Lunar Eclipse, Johnny's BDay and Orchids

On Sunday, January 20, a total eclipse of the full moon was at least partially visible from our farm. I sat outdoors taking photos as the earth's shadow gradually covered the moon... with clouds also covering the moon at least partially most of the time. But I did manage to get some photos of the totally eclipsed moon glowing red. I did not stay up to watch the moon reappear from behind the earth's shadow... and clouds.

The next day, Monday, January 21, was Johnny's birthday. Also Martin Luther King Day. Johnny felt honored to have his birthday declared a national holiday. Friends Monica and J.P. invited us to dinner to celebrate Johnny's birthday with 6 other friends. So the earth celebrated Johnny's bday by making the moon glow red the night before, then everyone had the day off, and we got a wonderful meal and fellowship. Pretty impressive birthday.

Today we drove to Tillamook to pick up orchids and other plants that our good friends the Woodhouses cannot take to Minnesota with them. They are moving in with their daughter as they are in failing health and cannot live on their own any longer. Barbara and John have grown and shown orchids forever and I feel fortunate that they want me to have them. I just hope I can keep all these plants alive!

I had to reorganize and clean the greenhouse to fit all the new plants in. Well, not all, as some are now in the living room and on the kitchen window ledge. What a cheerful sight! And every one of them reminds me of the Woodhouses.

The one hanging from the pot is growing on a piece of bark.

Fortunately, Barbara Woodhouse also gave me her orchid books so I might have a chance of figuring out what each variety needs. Although I have a feeling that I will be making lots of phone calls to Minnesota asking for orchid help.

Christmas 2018

Somehow, this post got lost so I had to rewrite it and it will now appear after my New Year's post. 2018 was that kind of year... The Christmas season came and went in a blur of busyness.

On the day before Christmas, two adult eagles sat on the tops of tall firs by the creek all day. They are in the photo below, believe it or not. One is atop the tall fir at the far left side of the photo, above the machine shed with its canoes. The other is on the left side of the fat fir on the far right side of the photo.
 

 Here is the far left eagle zoomed in closer.

 Here is the far right eagle in the center of the photo with its white head visible. That's how I spotted it originally.

 And here it is zoomed in and blurry. They were a long way away.

We have not seen them since but they are probably fishing the creek somewhere. The full story is on my Bird's blog here https://lindafink-birdnotes.blogspot.com/2018/12/eagles-on-farm.html

On Christmas Day, we drove to Tillamook to have dinner at a restaurant with long time birding friends John and Barbara Woodhouse. We have been doing this for many years. Sadly, we will have to come up with a new Christmas Day tradition as they are in failing health and will be moving to Minnesota to live with their daughter. We savored this day with old friends.

After the Christmas dinner that none of us had to cook or clean up after, (our reason for this tradition!), we all drove together to Oceanside where I took photos of Three Arch Rocks.

The surf was high and lovely.

Then we drove to Short Beach, where Black Oystercatchers nest in the spring. The tide was covering the beach so I took photos of the south side of Cape Meares from high up at the road.

Here is the Cape Meares lighthouse, zoomed in, which is barely visible in the photo above.

Onward we drove to Cape Meares. No Black Oystercatchers or Peregrine Falcons in view this time of year... but Pyramid Rock was pretty in the wild sea.

Looking south, we could see Cape Lookout in the distance, with Short Beach on the left and one of the Three Arch Rocks on the right.

It was a grand day and we do hope to get back over there to visit before our friends leave for Minnesota.

Other long-time (but younger) friends, now living in Washington, visited on Dec. 30 for a few hours. It was wonderful to see Hazel and her daughter Kinnera, our surrogate granddaughter, who were in Portland for the weekend visiting Hazel's sister. We hiked them all over the farm but I only got one decent photo. It was great to hear about Kinnera's first year in college. My how time flies.

The older we get, the more we realize that each day is a gift to be cherished.

Here's to a healthy and happy 2019 for all.

Happy New Year!

 It was a strange weather end to a strange weather year. I dug potatoes out of the garden on Dec. 31st. Good thing because it turned cold... 28 that night. We ate chard out of the garden on New Year's Day. A few tomatoes were still ripening on the windowsill. But the hummingbird feeder had ice in it that morning.

Traditionally, we hiked Spirit Mtn. on New Year's Day, but those days are gone. Neither of us have knees up to the hike back down. So this year we hiked to Yoncalla Falls instead, which is just a short jaunt up the road from us and a short hike in. And beautiful on clear New Year's Day 2019.

Johnny took this photo of me hiking up closer

 Then we hiked back to the van and drove up to a recent clearcut where we watched wee birds, nuthatches and chickadees mostly, high in a tree alongside the logging road. The easiest way to watch was from our backs.

Since I don't see so great, I took photos and zoomed them in closer.. To my amazement, I actually managed to capture both a chestnut-backed chickadee and a red-breasted nuthatch. Good camera.

 Way off in the distance was a view of Spirit Mountain from the back (relative to what we see on our farm).

And beyond and to the left as we were facing, the whole range of Cascade Mountains from Mt. Hood to the Three Sisters. Of course, you needed binoculars to see them. My camera obliged.

They are there, I swear!

Starting from Mt. Hood...

closer...

to Mt. Jefferson...

 closer...

 Three Fingered Jack...

and The Three Sisters...

Amazingly, the four Christmas Bird Counts we did also had reasonably good weather, especially the last two: Dallas on Dec. 27 and, on January 4, Yamhill Valley. We did the Dallas CBC with friend Melinda, who lives inside the count circle. We got the most birds on her road... including 54 wild turkeys!

A new friend who lives inside the Yamhill Valley CBC went with us on that count. Mary was a great help as she can both see and hear the birds better than I... and also identify them. Although four CBCs was a bit too exhausting for us, it was so nice to have other birders with us that we will likely do it again next year... if we can talk them into helping again.

This Cooper's Hawk posed for me on the Yamhill Valley CBC.

I also managed to cram in my monthly Beached Bird Survey on January 2nd, a good weather day. I started by stopping on the way at Gunaldo Falls, which is always hard to spot through the trees but at least has water in it now.

The coast was beautiful, as always.

Chief Kiawanda rock was mirrored in the damp sand.

The King Tides of December had carved still more off the dune, making a very wide beach.

Then on Monday, January 7, we did our Grand Ronde raptor route in spite of morning fog. The forecast is for rain for at least the next ten days and we have one more raptor route to do this month: the North Santiam. In between all this birding, there are still chores to do morning and night and upcoming cataract surgeries for my eyes. Here's hoping I will be able to see birds better after the cataracts are gone.

Johnny, when not carting me around to bird surveys, has been working diligently at various repair projects, including my EZ Go. I have been using his to haul horse manure. I think he wants it back.

Happy New Year!