Category Archives: Birding

Concluded

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Today I finished my NaNoWriMo project with a total of 50,010 hard-earned words. Forgive me a sigh of relief.

As a celebratory measure, I drove down to Finley where a friend told me that Short-eared owls were appearing by the dozens. I don’t know about dozens, but spotted five and managed to get one very distant photo.

I spent most of my time in the grasslands, so no waterfowl photos this week.

I also did a little work on this painting.

Am I done with this as well?

Half. Way.

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As I said in my last post, this month I participating in NaNoWriMo. This mean that nearly all of my free time is devoted to hitting my target of 1667 words per day so that at the end of the month, I have a short novel. What I will do with said novel is anyone’s guess, but I will have done it.

Today is the 15th, so I need to be at 25,000 words. And I am delighted to report I am at 25,184 words. Right. On. Schedule.

Because I have a day job that prevents full time painting, writing, dog training, cat petting, or other enjoyable pursuits, most evenings are devoted to hitting the word count. During the week, honestly, I tend to come in a little short. So, on the weekend, I have to concentrate to catch up.

In other words, you have another couple of weeks before you see any paintings.

Yesterday, however, I did take a break in the morning to go out to Basket Slough in the hopes of seeing the Short Eared Owls that have been reported there. No dice, but I did have a lot of fun with a friend and took some photos.

The governor announced Oregon is about to go into lockdown again, so most of the activities I have been starting to enjoy again (dog training, mostly) are basically cancelled.

Sigh.

Here’s hoping I’ll meet you on the other side of 50,000.

Milestone Wanderer

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Last Friday (Dec. 20), I took off on an epic trip to Monterey, California, and back. 1500+ miles of driving in 8 days. The main goal was to a) avoid the holidays, and b) see birds. I managed to do a spectacular job at both.

Day 1 – To Redding

This day the goal was to cover miles. According to Google Maps, it was a 7 hour drive to Redding. When planning the trip, I did not know if the Siskiyou Pass would be in good condition, but things looked good on Trip Check, so I took off. As a companion I had my beloved dog, Key, and the book “Freeway Birding” by Harry G. Fuller. Thanks to this book, I was able to spot two new birds at the Collier rest stop just inside California.

It was more than I was expecting on the first day!

Day 2 – Sacramento NWR to Salinas

According to the map, the next leg of the drive was 4.5 hours (liar) so I thought I would take some time at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge in the morning. Though the day ended up being absurdly long and the worst part of the driving happened in the dark, it was still a great stop.

I started with the northern Red Bluff site, where I saw a great variety.

But the central unit really took my breath away.

The snowy egret got me really excited!

Day 3 – Whale Watching Monterey Aquarium

I had rushed down south to make an 8-hour whale watching trip through Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Unfortunately, a few days before I left, they cancelled that, but booked me on the morning tour. But when I arrived, it was windy and raining and they weren’t going out. I booked for the next day, hoped for the best, and went down the street to the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I had high hopes for the aquarium, and they were met. It was a Sunday, so it was crowded, and frankly so many children was a little oppressive after a while. Also, many of the exhibits were exclusively (or so they thought…) for children. Nothing stops me, and I had a great time, with the highlight being petting the bat rays who would come up and cuddle (not kidding) on the side begging for food and accepting a scratch.

I also enjoyed an art exhibit featuring trash.

Birding in the area was good as well, and I added a few animals to my list. I have chosen not to include the animals in the aquarium, but, as I said, I enjoyed them.

Day 4 – Whales (or, really, dolphins!!!)

I had high hopes for seeing a grand variety of sea life on this section, but I cautioned myself that everything depended on the animals.

A young, male otter was hanging out in the harbor when I arrived. Number 205 according to his tag. He was completely charming.

The harbor exit was full of fun as well.

The day started out well, with us finding a large pod of Risso’s Dolphins right off the bat.

But the money shot, was…

I got a lot of photos, but my camera decided it was out of battery life about halfway through the encounter, so I was reduced to my cell phone. I got some fun videos.

