Tryon Creek State Park

Can you spot the owls?

Keith, Mandy and I went on a short hike through Tryon Creek State Park on Sunday. I don't know how, but Keith spotted these owls in the trees. We're fairly sure one of these is the same Barred Owl that we photographed last April in this same park, during the Trillium Festival. Cute little buggers.

I've been a bit lazy in blogging lately (not an unusual story for me), but Keith has started his own blog, so if anyone is interested to hear his side of the story, you can find his blog here. He's dedicated his blog to birds and beer. Gotta love him.

Lunar Eclipse 2/20/2008

I took this photo of the lunar eclipse on my break during my Chemistry lecture last Wednesday. Clear skies are hard to come by in the northwest, but we've been lucky these past few weeks, and we were lucky on the night of the eclipse.

From what I understand, the next lunar eclipse won't happen until six days after my 30th birthday. Whoa. That's a weird thing to imagine. Being 30.

Weekend Report

My weekend was fairly low-key. I took some photos during a walk that Keith and I took around Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge yesterday afternoon. We were mostly hopeful to see the Western Screech Owls that we’d spotted there several times last year. We knew the hollow tree where the pair would nest regularly. Sadly, that tree, which was along the edge of the trail, appears to have been cut down. It was a gnarly, old, hollow tree, and I suppose it was bound to topple eventually. It’s just sad to see another old tree be removed, since they prove to be such good owl habitat. We did not see the owls during this visit. I wonder where they will nest this year.

Birding was not too eventful at the refuge, mainly because we were trying to race around the 140-acre loop before darkness fell. We managed to spot some Green-Winged Teals, Widgeons, several Great Blue Heron, a Red-tail Hawk, a crowd of Bushtits, a few Black-capped Chickadees, a pair of Wood Ducks, a huge flock of American Robins. Heard, but not seen, were a couple Brown Creepers and several Red-Winged Blackbirds. As the sun dimmed, a large flock of Canada geese flew right over our heads. So close, we could hear the thump of the wind on their wings. It was so beautiful we had to stop in our tracks to be audience to it!

Yesterday was a typical winter day in Portland, cloudy and grey. But there were a few small patches of blue sky that appeared now and again.

As the sky darkened, there was an incredible blast of hot pink that splashed over the clouds, signaling a sunset, which lasted barely a minute. We were deep in a thicket when sunset came, and we were lucky to be in a spot just clear enough to see the horizon and also capture a nice image of the sky reflected on the silvery wetland.

After our time in the refuge, Keith and I had an intense sense of clarity and rejuvenation. There is nothing like getting outside to explore, even when the weather seems intimidating. After our stroll, we warmed up at the Oaks Bottom Public House over a hefty plate of Tatchos (nachos made with tater tots instead of chips – wicked good!) and extra spicy Bloody Mary’s.

And, I will close this blog with a sparce, wintery version of the ever-so-popular forest canopy photo. :o)

You know I’ve been out of Utah too long when....

I looked out the window this morning. Saw this:

And thought, “I’m not driving in THAT!” I actually considered whether the roads would be closed. No such luck. I braved the flakey frost and there was nothing particularly scary about it. No slips or slides. Just a typical commute to work. Boooo! I was hoping for a day off work .



Oh, and it's obviously garbage day, as you can see. Wow. I'm suddenly all self-conscious about the appearance of my front yard. Look at that scraggly bush in the lower left of the walkway that should've been pruned back in fall! Tsk tsk. Oh, but, hey, look across at my neighbor's yard. The purple house, not the white one. They've had that long rain gutter pipe sitting there for days, right in front of their front porch. What's up with that? And there appear to be other unidentifiable bits of yard debris strewn about. Ha! Well... this will have to be brought up at the next neighborhood association meeting! (Obviously, I'm kidding.)

I just love my neighbors. I love being a part of my neighborhood. I should do a specific piece here on my blog solely about my neighbors. First, I need to take some covert photos of them. Like of the tall, skinny, old guy down the street with the 3-foot long beard who walks out on his porch, coffee in hand, in just his tighty-whiteys, to bend over and pick up his morning newspaper. That would be an image worth sharing. Or maybe the written description is all you really need.

Mid-January 2008 Update

I made it through the first week of winter term. I spent seven hours studying chemistry on Saturday, while the in-laws popped up for a visit. They delivered a late Christmas gift - a fancy new KitchenAid mixer - from Grandma Sawyer.

Keith's parents left early on Sunday morning, and then Keith and I drove out to Brownsmead, which is just half an hour east of Astoria, on the Oregon Coast. What's in Brownsmead, you ask? Not much really. Except a single Arctic Loon that has been reported hanging out there for the past few weeks. It's an incredibly rare bird. No one knows what it's doing in Oregon, but I'm glad it was there, because we got a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see it. And fairly up-close, too! We took several photos of it, and just gazed at it for a while as it meandered up and down the river, fishing and preening. Keith and I, and about eight other birders, walked along the banks of the river, following the famous bird, gawking at the rarity with our binoculars and scopes.

