A Photo Commentary for a Sunny Week

Tuesday, Feb. 18, was my monthly beached bird survey. The by-the-wind sailors, Velella velella were thick in the wrack lines. Every so often, when the wind is right, these jellyfish relatives blow up on shore in great masses. The rest of the time, they sail along atop the waves. You can see their topsail in the lower photo.

The wind had calmed and left this beautiful, sunny day, wind free. Chief Kiawanda Rock was reflected in the wet sand.

With all the sunny days this week, I took several walks in our woods after cutting berries under the pines, a never ending chore. Sometimes, Shirley Puppy walked with me at least part of the way.

This day two deer watched me from the edge of the adjoining field.

They were curious but undisturbed by me...

However, the dog was another story. The sight of old, deaf and slow Shirley made them bolt over a fence and out of sight. Shirley never saw them.

In the woods, the mystery lilies were up, the ones that get eaten or trampled... or something... before getting very tall. Or one was up on my first trip.

The next time I went there were two and I decided to cage them in hopes of keeping the deer from eating them, if that's what happens to them.

The third trip I checked them and then walked down the deer path a little farther, and found two more wee lilies coming up, one on either side of this mossy log.  Not sure how to protect these.

On one of my trips, a flock of colorful Golden-crowned Kinglets flitted through the mossy trees right next to me. But they moved too fast for me to get my camera on them and focused. So I just took shots as quickly as I could. Mostly I got mossy, out of focus limbs. But one photo did have the colorful head of a kinglet showing.

You have to look close. It is in the very center of the photo, above the limb running from upper left to lower right. Here it is zoomed way up... A kinglet foot is visible below the limb.

 The rosy patch shows it is a male Golden-crowned Kinglet. The females just have yellow.

On Saturday, 2/22/2020, friend Carol, Johnny and I drove up Agency to look for Dippers. The last time we took Carol up was when the water in the creek was insanely high and no Dippers were anywhere to be seen. Today the creek was back in its banks, with plenty of rocks within it providing perches for Dippers. We saw six.

As always, I had to take a photo of the cliff reflection in the quarry pond.

Carol spotted the first creature in the creek... a beaver swimming upstream! It is at the far right in this photo.

The tree branches in the way made focusing difficult, so I trained my camera on a relatively branch-free area upstream and waited for the beaver to swim into it.

 Here Carol watches for Dippers by the creek.

And here is the first one I was able to photograph without bushes in the way.

At the highest upstream bridge, where Dippers have nested in the past, we saw and heard this Dipper perched atop a stick in the middle of the creek. It was singing non-stop without ever opening its bill. The only movement was from the tail. Carol heard another one singing downstream from this one.

On the way back to our farm, we saw a couple more just below this waterfall.

What a beautiful day. The nights are very cold but the days this week have been lovely. It is fun to share this lovely world with friends, in person or through photos.

Our 53rd Anniversary

February 13th is an odd day for an anniversary, I know. I've told the story before in this blog, four years ago, on our 49th anniversary (https://lindafink.blogspot.com/2016/02/49ers.html)  But if you don't want to go back there, here is the story again:

The year was 1967. Johnny was working for the Forest Service in Cokeville, Wyoming. I was living with him before starting classes at Utah State University, having dropped out of the University of Illinois after 3 1/2 years to follow Johnny to Wyoming. (I finally got my degree 3 universities later in 1969, after we returned from a volunteer year in Laos with International Voluntary Services.)

Johnny's boss at the Forest Service called him in on Friday, February 10, for a scheduled job performance review. Everything was great except: it was not acceptable to this Mormon boss for Johnny to be living out of wedlock with a woman. (Remember, this was 1967.) I had to move out, either to the hotel in town that rented long-term rooms... or I could move in with the boss and his wife.

Johnny came home and gave me this piece of news. He had asked me to marry him a year before but I wanted to wait. I did not, however, want to move in with his boss... or live in a hotel. We decided to solve the problem by getting married the following Monday, which happened to be February 13. That morning, Johnny left a note on his desk saying "Gone to get married." It had not occurred to either of us that February 13 was a holiday:  back then it was the day when Lincoln's birthday (Sunday, Feb. 12) was celebrated. Years later Lincoln and Washington birthdays were consolidated into "President's Day". But that year, Feb. 13 was a holiday, and, unbeknownst to us, no one arrived at Johnny's office to read his note.

We gathered up two witnesses, good friends' of Johnny's since he had first come to Cokeville: Ma and Pa Perkins, along with their daughter Marie, and drove to the nearest county seat. But that Wyoming county courthouse was closed. Odd. Oh well, Cokeville is located in the junction of three states, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming. We drove on to Utah. "Closed for Lincoln's Birthday", said the notice on the door. Oops. This time we called the nearest county seat in Idaho and it was open! Apparently Idaho didn't go along with this Lincoln's birthday stuff. And that is how we happened to be married in Paris: Paris, Idaho.

Actually, I've never been sure if we were legally married since the Justice of the Peace was a very old man, probably pulled out of retirement to man the office on what should have been a holiday, who kept losing his place in the vows he was reading to us. Johnny was dozing through the long and halting ceremony. Ma Perkins was so emotional about being a witness for Johnny and me that she was crying softly, as people often do at weddings, I guess.

Finally, the justice said, "Do you, John Fink, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, etc., etc.?" Johnny said nothing. I looked at him and realized he was asleep. I jabbed him in the ribs with my elbow. He startled awake and said, "I do?"

I've always wondered if answering the question with a question is legally binding. But, 53 years later, we're still together.

