness!

But today I was out again. I lost a lot of plants over the winter and I had to redo some flower beds. Plus the weeds are crazy.

I’m sore and tired again tonight. So please forgive my short post and just enjoy the pictures!