Here’s what MBWW had to say about the encounter (from their Facebook page):

We spent the day today with the CA51A’s, 49C, and 50B – it was an incredible experience! This morning and afternoon the Orcas were extremely playful and displayed some amazing behaviors–they were breaching, tail-throwing, rolling, and kelping! We suspect they were teaching their 3 month old calf about hunting, as they killed a bird in addition to whatever else they were hunting this morning. After we put our boat in neutral two of the Orcas swam directly towards us, both belly-side up, and went underneath the boat (video posted earlier today). We also saw a Gray Whale as we were heading back out to the Orcas this afternoon, which made the day that much more special!

Sightings for 12/23/2019:
9 AM: 100 Risso’s Dolphins, 6 Orcas
10 AM: 6 Orcas
2 PM: 1 Gray Whale, 6 Orcas

And that was the end. While the orcas were AWESOME, I as a little disappointed not to see more. The next day, they reported:

Christmas Eve was perfect on the water today with Humpback Whales, Gray Whales, Pacific White-Sided Dolphins and Risso’s Dolphins.

Sigh.

Day 5 – Turning north

One of my concerns about this trip was that I did not have a good sense of distance. This day I left my friends in Salinas (thanks, Devon!) and started the return trip along the coast. I elected to travel through San Francisco, which wasn’t as bad as I was afraid of; I got to go over the Golden Gate Bridge!

Once through San Francisco, I stopped at a couple of parks.

Including this mystery bird; anyone want to volunteer an ID?

I headed south east after that because I wanted to see Point Reyes Park. This turned out to be quite a bit more driving than I expected, though it was lovely.

Unfortunately, what I didn’t realize was that after Point Reyes, I had a couple more hours of windy road driving to get to my hotel in Fort Bragg. In the dark, this was no fun.

Day 6 – Master Birding ID Class (I’m not up to the challenge)

Wet set out bright an early and within a few minutes had seen a lot of spectacular shoreline.

And the birds were nice, too.

But when we finally got up to Humboldt Bay, my mind was blown.

I spent over four hours just on the south spit. The variety was intense.

At dark, we moved along to the hotel and called it a day.

Day 7 – Feeling Homesick

Humboldt Bay & Arcata/Eureka were one of the places I most looked forward to visiting. I had originally toyed with the idea of spending the whole vacation here. And I totally could have. Having explored (as much as time allowed) the south bay the day before, I concentrated on the north bay.

Key and I took a long walk (dogs were allowed, on leash) around the Arcata Marsh Interpretive Center. It was amazing. LOTS of wildlife as well as well-groomed trails, parking, and an interpretive center. If you are ever in the area, spend some time there!

When we finished here, about 10am (started at 7am), we did some driving around the area. The best bit was a rather unassuming park where we saw one of my favorite things in the world!

And some nice birds, too.

 

This is the part where I admit that, well, home is the best place. We drove from Arcata up to Crescent City, but the drive was shorter than expected and we hit town about 1pm. I seriously though about cancelling my hotel reservation and just heading home. It would be a long day, but the part in the dark would be I-5. This is what stopped me.

Now, if you were paying attention, you will note that I saw these the day before. But I didn’t recognize them. This time I did, and so I stuck around, enjoying the show.

Day 8 – Be It Ever So Humble

We got up early and hit the road.

We stopped for a walk on the beach, enjoying some last sightings.

But the lure of home kept me focused. I drove through the last point on my itinerary, the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, but didn’t explore much. We made it home around 1 and then my stressed out dog and me collapsed in our chair.

In 8 days we drove 1500+ miles, saw over 120 species of birds, counting over 5000 individual birds in 23 locations. Adventures are hard work!

Gotta catch up…

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Hello all! I’m alive! And back to blogging! At least, that’s my story.

First of all, thank you everyone for your lovely can kind words about my last post. In spite of the somewhat gloomy nature of that post, the last month (again, sorry) has been a good one.

