Cougar Looking for Lunch (or Love?)

 This past Thursday, Gail and I were doing errands in Newport.  While we were gone, one of my two trail cameras recorded a cougar walking through the property at 12:01 PM.  At the same time, my other camera recorded two deer about 200 feet away.  Our own Serengeti?

This cougar appears to be a juvenile because of its seemingly small size.  Bears, otters, and a cougar - what a good month for wildlife sightings!

River Otter Family

 We certainly have been seeing otters this month.  Last week, we had a family of five come up the river just below the house.  They are so energetic and fun to watch.  The three youngsters were playing, and dog-piling each other and one of the parents.  We also saw them turning over rocks with their snouts and catching crayfish.  I did get photos even though the light was low.

I'm getting the hairy eyeball from this parent.

Two pups are mobbing a parent while another pup and parent explore the vegetation.

Three otters looking for crayfish or anything that moves.

Got one!

Otters in action!

Nick Visits

 On July 7, I picked up Nick at the Eugene airport for a 5 day stay with us.  It was great to see Nick, do fun stuff, and take a break from working around the house. 

The weather was about perfect for his whole stay.  We stopped at Haceta Head Lighthouse on the way to Yachats.

Nick here, looking for one of his unique angles on things.

The next day we hiked at Cape Perpetua and spotted several clusters of Indian Pipe.  This plant lacks chlorophyll so gets its nutrients by parasitizing certain fungi.

Where's Nick?

We learned that Nick is quite the pole vaulter!

We went to Strawberry Hill Beach on another day where Nick found this whale sculpture.

Gail spotted three river otters making their way along a cliff towards the ocean.  Nick was able to get some good video on his cell phone shooting through our binoculars.  On my phone, this is the best I could do.  The parent otter in the center of this picture had just found a large crab in no time at all and took it up the rocks where it shared it with the two youngsters.  We watched them for around 15 minutes or so.

Just hangin' around.

It turned out that there were a couple otters in our swimming hole back home.  Nick and I had a nice float in our tubes.  Later in the afternoon on Nick's last day, Lorie and Brian came down to see Nick and have a patio dinner with us.

Daisy instantly recognized Nick on his arrival, and welcomed him back to the pack.

We had a pleasant dinner at the Drift Inn.  (Notice that my hands continue to grow, unlike the rest of me.)

We miss you Nick!

Cards and Things

 Thank you Nick and Andria!  For Father's Day, Andria gave me a cool set of wooden "hummingbird houses", and Nick drew me a card, as well as a card for Gail for her birthday.  

Gail's birthday card.  This card, and the one below, Nick drew after being inspired by photos of cat owners in a book.

My Father's Day card.

Two of the three houses hanging in our little tulip tree.  It will be interesting to see what takes up residence in them.  Andria definitely keyed into my passion for making animal dwellings.  Thank you my awesome children!

La De Da Parade

 I have a backlog of  posting to do, but here goes.  

On July 4th, SWIFTY (swallows in flight to Yachats) had an entry in the annual Yachats La De Da Parade.  We drafted Lorie and Brian to join us on vintage bikes, and Jim enlisted several kids and adults to wave pole kites of swallows.  A friend of Jim's sewed up some feathered cloaks for a few people, too.

Here I am giving my bike a test ride sans costume.  I had Bluetooth speakers inside the box and a playlist of 4 bird themed songs.  Unfortunately, at the parade site, Bluetooth wouldn't work.  It worked perfectly when I got back home.  The rig was pretty shaky and hard to balance at parade speed.  The bike was bought new in 1953 by Aunt Freda and she rode it well into her 70's.  It is a Raleigh.

Jim carried the sign and did a great job of running from side to side and explaining to folks what SWIFTY was about.  Gail and Lorie are on bikes entering the parade route on the right.

Since Wally is such a big part of the Trails Committee, he couldn't be with SWIFTY.  That's Wally on the left.

Gail in all her glory!  She made the smaller signs, the swallows in the bike spokes, and polished up four of our vintage bikes while I was in Colorado.

That's me and the swallow box mobile.  Lorie is in blue wig.

Our swallow kites circling the sky.  At about this point I noticed a whale spouting close to shore.  I heard that there were several gray whales and orcas putting on a show.  It was a perfect day.

Three of our parade bikes which Gail decorated and polished up.  The yellow bike is one of a matched pair that my parents bought in 1974 (Schwinn Collegiates).

Selfie time!  Someone yelled "Rod Stewart" as I passed by.

Later in the day, we went to Brian's retirement party barbecue.  They recently left on a two month road trip around the country in their newly acquired RV.

Well, look for more posts soon, as I'm determined to catch up now that the yard is coming under control.  

Bear Returns

 On July 3, "the bear" came through again at 9:24 AM.  About an hour later we were walking Daisy down Yachats River Rd., and we heard a crashing sound in the brush and the breaking of branches.  We thought it was a bear, but hadn't seen the camera video yet.  It looks like the same bear that came through in June.

Birds In Our Houses

 The birds that nest in our boxes have finally set up housekeeping. It was a late start here due to the wet, cool, weather we've had this spring -  67.26" of rain since January 1.  

A Northern Flicker and Oregon Junco sharing some seeds at our feeder.

I put up 2 chickadee boxes this year, and one of them has a family of Chestnut-backed Chickadees.

Feeding a baby.

Carrying out a fecal sac to keep the nest clean and possibly remove predator attracting scent.

There is a pair of Tree Swallows in this box with nestlings.  

A pair of Violet-green Swallows is also tending nestlings in this hanging box.

And in this new box is another family of Tree Swallows.  Of 6 swallow boxes, 3 are occupied