Working With Lincoln County Parks

 Last Tuesday, Wally, Jim, Kurt, and I worked with Lincoln County Parks Operations Supervisor Kelly Perry and her volunteers to build Tree Swallow nest boxes.  The idea was to show the volunteers how we build them and get them started making 50 boxes to be placed in Lincoln County Parks.  We worked at Moonshine Park up near Logsden.  The event was a success, and their volunteers went on to finish the 50 boxes that afternoon.  Wally had worked out the details with Kelly and had installed a number of trial boxes last year with her.  Those boxes all had double clutches of eggs.  Kelly, also a birder, was eager to get more boxes to attract Tree and Violet-green swallows to reduce the large number of mosquitos in some of the parks.

 Kelly explaining the day's goals.

All the participants, (except Kelly who took the picture).

I brought my saw and did most of the cutting of pieces for the 50 boxes.

Boring the entry and feeding holes.

Wally explains some details.

Purple Martin Box Building Day

 Yesterday, Wally and I went up to Newport to volunteer our help making Purple Martin Nest Boxes.  Oregon's foremost Purple Martin expert, Eric Horvath, decided to build about 50 new boxes to add to ones that he installed many years ago.  Eric is a recently retired US Forest Service biologist.  Over a 2 year period back in 1998, he counted 768 nesting pairs of Purple Martins in the whole state.  Because there are fewer snags with woodpecker holes, and the taking over of cavity nest sites by Starlings and House Sparrows, Purple Martins mostly nest in man made boxes that have entry holes too small for Starlings, but big enough for the Purple Martins to squeeze in.  

SWIFTY members Cathy, Kurt, and Wally in Eric's "workshop".  Luckily, it didn't rain.

Eric scavenged all the materials, and we nailed everything together with stainless steel nails.  For us who painstakingly measure twice, predrill screw holes, and use fresh cedar, this was a little troubling at first.  Eric's mantra, however, is "it's only a birdhouse".  Eric is also a long distance bicycle racer/rider.

Dunes Cleanup

 Last Thursday, Gail and I participated in a dunes cleanup south of Florence.  Similar to last year, this was another dune area occupied by threatened Snowy Plovers.  The Pacific Coast population has declined so much that these little shorebirds have to have human intervention to survive.  Their numbers are starting to come back, from an Oregon total of 76 in 2003, to 483 in the most recent count.  Snowy Plovers need open dunes without thick European beach grass in order to have successful nests.  Large areas of dunes in Oregon are in the process of having the beach grass removed using heavy equipment, burning, and spraying to remove this grass with very deep roots.  The nests are just small scrapes in sand or gravel which makes them vulnerable to ravens, gulls, dogs, hawks, human traffic, etc.  The main nesting areas are marked, and off limits to people and dogs.  The marine debris cleanup was organized by Jesse Jones, program manager of Coast Watch, which is part of Oregon Shores.  Much of the debris we collected is going to make art for WashedAshore in Bandon under direction of Elizabeth Roberts, who was with us.

After being driven several miles down the beach from Waxmyrtle Campground, we scoured a dunes area near the outlet of Tahkenitch Creek.  We saw Snowy Plovers, Sanderlings, and Bald Eagles  along the way.

It was rainy and windy the whole time.  Here we are breaking for lunch.  Gail is hunkered down in blue raincoat next to the truck.

Some of our haul, bagged and tied.

A glass float that could be from Japan that our State Parks biology technician/driver found.  These are very rare these days as plastic has replaced glass.

Driving down the beach.

We stopped to pick up what we thought was a large styrofoam float.  It turned out to be wood of some sort.  Mysterious!

We feared stooping to pick up mostly small bits of plastic in the rain for several hours was going to be miserable.  However, it turned out to be a fun way to spend a birthday and made coming home, being greeted by Daisy, lighting a fire, and munching goodies extra fun.

Hanging Out With Nick

 After Andria departed Napa on Sunday, I had a day to hang out with Nick before flying home on Tuesday.  Monday, we spent most of the day hiking in Skyline Park.  I have hiked there since the 70's, having many enjoyable times in nature there with Andria and Nick.  I was eager to experience it once again.  

I nearly lost Nick to a very serpentine California Buckeye tree.  It was great to be in oak woodlands for a change of pace.

Nick's house is in a small pocket of county surrounded by city suburbs.  It is a refuge for deer and other animals.  Sometimes he has up to 12 deer at once!

This opossum waddled by at 4:00 in the afternoon.

Nick exercises his monitor lizard, Kronos.

Andria's Author Presentation

 I flew down to Napa on the 9th to hear Andria speak about her new novel.  The presentation was at Napa Valley College. There were over 200 people in attendance.  The event was a fundraiser to provide scholarships for girls and young women.

It was a thrill to hear Andria speak about her new novel, "The Waiting World", and read from it.  

Andria and the other 3 authors signed books during intermission and at the end of the program.  That's Eddie, Nick's housemate and longtime friend.  He is an aspiring writer and middle school special needs teacher.

Eddie, Andria, Elaine, Nick, Paul, and me.  Paul was a fellow teacher's aide way back in the 70's at the Napa State Hospital Adolescent Treatment Program.  He went on to become a child psychiatrist after completing medical school at Yale.  He has remained a supportive friend to Andria her whole life.

Me, Eddie's mother, Mark (Elaine's partner), Elaine, Nick, Eddie, and Lauren (Nick's girlfriend).  Lauren has created an amazing business, "Wooden Spoon Herbs", and recently added Whole Foods as one of her sellers.  It was a pleasure to meet her!

Lauren made this delicious lemon curd pie.

Rainfall for January

 This January had the most rain in a single month since I've been recording over the past 5 years.  December and January added together equalled 62.55" of rain! That is an average of 1.01" per day over the past two months.  Below is my data sheet showing January's daily rain amounts.