Happy New Year!

On the last day of 2017, we drove up Agency Creek Road to look for American Dippers. Johnny drove; I took photos with my Nikon. It was a lovely, if cold, day with Agency Creek running high from our recent torrential rains. We had a hard time finding Dippers. Maybe because the creek was populated with Bald Eagles. Our guess is that the Grand Ronde tribe has done it's annual fish fling recently... when they deposit milked-out salmon from hatcheries into the creek to replenish the nutrients needed by baby salmon.  Eagles love salmon... carcasses or live, makes no difference.

Our first stop, though, was the gravel quarry with its ever-changing colors and bizarre lava flows.

Along the creek, nobody was visible except the eagles... adults and subadults, perched high in tree tops.

 "The Chutes" was a wild stretch of rushing water and beauty... no Dippers in sight.

 The gate to the railroad bridge was open... the first time we've seen it so. 

The view looking downstream from the bridge... nothing but water and mist and bare trees.

The view from another bridge was equally lovely... but no Dippers.

We could not even find a Dipper near where the Yoncalla (pictured below) flows into Agency Creek. A pair nests near here every year.

We stopped by a cascading waterfall where Dippers sometimes feed so I could take a photo of the falls. I saw no Dipper until I put the camera down... and realized one was on a rock in the middle of the stream! I quickly raised the camera to zoom in on the Dipper, but it disappeared. I waited many minutes but never saw it again. Perhaps it went down the waterfall and out of my sight. Dippers were certainly keeping a low profile this day.

However, when I put the photo of the falls on the computer and zoomed in, there was the Dipper! The tiny dot on a rock in the center of the above photo is the Dipper. I zoomed it in below but now it just looks like a tiny dark smudge above the rock. Believe me, it's a Dipper! That's exactly where I saw it.

 Farther along, the scenery was lovely but Dippers not in sight.

 However in an area of many dead trees where we often find woodpeckers, there was a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers scolding and flying about. Johnny spotted Gray Jays working through the area, too. And we found one very conspicuous and busy Pileated Woodpecker, that finally posed for a photo.

Back home, our lone guinea hen greeted us, as always. She seems to think the vehicles belong to her and escorts them back into the shop/garage, where she apparently thinks they ought to stay.

The next day, New Year's Day, dawned sunny and clear. I needed some photos for my monthly humor column in United Caprine News, so I took my Panasonic  (not as heavy as the Nikon) out with me. The goats were enjoying the sunshine after the frost was off the grass.

Most lay in family groups.

Dam and daughter Ginseng and Gin & Tonic

Dam and daughter Cindy Lou and Cleopatra standing, dam/daughter/granddaughter Felicity, Happy Day and Golden Day reclining

Also out enjoying the sunshine was llama Lindoro with his dog, Shirley

Happy New Year from the Fink Family Farm!