Recent Photos

 Below are some photos from the past two weeks.

Red-spotted Garter Snake

Northern Red-legged Frog

While tidepooling on a minus tide, I saw this nudibranch.  I don't know the species of this one (or any for that matter).  Okay, iNaturalist helped me determine this is a Sea Lemon.  Although this one is about 1.5 inches in length, they can get about 7 inches long.

Sea stars have made a remarkable recovery after having been decimated by sea star wasting disease.  Here, they are feeding on mussels.

 A family of Common Mergansers have been around, lately.  They are sure speedy underwater when chasing fish!

August 2nd, SWIFTY did a trip up to North Lincoln County to monitor Purple Martin nest boxes in several locations, and scope out possibilities for adding more boxes.  This is an area on the Siletz River where there are numerous Purple Martin boxes attached to old pilings.  I believe they were made and attached by Eric Horvath about 30 years ago.  He was a good friend of my brother Steve.  We plan to assist Eric build more boxes this winter, as many are falling apart.

Four of these five boxes had active Purple Martin nests, even the one missing its front.  

Paul, Jim, and Wally here.  We stopped at Devil's Lake to check out this potential spot.

This is a picture Jim took of Purple Martins in Florence.  The adult is flying in with an insect to feed one of the nestlings.

Unusual looking thistles we saw in the North County.  Update:  with the help of iNturalist, I learned this plant is wild teasel which is native to Europe, Asia, and North Africa.  The dried seed heads were used in the textile industry to raise (tease) the nap of fabrics.

We made a butterfly garden this year, planting butterfly bush, penstemon, Russian sage, sedum, Jerusalem sage, and devil's tobacco.  The poppies volunteered.  Weirdly,  we have had almost zero butterflies this year.  Last year, we had scads of swallowtail butterflies and had to constantly rescue them out of the greenhouse.  The native bees have been loving the garden, though.

Butterfly garden

I went overboard on squash this year, and can barely walk through the vegetable garden.  I like squash because it thrives and the deer don't eat it ( well, maybe a little nip here and there).

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What's This Owl Up To?

 Two nights ago my trail cam pointed at the river caught this owl, probably a Barred Owl.  I'm not sure if it was trying to catch something, bathing, or getting a drink. What do you think?

Below are some frame shots from the above video.