Our New Site

Here is a photo of our new Volunteer Host Site at Denman Wildlife Management Area.  We arrived here mid-day today and are busy getting set up and acquainted with the area.  It may not be obvious from the photo, but the site needs a lot of work; mowing, weeding, trimming and the like; Jeanette thinks it may take us all month just to get it cleaned up.  They have been without hosts this season, so we have a lot of catch up. On the plus side there are birds galore here.  There are possibly as many as a dozen bird houses just in our site and I know already that many of them are occupied. Plus our site sits overlooking Whetstone Pond, so I’m sure we are going to have an excellent birding experience - - - if it would only stop raining!    

Packing Dilemma

We are home in Elkton for a few day packing up for our next volunteer experience, which is at Denman Wildlife Management Area near Medford.  Denman has over 1,700 acres that includes wetlands, streams, and ponds making it an ideal birding opportunity, and it’s right on the Rogue River so there will be trout fishing opportunities.  So besides binoculars and birds books, I will need to pack fishing gear, rods, reels, flies, leaders and waders.  Maybe I should take a float tube or an inflatable boat, the list starts to get longer. Oh, and bicycles, there are lots of good biking trails, for example the Bear Creek Trail that goes miles and miles. So that means bicycles, helmets, shorts, tire pump, tools and on and on. It is a dilemma, I’m going to busy for several days.  

4G Speed

We just received our new Verizon MiFi 4G Hot Spot today. For the last two years we have been using a Verizon MiFi Hot Spot for our Internet connection. It is the older slower 3G model and has served us well were ever we travel, faithfully providing Internet connection for our computers and IPods at home in Elkton or where ever our travels have taken us in Oregon, California, and Arizona. This last week we started having a problem with the connection to the charger.  After doing some checking it looked like we would need to speed 200 dollars for a new unit.  Well, that was before Jeanette sweet talked a customer service person into a new faster 4G model for FREE! Shipping was of course also free! Maybe I’ll be able to post to this blog faster.   

Color vs Geography

We get so much enjoyment watching birds from our motorhome. Yesterday morning an unusual sighting of a Lazuli Bunting at our feeder caused us to start a list for the birds we would see during the day just from the motor home; Purple Finch, Black-capped Chickadee, Orange-crowned Warbler, Violet-green Swallow. Jeanette noticed, “Hey they are all colors”. In the afternoon they switched to geographical names; American Crow, American Kestrel, California Quail, European Starling, Northern Harrier. And then there were two that tied by combining both; Western Bluebird, and American Goldfinch which is the pair featured in the photo.

Almost Gone

We haven’t seen any Golden-crowned Sparrows for some time and I was convinced that they were all gone for the season now.  But today we went birding at the Luckiamute State Natural Area and just as we were about to leave the parking lot I spotted this Golden-crowned Sparrow, so I guess they are not all gone.  Speaking of being gone, we are almost gone.  Come this Friday we will be leaving our site here at Adair Village and heading to our next volunteer opportunity with ODFW which is at Denman Wildlife Management Area near Medford.  We will be stopping on the way in Elkton for a few days over the weekend to unpack and repack the motor home, then on to Denman for the month of June.

Birding at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area

Today was a forced furlough day for state workers in order to save money.  I’m not sure how much money they saved by not having volunteers work, but oh well, we took the day off and went birding at Fern Ridge Wildlife Area west of Eugene.  We spent a couple hours birding from the Royale Ave. Trailhead.  We saw an unbelievable amount of birds.  Noisy Marsh Wrens caught our attention the minute we got out of the car and continued the first half of a mile.  At the second pond the Red-winged Blackbirds were the dominate bird, perhaps as many as fifty.  We were also treated to a dozen White Pelicans flying overhead. In all we identified 25 different species of birds, which included a first time spotting of a Black Tern. We topped of the day with lunch and a visit with son Michael and his wife Robin.    

Jim's Work

A good percentage of my work time is spent removing blackberry vines from the landscaped vegetation around ODFW’s District Office.  Buster would like to ride the tractor with me, it’s not really what happens, but it makes a cute photo.