California!

Jeanette took this photo today at about the time we were crossing into California.  We crossed the Siskiyous in dense fog and then descended into bright sunshine.  We stopped for the night north of Redding at Mountain Gate RV Park.  This is a park we have stayed at before and enjoy its beautiful landscaping, pull-thru sites, and friendly service. Tomorrow we will continue on to Sycamore Campground at Red Bluff where the temps are forecasted in the mid to high 70s. 

A Day of Packing

It is surprising to me to be experiencing a day of bittersweet, this day of packing. It’s difficult of course to have to choose all the things that we will need for the next four months.  But I’m finding it hard, even a little bitter, to say good- bye to friends and family. It’s not that we want to be gone from them.  But there is also the promise of warm sunshine, ah, that’s the sweet part. Today I have to keep focused on that sweet part, to remember the good hiking and birding we have had to the south.  To realize this cold wet day will soon be left behind, come Monday we will be fleeing south over the Siskiyous to the warm temps of California. 

Book Worm

The grandsons have always refereed to Jeanette as Gam’net, and when Gram’net and the boys get together there is always a major amount of time devoted to computer games, the current favorite being Book Worm.  I have no idea how it’s played, but knowing it involves spelling, means count me out. However they all love it from the youngest at 5 years to the oldest at 11 years, well make that 64 years.  It’s hard to tell who enjoys it the most, Gram’net or the boys, they all participate with such concentration and glee.

Day with the Boys

Daughter Lisa and her three boys, William, Luke and Jake came to spend the Veterans Day Holiday with us in Elkton.  Lisa needed to study, grandma need to cook, so grandpa volunteered to take the boys on an outing.  Buster got to go because he is a boy and we all piled into the van. We stopped first at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area to use the spotting scope to look at the elk, then on to Reedsport where we hit the Umpqua Discovery Center.  That was a quick run through where all routes seem to end in the gift shop.  However, the outside area shown here was good to run off some energy.  Over lunch at Subway I posed the question; would they like to go bird watching next, or go to a playground.  In retrospect a silly question on my part, our next stop was a playground.

Ducks in a Row

I took this photo of these male Mallards last month while at Collier Memorial State Park. I have been wanting to post it for some time hoping to be able to come up with something witty and profound to say, like the importance of one having ones ducks all in a row.  But today, thinking of the U of O football game, the best I can come up with is---GO DUCKS!!

Birding Day Two

We had such a great day of birding yesterday in Reedsport that we decided to go again today and invited friends Michael and Melissa Garguilo.  We essentially covered the whole of Scholfield Levee, starting with McIntosh Slough and then along Scholfield Creek and past the pond next to the RV park.  Sunshine did not appear as we had hoped, but we had a fantastic day of bird watching, identifying 31 different species of birds.  Plus we also got to watch a River Otter and a Harbor Seal. 

Great Day of Birding

The goal for the day was to get in some hiking and birding, and with that in mind we left Elkton this morning in the fog and drove into glorious sunshine at Reedsport.  We first explored some sloughs in the industrial area and were rewarded with this handsome male Hooded Merganser.  We also saw his group of females and a couple of diving Cormorants.  After that we moved to a pond where we saw quite a few Canada Geese, pairs of American Widgeon, Ring-necked Ducks, and Mallards, and a sprinkling of American Coots. From there we hiked a portion of the Scholfield levee and watched several Cormorants diving and sunning, and got to see our first Band-tailed Pigeon. Add to that, lunch at the Crows Nest in the Reedsport Natural Foods store, and a full day of warm sunshine.  Hard to beat.