Agency Creek in October

After my usual morning brush cutting for the goats, I walked (and rode my EZ Go) to Agency Creek, searching for the juvenile Dipper I saw yesterday. Here is yesterday's photo:

 

I had not realized that juvenile Dippers, after leaving home, have white in their wings for a short time. In all my years of monitoring Dipper nests on Agency Creek, I had never seen this plumage before. That's what I get for not monitoring after the young ones are no longer being fed by parents and have to go face life on their own. There must be a short period for this juvenile plumage before they molt into their adult outfit.

Although I found no Dipper of any plumage today, I did find lovely fall colors on our portion of the very shallow, thanks to our extended dry weather, Agency Creek.

 We have never had Dippers nest on our portion of Agency Creek. But I always hope...

What we do have is a Rattlesnake Orchid, or Plantain, which appeared out of nowhere last year in our Qi Gong grove next to Agency Creek. This year the little snakeskin-leafed plant appears to have a very little one coming up next to it. Maybe the original will bloom for us next year! There's always something to look forward to along Agency Creek.

 

Farm Projects

Between PGE crews clearing dead trees from near their power line and our efforts to cut brush back from our driveway, the goats are getting plenty of browse delivered to their field. And Johnny is putting up lots of firewood for winter heat... presuming we are ever allowed to burn wood again. Oregon is burning up too many live trees currently. We have lucked out so far in western Oregon but we keep working on the brush to make it easier to contain any fires that might start. The weather is still dry.

One tree that PGE cut was huge, although young. They left us big hunks of the trunk that looked to us like perfect seats for enjoying the view of the creek that runs through our property. So today Johnny loaded them into the bucket of his tractor and drove them down to the creekside area where I often sit and watch birds... and fast flowing water (at least it's fast flowing in the winter) ... and deer... and whatever else wanders by. 

Naturally, I took photos of the operation. Here are two of the prospective seats...

Lightning struck this tree when it was young, as Johnny explained after seeing the scar that ran from near the center (youth) of the tree to the outside

The view from the new "seat"

 

Johnny pretending he has binoculars

 

The view from the second seat

Johnny modeling the second seat. We will have to put something over the sap-oozing lightning wound

 Then Johnny went off to do his thing and I went off to do mine... which was cutting blackberry vines and tansy that had escaped me earlier in the year from the flower meadow. I was so sure I had dug and pulled all the tansy but, alas, I was wrong. Whether the Himalaya blackberry vines had already sprung up from where I had cut them off early in the summer or if I missed this patch, I cut a big EZ Go load for the goats. The tansy is bagged for the fire pile whenever it is safe... and legal... to burn it.

Most of the flowers in the flower meadow are done blooming and have seeded out. But happily, the Hall's Asters are in bloom now. What they lack in height, they make up for in numbers.

Also blooming are blue Douglas Asters. They can be seen on my Wildflowers blog under "The Flower Meadow".
 

Maybe next year I'll remember to take photos throughout the summer as the various flowers bloom. Or maybe I'll just sit by the stream and enjoy our new log seating.

The day after the new log seats were in place, I checked back and found that someone else had discovered our seats and left its mark on them.

It was full of blackberry seeds. I suspect a Gray Fox. We have seen them here and their scats are always full (this time of year) of blackberry seeds. I set up a trail camera to see if the visitor returned, but so far, it has not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odd Birds

 I'll be glad when all these juvenile birds get their adult feathers. Seeing them now when they're no longer in the begging stage with parents around, I am often perplexed by what this strange bird is. The juncos look like song sparrows... white in their tails rarely visible. The towhees are beyond description, every one different, some with gray heads. The juvenile rufous hummingbirds are brilliant green with rufous only on the sides of their chests. I have to look at photos on the web to be sure what I am seeing. I'll attach a collection of downsized photos I took today. Can you identify these birds??

 

 

An Odd Garden Year

 We all have seen photos of beautiful, neat and tidy gardens. Well, my garden is nothing like that. I planted late, some things didn't come up so I replanted. I didn't use strings to make straight rows so they're not straight. And I only hoed between rows once. The weeds are mostly ground cover type so I let them go. My garden is a jungle. 

 

Friend Mary gave me seeds she had saved from a squash she bought at a farmer's market. She said it was the best squash she had ever eaten. Of course, there's no telling if it was carefully kept from other varieties so could have hybridized. Who knows what it will produce. All I know so far is the plants are huge and taking over their side of the garden. There was a path between them and the tomato plants-in-tires. The path has disappeared.

 

But the truly weird plants are the birdhouse gourds. I planted seeds that I dug out of birdhouse gourds I had bought and made into bird houses last year. (The swallows love their houses.) But the seeds did not come up last year. They were biding their time, apparently, and are up in profusion this year. I had never seen birdhouse gourd vines before. They are climbing over our high garden fence between garden and goats. Usually, the goats eat everything that peeks through the garden fence. But they are not touching these vines. I don't know why. A friend said birdhouse gourds smell odd to her so maybe it's the smell.

