A Harvest That Won't Quit

 Johnny is tired of gathering blackberries and prune plums and freezing them. I'm tired of picking and canning tomatoes, freezing cauliflower and broccoli, harvesting summer and winter squash, etc., etc. I'm sure we'll be glad this winter... but right now, we are tired. 

On Sept. 15, we had a frost that killed the leaves on the tomatoes and squash but did not hurt the fruit. I've been told that squash that ripen after the leaves have been killed will be sweeter. I hope that's true because I harvested more delicata squash today... also melons and tomatoes. Here they are:

 Already stored for winter are the  (white) acorn squash and delicatas from earlier:

The pumpkins are on a bench in the back yard, waiting to be hidden and found by neighbor kids just before Halloween...

I took a photo of tomato plants after the frost. The tomatoes were not bothered at all. They just keep coming...

While I was gathering produce today, Johnny was gathering the last (he hopes) of the prune plums and sorting cider apples from bear apples. Here they are in his EZ Go...

Every few days I haul off all the rejected apples (which are most of them this drought year where the apples have little juice) to the bear pile at the far side of our property. So far, the bears have not come down for them. They have no need until the blackberries in the mountains are gone. I don't want the bears in the orchard, where I walk through twice daily to feed the horses. I have, in years past, met bears in the dark in the orchard on my way back to the house. Now I feed the bears far, far away so they have no reason to raid our orchard.

 

Johnny only saves prunes from the cultivated trees in the orchard. He leaves the little wild ones on the ground for whatever wants them. They have big seeds and the wild things don't seem interested either. There are wild plums on the ground as far as the eye can see here...

It's been a good garden year. Corn and "zucchini boats" are in the freezer, along with beans and peas and cauliflower and broccoli and probably other things I've forgotten.  But we are quite ready for harvest season to be over.

Just have to add the last 3 cauliflower heads picked a few says ago. They are so pretty...

Short Beach and Cape Meares

A friend who had never been to my favorite beach and wanted to go provided me with the perfect excuse to go hunting for Black Oystercatchers in my old stomping grounds. Years ago I found and monitored a nest at Short Beach. And helped friends monitor nests at Cape Meares. But those areas are quite far for me to travel and there were other folks who were more able to get there during the summer. So it's been several years and I miss my former haunts. Today, we hit a perfect day weather and bird wise. 

 My first view of Short Beach from the road. So exciting to be back!

A closer look at that rock at the edge of the waves found 7 black dots...

... black dots that turned into adult Black Oystercatchers

As I climbed down the long winding staircase, I saw three BLOY at water's edge where the fresh water stream flows into the ocean. I thought they were adults...

But after I uploaded my photos into my computer and enlarged them... two of the birds turned into subadults. So I think this was a family group of one adult and two fledglings...

Enlarge the photo to see the dark distal end of the bill plus the colorless eye

The flume of water coming from Short Creek now flows mostly under the rocks to the ocean

Far down the beach is the traditional BLOY nest site, below Cape Meares

Meanwhile, far behind me, Johnny and friend Mary were enjoying the incredible scenery, Mary for the first time...

Behind Mary in the below photo are three BLOY on the rock, two of which I discovered from my photos, were subadults. I believe this is the same trio I first photographed bathing in the fresh water where it flows into the ocean.

From Short Beach, we hiked back up the long, picturesque (but I didn't take pictures) stairway and drove on to Cape Meares.

Very soon from the top viewing platform, we spotted a lone Black Oystercatcher. We could not see well enough from there to tell if it was an adult or a subadult, so hiked down to the next viewing areas. At #3, we hit a good place to set up the scope and scan the North Toe for the elusive little black bird. And we found it. A subadult for sure... all by itself. It must be that some BLOY do not get their full red bill and red eye until their second year.

Obviously, I must check all through the winter to see if/when these sub-adults change to full adults with red eyes and completely red bills. What a lovely excuse to visit my favorite beach plus the incredible Cape Meares!

Last Call for Black Oystercatchers

 None of the Cascade Head Black Oystercatcher (BLOY) nests that I have monitored over the years were active this spring and summer. And of the former three Road's End nests, only one pair started a nest... and lost it... two times. It was a bad year for Black Oystercatcher nesting in my area. Today, not being willing to give up, I hiked in to the Hart's Cove area where BLOY have nested in the past. Maybe, I thought hopefully, they got a late start.

Hope springs eternal. But there were no BLOY. And their nest rock was covered with Pelicans, and with whitewash from Pelicans. 

 

Atop the rock, right above where BLOY have traditionally nested, was a first year Bald Eagle. He sat there for the first half hour I was there (and who knows how long before I arrived). When he flew north, an adult flew in from the south. I suspect BLOY are not nesting because Cascade Head and environs have been taken over by Bald Eagles. I have never seen eagles attack Black Oystercatchers but the silly birds get hysterical when an eagle is around and come off their nest screaming.

Harbor seals lounged on a lower level of the rock...

...while sea lions slept on yet another...

 

In the center of the rock, next to a pool of water that the BLOY  accessed for drinking and bathing, was a sea lion that I convinced myself was dead as it moved not at all for a very long time...

 

 

 

 

 ...until it did...

Meanwhile, on the south shore of the cove, hundreds of sea lions lounged and barked... and barked... and barked. It was deafening.

I also saw, but did not get photos of, a few sea mammals that must have been harbor porpoises as they had triangular fins coming out of their backs and were surfing the waves close to shore, perhaps chasing small prey.

It was a long, steep hike back up to the parking area but the trail is well maintained.

 

There had been an intriguing truck in the parking lot when I started down and I vowed to get a photo if it was still there when I came back. It was and I did.

A solar panel on the hood.

 

The truck emblem says "Mortality Driven. You can make more money... You can't make more time." Back home, I went to the website that was painted on the side of the truck: MortalityDriven.com and found out it is a clothing business! Or so it says. And the proprietor drives around the country exploring all the exciting places he can find. The truck is outfitted for everything, it seems. 

I found no BLOY today, but did find plenty of interesting sights.