SWIFTY Beaver Creek Project

 Wally and I made good progress on getting the nest boxes for Tree Swallows and Violet-green Swallows finished and installed at the Beaver Creek Natural Area.  Jim is still out of state, but helping to coordinate the project with State Parks.

Wally with one of  the 17 swallow boxes we put in.  Swallows immediately started landing on them and inspecting them - yeah!  Notice the 2 smaller holes on each side of the entry hole. These are for the babies to stick their mouths out for food, as usually one baby will stay  in the entry hole and hog all the food.  Now the others will have a better chance of getting enough.

There is a swallow perched on top of the pole and others flying around like bats.  A pair of Tree Swallows will eat about 300,000 flying insects during their 45 day nesting period, and about 40% of those will be flies. They deserve handcrafted cedar homes for that!

A pan of the area next to the Beaver Creek Welcome Center where we have replaced old boxes and installed new ones, as well as adding more.  We also put up a chickadee box near a feeder that had many Chestnut-backed Chickadees going to it.

Our next step is to install predator guards on all the poles to keep out raccoons, squirrels, and cats.  Also, we have a great tip on a location for another screech owl box.  Lastly, we still plan to put up an apartment complex for Purple Martins and hopefully start a colony.  

Marchin' Along

By the end of February, we finally started getting some pre-spring color in the yard.

Crocuses

Hellebore

Daffodils

Daisy posing on one of our favorite stumps at Cape Perpetua.

We had a cold snap for a few days that dropped temperatures into the low 20's by dawn.  This is at our swimming hole - not too inviting right now.

Gail went to a high tea at a Victorian mansion in Eugene.  The theme was "Steampunk".  She sat with two friendly ladies whose hobby is to travel to high teas throughout the west.  

Trippy patterns in the sand.

I've been left in charge of  SWIFTY duties the past couple weeks as Wally and Jim are out of state.  Yesterday, I worked with Jordan of Oregon State Parks to install 10 nest box posts at Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  The posts that State Parks obtained were thick steel waterpipe, and were 10.5 feet long, which meant we had to drive them 3.5 feet deep.  It took 20-30 minutes for each post.  We did 7 and will do the other 3 tomorrow.  State Parks is providing us with all the materials and Jordan's help.

By the time we were done, we had bonded over beating our brains out  with that driver.  It was a beautiful day with many swallows circling around and a Northern Harrier cruising over the adjacent marsh.  Today, we have strong winds and pouring rain.  Such is the Oregon coast.

 

Susanna Rocks the Drums

Andria passed along this short video of Susanna, who doesn't miss a beat, literally and figuratively. She's hot on the heels of her mother and brother!

Nest Box Project, Bobcat Video, and Mary's Peak

 With no rain over the past eight days (until today), we were able to enjoy more outdoor activities, and get two roof leaks repaired (a big leak in Gail's studio, and a sky light leak in the house).

SWIFTY

Earlier this month Jim and I met with the head district Oregon States Park manager, Brian Fowler, and park ranger Jordan, to discuss the renovation on the existing bird nest boxes at Beaver Creek State Natural Area, as well as make plans for the addition of more nest boxes.  The nest boxes are for species that are in decline.  Both rangers were enthusiastic and committed to funding all our requests.  Building cedar homes is not cheap with today's high lumber prices!  Wally couldn't make this meeting as he gashed his leg on a greenhouse fan the day before.

We began some of our work this past Wednesday by installing a screech owl box, a chickadee box, and a trial run of one of the many tree swallow  / violet-green swallow boxes that we'll install in the coming weeks.  We also further fine tuned our plans.

Jim holds the ladder for Wally as he hoists the Screech owl box up as high as he can.

Screech owl box in place.

Yippee!

We installed one of our swallow boxes near the Welcome Center.

We will be installing around 15 swallow boxes, a couple chickadee boxes (one with a camera for visitors to observe), and will try to establish a purple martin colony that will have a condominium of 12 gourds.  Since it is hard to establish a new colony, we will use aids such as decoys and audio tracks of their sounds.  

On the drive back to Yachats, we stopped to admire this sand art on the beach at Seal Rock.  Jim knew the artist and says she can make perfect circles without the aid of any instruments.  She just walks and drags her rake behind.

Bobcat

This bobcat was prowling around at 9:30 AM as well as at night.  This morning while I was shaving, I saw probably the same one cruise by the bathroom window at 10:00 AM.  We'll have to keep the cats inside unless we are out with them.

Mary's Peak

We made a return trip to Mary's Peak on Friday.  This is the highest peak in Oregon's coastal range and usually would be hard to access this time of the year due to unmaintained roads, deep snow, and downed trees.  With the weather quite dry (for Oregon) the past couple months we decided to give it a go as the forecast looked great.

We parked at the 2,700 foot level and did the 8 mile round trip hike up to the peak at 4,101 feet.

The north side near the top had some good snow, which Daisy loves.

On the top you could see Cascade peaks all the way to Mt. Rainier in Washington!  Looking west through binoculars, I could see surf breaking near Waldport.

That's Mt. Hood in the distance.

Daisy loves to roll and scoot in the snow.  She was even eating it.

January Noodlin'

 

I recently made a new trail cam set-up using a metal fence stake, and half a plant container as a rain shroud.  I lost one camera this winter to moisture intrusion, and this camera was fogging up from the same thing.  So far so good - bring on the animals!

