Loving April

April has been sunny and dry with only 0.6" of rain.  We even  had a red flag fire alert for a couple days due to east winds with low humidity.  The upside is that we have had great conditions for yard work, hiking, and no messing around with rain gear.  This is the month that some of our favorite seasonal visitors arrive, too, including Evening Grosbeaks, Purple Finches, Tree Swallows, Violet-green Swallows, Turkey Vultures, and Steelhead Trout.

One of the raucous Steller's Jays hanging around our feeders.

An Evening Grosbeak eats while a Purple Finch waits its turn.

A chipmunk and a female or immature male Evening Grosbeak eating sunflower seeds.

Evening Grosbeaks are very social and I love their loud morning chatter.  

A lot of activity here to enjoy, with Evening Grosbeaks and Red-winged Blackbirds.

This Northern Alligator Lizard probably finds plenty to eat in our greenhouse.

We have some Trillium plants around the property.  They take years to finally be big enough to bloom, their seeds are distributed by ants, and the plants can be killed by picking off leaves.  It is illegal to pick Trillium in many areas.

Last Saturday, we participated in a beach cleanup just south of Waldport.  Gail displays her haul.

Steve Cook, in the center, spearheaded the cleanup and got SOLVE to help out with materials and publicity.  Steve sings and plays guitar several nights a week at our favorite Yachats restaurant, the Drift Inn.  It was a pretty awesome turnout of volunteers.

The following four pics are from our favorite beach to the south, Ocean Beach.  This day had a very low tide that allowed us to venture further up the coast than we had ever been before.  This is bliss for Daisy, who gets to run free and flop in the tidepools.

Zen Moment

The river by our big Sitka Spruce tree.