Nest Box Project, Bobcat Video, and Mary's Peak

 With no rain over the past eight days (until today), we were able to enjoy more outdoor activities, and get two roof leaks repaired (a big leak in Gail's studio, and a sky light leak in the house).

SWIFTY

Earlier this month Jim and I met with the head district Oregon States Park manager, Brian Fowler, and park ranger Jordan, to discuss the renovation on the existing bird nest boxes at Beaver Creek State Natural Area, as well as make plans for the addition of more nest boxes.  The nest boxes are for species that are in decline.  Both rangers were enthusiastic and committed to funding all our requests.  Building cedar homes is not cheap with today's high lumber prices!  Wally couldn't make this meeting as he gashed his leg on a greenhouse fan the day before.

We began some of our work this past Wednesday by installing a screech owl box, a chickadee box, and a trial run of one of the many tree swallow  / violet-green swallow boxes that we'll install in the coming weeks.  We also further fine tuned our plans.

Jim holds the ladder for Wally as he hoists the Screech owl box up as high as he can.

Screech owl box in place.

Yippee!

We installed one of our swallow boxes near the Welcome Center.

We will be installing around 15 swallow boxes, a couple chickadee boxes (one with a camera for visitors to observe), and will try to establish a purple martin colony that will have a condominium of 12 gourds.  Since it is hard to establish a new colony, we will use aids such as decoys and audio tracks of their sounds.  

On the drive back to Yachats, we stopped to admire this sand art on the beach at Seal Rock.  Jim knew the artist and says she can make perfect circles without the aid of any instruments.  She just walks and drags her rake behind.

Bobcat

This bobcat was prowling around at 9:30 AM as well as at night.  This morning while I was shaving, I saw probably the same one cruise by the bathroom window at 10:00 AM.  We'll have to keep the cats inside unless we are out with them.

Mary's Peak

We made a return trip to Mary's Peak on Friday.  This is the highest peak in Oregon's coastal range and usually would be hard to access this time of the year due to unmaintained roads, deep snow, and downed trees.  With the weather quite dry (for Oregon) the past couple months we decided to give it a go as the forecast looked great.

We parked at the 2,700 foot level and did the 8 mile round trip hike up to the peak at 4,101 feet.

The north side near the top had some good snow, which Daisy loves.

On the top you could see Cascade peaks all the way to Mt. Rainier in Washington!  Looking west through binoculars, I could see surf breaking near Waldport.

That's Mt. Hood in the distance.

Daisy loves to roll and scoot in the snow.  She was even eating it.

January Noodlin'

 

I recently made a new trail cam set-up using a metal fence stake, and half a plant container as a rain shroud.  I lost one camera this winter to moisture intrusion, and this camera was fogging up from the same thing.  So far so good - bring on the animals!

My nephew Aaron was visiting his mom Lorie and Brian. They came for dinner and then we met them at the beach the following day. 

Aaron is working as a veterinary technician in Minneapolis.  He seems to love the job!

The owl I made flew to a new perch a few months ago.

My two SWIFTY cronies and I made some screech owl boxes recently.  I put one up at our place with Gail's help.

The nest box was actually new pine, but I covered it in a layer of old wood after we learned that screech owls favor the rustic look.  Screech owls are in decline in the Northwest, partly due to barred owls moving in. 

Some of the best days at the ocean are in winter.

Hoping for the "green flash".

Our noble companion.

We did Gail's Coast Watch survey on this day.  Her stretch of coast is about one mile of Cape Perpetua.

Sea foam!

The Three Amigos at Yachats bay.

We celebrated the end of Mad Men.  Now we're back into Ozark.

This morning, two bald eagles were landing in the trees outside our window by the river.  They were interested in something down below and several times flew down to the river just out of sight behind the foliage.  We feared they had killed one of the four mergansers that we've seen over the last few weeks.  Later, we went down to see what they were after. It turned out to be a plastic bag that was stuck in the sticks, and looked much like a dead salmon.

I took the pictures from inside the living room through the windows, which didn't help their clarity.

We've had Canada Jays coming to our feeder for the first time.  Until recently they were known as gray jays.  Until next time - Cheers!