My nephew Aaron was visiting his mom Lorie and Brian. They came for dinner and then we met them at the beach the following day. 

Aaron is working as a veterinary technician in Minneapolis.  He seems to love the job!

The owl I made flew to a new perch a few months ago.

My two SWIFTY cronies and I made some screech owl boxes recently.  I put one up at our place with Gail's help.

The nest box was actually new pine, but I covered it in a layer of old wood after we learned that screech owls favor the rustic look.  Screech owls are in decline in the Northwest, partly due to barred owls moving in. 

Some of the best days at the ocean are in winter.

Hoping for the "green flash".

Our noble companion.

We did Gail's Coast Watch survey on this day.  Her stretch of coast is about one mile of Cape Perpetua.

Sea foam!

The Three Amigos at Yachats bay.

We celebrated the end of Mad Men.  Now we're back into Ozark.

This morning, two bald eagles were landing in the trees outside our window by the river.  They were interested in something down below and several times flew down to the river just out of sight behind the foliage.  We feared they had killed one of the four mergansers that we've seen over the last few weeks.  Later, we went down to see what they were after. It turned out to be a plastic bag that was stuck in the sticks, and looked much like a dead salmon.

I took the pictures from inside the living room through the windows, which didn't help their clarity.

We've had Canada Jays coming to our feeder for the first time.  Until recently they were known as gray jays.  Until next time - Cheers!

Wild Weather

 

This is a trail cam shot from the day I arrived home from Colorado, December 29.

New Years Day was an anomaly.  It was sunny and pleasantly warm. 

This is one of the most crowded days we have ever seen on "our beach" with about 10 cars in the parking lot.

We stayed almost til sunset to take advantage of the minus tide.

I believe this is a Coho salmon that was on our river bank.  It is pretty tricky to differentiate the different salmon and steelhead.  You have to look at the color of their gums, the number of rays in the anal fin, spotting, and shape.  We put it back in the river to keep it away from Daisy.

We had heavy wind and rains (4") the night of January 2-3, which brought down old alders, Douglas fir limbs, and loads of smaller branches.  It also ripped off our front yard canopy.

We will be busy!  

My rain total for 2021 was 117.56", the most rainfall of the last 3 years.  What is daunting, though, is that there was hardly any rain from mid-March until mid-September. Usually there is some rain through the summer months, and gentler rains in the winter.  Global warming?

We had some inconvenience the past 2 days as our well/water system mysteriously went dead.  We had an expert working on it the past 2 days and it came back to life this evening.  Byron was working on it until 9:30 last night, in the rain and dark.  Today, he finished at about 5:00 and was headed up to Lincoln City to replace a well pump at the bottom of a 200 ft. well.  He sometimes works til midnight.  He said he'd return tomorrow and teach me how to service our acid neutralizer/ filter, and haul out a huge steel tank that is a detriment to our system.  What a worker!

Well, I think I'm caught up with all the news that's fit to print. Happy New Year!

Snowfall At River Song

 In the almost 4 years we have lived here, the snowiest week by far was the week I was gone to Colorado. Luckily, Gail took some pictures and videos of the spectacle.  Daisy really seemed to enjoy rolling and running through the thick of it!

Christmas In Colorado

 I flew to Colorado for a week to celebrate the holidays with my two kids, Nick and Andria, and my grandchildren Nora, Soren, and Susanna, and Elaine.  It was the first time I have been on a plane in 2 years!  

Patty, the "good" cat, proudly displaying her holiday spirit.  Smokey, the naughty cat, was stealing food, opening Christmas gifts containing pet treats or food, and generally being a hooligan teenager.

Elaine made the annual Sicilian dinner which was highly anticipated and appreciated.

Another table view.  Dave, at the end of the table, recently returned home from his deployment to Bahrain.  He will be working right at home in Colorado Springs for at least the next 3 years. Yeah!

For the Christmas Eve talent show The Very Specials played the ska tune  A Message to Rudy by The Specials.  Andria and Nora played trombones, Soren played the drums, and I did the 15 second intro on the harmonica.

I also showed a 23 minute video of select trail cam videos and night photography photos.

Elaine and Nick performed Kenny Roger's "The Gambler", at times accompanied by Soren, Dave, and Susanna.

Nick and Andria prepping breakfast.

Nick made his world class popovers, which vanished before I got a second one.

Nora and Susanna posing with new tie wrap and hat, gifts from Gail.

Soren made me this wonderful tool box in his metal shop class.  It required welding and riveting.

Inside is a tray that lifts out.

On the 27th, Dave, Nick, Nora, and I did a 5.5 mile hike in the Front Range hills.  The temp was in the 20's and there was a strong wind.

Group shot!

I made Susanna a birdhouse kit.  Here she is woodburning a cat on the front board.

She screwed the whole thing together while I helped her hold the pieces together.

Soren is getting quite good on the drums.  Here he and Nick perform Journey's "Lights".

Zoom session with Sarah

One of the highlights of the week was a Zoom session with Aunt Sarah (my sister) in Alaska.  She had us spellbound with stories of her little NICU patients.  An hour and a half flew by before we knew it.

Meanwhile, back at River Song, Gail was experiencing a white Christmas, with a week of snow flurries.  I was sorry to have missed that as the pictures looked so beautiful.  There was still quite a bit of snow left around the property when I returned on the 29th.  Pictures to come!