Which Is It?

Continuing to talk about Hummingbirds, here is a photo of a Hummingbird at our feeder that points out an interesting problem.  Rufous Hummingbird males are easily recognized by their overall coopery rufous coloring.  Allen’s Hummingbird males have the rufous coloring on their fronts and sides, but their backs are green.  However, and here is where it gets complicated, up to 5% of Rufous males can have a green back.  No Allen’s Hummingbirds have been reported to eBird here in Douglas County, but they have been reported in Coos County, the next county to the south.  So, which is it, a stray Allen’s or an unusual Rufous?

Cooperating Females

We get a lot of enjoyment from watching the Rufous Hummingbirds at our feeder.  They feed from early morning to late in the evening, and there is lots of competition at the feeder.  A hummer will start to feed, when all of a sudden another hummer dive bombs in and chases the first one away. But, one of the interesting behaviors that we have recently become aware of is that the females will allow another female to feed at the same time, as in this photo.  It’s the males that seem to aggressively defend the feeder to feed one at a time.  My wife says it’s too much male testosterone.  I’m not trying to draw any life lesson here, only an observation.   

Row River Nature Park

We are now back on the West side of the Cascades and enjoying all the greenery that has popped out while we were gone.  Our motor home got a new battery installed yesterday at COTTAGE GROVE CHRYSLER DODGE JEEP RAM, and while that was happening, we took a walk next door through the Row River Nature Park.  This is one of my favorite birding areas, and is always productive.  We saw a good number of birds, but in addition to the normal everyday birds we saw several special ones, like a Pileated Woodpecker, a Bald Eagle, and our first Orange-crowned Warbler of the season. The most interesting sighting of the day was this nesting Canada Goose under which you should be able to spot an egg.  Watching with binoculars, Jeanette was able to eventually count four eggs.

You Look'n at Me??

Despite spending 5 or 6 hours here yesterday at Collier Memorial State Park birding my brains out, my best photo was not of a bird, but of this Douglas Squirrel.  I think I have might interrupted his lunch of pine nuts, and his expression suggested to me that he is a little annoyed and could have been saying --- “Hey, you look’n at me?”

Past - Present - Future

Past – This is the little log cabin that has served as the Information Center/Gift Shop for the Logging Museum at Collier Memorial State Park where Jeanette and I worked as volunteers during October of 2010. We have lots of good memories from our experiences here.

Present - This photo was taken on our walking route today.  There are lots of changes and improvements underway, including reorganization of the logging displays with new interpretive signs, and a new building to house an indoor museum. We found all the changes very exciting.

Future – In June, we will be volunteering in the park for about a week helping with the Living History Day on June 17.  Jeanette will probably be helping again in this Information Center/Gift Shop, and my exact duties are as yet unknown.

Collier Memorial State Park

Here we are relaxing this afternoon in our site at CollierMemorial State Park. (Those of you who know us very well will recognize this as a staged photo, as we have a hard time just sitting very long.)  However, we are very happy to be here, this is one of our favorite campgrounds. Our campsite at Goose Lake last night kind of laid an egg.  We were quiet pleased to have a shaded site, but after getting all set up we discovered that the campground water was un-usable. This might not usually be a problem, but we arrived there with an empty water tank after three nights of dry camping at Summer Lake.  It was also so hot that the birding was rather slow.  Anyway, we are very happy here with full hook ups, and wonderful temperatures.

Looking for Shade

That’s a pretty bazar headline, yet this is the position we found ourselves in when we arrived here at Goose Lake State Recreation Area today.  We had a very pleasant drive this morning from Summer Lake, driving through Paisley and recalling found memories of bike touring.  We stopped and enjoyed the oasis of Chandler State Wayside, and made a stop for fuel in Lakeview before driving on south to the Oregon/California border and this campground in the Goose Lake Recreation Area.  It does seem strange, but we picked the shadiest site we could.  I just checked our outdoor temperature, its 80 degrees! This is supposed to be a good birding location, so we will see what this evening and tomorrow morning brings.