In rereading my anniversary story of 4 years ago, I realized that we spent that day (and the previous day) hiking to waterfalls. We saw two waterfalls this anniversary, but without the strenuous hikes.

We drove to the coast, stopping along the way at Gunaldo Falls. No hiking involved. It is visible from a turnout on the road.

We spent a little time checking out eagle nests on the way to Pacific City. Saw no eagles but lots of Great Egrets. Then ate lunch at Los Caporales, our favorite Pacific City restaurant. I love their Mango juice. We wandered our way through the mist and rain to Cape Lookout and on to Cape Meares, stopping at Short Beach to look for Black Oystercatchers ((BLOY), the species I monitor all spring and summer.

Through the rain, I saw at least twenty BLOY so I dashed back to the car to get my camera. Johnny kept watch and saw at least twenty fly off to the south... but also five fly in from the north. It was tough picking out five black birds on black rocks in the rain. My camera found three plus one red bill of a bird just out of the photo. Thank goodness for red bills on BLOY. You'll probably have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see any of the black birds.

After a quick stop at Cape Meares in the pouring rain, we headed home, stopping at Munson Falls as we usually do when returning from the Tillamook area. It is the highest waterfall in the Coast Range. The rain let up for our quarter mile hike in.

 It's hard to tell how high it is without something to compare it with. So I asked Johnny to walk ahead and stand at the landing by the end of the permitted trail access. He looks tiny compared to that waterfall!

And now, it's the traditional Happy Hearts Day, as Johnny calls February 14.

                                                         
                                                       Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Sunshine!

Sunday Feb. 9, 2020, was the first of predicted four days of sunshine. Oh happiness. Rain is good and necessary but a little moderation would be nice. At least we have not had the flooding some areas have had.

Today was beautiful. Agency Creek, which has been a raging, muddy torrent, calmed and cleaned up a little today.

On Friday, before the rain quit...

Same scene today, Sunday...

On Friday, no Dippers were to be seen anywhere... and no rocks visible in the high water for them to perch on. Today, Dippers were visible in many of their known territories.

The Chutes is an area of white water where the creek flows over a rock ledge and through a narrow rock channel. It looked way too wild for Dippers but a pair didn't agree. Johnny spotted them diving off a log into the white water and popping back up to the periodically underwater log. Amazing.

The Chutes

Brave Chutes Dipper

 

We did not see the resident Yoncalla Bridge Dippers on our way up but on our way back, one had caught something at the edge of the stream upstream from the bridge.

Farther up, Johnny took a nap while I hiked onward, finding a Dipper above Asinine Bridge near their nest stump. It was perched on a log in the middle of the stream. Hard to see in this distant shot.

Here it is closer...

And from upstream looking back at it.

Johnny eventually woke up and drove to find me, which he did at the above pictured Dipper. We drove upstream to the 6 mile culvert, where we found another Dipper, near where friends Carol and Mary and I had seen a pair of Hooded Mergansers, but no Dipper, on Friday. The Dipper is the dark dot in the river beyond the alders.

Also on Friday, we saw a Scaup (jury is still out on whether it was a Lesser or Greater) on the quarry pond. (Very broad bill says Greater; purplish head and likelihood inland on a small body of water says Lesser.)

The Scaup puzzle (plus sunshine) is the incentive that got me back up there Sunday. Johnny's incentive was to get a better view of the logging operation we hear from our farm. He dropped me off at the quarry. But there was no Scaup or any other bird in sight, just glorious sunshine and magnificent reflections of the cliff in the water.

What a beautiful, Dipper-full, day!

A Walk with Willow

Willow, the feral kitten turned domestic, seems to think she's a dog as she likes to take walks with us.  Her mom, Salix, is also tame now but does not think she is a dog. The one time Salix came with us and Willow, she got lost and sat and howled until I went back and rescued her. That's the last time she came.

Brave Willow, on the last day of January, started out through the arboretum with us and 14-year-old Shirley Puppy, (who is no longer a puppy but retains the name) as we headed for the woods and creek.

 
They were both still with us as we walked through the "lake pasture", but Shirley soon turned around. It was a long hike for an old dog recovering from a stroke.

Also out and about were newts.

And more greenery coming up through the dead and very wet leaves.

Willow was a mite nervous in the deep forest after Shirley turned around, but she kept coming...

 This was a smaller juvenile newt.The fir needles on the ground give a size comparison. You can see here why they're called Rough Skinned Newts...

As always, we saw colorful fungi...

Here is Willow on a stump...

On the way home up the lane, Willow took the lead. This was scary territory for her apparently...

Back up at the machine shed (visible in the previous photo), Shirley was waiting for us by the tractor where she sleeps now.

By the house, the first spring flowers were (and still are) blooming: old-fashioned primroses from starts my mother gave me long ago...

 and hellebores...

The first crocus of spring was peeking up...

Now there are many more.

Since that walk with Willow on the last day of January, we have had sun, snow, rain, and everything in between. The seeds I optimistically planted ten days ago in the raised beds, on a warm and dry day, are not up yet, but carrots and onions and chard from last year are plentiful and edible, along with wild greens like chickweed, and lots of parsley in the herb bed.

Today, the 5th day of February, I planted tomato and pepper seeds in the greenhouse (jungle room). I had to do a lot of clearing out and cleaning up to make room for flat beds for the seeds. It was a good thing to do on a rainy day.

There will be more rain and more snow before spring truly arrives, but it's fun to watch the seasons changing little by little and to take walks on dry days... sometimes with an old dog and a brave Willow kitty.