A Summery Two Weeks

 The following is a bit of a mish mash of what's been happening around River Song and beyond the past couple weeks.

We've been enjoying sitting out on the decks after a day of physical activity.  Summer, ahhh!

On the 20th, we took a day trip to Eugene.   The first stop was the Cascades Raptor Center.

We toured the grounds seeing the many resident raptors that can't be released, mostly because they have imprinted on humans.  Behind the scenes are the avian hospital and enclosures designed to minimize the sight of and contact by humans while the birds receive care. This falcon flew to the perch this boy is holding.

Lethe, the Turkey Vulture, hatched in 2000.  He was released in a state park, but despite efforts to keep him from imprinting on humans where he was raised, he kept flying down to pull at park visitors' shoe laces and had to be brought back to captivity.

A Barn Owl with its handler.

This huge owl is an Eurasian Eagle-owl.

Next, we went to a gallery exhibit to see a show that included works by Russian born artist Olga Volchkova.  Her exhibit was titled Florae Animalia.  Each painting included plant that referenced an animal in its name, and that animal.  There were amazing details and clever elements that became apparent the more you looked.  Pictures and reprints did not do justice to the brilliant colors and three dimensional effects of her originals.

Foxglove, a fox, and its heart.  Foxglove is a source of digitalis, a heart medicine.

That might be Momma Bear Manzanita and a momma bear.  

Speaking of foxglove, it is blooming wild in our yard right now.

On the 18th, Marty and I were checking on and bringing in duck nesting boxes.  We crossed this meadow where a herd of elk were grazing.  They took off, and a few minutes later we saw them again at a marsh. They ran through the water sending up big sprays and making a quite a commotion.  It was a National Geographic moment.

Three out of the five boxes we checked had successful hatchings of Wood Duck eggs.

Speaking of ducks, we got another trail cam video of April with her three ducklings on the 16th.  The ducklings have really grown!

Marty has taught me how to determine how many eggs in a duck nest have hatched.  You dig through the nesting material and find all the large pieces of egg membrane, and count those to determine how many ducklings hatched.  There will be smaller pieces of membrane and little pieces of egg shell, also.

This is April's nest, and the 10 larger pieces of egg membrane in the upper left show that she had 10 eggs hatch.  Of the 10, apparently only 3 made it past the first month.  When they hatched, we had just had 3.6 inches of rain and the river was running fast and high which could have accounted for the mortality.  It's a tough life for animals in nature, always living on the edge.

Speaking of living on the edge, below are a couple pictures of a recently abandoned campsite about a mile and a half above us.  Those people were there for about three years, even though National Forest policy is you can only stay in one place for two weeks.  We notified the U.S.N.F.S.  about this over two years ago, and they were already aware of this site.  Because they did nothing, the camp grew and spread.  Vandals already shot out the windows.  I have read that it can cost the Forest Service up to $30,000 to remove just one old trailer or RV due to the asbestos in them.  This site has three RV's and a utility trailer, not to mention piles of junk and old tires.  It also looked like stolen luggage was lying around as there were suitcases, piles of cosmetics, and other stuff that seemed out of character.  No telling how long this will remain there.