Our New Digs

This is our new digs, our RV site at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s District Office at Adair Village. We moved our Holiday Rambler here today, and will start work on Monday. Buster loves the green grass, and I love the view of Adair Pond out our front windows.

Next Adventure

One of the most repeated questions I get is: “what’s your next adventure?” Here is the answer; tomorrow we move our motor home to our next volunteer assignment with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. It will be at their South Willamette Watershed District Office at Adair Village, 8 miles north of Corvallis. It’s for the month of August, and Jeanette will be working in the office assisting the volunteer coordinators. I will be working on lawn, grounds and building maintenance. Our RV site sits on a knoll overlooking Adair Pond. Buster will have a nice fenced in yard to enjoy. If you are in the area, stop by.

Mother and Child

We noticed these Western Kingbirds perched on some power lines during our daily walk a few days ago. The juvenile below, is waiting for the adult to feed it. As we looked closer we counted four juveniles and two adults in this apparent family of birds engaged in their morning feeding.

Escaping the Heat

The Oregon Coast continues to be the easiest destination to escape the heat of the inland valleys. Here we are yesterday enjoying a picnic with friends Michael and Melissa Garguilo at the Oregon Dunes Overlook. The weather forecast for the valleys was for temps in the 90s and 70s on the coast. Temperatures actually were cooler than predicted at the coast, and there was a stiff breeze, but we found this protected picnic site in the sun so were quite comfortable. As we ate lunch I noticed the fog completely concealed the beach, so we amended our hiking plan from hiking on the beach to hiking the Siltcoos Lake Trail, see the Trip Journal for details.

High Lakes Backpack Stocking

Saturday I participated in the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Volunteer High Lakes Backpack Stocking. Check out the TRIP JOURNAL for more details.

In Search of the Snowy Plover

The beach areas that we commonly hike along the Central Oregon Coast have lots of signs and boundaries to protect the nesting Snowy Plover. But, we never see them. I have photographed lots of little shore birds, but closer examination at home with the computer and bird guides always identify my sighting as Sanderlings. Yesterday while hiking the beach I glanced at a flock of birds on the wet sand and with my binoculars noted the long bills and thought, more Sanderlings. But wait, there are two birds that are different and remind me more of Killdeers. They must be the elusive Snowy Plover. I snapped as many photos as I could get, and was quite happy as we drove home thinking I had at last photographed the Snowy Plover. However, when I got home and looked closely to make a positive identification, I was quite surprised to discover that what I had photographed was a Semipalmated Plover! The Snowy is still at large.

Escaping the Heat

Jeanette suggested we go hiking at the coast today in an effort to escape the heat. She thought of hiking at the Oregon Dunes, and it turned out to be a great idea. A dark fog bank hung out over the Pacific Ocean, and a cool ocean breeze kept the temps in the 60s instead of the 90s that we have been experiencing in the valleys. We spotted Osprey and Eagles, Sandpipers and Plovers. It was a great day.

More .... turtles

I have been paying more attention to turtles since originally posting the Western Pond Turtle on May 31st.  It is amazing how many we saw yesterday during our walk by just looking closer at logs in nearby Elk Creek. We ended up seeing six at this location on these two logs.

Great Blue Heron

One of our favorite walks we take often here in Elkton is on a section of Schad Road next to Elk Creek. We are always treated to some kind of nature sighting. Yesterday it was of this Great Blue Heron standing in the reflective waters of Elk Creek.

Cool Hike

Yesterday, to escape the heat we went over to the coast and hiked the Lagoon LoopTrail. Got a little side-tracked in talking with a couple of volunteer hosts and discussing job possibilities and didn’t get much hiking in. We were very successful in escaping the heat though. When we left Florence to return home at 4:30 it was 61 degrees, and Elkton was reported to be 98 degrees.

Good Survey Day

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to do trail survey work. Because it was a holiday, there were no logging trucks to worry about while driving to the trailhead. I started my survey of the Knott Trail and finished the last section of the Crawfish Trail. You can read more about it in the Trip Journal.

Honeymoon Finished

That my sound a little ominous, I don’t actually think our honeymoon is over yet, at least I hope not. What is done, is adding our Honeymoon Bicycle Tour of the Columbia River Gorge in May 1993 to Cascade Ramblings. It took me most of one day just to find the photos. I searched though countless albums and boxes of photos. In the end, surprisingly enough I found them in my computer or all places. As you can tell the pressure is on to get it all recorded in Cascade Ramblings before it fades entirely. You can look at our trip closer by looking on the next to the last page, number 43, of the Trip Journal.

Buster

Buster is always eager to go hiking. He was my sole companion on yesterdays trail survey of Fairview Creek Trail. He has a great sense of the trail, and as you can tell from the photo, he is always on the alert to clues of my direction of travel.