A beautiful sight!

 Today was one of those rare weather days on the Oregon coast, snow! I woke up around 4 this morning and noticed it was unusually bright out! I looked out the window and the ground was covered in crystalin white flakes. It has continued snowing on and off all day never getting over a inch of accumulation.

This is actually the second time, in my 69 years, that I have been fortunate enough to see this winter phenomenon. The last time was in January 2017 while volunteering a few miles from here on the Siltcoos river. That day there was an accumulation of 5 inches right down to the water line at the beach. 

Fortunately this phenomena is only going on today and even though very cold weather is predicted for several more days, there is no more snow in the forecast. I hope everyone that has to be out on the road stays safe.

Signs of Spring?

One of the things I enjoy about bird watching is it also allows me to be outdoors and in touch with nature and the changing seasons. As a young man, I spent 20 years as a logger and became very sensitive to those changes. Over the years, due to working indoors, I have lost a lot of that awareness. Birding has allowed me to rediscover some of that awareness. I have been noticing that the willows are starting to get their fuzzy little buds.

Then today while walking I spotted a lovely blooming flower!

By using the Seek app on my phone I learned that this is a Greater Periwinkle! If you have not heard of the Seek app, I highly recommend it as it has identified insects, plants and trees for me! As lovely as it is, I learned that it from the western Mediterranean area and is considered an invasive species. Now I know where the color "periwinkle" is derived from. I grew up using the term periwinkle for the larval stage of the caddis fly that build its home out of gravel. I guess you really are never to old to learn!

Gulls are jerks and Life bird 431!

 It was a beautiful sunny day here on the coast so I headed down to Winchester Bay this morning as I knew the light would be optimal for photography. I also hoped that on the outside chance the Yellow-billed Loon, reported on eBird, would still  be around although the last report of it was February 6. As I hoped the light was great and lots of birds were present. At one point in my walk, I noticed a gull circling and diving near a rocky bank. Often I will see this behavior when a predator is present and the bird is trying to drive it off. As I scanned the area looking for a predator, a loon surfaced with a fish in its bill. With the loons head barely clearing the surface, the gull swooped down and stole the fish out of its bill! What a jerk! The loon was a Common Loon and not the one I had hoped for. Below is a photo of the loon.

I continued on taking pics of other birds like gulls, cormorants and grebes. If you are interested in seeing those other pics, click here. Eventually I ended across from where the common loon was and looking back I noticed another loon. I looked at it thru my binoculars and to my surprised, it was the yellow-billed. I quickly starting snapping pics as proof of my sighting. As you can see by comparing the two loons pictured and difference is pretty subtle.

I completed my loop of the area and headed home. I submitted my list with pics on eBird and to my delight the submission was accepted adding Life Bird 431! For those of you following my blog, you may ask, "Didn't you post in July of 2021 that the Great Gray Owl was your 431 Life Bird?" That is correct but this year, eBird changed how it categorized how they count life birds and I lost 3 species. Non-native birds that are escaped and live in the wild are no longer counted unless they established a breeding colony. At least that is how I understand the change. Either way, it is all good and does not dampen my enthusiasm for bird watching.  

Just a few more bird photos!

 I checked the surf report and the swells were from 3-5 feet so I headed to the Siltcoos River beach area this morning hoping to see some new pelagic birds and test my new camera using a tripod given to me by Jim Scott. The swells were fine but unfortunately there were very few birds on the water so I decided to stroll along the beach. Even there, there were very few birds. I got a good photo of a Red-breasted Merganser swimming in the Siltcoos river

and a couple of Killdeer walking along the bank.

Back in the parking lot I was able to photograph a pair of White-crowned Sparrows. The male with his bright white crown

and the female with a brown striped crown.

Hopefully over the next couple months I will be able to identify some pelagic birds as they should be migrating north for nesting.

Out and about birding.

Saturday morning I met up with my good friends, Jim and Jeanette Scott, in Newport at the Mark Hatfield Marine Science Center. We spent several hours of birding on a trail that ran along the estuary where we were able to identify 34 species of birds. A couple of species I don't often see were Brant, a type of goose, and Whimbrel!

The Whimbrel has a long curved down bill which helps in identifying! Those pics are not as good as I hope to achieve but they were quite away off and lighting conditions were not optimal. The next pics are of bird taken in my campground and with much better conditions and within 50 feet. The first is a Dark-eyed Junco.

Below are Bushtit. While editing the pics, I noticed some birds had dark eyes and some had light eyes. A little bit of research and I learned that juveniles and males have dark eyes and the females have light ones!

These are details I might have not captured if not for the zoom and picture quality of my new camera!I am very satisfied with zoom and the quality of pictures I am able to capture with this new camera! I look forward to seeing what new details I will see in all the new photos!

Patience and practice

 As with all things, getting good results takes practice and patience as I am once again reminded as I learn to use my new camera! I deleted all but 2 of the 24 snapshots of a Black Phoebe I took this morning but oh how pleased I am with the 2!

I made the picture extra large so you can see the details that were captured. The tiny little claws on the toes, the fine white hair like feathers on the belly and even the iris in the dark eyes! Just the first of the many I hope to capture and I gain experience in the use of the camera!

Where have I been?

 Many of you may not know where I have been or what I have been doing since my last post about 20 months ago. I have been volunteering for the Forest Service in the Siuslaw National Forest on or near the Siltcoos River. I made this decision based on several factors like fuel prices, Covid restrictions and the border crisis. Staying in place and volunteering has reduced my monthly expenses and allowed me to add to my retirement savings. I am currently Camp Host at Tahkenitch lake which is located between Florence and Reedsport. I admit that not all my monies has gone into my savings! I have purchased new tires and electric jack for my trailer. I also purchased a fishing kayak which I I eventually flipped over causing the need for new fishing pole and gear, a new phone and new glasses! Lastly, I bought a new camera, a Nikon P1000. One of the features is a 125x zoom which is the equivalent of 60x spotting scope. Below are a couple photos showing the zoom capabilities. First photo is what I see with no visual assistance. The second photo is at just at a little less than full zoom.

At full zoom, it is challenging for me to hold it steady enough for a sharp picture. I have located a number of YouTube videos on the cameras use and settings so I am working on learning how to get the most out of the it. I gave notice to my supervisor that I am leaving at the end of April. I will be going back on the road. I am looking forward to new adventures. While I will be here for several more months, I will be posting more photos as I learn to use this new camera!