Working the Plan

Early this year when we turned down several volunteer opportunities we were forced to ask ourselves, “Where did we really want to volunteer next?”  The answer was, we would like to volunteer somewhere on the Oregon Coast during the hot time of summer. At the top of our list was Beaver Creek State Nature Area.  Today we experienced the results of following through with what we wanted; we arrived at Beaver Creek State Natural Area.

This is where Beaver Creek flows into the ocean at Ona Beach.  This morning it was foggy and 65 degrees, a mile up Beaver Creek is where the Welcome Center is located, and and where we will be staying, it was sunny and 70 degrees. It stayed in the mid 70’s here today and I know the Willamette and Umpqua Valleys were in the 90’s.  I think our plan has worked out just fine. 

 More photos and details tomorrow.

Unpacking and Repacking

This is what is going on now.  We are unpacking and cleaning the motor home from my trip to Collier Memorial State Park, and repacking the motor home for our next volunteer job which starts Monday. We will be volunteering for the months of July and August on the Oregon Coast at Beaver Creek State Natural Area.  Located about half way between Newport and Waldport, Beaver Creek State Natural Area is a relatively new Oregon State Park, having just opened in 2010.  We will be staffing the Visitors Center which is located about a mile up Beaver Creek from Highway 101. Because our motor home is on the small side and two months is a good block of time we have to be very discerning on what we take. One other complication for us is that we are renting out our home for part of the time that we are gone.  So I’m finding the process a little confusing, packing up the motor home, and at the same time leaving our house presentable for someone else. 

More on Nesting

It rained all morning yesterday and the Chemeketans wisely decided to cancel their trip, which left me free to do anything I wanted.  In the afternoon the rain let up for a few hours and I got out to check specifically on the Warbling Vireo nest, the Pileated Woodpeckers, and the Bald Eagle Nest.  It took some time for me to find the Vireo’s nest even though I was staring at the exact tree.  Goes to show how well nests are camouflaged. When I did finally find it, it was empty but soon the Vireo appeared and I got a good look at the bird. They are very drab and could be taken for a Flycatcher except for the prominent white eyebrow. Next it was on to look for the Pileated Woodpeckers. They were a no-show, as were any other woodpeckers, but I reasoned that being cavity nesters it probably made a lot of sense to just stay put in their dry tree holes.  I did see Western Bluebirds which I had missed before and Tree Swallows at a nesting snag. The treat of the afternoon was the Bald Eagles.  There is so much going on in this photo. I recommend clicking on the photo to enlarge.  You can see the adult perched in the upper left hand corner, and below you will find the two juveniles, one out on a limb on the left side, and on the right side the other juvenile on the nest.  If you look closely to the right of the adult there is a Steller’s Jay. The jay was completely obsessed with harassing the adult eagle, attacking and carrying on with no deference to the huge size discrepancy.  Interesting enough, the eagle has to have already been there for a couple of months.

I am posting this from my mobile office, the motor home, at the Wood River Wetland waiting for the rain to clear.

Nesting Report

I spend the day yesterday scouting Collier Memorial State Park and the nearby Wood River Wetland for birds in preparation for leading bird hikes for a group of Chemeketans. It was great fun to check out nesting sites that were in use last summer when we here.  The Black-backed Woodpeckers did not return to their tree they used last year right in the campground, nor did I see any activity of the Western Bluebirds at the snag they used in the meadow. But the Northern Flickers are possibly using their tree on Spring Creek, and a mother Common Merganser had 8 chicks in tow swimming up Spring Creek. There was no sign of the Osprey on their nest site towering over the creek.  Cliff Swallows were very active with nest sites under the bridge of Highway 97.  I head an exchange between two Pileated Woodpeckers at the same junction on the Williamson River Trail that I saw and photographed two juveniles last summer. On this day, they kept calling back and forth and then the one on the right flew in close enough to see and photograph.  It was a female and my guess is the exchange was between her and a juvenile expressing a warning.  The biggest news is that the Bald Eagles nest on the Williamson is being used this year. I spotted two young birds on the nest with an Adult standing guard. The young ones hid as I approached and reappeared when I left. And then there was this nest in the above photo.  I didn’t have a clue, but luckily when I e-mailed my friend Matt Hunter, he knew exactly, a Warbling Vireo. 

Casino Camping

For some time I’ve kind of wanted to take advantage of free camping at a casino parking lot.  Tonight that opportunity presented itself, and here I am parked for the night at the KLA-MO-YA Casino along Highway 97 North of Klamath Falls.  There is more to the story of course.  We have been planning for several months now to join friends from the Chemeketa Outdoor Club from Salem for a few days of camping and birding at Collier Memorial State Park.  They arrive Monday and leave on Wednesday. We made reservations to come a day early on Sunday so that I could get an idea of what was going on in the bird world.  Yesterday, Jeanette was informed by her doctor that she has Shingles, so she elected to stay home. My plan was still to leave Sunday morning and drive over to Collier, but after looking at the weather and seeing the forecast of rain I began to think of options.  A closer look revealed that the rain was coming in late Sat night building to a 90% chance by 10:00AM.  It occurred to me that if I drove over this afternoon I would be ahead of the rain, and then by Wed the rain would be gone.  The reason this is important is that I just spent 2 days cleaning the motorhome and dirty spatter of rain sounded like a wasted effort.  What I didn’t take into consideration or think was possible, was that the campground would be full! This casino is close by, the parking is free, and I needed diesel anyway.  I’ll see how this works, its quiet now.   

Home and Back to Routine

We arrived back home to Elkton from our California trip on Wednesday. That afternoon and Thursday was pretty much a blur of unpacking, cleaning, and catching up with yard and house work.  Today began to feel more like a normal day, we started with a 6:30 AM bicycle ride with friends David and Joan who are both training for Cycle Oregon, then morning coffee with more friends at Tomaselli’s.  Jeanette had a doctor’s appointment, but I took Buster on his walk and my bird walk.  This is where the normal routine kicks in. Buster and I walked down to the city park and I checked on the Osprey nest, then we continued on out to the Elkton Community Educational Center to also check on the nesting Western Kingbirds and Bullock’s Orioles. On the way back we climbed down to the river to check out possibilities and spotted two Green Herons, one of which is shown in the above photo.  They are smaller than the more often seen Great Blue Herons and have a shorter neck and shorter legs.  They also don’t tolerate people as well and so it’s always a treat to get to see one and appreciate their beautiful coloring.  Ah yes, birding and routine, that has a good solid feel of normal.

...more on Colusa

I put together yesterday’s post about Colusa late last night, but we had such a great stay and there is more to share, so I’ll post a bit more. In the above photo Jeanette is shown this morning enjoying her morning coffee at our parking site before we left on our journey back to Oregon. The story of the present success of the Colusa-Sacramento River SRA has some interesting layers.  It is well known that the state of the California State Parks is a mess or maybe better put in shambles. Lack of funding has forced them to close many parks, or at best stay open with a reduced work force that cannot possibly keep up with maintenance and upkeep.  We are keenly aware of their dire straits as we travel though the state and attempt to use some of their parks.  Colusa however stands out as a shining example of another direction.  The operation of the park has been taken over by the small City of Colusa.  They have installed a full time campground host (who was friendly and helpful), the grounds are well kept, and the rates are low.  In most California State Parks the rate is 35 dollars a night for a no hook-up site.  At Colusa the rate is 26 dollars, less 2 dollars for a senior discount.  Bear in mind that we only paid 13 dollars because of the ENROUTE CAMPING with the senior discount, and add to that we had the parking lot to ourselves. That equals a couple of happy campers!