Pre and Post Isolation - the Past 25 Days

On February 26, we met up with Bob and Mary from Salem for a hike and picnic at Beaver Creek State Park.  It was a fine sunny day as we hiked the trails along the creek and up the adjoining hillside.

 This Common Garter Snake, sub-species Red-spotted Garter Snake, was on the trail.  This is an uncommonly beautiful garter snake, I think!

 We saw a couple Bald Eagles and this Red-tailed Hawk.

 At the top of the hill are these striking dead trees.

Happy birthday, Mary! Bob and Mary are friends of mine going back to the seventies when we worked at Napa State Hospital.


On to some more recent random shots from around the area.

 We saw these bird tracks next to some bloody patches on the sand at the beach next to Yachats.  I think they are Bald Eagle, but could possibly be Great Blue Heron, also.

 I lied, this is an older shot from February 22.  Our front yard is coming to life, and now the swallows have returned, as well as bumblebees and Rufus Hummingbirds.

Yummy, thermoregulating in a new favorite spot.

For several weeks we have had several Bald Eagles hanging out around the property as they feed on a cow or elk carcass across the river.  This juvenile is probably about 3 years old.

The following pictures are from the past 8 days.  We have been taking precautions to isolate ourselves for the past 2 weeks.  We have had to go to the grocery store and to Yachats restaurants for take out food a couple times.  We are fortunate to have deserted beaches to go to, and our own resort setting at home - not a bad place to self-isolate.

 I put the hummingbird feeder up, and presto, we had hummers within minutes.

 A male Rufous Hummingbird.

 Flashing his red gorget.

 We have had Dark-eyed Juncos on our seed feeder.

 Yummy Delicous in the midst of one of her "crazies" on a post above the hot tub.

 Raucous Steller's Jays were the first birds to arrive at the seed feeders.  We discovered that they do an excellent mimic of a Bald Eagle call to scare away other birds.  We were both fooled by a jay for a few days until we saw it making the call.  These are smart corvids!

 I love those eyebrows!

We are so lucky to have expansive, unpopulated beaches during these times. Daisy gets to run free, and we have an ever changing environment to explore.

 Gail found this agate formed in a pocket of a basaltic rock.  This is where they form before eventually being freed when the surrounding rock breaks apart.

 This area of the coast is a marine reserve.

Break time!

Cougar!

When I checked our trail cams this morning, I saw that we had a cougar stroll by the house early last Wednesday morning.  It was caught on one of our two trail cams about 100 feet from the house by the bocce ball deck, at 1:32 A.M.  This was our first "sighting" since moving to Oregon.  Wow, what a feeling to have a cougar on your very own property!

...and More Rain

The wetness continues, but we are managing to dodge storms for windows of exercise and fun  It has rained 33 inches at the house since January 1st!  Here are some snapshots from the past couple weeks.

Our waterfall and river were really charging!

 We saw this sign-eating tree on a logging road up the hill from the house.

 Daisy has learned "up" and eagerly jumps up on logs and rocks hoping for a treat.

 On Super Bowl Sunday, we drove up to the trailhead for the Drift Creek Wilderness.  I realized I should have packed a chainsaw in the car due to all the downed and leaning trees along the gravel road getting there.  The start of the hike had some snow, but as the trail dropped down about 1,200 feet, it became more pleasant.  Gail leads the way with Daisy.

The wilderness is termed "ancient forest" and has a variety of trees in different stages.  A healthy forest seems to be a bedlam of dead and living trees of all sizes such as in the pictures below.

 We reached Drift Creek after a couple hours.  This is an important salmon stream.

Unfortunately, Oregon has its share of  irresponsible property owners.  This eyesore used to be on the edge of the road. Now it is almost blocking the road going up to the trailhead.

 Everyone likes to hang out in the kitchen!

 We have given up trying to teach Daisy to stay out of the kitchen.

Gail made a great discovery!  The Ona Restaurant in Yachats is having international buffet meals twice a month.  Thursday, it was Filipino night and it was great!  Gail is drinking a Filipino drink from a coconut.

This morning, we passed a herd of elk about a mile down the road.