NaNoWriMo

My main excuse for not writing a blog post is that I participated in NaNoWriMo. For those of you unfamiliar with the phenomenon, it’s where lots of people (including me this year) spend a month trying to write 1667 words per day to end up with a book of 50,000 words at the end. That is equivalent to about 100 pages, which is a small, but publishable book. Of course, no one would actually PUBLISH the book they wrote in a month. The goal is just to get it started so you have something to work from. There is no right or wrong way to do NaNoWriMo, but it is time consuming. I am proud to report that I “won” this year, meaning that I hit the target.

Beach House Update

In addition to all that writing, I spend some time down at the beach house. I am DELIGHTED to report that the repairs on Mom’s house are finished!

This is not a real estate glamour photo, but I  think it gives you the idea.

Birding

I also got in some nice nature watching opportunities around those trips to the coast.

Salem House

Unfortunately, Mom’s house is the good news. My Salem home is probably going to need some major work in the next few months. Since I moved into the house in November 2015, my asthma and general breathing problems have really flared up. Though I’ve had the furnace checked multiple times, Mom would always complain how cold this house was. I have really started to notice how much dust and dirt is on everything, and for the last year, I have been struggling with a rodent problem.

On Friday, I met with several contractors (rodent, heating, foundation, waterproofing) to discuss the various problems. Shockingly, no one said, “Oh, we can fix that for $50.” So, I’m sorting through documentation trying to figure out what the best solution is. Other than moving… which may actually be the easiest solution.

I’m sure there will be more to come on this particular soap opera.

Key & Nose Work

Key and I also snuck in a nose work trial, moving up off the wait list at the last minute. I am delighted to report it was our strongest showing yet, though I made a handling error that cost us. Doh! However, we did get our Vehicle and Exterior titles, which was a nice touch.

Salem Reads

So with “nothing” on my plate this month, have I been lounging around? Ha! I’m already in the middle of projects that I feel confident you will hear A LOT more about in the coming months.

Coming up in February, for the second year in a row, I am participating in the Salem Reads Art Exhibit. The book this year is Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson and I really enjoyed it. I am deep into creating a collage piece based on passage from the book. It’s about body image and gender roles.

I hope all of you will consider attending the reception on February 5, 2020, at the Elsinore Gallery.

Spring Show Entries

Next, I’m trying to finish a few pieces to turn into the WSO and NWWS spring shows. I would really like to finish my piece, Alone With Her Thoughts 2.

It’s a big piece, so I’ve been using some of my digital tricks to vet ideas.

I like the second version, but I know some of that is the filter. How could I do that…

Unleashed

Finally, and this is the big announcement, I have agreed to a solo show in March. Gulp. As you may remember, I was awarded the People’s Choice prize at the Salem Art Association Salon 100 show this last summer. As a “prize”, they offered me a solo show in one of their smaller galleries. Of course, I said yes. Originally, the timeline was for the show to be in 2021 or 2022. I had begun examining some ideas and was determined to do a new body of work for this exciting opportunity.

Then the curator called me up and wanted to know… could they book me for March 2020? I said yes, figuring that it would save 18 months of procrastination on my part. I ditched two of the more complex ideas and began to focus on the “easy” idea. The reception is March 6, 2020, and I really hope you mark your calendars for this one, because I’ll need a good showing!

This weekend I sat down and began to draft out the “rules” of this series.

The Dogs of Minto Brown

  1. Must be about the dogs of Minto Brown (though I can interpret)
  2. I must do three value studies before painting.
  3. Will be on 12″ x 12″ water media panels from American Easel.
  4. All must use same color triad.
  5. All must be painted (no collage or other “ideas”.)
  6. All must be drawn by me (no tracing.)
  7. Each painting should have a single idea that is being explored (pick 1 idea!)

Believe it or not, that is an exhausting list.

In addition to drafting these rules, I spend some time looking through reference photos, gathering new reference photos, and starting value studies of the ideas I am most confident about.

