April Eleventh Updates

 

Saturday, SWIFTY met with Jack Hurt, on the left, an avid birder who has a lot of experience establishing Purple Martin Colonies on the Oregon Coast.  A short distance from his home is the Ghost Forest, a long stretch of ancient spruce stumps emerging from the sand.  Jack showed us some of his colonies and kindly answered all our questions.  Yesterday, Jim and Wally installed the Purple  Martin apartment at Beaver Creek that State Parks bought for our project. 

It is believed that this spruce forest was overwhelmed by a tsunami, which buried the trunks in debris and sand caused by the resulting landslides and a drop in the land from the earthquake. This occurred about 2,000 years ago and the stumps were finally exposed in the winter of 1997-98 by a series of storms that washed out the sand that had buried and preserved them.  

The wildflower "bleeding hearts" are blooming all around the house, lately.

On a hike up above Keller Creek is an area of young alders, many of which are used by elk to rub the velvet off of their antlers.

That is a black bear we saw recently not far from the house on an old logging road that we had named "Bear Scratch Trail" due to a number of alders with bear claw gouges on the trunks.  Daisy went ballistic so we had to turn around.

My e-bike finally came!  I've been having fun riding to town and back and going far up the forest service roads.  This bike is a beast, very sure-footed and has plenty of power.  It has 5 levels of assist with level 5 providing the most motor power. So far, I have only used levels 1 and 2.

I also have an e-dog to pull me up the trails!

Trillium is the first wildflower to bloom here.

Much work was done on the Amanda Trail at Cape Perpetua.  A suspension bridge was constructed to replace a smaller bridge that had washed out from a landslide.  The grotto area, above, has a statue to honor Amanda De-Cuys, an old, blind Native American woman who represents members of a forced, horrific march up the coast to the reservation that was in Yachats.  Many donors, organizations, landowners, and agencies came together to make the renovations possible.  

   Gail and Daisy crossing the 142 foot long bouncy bridge.  Daisy was not too comfortable with the sensation!  We did the 3.7 mile climb to the top of Cape Perpetua on this day.

Gail found a couple more large agates at Ocean Beach.  

We've had a couple Pileated Woodpeckers liking our dead alders, lately.  They are North America's largest woodpecker.

The Tree Swallows, and a few Violet Green Swallows, have been showing up in small flocks off and on.  They haven't settled in yet, but should start claiming our nest boxes soon.  They are checking out the boxes and discussing floor plans and such.

Our little fish pond is frog heaven.  Here are 4 bullfrogs paying their respects to Mr. Ceramic frog.

I had seen a few large steelhead trout about 3 weeks ago, and was sitting at my "sitting spot" waiting for a photo op, when this mammal came swimming rapidly by.  I think it's an otter, but I'm not totally sure.  It went by so fast, and surfaced just for and instant.  I thought it was a salmon until I looked at the camera.

From our living room we have seen elk several times, recently.  They are in the pasture on the other side of the river.  Elk in the rain.

We have a male Ruffed Grouse below the house that has been doing his chest thumping daily.  Here he is running like a little chicken.  We have also had a Sharp-shinned Hawk that has been swooping in on birds around the feeder.