 Weirdest of all on these weird plants are the flowers. I have never seen squash flowers like these. Or any flowers like these. They very quickly add miniature gourds to the flowers... that very quickly become bigger. I have no idea how big they'll end up.

 

 

The raised beds are a little more under control. But their plants had a late start, too, because of our unseasonably cold (frosts nightly through June) then broiling hot in July weather. Peas finally were able to bloom and fruit in July and are going strong still now -- in August.

Here's hoping we have a long fall so we get some corn (it's just now knee high -- some of it) and pumpkins and cucumbers and beans and ripe tomatoes and all the other vegetables that we are usually overwhelmed with by August.

Another "Miracle of the Owl"

 The first miracle of an owl story on our farm is told in this post: https://lindafink.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-miracle-of-owl.html

The second one just happened this spring/summer. 

2019 was the last year Barn Owls nested on our farm, after nesting every year since we moved here in 1977... and probably before we moved here, as they nested in the old barn that was on the property. What happened in 2019 to cause their disappearance is not known for certain. I have thought it was because the man who came to band the owls, who wanted to band them because he thought it would be great to have a record of owls in western Oregon, kept them out of the nest box too long... which he did, so that he could get photos of every owlet with every one of his grandkids. If I'd only known before he arrived that he was bringing three generations with him... But I didn't and the owlets seemed to survive and all later fledged. However, that was the last year a Barn Owl nested in our barn... until this year.

In all fairness, it is possible one of the adults died as one adult did come back that fall, even leaving a dead mouse in the nest box once, as though trying to entice a mate. However, it left never to return. Nor did any of the owl children return... until this June.

This year's story starts long before this year. It begins with the East Cascades Audubon Society (ECAS) Winter Raptor Surveys. Johnny and I have long run two raptor survey routes for ECAS, one starting from our farm and traveling around Grand Ronde, Willamina and Sheridan. The Grand Ronde route we have driven for twenty years. I have a list of people who live along our route and are interested in birds and willing to help spot them in their neighborhood. 

One of those people was Blythe Eastman, who lived just a mile from us. I would tell my "route cooperators", as I called them, when we would be running our route and ask them to report any raptors they saw at their place that day. Blythe was mostly outdoors late at night because of health issues she had long been battling. Night time was when she could meditate and soak up the earth's healing vibes... hopefully. When Blythe heard owls calling at night, she would report to me. And when she heard a Barn Owl, she would will it to fly to our farm because she knew how much I missed our Barn Owls.

Blythe lost her battle with cancer on February 28, 2024. 

A legend told to me by a Grand Ronde tribal elder many years ago was: if a little owl comes to you during the day, it means that someone you love has died. I couldn't help thinking about that legend and somehow felt that if Blythe's spirit could send me an owl, she would. 

On March 12, two weeks after Blythe's passing, I heard a Barn Owl screech outside our bedroom window... and again  the next night. That was the first Barn Owl sound at our farm in years.

On March 16, when I went up into the barn loft to feed hay, a big white Barn Owl was sitting on the nest box platform in the barn loft. We had long ago disposed of the old nest box. The owl quickly flew out of the barn. That was the first Barn Owl seen on our farm since 2019!!

  Johnny immediately built a nest box and put it up on the nest box platform the very next day, March 17. On March 20, a big white Barn Owl flew out of the box when I went up to feed hay.

On April 7, I climbed up and shone my light into the box. A Barn Owl was in it! I checked again  three weeks later, April  21, and saw an owl sitting in a back corner of the nest box. possibly on eggs. On June 2nd an owl and four owlets were in the box. 

Ultimately, there were 5 baby owls. The only photo I got was of what I think is the youngest, after the others had fledged. Here's what I wrote to Blythe's family and friends on July 7th: Lots of begging baby owls outside tonight...mostly invisible in the dark. One peeked at me from out of the nest box when I went up into the loft to feed hay so I took its photo. I think this is the youngest. 

On July 13, when I went up during the day to check, since we would be putting hay into the barn again the next morning, there were no owls in the box. All had fledged. That night I sat outdoors at 9:30 to watch and listen for the owlets. They performed well, flying here and there and crash landing into the big fir next to the dead fir which was their favorite place to land. On an earlier night we had seen four of them in the bare tree. But this night, July 13, they preferred the thick fir where I could not see them. However, I did get a photo of one of them in the dead tree. 

 and cropped...

and lightened...

I am writing this on July 13, at 10:30 p.m., after coming in from photo taking. I can hear Indian drumming coming from neighbors... probably relatives of the tribal elder, long since passed away, who told me the Legend of the Owl long ago. And I am still hearing Blythe's owls, begging to be fed by their parents. 

There are lots of rodents available in our fields since we cut hay, so it's a very good time to be born, if you're a baby owl.

Thank you, Blythe

Linda's Travels

 Well, just one out-of-state trek for me. I drove up to Kevin and Jessica's home in the Seattle area for grandson Ian's college graduation. It was a quick trip between goat kiddings and haying. I left Saturday after morning chores, arrived that evening at Kevin and Jessica's. The graduation ceremony was mid-day Sunday with a party for Ian afterward. Then Ian and his partner Kellin took me to see their new apartment in Redmond, which is close to where Ian works. Yes, he has been working as well as going to school and is now a salaried employee of the Goldbloom Wealth Management company. Ian's degree is a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration Accounting from the Bothell campus of the University of Washington. I met his boss at the post graduation party and he raved about Ian. 