Obviously, this is very much the first draft, but I’m trying to use the facilitator’s mantra: Go slow in the beginning to go fast at the end.

Holidays

In just under two weeks, I will be starting of on my holiday vacation plan to Monterey. I’m excited, but frankly also nervous about driving over the pass and in California in general.

I’ve also been working on a little project to send to family members. It’s still in the secret phase, unfortunately.

So, I think that’s all the news that’s fit to print. I’ll try to do better about posting, but as you can see, I may be pretty busy. If I get stuck, though, I can always do my usual series of year end posts!

The camera got a workout

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Back in September I wrote a post about a weekend down at the beach and promised to post photos of one of the adventures, a whale watching tour, “the next day.” Sincerely apologies. Life got away from me.

To recap, on September 13, I went on a whale watching tour with Whale Research EcoExcursions, who I have been out with several times (I think this is my fourth tour).

As always, it was AWESOME. Words almost cannot state how great the tour is, and fall is a great time to go because the whales are starting their migration and there are a lot of them.

I took 1,461 photos in just over 90 minutes. Yes, 16 photos a minute. I regret NOTHING.

The day was beyond gorgeous.

There were Stellar Sea Lions just as we came out of the harbor.

There was perfectly clear water and jellyfish.

There were birds.

And the whales were plentiful and NOT shy. Yes, that’s our boat in the foreground.


The conditions were so perfect, you could see through the water.

There were young calves feeding near their mother.


There were whales in multiples.

But most of all… there were flukes. (Note: The following are “sliders”. They should move forward giving you an action-like sequence.)


It was an awesome day. I love Oregon. If you are ever down in Depoe Bay, don’t hesitate to check it out.

Something is better than nothing

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It’s been a few weeks since I posted, and the reason is a bad one: I forgot. I have mentally started on a couple of posts, but then it all just slipped away.

This weekend I went down to the beach and made a determined effort to just “have fun.” Friday I went whale watching (more in the next post), Saturday I hiked at Ona Beach and then spent time with a friend, and Sunday I was lazy.

Key approved of Ona Beach.

This will be the last time I’m down at the beach for a while. I have two dogs shows and then the Watercolor Society of Oregon convention, so that’s the next three weekends accounted for.

Just when I might be interested in heading down, construction will be picking up. This is the schedule from the contractor.

The cabinets are getting delivered on September 26th and installation for them will begin on Oct 1st.

The countertop guys will be there to template on Oct 7th and installation for counters is set for Oct 22nd.

Plumber is scheduled for the 23rd and Keith is starting install on the backsplash on the 23rd as well.

Anyone care to take a bet if they will adhere to this schedule? Actually, they’ve been great to work with, it’s just that I’m being cynical.

Because it was my last trip down for a while, I made sure to take the remaining dishes out of what is left of the kitchen and then spent some time on the gloomy task of removing Mom’s glass aquarium from the header so it doesn’t get damaged.

Between you and me, I’m not sure they will all go up again. I like things a little “cleaner” than Mom. But we’ll see.

As I said earlier, I have another post planned for the whale watching trip, so I will just show off these photos of the Ona Beach morning. I got really into texture! I think these were made by some kind of mollusk.

Water and insects created other effects.

Still lives seem to just come up out of nowhere!

And the landscapes!

Of course I did some bird watching.

Mallards with Greater Yellowlegs.

And through it all, my faithful companion guided me along.

Here’s hoping I get that whale watching post up soon!

Seven months was all she wrote*

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August marks seven months since Mom’s death, so I’m more than halfway through “the official year”. And because I’m a planner, I’m starting to look ahead to what 2020 might bring. August will also mark what would have been Mom’s 72 birthday. I’m not someone who normally marks that kind of thing, but it does make me sad. It seems like such a young age in today’s world.

On that note, the rest of this post is going to be seven random things in my life.

1 – I entered the Watercolor Society of Oregon show

Lately, I  have been doing less journaling and more painting. So when the WSO deadline came up, I entered two pieces.