Rain, Rain, and More Rain

What looked a month ago to be a drier than normal rainy season is not the case anymore. Since January 1, it has rained 22.6 inches according to our rain gauge. There are still 5 days left in the month with rain predicted for the next 7 days.  Our total rainfall since July 1 has been 50.3 inches.  The rainfall total from January 1, 2019 to January 1, 2020 was 79.2 inches, and was the second driest year in the past 10 years.

The past 2 weeks have been rainy, but mild, with temps ranging in the 40's and low 50's.  We have taken advantage of breaks in the weather to take Daisy to the beach and a few long hikes, and do some clearing of fallen trees and branches.

The following snapshots are of little "special" moments.

 Sea lions hauled out on the docks below the Clearwater Restaurant in Newport where we had lunch.

 A couple Northern Red-legged Frogs enjoying themselves in our fishpond.  There is not one fish left.  The Great Blue Heron ate them all.

 The town of Yachats on a rainless morning last Monday.

 We took full advantage and hiked the 7 mile roundtrip up to the lookout shelter on cape Perpetua.  That fishing boat in the middle of the picture was checking its crab pots despite the large swells on this day.  Where we're standing is over 800 feet above sea level.

 Looking a little further towards the north.

 On our property next to the river, Gail discovered this large fish head while taking Daisy for a stretch.  It appears to be a Coho Salmon.  A couple days before, we had seen a Bald Eagle eating something on the other side of the river.  We have heard and read about salmon and steelhead spawning on the river, but this is the first sign of one that we've seen.

Big Dog News!!!
I sent in a DNA sample from Daisy to see if we could determine what breeds she is.  The results came in, and to our surprise, she has no hound in her. She is 50% Doberman Pinscher, 12.5% American Bulldog, 12.5% Standard Bulldog, 12.5% Boxer, and 12.5% German Shepherd.  Her brindle color with a black saddle turns out to be very rare.  The animal shelter we got her from had listed her has a Doberman mix, but we didn't believe it.  Turns out she is!  She is such a gentle dog for having  rambunctious guard dog blood in her.

 This is the month that Yummy decided she doesn't have to hide from Daisy upstairs.  We weren't sure they would ever coexist in the same room.  Yummy has made it clear that if Daisy comes too close, she will tear Daisy's face off.  Daisy respects that.

 Daisy tearing the stuffing out of her llama, which we call a squirrel out of respect for our neighbor's llamas.

 We're developing a little log jam at First Beach which will be good fish habitat.  Even though we've had a lot of rain this month, the river hasn't risen too high and is running clear.  This is due to the rains being spread evenly, raining around an inch a day.  The log that crosses the river and has water flowing over it is the "bridge" that bobcats, raccoons, and even a bear use when the water level is a little lower.

 There are a lot of these birdnests in the salmon berries that can be seen in winter when the stems are bare.  This one is unique, though, with mushrooms growing out of it.

My StealthCam caught this bobcat at First Beach, close to the cabana.

Coming back a couple hours later.

Our Stormy Coast

Friday, we decided to brave the coast to observe the king tide and stormy conditions. The wind was gusting to a reported 50 m.p.h., and the rain was blasting us sideways. 

 The tide surging up the Yachats River.

 Looking back to the side where the above shot was taken.

 Strawberry Hill beach where we would be collecting agates on a calmer day.

 Neptune North which is part of our mile of coast we monitor for CoastWatch.

 This is the northern part of our CoastWatch mile, which is a little sketchy on a calm day at low tide. On a day like this, at high tide, you could easily be swept out to sea and be dead in minutes.

 Neptune South.

 At Bob Creek, a group of gulls were hunkered down on the cobblestones, pointed into the wind.  Yesterday, Gail drove by here and the parking lot was closed off.  The waves were bigger and the surge was coming up over this grassy area onto the lot.

Gulls riding it out.

This month we have had 11.5 inches of rain so far, and today is only the 12th.  It has been spaced out and raining just about an inch a day, so we haven't had flooding or super high river flows - yet. Snow is forecast for this coming Tuesday and Wednesday.

We watched this "well" at Neptune North surge and froth just like the much bigger Thor's Well a little further north.  You wouldn't want to fall into this!  We named it Hell's Well.  All the dramatic coastal features in Oregon seem to have the word "hell" or "devil" in their names.