I took photos but none are spectacular.

The graduation ceremony took place in an enormous amphitheater/stadium

Thousands of graduates; thousands of spectators

A big screen showed each graduate receiving their diploma. Alas, the name of the graduate was out of sync with the photo so I cut the name out of the picture.

At the end, the graduates tossed their caps into the air with a rain of confetti falling on them

Here is Ian at the post-graduation party which took place at Kellin's parents very lovely home. Kellin's mom and Ian's mom had made lots of wonderful food.

Ian and his proud parents, Jessica and Kevin

Some of the wedding party: top are Ian and his dad, Kevin; bottom row Jessica's close friend Malia, Jessica, Kellin and Jessica's sister Sarah. Present but not pictured were the two grandmothers (Nina and me... I think we were both too tired to stand there)... Kellin's parents and Ian's boss and his wife are also not in the photo. And maybe others I've forgotten. I was tired.

The next morning I tried to leave early to get home before the traffic was awful, but had forgotten that Johnny wanted a bunch of stuff brought back down. I'd taken a car load of stuff up there that Johnny had created for Kevin's projects. So both Kevin and Jessica got up early to get me off. I ended up forgetting to load my camera so they mailed it to me along with the cookies Jessica wanted to make and send with me. 

As it turned out, the traffic was fine until I hit a very strange, long, back-up just before passing from Washington into Oregon. I learned later that the hold-up was because the Rose Parade ships that had been moored along the river were leaving that day... which meant raising the I-5 bridge and stopping all its traffic.  I was on I-205 which does not have to be raised but all the I-5 traffic had joined the I-205 traffic and we all sat for a very long time before we inched and sat some more.

I did get home in time for evening chores... very tired but glad I went. And glad the traffic delay was not for the same reasons as Johnny's Amtrak delays.

Johnny's Travels: Spring 2024

 Johnny is just home from yet another trip to help out our kids. First trip was to California to help Munazza and Kestrel brainstorm and create a backdrop for a Ren Xue retreat they help with each year. This year it is in California. Other retreats have been held in France, New Zealand, etc. Munazza is the computer guru for the people who attend via livestream. Kestrel is the sound guru. But this year the folks who run Ren Xue wanted to have the essential backdrop to be created specifically for the Northwest retreat and be kept in storage until next year's Northwest retreat. That proved easier ordered than accomplished. So Munazza called on Johnny's expertise to help. I think he had a good time doing it and the result was wonderful, although it took a lot of people a lot of time to accomplish it.

Johnny left here by Amtrak on March 25th. His first stop was to see Faiza, Munazza's sister, at her condo in El Cerrito. She had lots of odd jobs for him to do plus lots of food. She loves to cook for him! After a few days there, Steve picked him up and took him home to San Carlos, where he was until April 4, diligently working on the backdrop with Munazza et al.

This photo was taken of the backdrop hanging in their house so you can see through it. At the retreat it was against a wall and looked lovely. Plus they had figured out how to keep the wrinkles out. 

Here's the hard-working crew at S&M's house. Notice that Johnny has shrunk while his grandsons have zoomed upward.

from the left: Jupiter (the dog), Kestrel, Munazza, Cedrus, Johnny, Steve

Here is the backdrop at the retreat, before the attendees arrived...

Johnny's train was delayed leaving California by what seems to have become not unusual... an attempted suicide by someone throwing themselves in front of the train. Johnny napped in the train station for several hours waiting for the train to arrive and take him northward. It finally did and he arrived in Salem on April 4th.

He then spent a week at home getting haying equipment ready... and replacing our leaky kitchen faucet. On Friday, April 11th, Johnny headed north on Amtrak to Seattle to help with repairs on Kevin and Jessica's house. The train was delayed several hours getting to Salem from the south since "a trespasser had made contact with the equipment", as Amtrak reported. Just as someone had in California before his return trip.

Johnny did what he had planned to do and came home on April 23rd... after a long hold-up on the train after someone attempted suicide inside the train this time.

Jessica sent a photo of the new roof that had been installed before, during and after Johnny's trip. It looked lovely.

 

I had high hopes he'd stay home for awhile, but major problems were discovered in K&J's house that occurred long before the new roof went on. They needed lots of help from friends and workers and from Johnny. So back he went on  May 11th, worked long hours along with everyone else up there (and eating Jessica's wonderful food!) and came home on May 22. This time the delay on Amtrak was shorter since it was just a tree that had fallen across the tracks, not a person.

Meanwhile, back on the farm, goats were kidding like crazy and I've been keeping very busy here. Johnny is now home, unloading the barkdust on our paths that he brought home on the flat bed trailer before all this traveling happened. Hopefully, if and when the sky quits leaking, he'll be able to cut, rake and bale hay. Although he is also working in his shop on things to send or take up to Kevin and Jessica's for further repairs... so who knows...