First Black Oystercatcher Monitoring Trip of the Season

 Since 2005, I've been monitoring Black Oystercatchers on the Oregon Coast for various agencies. Eight years ago Portland Audubon took over the largely abandoned project, kept going only by volunteers who didn't stop monitoring even though there was no agency using our data. I kept monitoring but did skip out one year for various reasons, but mostly because of changing access to my sites. Now the access issues are even worse since the road I drove into Cascade Head washed out year before last, so I could not monitor there at all. This year I hope to hike in and at least monitor the closest Cascade Head site. As of last year, I have another monitor to take turns doing the long hike into The Thumb at Road's End. That hike is getting to be too much for this old body, so who knows how much longer I'll be doing this. 

Yesterday, Monday, May 22, I made the two mile trek up to The Thumb, with the help of my trusty ski pole to lean on. It turned out to be very worthwhile.

My co-monitor, Casey, who is younger and more athletic, had hiked in twice earlier in May but seen no BLOY nesting activity. Yesterday, the BLOY cooperated for me. 

Not seen or heard at first, I finally heard a quiet call and then saw a BLOY preening on the east side, the side I can see from The Thumb, of what I call Middle Rock. It is a long look and I use binocs to spot the birds, then my camera to document their location. Scanning the rock, I found a bird setting. It stayed in that place a long time which told me it was almost certainly on a nest. I took photos and will just let them tell the story (in captions). (I had North and South mixed up in my original post, so have now corrected it.)

Almost there! The Thumb is visible between trees.

A view north to Cascade Head

A whole cliff side of these flowers were in bloom.

This is Middle Rock, where BLOY have long nested.

A BLOY sitting for long periods means a nest. Thank goodness for that red bill.

This is South Rock where BLOY have also nested.

A BLOY was here on sentry duty, but looking not toward the traditional South Rock nest area, but rather toward Middle Rock. I think it is the other half of the Middle Rock nesting pair.

The long view showing South Rock on the left and Middle Rock on the right with "Back" or "Black" rock behind it

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Having found the setting BLOY, I just let my camera take frame after frame in hopes it will capture any happenings, which it did. Way too far for me to see even with binoculars.

Second bird showed up in bottom right quadrangle of this photo. Nesting bird top left quadrangle very near the top of the photo.

I did not know about this until I got home and saw the photos on the computer. Nesting bird is putting more pebbles next to her egg.

Egg barely visible here. Bird with pebble in her bill.

Gathering another pebble. And now the egg is visible!

I have never documented pebble additions after egg laying before. Never knew it happened!

Here is the aftermath of a nest exchange. One bird leaving, one bird about to settle down on the egg.

Mission accomplished (almost two hours after arriving), I left. On my way out, this Gray Jay was grooming for quite some time, ignoring my attempts to get a photo. It finally held still long enough.

 

  BLOY usually lay 3 eggs, so the story has just begun. Thank goodness my co-monitor, Casey, will be going up next time. My aging legs could use a rest!

Johnny's Farm Projects

 Admittedly, I write mostly about my projects and my interests (birds and flowers) on this blog. Johnny works on farm projects that are harder to photograph and explain. For months he has been replacing our 40 year old decrepit fences with old used fencing. If that doesn't make sense, well, it's like this... Years ago we became acquainted with and friends with people who had a 500 acre spread not far from us where they kept endangered antelope and other creatures that zoos gave them to raise. They gave us permission to do our monthly winter raptor survey through their property and to come other times to visit the red pandas and giraffes and other fascinating animals. But eventually, they sold and moved their exotic antelope to Arizona, where the weather was better for those animals. Here is the post I wrote about the fencing we bought from them when they had it taken down after the animals were gone. https://lindafink.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-fence-project.html  The "new" fencing is 74 inches tall rather than the 39 or 48 inch that we normally used. However, 74 inch tall fencing requires 8, 9, 10 or 12 foot posts which we also got from them.

Other than the tall posts for gates described in the above, the wire has sat coiled behind the machine shed for years. Here are some of the fences Johnny has put up in the last few months with this very tall, used but quite usable, fencing. 

This is the south edge of the "C" field, where the goats have access. The area in front is our new winter road area since the former road farther south was too muddy this winter to navigate. So nice to have a high and dry route to the lower "pump pasture"

The west side of the "A" field, where the dog used to escape at will. No more!

 

The east/west fence of the South field from horse barn to Qi Gong wildflower meadow

 This is the north/west corner of the South Field with the Qi Gong meadow to the right (west).

