Thursday, April 25, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Ross's Snow Goose
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch!
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
An Osprey brings in a stick for the nest on April 5th, marking a new season of nesting. This is probably one of my favorite times of year, when the Osprey return from their winter thousands of miles away to build their nest, mate, and raise their young. Jeanette and I keep track of about a dozen Osprey nest locations in Polk County, but this is the only one in Dallas. It's easy to find, just off South Main Street in the old Willamette Mill site. Check it out as they go about their housekeeping chores and hopefully raise some young.
Tuesday, April 9, 2024
New Baby Hummingbird!
Thursday, April 4, 2024
Village Birders at Sarah Helmick Park
Thursday's Bird Watch
Friday, March 29, 2024
Murlark Osprey Pair
The pair of Osprey that visit a nest site in West Salem seasonally to raise their chicks is becoming a lesson in persistence. Osprey are known for returning to the same nest year after year. Salem Electric in an effort to draw Osprey away from nesting atop power poles has put up a number of platforms on poles to provide them an alternative. In this case, this pair of Osprey have their own opinions, and their continued success year after year points to their stubbornness or persistence. They are the most successful nesting pair in the West Salem area. Always the first to return from their wintering grounds someplace in Mexico or Central America, they always produce the most young. All this in spite of the fact that their nest has been moved on them at least four times in the last few years. When we stopped by to check on them this morning at their most recent nest building project on a pole put up by Salem Electric on Edgewater St NW, we were surprised to find it empty. We turned down Murlark Ave to check on another nest site on Patterson, when all of a sudden Jeanette spotted a new nest on a power power pole on Murlark Ave with three or four birds. Stopping to examine closer, we found this start of a nest on a pole with two Osprey, and two decoy birds that had obviously been placed to discourage their nesting.
Here it looks like there is an "eye to eye" conversation going on between the Osprey and the fake bird, perhaps about who actually belongs at this location.Thursday, March 21, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Polk County First Osprey
Thursday, March 14, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Saturday, March 9, 2024
Using Merlin on the Scooter
Friday, March 8, 2024
Taking the Scooter for a ride.
Thursday, March 7, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
During our snowstorm last Friday March 1st here at Dallas Retirement Village, the sun came our briefly, and Jeanette and I rushed out hoping to photograph a bird in the snow. We were fortunate to get this Dark-eyed Junco in Vern and Ann Beeson's Garden Home front yard. Vern had sent me a text to let me know they had a lot of birds at their feeders. Thanks for the tip Vern! As I have said many times before, Juncos are my favorite winter bird. I still remember being fascinated with the first one I saw outside of my grandmother Scott's window in the snow under her camelia bush, 77 years ago.
Monday, March 4, 2024
Electric Scooter!
For six months I have been dealing with debilitating foot pain. Footwear changes and attention to therapeutic stretching exercises, failed to bring healing. Time off my feet brings only temporary relief, curtailing my active lifestyle of walking to increased time in my rocking chair. Birding observation trips now occur from the front seat of our van. Jeanette literally waits on me hand and foot. Medical visits, referrals, and x-rays have now pinpointed the problem as bone spurs.
Today, hope arrived in the form of this electric scooter. This should allow me access to the halls, elevators, and dining rooms at Dallas Retirement Village pain free. But most importantly, Jeanette and I will be able to get back to putting on some miles on the trails, identifying and photographing birds!
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Monday, February 26, 2024
Toledo to Dallas Retirement Village - Day 5
Day 5 found us at the Toledo Marina and Moorage, after a quiet night. Coffee, computer work, and breakfast started our morning off. Before leaving town, we checked out the location of the Toledo History Center. We will be returning here to the History Center with the bus from Dallas Retirement Village on this coming Wednesday.
We left Toledo on Hwy 20 in a light mist, which turned to rain before clearing to sunshine by the time we passed through Corvallis. It's been an adventure filled five days, that has left us inspired to do more in the upcoming months, and perhaps years. We birded in the six counties of Benton, Lincoln, Lane, Douglas, and Polk, turning in almost two-dozen eBird lists. We post these blogs in part to keep or family and friends informed of our where abouts, but also to share the inspirational places we visit. In addition, in all honesty, we have the selfish motive to have a record of places and dates of our travels to refer to since age seems to have an effect on the recall and clarity of our adventures.
Sunday, February 25, 2024
Florence to Toldeo - Day 4
We arrived at the Siuslaw National Forest Alder Dune Campground at Dune Lake just north of Florence on Friday with fond memories and the idea that we would stay two nights and enjoy a day of not traveling, just relax and hike around the trail at Alder Lake. But as the afternoon turned into evening, we realized there was a catch in the plan. The cell service turned from poor into worthless, making it impossible to work on e-Bird Lists and photos. The new reality was that we would leave first thing in the morning, drive over Cape Perpetua, and hope for cell service at Yachats. Arriving at Yachats Ocean Road, we had glorious sunshine and 3 bars of cell service. I got right to work getting caught up with photos, bird lists, and a blog post.
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Florence to Winchester Bay - Day 3
Friday, February 23, 2024
Waldport to Florence - Day 2
Day two started where day one finished, at the Alsea Bay Viewpoint in Waldport. While I worked on the blog post of the previous day setting in the dinette, Jeanette sat in the front seat watching the bay for birds through the windshield, taking bird photos and making a Bird List. One of the greatest features of our van is the Truma furnace that allows us to enjoy warmth and comfort regardless of what's going on with the weather outside. Strong winds out of the SW created magnificent wave formations which dictated that our birding activity for the day would take place in protected locations. With that in mind our next stop for the day was the Yachats Community Park and Wetland.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
Alsea River Adventure - Day 1
Thursday's Bird Watch
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Monday, February 5, 2024
25th Anniversary
Thursday, February 1, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Monday, January 29, 2024
Birding in Style
This morning, we went birding with our friend/fellow resident LaVerda and her friend Chris from McMinnville. We met up at Pintail Marsh in Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge. The fog was so thick we spent the first 30 minutes sitting in our warm van together waiting for the fog to clear. It never did entirely, so after making a bird list, primarily of what we could hear, we ventured on to Independence to bird at Mt. Fir Park. Here the weather was clear, and we were able to see, photograph, and make a decent bird list. We decided on lunch next, but the first three restaurants we tried were all closed on Mondays! Luckily for us, we settled on the Independence Hotel. We had a wonderful lunch and excellent service in the patio overlooking the Willamette River. Again, we made a bird list of the birds we could see or hear while coming and going from the restaurant. The four of us enjoyed birding together so much that we hope to do another trip soon, maybe in the McMinnville area next.
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Thursday's Bird Watch
Two weeks ago, I posted a photo of a pair of Western Bluebirds here in Dallas Retirement Village and said that I hoped they would hang around and again use the nesting box at The Pavilion. This past Friday, our first venture out on foot to look for birds in almost a week because of the snow and ice, we were rewarded with this sighting of the Western Bluebird pair at the nesting box! We watched them go in and out of the nesting box several times, assuming they were checking it out for a nesting site, but it's also possible they were looking for shelter in this string of bad weather. We were thrilled to see them again, particularly at the nesting box, and rest assured we will continue to be checking on them.