Fingers crossed!

2 – I’ve engaged a company to start work on repairing the beach house

On the advice of my therapist, I took a few weeks just… off from the beach house problem. Then a couple of weeks ago I did some research on whether the house should just go up for sale as is or should be put back together again. Turns out, it’s significantly more valuable “put together” so I had to make some decisions. I found a company, Wildwood Design Center, that could do the job and this weekend I stayed at the beach house (even in its current condition, it’s pretty good) and pondered design options.

I think we all know which one I’ll choose.

3 – The journaling goes apace

Hydrangeas are blooming right now, so they have been featured regularly.

4 – Birding (and wildlife watching) goes apace

5 – Weight loss

I’ve had some health challenges the last few months that I just don’t even want to discuss anymore. My health insurer has set up a healthy eating class which I am attending on Thursday nights (in addition to WW). While I won’t say I feel “inspired” I am feeling more into making good choices, which is a step in the right direction.

6 – Key-the-dog (official title)

Key’s official title is “the dog” and he would like to report that while the training to retrieve is not going well, this nosework thing is just THE BEST. He went to a trial a few weeks ago and it went MUCH better than the last one (though no title). He would like to show off a recent search, but Tara is too lazy to upload the photo. So we’ll just include this picture of him enjoying the beach.

Note the low, tired tail.

7 – A newsletter

After an absence of a year (gulp), I finally send out a newsletter using my Mail Chimp account (which you can sign up for on this page.) It wasn’t a newsletter to set the world on fire, but I did announce a summer studio sale, which I am willing to pass on, even if you didn’t sign up for my newsletter!

I’m offering the following discount through the end of summer (September 2, 2019): Take 10% off the listed price of 2018 pieces, 20% off 2017 pieces, 30% off 2016 pieces, 40% off 2015 pieces, and 50% off any pieces from 2014 or earlier.

On that note, please check out my paintings page before you go to see if anything strikes your fancy!

 

 

*Note: The title of this post is a play on one of my favorite Sting songs. It’s not a reference to either murder or finishing anything. On the contrary, this post is more about moving forward.

Birding Arizona

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I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, but so much has happened. I had to block out four blog posts just to get caught up, and that’s just the basics.

I’m starting with the prettiest of the planned posts, my trip to Southern Arizona for a painting workshop sandwiched between some birding.

Buenos Aires NWR

On November 15, I devoted the day to the excellent Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge. I hiked a little circuit at Arivaca Cienega, then found some antelope on the aptly named Pronghorn Drive.

But the birds were the real stars. While there was a huge variety, my birding abilities limited me to these finds.

Tubac & Surrounding Areas

Each day after the workshop, I would scoot around and look for some more birds. This is how I found my two “target” species: roadrunners and vermillion flycatchers.

Madera Canyon

My plane didn’t leave until 2:00pm on the day after the workshop, so I took the advice of a fellow birder in the artist group and hit the gift shop at Madera Canyon.

This is the birding set-up, not including all the hummingbird feeders.

Lots of great birds, but the hummingbirds were worth the trip!

I hope to get a few more posts done tomorrow to get you caught up, but for now… bedtime!

Aloha, Hawai’i

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Apparently, I have trouble with the vacation concept. I run around doing stuff and adventuring and having a great time, but I’m TIRED when I come back.

So today, my story is that I relaxed. I didn’t do much. That’s my story.

Saffron finch

I got up and went for another snorkel at Two Step and it was amazing.

I came back to the timeshare, then ran some errands and got a couple of gifts for friends back home.

Then I finished a book.

Then I watched a movie.

Then I decided to go for a little walk around the complex, find the beach, and take a picture of the sunset.

And locked myself out. So while I was waiting for help, I took some pictures of the amazing tropical flowers and tress around here.

Tomorrow I get up, finish packing, and get on a jet plane. It’s home for me. It’s a good thing. I miss real life (a little) and my dog (a lot).