All our animals now stay where they belong. No longer can Annie the dog get through the fences to forbidden fields, leaving "her" horse, Nightingale, screaming and running up and down the fence line hysterically. (Nightingale seems to think Annie is her foal.) And we will be able to cut hay this year without "help" from the goats since Johnny has gated all the fields and between the fields. 

Although we have more fences to replace, the critical ones are done, so Johnny started preparing for haying season. That means getting the equipment (all very used) ready. The mower is an ancient one we borrow from a neighbor. Every year it seems to have more broken parts. This year one of the round discs was totally mangled. I'll have to get Johnny to explain. I just take photos.

I did not get a photo of the contraption before the broken disc was replaced. But this photo shows what the mower looks like. The disc on the left is the replacement one.

 

 

 

Here is the rusty, mangled disc.

 

 

After talking to Johnny's various repair guru friends, it was determined that a cast iron fry pan, large size, would work

And here it is. I wouldn't let him use mine so a friend bought him a new one.

Here is the disc repaired with fry pan bolted on.

Having the mower repaired and the weather turned hot and dry, Johnny was itching to cut hay. Our lotus fields are not ready since lotus come up later than grass and grows slower. But the grass around the barn area and pond was tall and heading out, so Johnny cut it with the repaired mower... which worked just fine. 

When he came in for lunch he said he thought he should cut the orchard grass, too, as it wasn't going to get any better (or some such reason). I think he just loves to cut hay. I went upstairs to check the weather on the computer... and came downstairs laughing. "You aren't going to believe this..."

Here is what it said: 

...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 10 PM PDT THIS
EVENING...

* WHAT...Flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible.

* WHERE...Portions of northwest Oregon and southwest Washington,
roughly including the Coast Range Crest and points eastward.

* WHEN...From 3 PM this afternoon to 10 PM PDT this evening.

* IMPACTS...Excessive runoff may result in flooding of rivers,
creeks, streams, and other low-lying and flood-prone locations,
especially in urban areas. Debris flows are possible in areas of
the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire, the 2020 Wildfires, and the 2022 Cedar
Creek Fire.

* ADDITIONAL DETAILS...
- Slow moving thunderstorms and high atmospheric moisture have
produced conditions conducive for localized very heavy
rainfall. Amounts in excess of 1 inch per hour may occur with
the most stationary storms.
- http://www.weather.gov/safety/flood 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch at 2 p.m., nary a cloud was in sight. 

By 3 some thunderheads were visible to the north. Johnny paced...

Unusual Swallow

Addendum: Apparently, the good birders think this is just a Tree Swallow. It is the brightest blue Tree Swallow I've ever seen with a black and white face pattern I have not noticed before. Gorgeous bird. 

 

 This bird was flying and perched at the far end of our South field this morning when I was closing the horse and dog into that area. All I could see was an intense blue bird acting like a swallow but deep, bright blue. I went back to get my camera and walked, staying out of the bird's view, to where I could get a closer look. It looked like a tree swallow... except it was intense blue with no trace of green... and with a black mask. Is it a color morph of a tree swallow? 

It was all alone. Meanwhile, across the trees and creek in our fields behind the goat barn, scads of violet-green and tree swallows were swooping around as usual, gathering stuff for their gourd nests and eating flying insects. This bird spent most of its time perched on the tall fence around the South field, near the new nest gourds I have put up which the other swallows have ignored... probably because they went up after all the old gourds in the fields behind the barn were already chosen.

 

Spring Has Sprung

Three weeks of being out of commission has left me with a ton of chores to catch up on: trimming goat udders, trimming goat hooves, cleaning goat pens. Not to mention getting the garden readied. But I am working through them... except on Sunday. Sunday is my day of rest.

Today is Sunday. Johnny, friend Mary and I flung feathers for the tree and violet-green swallows. We do this every year and the swallows love it. They swoop down and try to grab a feather before it hits the ground or gets snatched by another swallow. Then they try to elude their pursuers who are trying to steal the prize and stuff the feather into their gourd. All the swallows have chosen their nest gourds by now. I am running out of white feathers so will have to ask friends and neighbors for replacements... and to come join the fun.

Afterwards, Mary and I hiked around the Qi Gong meadow, where I have planted wild flowers. Happily, many native checkermallows are up near where I planted new ones. And Mary found the pea vine that is native but scarce... just coming up. She also spotted a tiny tree frog resting in the sun on our orange quince bush in the yard... so tiny and cute. Can you find it?

 On another day, I took photos of birds and wild flowers during a rest break. 

This first one is a bird I had to look up... to my surprise it's a female Red-winged Blackbird.

