April Returns!

 Friday, we saw the first egg in our duck box.  This morning, we saw "April" in the box laying another egg (most likely).  She covered them up before leaving the box, so we aren't positive of the count.  I guess I should call her "April 3" since I can't be sure she is the same duck we've had over the last 3 years.

One visible egg first seen on Friday.  I have a videocamera mounted inside the roof of the box attached to a cable that runs up the bank from the river to a little TV inside the house.  Picture quality is usually pretty bad as lights or flash can't be used inside the box.  Like a trail cam, it uses infrared light when it's dark, resulting in a black and white image.  If enough light is coming in the box entry hole, the camera switches to color.

April laying an egg this morning.  She is a Hooded Merganser.

Duck Box Install At Oxbow

 Yesterday, Gail, Paul, and I put in two duck boxes at The Oxbow on the north side of Alsea Bay just outside of Waldport.  This is on land managed by the Lincoln County Watershed District. I made the boxes and predator guards.  Paul is a master cabinetmaker as a hobby, and is making a couple more duck boxes from scraps of of cedar he has glued together.  

The first box we put on an old levee.

The second box we put in on the "shore".  Paul and Gail were a big help in getting these in.  We had to carry everything about a quarter of a mile.  I managed to find a deep spot and plunged into the water up to my butt.  It was a fun outing, and we are hopeful that some Wood Ducks will take to nesting in these boxes.  

Moose In Sarah's Yard

Sarah, my sister in Anchorage, sent us pictures this morning of a young moose nibbling her landscaping in her backyard.  She kindly lets moose do their thing while she observes these magnificent animals from her kitchen.

Along the River

 

Weather Report

 February Rainfall

The numbers are in for February.  February had 16.33" of precip.  The total for 2024 through the end of February was 49.63".  That's a lot of water over two months!

You can see how few days we've had without rain.  This is fewer than usual.  Temperatures were also milder than usual.

March Comes In Like A Lion

The milder temperatures ended on March 1st.  We've had snow the past 3 days mixed in with some hail, sleet, and rain.  Temperatures have stayed around 30 to 36 degrees. 

The morning of March 1st we had huge snowflakes.

This morning we hiked up the 5300 where it was still snowing.  The snow was not knee deep, Gail just happens to be on her knees.

Skunk Cabbage is now blooming.  Hopefully, this is a sign that March will go out like a lamb.

SWIFTY Update

Last Thursday, Jim, Marty, and I met Evan Hayduk at this property which is part of a watershed conservancy.  Evan is in charge of watershed conservation for Lincoln County, and invited us to this beautiful spot to see if we could put up some duck boxes.  Beavers have worked on an old levee to create this large pond.  We are excited that this will be a great Wood Duck area and plan to have two boxes there by the end of the month.

I just finished making these 15 Tree Swallow boxes.  It was a good little project to have during this cold weather.

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.