Friends, Seabird Monitoring, and Oregon Country Fair

Friends

Wednesday, we met up with our friends Bob and Mary from Salem, and my long time friend Gabriel, who was visiting them. We had dinner at the Gathering Together Farm in Corvallis.  Gabriel is headed back to India at the end of the month.

Mary, Bob, Gail, and Gabriel

Birds

Thursday, we had our first Seabird Monitoring experience. We volunteered to be a part of the Cape Perpetua group that is monitoring four nest sites to see how they compare to nest sites that are in unprotected areas.  Birds being monitored are Brandt's Cormorants, Double-crested Cormorants, and Pelagic Cormorants. Counts are also being done on Pigeon Guillemots, and Rhinoceros Auklets.

We started off at Sea Lion Caves where we counted the Pigeon Guillemots, and Rhinoceros Auklets.  There was a Peregrine Falcon hunting birds inside the caves. We then went up above the caves and learned about how a colony of Brandt's Cormorants was being counted.  Then it was up the road a bit to count a colony of Pelagic Cormorants.

Our scientist/leader was Terra.

The Pelagic Cormorants are nesting on a sheer cliff above the water in that little cove.

This is the chart we used.  Each red circle identifies a particular numbered nest.  We count the number of eggs in the nest, or chicks and their relative sizes.  It takes awhile to determine this, as the birds need to move or stand in order to make a count.  Comparing the chart to the real cliff was also tricky.

There were about 8 of us.

Luckily, we didn't lose any items over the wall!

Gail, Terra, Pat, and I, did the last plot which was on the island offshore from Haceta Head Lighthouse.  This colony of Brandt's Cormorants went from, I think, 22 birds down to 2 after the heat wave we had a few weeks ago.

Oregon Country Fair

Friday, we went to the Oregon Country Fare in Veneta.  It was the 50th anniversary of the fare, and Friday's attendance was over 20,000!

 Near the entrance, a wild sculpture.

 We watched a fashion show where all the clothes were made from trash.  This person's outfit was made from cardboard chef  hats - the pictured chef on the hats had died.

 This fare outfit featured a garden hose among other items.

The models at the show's end.

One of several parades that wove their way through the venue. Unfortunately, the sound didn't come out as I must have been holding my fingers over the mike.

Very few people had their cell phones out - part of the counter culture vibe of the fare, so I didn't take many pictures due to feeling self-conscious about it.

 There were numerous stilt walkers.

 A performer swallowing three swords at once.  We were eager to hear and see Spoonman as part of the show, but he let us down. He was messed up on something and only played for about 30 seconds, using the rest of his time rambling, knocking over his mike, and reading poetry from a piece of paper.
Too bad, he has played with symphonies, Frank Zappa, and been a featured guest on late night TV shows.  Gail had enjoyed seeing him perform on the streets of Seattle in the mid 1990's.

Gail in her fare fashion.  She received numerous compliments on her boots.

The venue must be at least a half mile long, and is basically a figure-eight.  There were many musical performances on small stages or along the paths as well as acts on the main stage.  There were also vendors of excellent handmade crafts. The fare is designed to be family friendly with the basic rules of no alcohol, drugs, or glass, and no exposing of genitals.  The hippy life lives on in Oregon, especially the nearby Eugene area!