SWIFTY Beaver Creek Project

 Wally and I made good progress on getting the nest boxes for Tree Swallows and Violet-green Swallows finished and installed at the Beaver Creek Natural Area.  Jim is still out of state, but helping to coordinate the project with State Parks.

Wally with one of  the 17 swallow boxes we put in.  Swallows immediately started landing on them and inspecting them - yeah!  Notice the 2 smaller holes on each side of the entry hole. These are for the babies to stick their mouths out for food, as usually one baby will stay  in the entry hole and hog all the food.  Now the others will have a better chance of getting enough.

There is a swallow perched on top of the pole and others flying around like bats.  A pair of Tree Swallows will eat about 300,000 flying insects during their 45 day nesting period, and about 40% of those will be flies. They deserve handcrafted cedar homes for that!

A pan of the area next to the Beaver Creek Welcome Center where we have replaced old boxes and installed new ones, as well as adding more.  We also put up a chickadee box near a feeder that had many Chestnut-backed Chickadees going to it.

Our next step is to install predator guards on all the poles to keep out raccoons, squirrels, and cats.  Also, we have a great tip on a location for another screech owl box.  Lastly, we still plan to put up an apartment complex for Purple Martins and hopefully start a colony.  

Marchin' Along

By the end of February, we finally started getting some pre-spring color in the yard.

Crocuses

Hellebore

Daffodils

Daisy posing on one of our favorite stumps at Cape Perpetua.

We had a cold snap for a few days that dropped temperatures into the low 20's by dawn.  This is at our swimming hole - not too inviting right now.

Gail went to a high tea at a Victorian mansion in Eugene.  The theme was "Steampunk".  She sat with two friendly ladies whose hobby is to travel to high teas throughout the west.  

Trippy patterns in the sand.

I've been left in charge of  SWIFTY duties the past couple weeks as Wally and Jim are out of state.  Yesterday, I worked with Jordan of Oregon State Parks to install 10 nest box posts at Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  The posts that State Parks obtained were thick steel waterpipe, and were 10.5 feet long, which meant we had to drive them 3.5 feet deep.  It took 20-30 minutes for each post.  We did 7 and will do the other 3 tomorrow.  State Parks is providing us with all the materials and Jordan's help.

By the time we were done, we had bonded over beating our brains out  with that driver.  It was a beautiful day with many swallows circling around and a Northern Harrier cruising over the adjacent marsh.  Today, we have strong winds and pouring rain.  Such is the Oregon coast.

 

Susanna Rocks the Drums

Andria passed along this short video of Susanna, who doesn't miss a beat, literally and figuratively. She's hot on the heels of her mother and brother!