 

Canada Goose on our section of Agency Creek

Oregon Bluebell almost open

Bleeding Hearts

Oregon Grape

American Robin

Golden-crowned Sparrows in an apple tree

Mourning Dove

A singing Bewick's Wren

 

Photos of  "our" swallows are in the previous post.

It is raining again this Sunday afternoon, but I don't mind. The mud has dried and the spring flowers can use the shower. 

Happy Spring!

 

Warm Weather!

 The rain has stopped! At least for now. Today was warm and sunny. The last several days have been dry, if not warm. But there is still plenty of snow we can see on the hills south of us. I even mowed the lawn... it was very high. The tulips are finally unfurling but I have yet to take flower photos. Instead I've been taking bird photos, now that I've regained some of the energy that disappeared while I was sick.

Every morning while milking and feeding goats, I watch and listen for birds outside the barn... well, sometimes inside now that the Barn Swallows are back. I keep lists in my little Rite in the Rain notebook, then transfer that data to e-bird under their "incidental" category... meaning I'm not just watching birds. I'm doing something else (milking goats) and just note whatever birds I happen to see/hear.

For the last two days, e-bird (a Cornell Ornithology site that birders across the nation use) has been insisting that the Fox Sparrow I list cannot be because it would be rare here at this time of year. In a normal year, the Fox Sparrows (we had three of them here all winter) would have left by now for their northern breeding territories. Two of them have. But one is still hanging out, eating the seed I throw in front of the barn every morning.

So yesterday afternoon, I went back out with my camera and took photos of the "rare" Fox Sparrow. And, while I was at it, any other bird that would hold still. We have 4 swallow species working on nests here. 

Our daily "Rare" Fox Sparrow:

 "Our" swallows:

 

Cliff Swallows working on mud nest

 

Barn Swallow

 

Tree Swallow

 

Violet-green Swallow

 And just in case e-bird decides all these Golden-crowned Sparrows we have should have moved north to nest by now, I took a photo of one of them... This one may have some White-crowned Sparrow in its genes since the back half of it's head stripe is white instead of gold.

 

 Here is a bonafide White-crowned Sparrow

 

 It was 80 here today, but I was at the cool beach doing my Beached Bird Survey for April. This Killdeer was perfectly happy to pose for as many photos as I wanted to take. I don't think I've ever seen a Killdeer on the beach before.

 

 Life is good again. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing. Happy Spring at last!

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Times on the Farm

 Into every life a little rain must fall. So said my mother. She also said "This, too, shall pass." Okay, I'm ready for the rain to pass, also the sadness and sickness. Friends have died. Goats have died. Johnny and I both got some nasty virus that had me down for 3 weeks. Johnny had to do the goat milking for much of that time. I am now functional again but not up to par. And the weather has been lousy.

So Easter passed with no giant eggs this year, the lawn llama was retired to the garden shed, and few photos were taken. Johnny, however, dyed eggs his traditional way and sent this email and photo to family:

"Made Easter eggs using MY Grandmother Fink's method.  Boiled them in pan with dry onion skins.  They get the prettiest brown color.  My grandpa would hide them outside around the yard just as we returned from the early morning church service.  Minutes after arriving Grandpa would rush into the room reporting he had just seen the Easter bunny outside.  We'd rush outside and find eggs hidden all over.  We believed him year after year about seeing the bunny because the eggs were still warm!   The fact that some were almost hot never fazed us.  True believers never question or doubt their Grandpa!"

...Grandpa Johnny

In good news on the farm, the first doe to kid had a lovely doeling. She also had a dead buckling. And so it has gone... But the doe kid is cute and healthy.

After several weeks of illness, I was able to drive the EZ Go down to the newly mowed (by Johnny) Qi Gong meadow, which I hope to turn into a wildflower meadow, and check on the trail camera I put up in the woods there a month earlier. I was hoping to see wild things since no domestics can get there (allegedly).

Well, there was one deer. The Black Angus calf had come through the fence from a neighbor, our dog and horse seem to be able to go anywhere, although we have tried and are trying to keep them contained.

A week or so later, the weather and my health were finally good enough for me to hike into the woods looking for birds and wildflowers... and finding both.

These Ruby-crowned Kinglets were feeding in the bushes across the creek (which is river-sized now from all the rain). I took photos as I could see them and then blew the photos way up to find the bird. Not the best photos, but I did get a little of the ruby crown on this first one!

That sunny afternoon was a gift. The next day we awoke to snow. Here is the view out the kitchen window.

And from the milkroom window in the barn...

But after snow flurries and light rain, the sky cleared and we had some sun again.

Here's to a sunnier, warmer, healthier spring from here on out.