Jaunt Up the Coast

Wednesday dawned sunny and calm, a great day to break away and explore the coast.  We hoped to see the murres at Yaquina Head. We saw them and a lot more!

 At the Yaquina Head Visitor Center parking lot we noticed a few people with long lenses aimed at a cliff. It turned out there is a pair of nesting Peregrine Falcons. This is the female. The male was on the nest, out of sight.

 After awhile, the female switched places with the male on the aerie. This is the male.

 It is estimated that there may be 80,000 Common Murres at the rookery at Yaquina Head. They are kind of the Northern Hemisphere's penguin.

 Two Pelagic Cormorants find a little space among the murres.

Murres are very awkward on land, as their bodies are made to be at sea most of the year.  Dives up to 590 feet deep have been recorded.

Our next stop was Cape Foulweather.  The water is 500 feet below.

 We were hoping to see Gray Whales, but immediately saw Orcas! The pod seemed to only be three individuals.  Judging by the dorsal fin of the one on the right, it appears to be a male.

A rare treat to see these!  We also saw Gray whales further out.

We headed north. A couple miles up the Siletz River is this victorian home built just for the 1971 film "Sometimes a Great Notion", based on Ken Kesey's novel.  We recently saw the movie starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, and we thought it was pretty bad - very Hollywood.

We finished our exploration with a hike to Drift Creek Falls east of Lincoln City.  That suspension bridge for hikers is 200 feet above the chasm. A highlight of the hike has hearing a loud owl calling not far from the trail.  After listening to various owl calls, we determined it to be a Barred Owl, which has a very distinctive call that sounds like, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?"

First Bear

We saw our first bear from the house this morning. Gail spotted it from the kitchen window. Unfortunately, my point and shoot camera would only focus on the closer tree branches before it ambled off.

Pictures From the Yard and Surrounding Area

Here are some pictures from the past couple weeks. We have been busy taking advantage of dry weather to do yard work, which leaves us rather useless by evening, hence the lack of posts and clever writing.

 Fungi - no surprise here!

 Taking a breather with Yummy down by the lower woodshed.  She follows us like a dog around the property, sometimes bursting into a full run where her back legs try to pass up her front legs - funny!

 Down the road is the little Carson Cemetery.  It is in a beautiful, natural setting.

 Stopping to feed the llamas some grass on a walk down the road.  From here, we cut up the mountain on a Forest Service Road for a little cardio.

 A Pacific Sideband Snail was on the road.  They use "love darts".

 I had my good camera all day as we hiked around the coast and then on a ridge trail. This was the only picture I took with it, and I still need to ID it.  Some kind of sparrow I believe.

 This American Dipper, also called a water ouzel, is almost always on or near this branch over our waterfall.

 New birds for us!  We now have a resident flock of Evening Grosbeaks that love our feeder, and make a racket up in the top of a nearby alder.

 Male Evening Grosbeak.

 We are also getting American Goldfinches on our thistle seed feeder.

 Last Saturday, we walked down to Devil's Churn from the parking area, about 20 minutes from our house.  The tide, however, was too low for good churn action.

 We had a fun tour of the Haceta Head Lighthouse, learning about the Fresnel lens, and all the efforts to restore the lighthouse over the past few years.

 Also, last Saturday, we hiked about seven miles on the Cummins Ridge Trail in the Siuslaw National Forest seeing no one the whole time. 

 The past week we had amazing weather, with the temperature hitting 84 on Tuesday.  Yummy is helping Gail here on a weeding project.  I was in mowing and weed whacking heaven!

 I got a pond book from the Waldport Library, and learned that these pretty plants are marsh marigolds.  The frogs love the sun, and perch on the rocks around our pond.

 Spring has sprung!  These two Northwestern Alligator Lizards were mating on the doorstep of Gail's art studio.  They actually go in and out of her studio, but she hasn't found where their entrance is yet.

 Outside her studio door is this striking ornamental fruit tree.

 We have a lot of rhododendrons around the place, and they're just starting to bloom.

Today, we took a rainy day hike up the road.  We saw a couple Northern Rough-skinned Newts. Breeding males, like this one, temporarily develop smooth skin and a compressed tail.

Last Night's StealthCam Video

For a number of days I've had nothing but a rabbit and unidentified rodent on our two cams.  Last night, our StealthCam was on our property about 100 yards from the house, and caught elk and a bobcat.

Bobcat

Elk

Elk

Around Our Place the Past Week

We have been experiencing volatile spring weather this week, with some very pleasant days, and then a doozy of a storm today and tonight.  We have also been prying ousrselves away for some more hiking and learning about the area.

 I always wanted a little pond that had frogs, and now I have one. I think we have three kinds, including this Oregon Spotted Frog (my best guess after consulting references).

 The frogs and fish seem to coexist just fine.

 Flowers in the garden.

 We have tulips!

 My bird sculpture will be rusting a little faster, now.

 Big bird looks on.

 We have Violet-green Swallows that circle the clearing to catch bugs. This house wouldn't be good for swallows, but it's getting checked out anyway.

 We also have Tree Swallows that mix with the Violet-green Swallows.

 Violet-green Swallow.

 Our resident American Bull Frog.  I hope it doesn't start eating our other frogs and fish.

 Northern Red Legged Frog.

 This Purple Finch has been a regular lately.

 A bunch of these baby Northern Garter Snakes emerged from a rocky area below our patio.

 Red Legged Frog legs. I nabbed it bare-handed!

 At the beach near Yachats, we came across hundreds of these gelatinous structures that looked like egg cases or maybe something like decomposing tentacles from something. Mysterious.

 We put up our joint Easter artwork.

 Two places down the road is a farm that raises llamas and peacocks.  Unfortunately, we heard from another neighbor that they also shoot the occasional mountain lion that is tempted by their exotic pets.

 Fence posts take on human characteristics around here.

 Neighbors we haven't met yet.

 Gail's art studio...

 or "girl cave".

 When I'm not puttering in the greenhouse, I work on my galactic tractor.

 Gail and her San Diego succulents that she smuggled across the border.

 This week I planted tomatoes, lettuce, chard, and carrots. I'm going to try growing the tomatoes up strings. I got the tomatoes from a little farm down the road that had a sign out front advertising starter plants. "Come to the house" it said, so we did. It turned out the woman used to live in Sonoma. We enjoyed meeting her, her rescued chicken, and peacock that had escaped the other place that raises them. The peacock was displaying his feathers for the chicken - rather funny!

 The outside beds await better weather.

 W have had a hellacious storm today and tonight, with winds gusting over 50 m.p.h. Our beautiful Big Leaf Maple lost one of it's large trunks.  We heard a roar approach the house for several seconds, and then a loud crack. Since this picture was taken a few hours ago, the water has risen about two feet.  The rain is coming in buckets! It feels like the opening pages of Sometimes a Great Notion.  By the way, Ken Kesey used to hang out in Yachats at The Drift Inn, an infamous bar that broke all the rules and had a large boxing ring in it.