It's so funny to be a part of this counter-culture. Birders are a strange bunch, willing to drive several hours to a random spot just to see a single bird. I took a few photos where the loon seemed to be glancing over its shoulder like, "Quit staring at me!" There was another photographer there with a really nice camera, so I will share his photos, since they are far better than my own.

We also saw a Red-Throated Loon, which was another "lifer" for me. It's another fairly uncommon bird to see, but not nearly as rare as the Arctic Loon.

After our little bird-nerd excursion, Keith and I had lunch in Astoria at The Cannery, which has large windows facing out to where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. We spotted a seal (which was my goal before we could leave), and then we headed back home, and I did three more hours of chemistry study and homework. That loon saved my weekend from being really lame. And it was an unusually beautiful day on the coast, too! Perfectly sunny and warm. I didn't even need a coat. I couldn't have asked for a better day for birding. My only regret is that we didn't spend more time trying to find the black phoebe that was also reported to be hanging out in the area. We just didn't have good directions to find it and gave up because we were a bit pressed to get back home.

In case you're curious, these are photos, taken by another birder that day, of the actual birds that we were all looking at while we were in Brownsmead.

http://www.birdphotographique.com/Temp/index.htm

And this lucky guy found the Black Phoebe and took some really great shots of it, too!

http://www.surfbirds.com/blogs/mbalame/

Things I learned in 2007

On Nature:
That "young oak tree" at the end of my in-laws property is actually poison oak.
Poison oak is evil and will leave a scar.

On School:
Chemistry was and still is my least favorite subject.
Be wary of a lab partner with eyes that point in two different directions.

On Family:
Sometimes apples really do fall quite far from the tree.
Grieving is complicated. Frothy nectar makes for a feeble Band-Aid.

On Friends:
My greatest friends do not think, talk, nor act like me. They surprise me.
My true friends know who they are, and I love them for it.

On Life:
When the dryer breaks, the washer will break shortly thereafter.
The basement will flood. Ignoring that inevitability will not make bailing 500 gallons of water on Christmas Eve any easier.

On the Past:
History is just that.

On the Future:
I must be farsighted, because the closer I get to an end, the fuzzier everything becomes.

Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho! unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot:
Though thou the waters warp,
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remember'd not.
Heigh-ho! sing heigh-ho!
unto the green holly:
Most friendship is feigning, most loving mere folly:
Then, heigh-ho! the holly!
This life is most jolly.

-Act II, Scene 7 from As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1600)

Speechless

There has been so much worth sharing on my blog this summer, but this moment just stopped me in my track and really FORCED me to share.

My favorite time of year is here. When the Vaux's Swifts - in the thousands - roost in the old chimney of the abandoned high school next door. The Swifts start to appear every year in late August, when we can just see small flocks of them spiraling in the sky, chipping softly, almost mistaken for the sound of a hummingbird. And this year - as of two nights ago - the Swifts started to appear in massive numbers to roost in the Old Oregon City High School. They rush in great circles over our house, joining in a tornado over the tall, neglected chimney. And if we sit on our roof, they literally whiz right over our heads. They look like cigars with wings. We can barely see them properly through our binoculars, because they only appear just at sunset, and they move so fast, wings beating rapidly.
From 7:00 to 8:00 we can hear the ever increasing chitter of Swifts as they gather over the neighborhood. One might easily mistake them to be bats. Last year, we informed a few confused observers that they were not bats, but birds. And then we bored them with the details, such as the curious fact that they only perch on vertical surfaces...
Tonight, Keith and I enjoyed one of the few remaining nights that we will have to enjoy dinner together on a weeknight, since school starts on the 24th. We made sweet potato burritos and sat in our backyard to watch the amazing sunset display.
Hummingbirds, in what could only have been an attempt to steal the spotlight from the Swifts, made appearances to our feeders while we gazed at the dizzying mass of birds overhead. But the Swifts - their aerial acrobatics, moving in coordination, spinning like smoke reversing into the chimney instead of out - could not be upstaged. The last Swift disappeared into the chimney just before the first star appeared in the sky.
What a show!

Swarms of Swifts! Turn up the volume!

I captured a hummingbird in this shot. He appears for a sip of nectar at the feeder.

Close-up view through the binoculars. They all went silent for a moment as they hurried to pile into the chimney, racing the sunset.

Today I look like Rocky Balboa after a fight.

My sister-in-law gave me some Aveeno face lotion with SPF 30 on Sunday, and I was thankful because I had just run out of my regular Body Shop face lotion. I put the Aveeno stuff on, and it burned my eyelids! I sort of shrugged it off, and used it again the next day, but my eyelids started to chafe by Monday. Ouch! So last night, I thought I could soothe my eyelids by putting Bag Balm on them, but it just escalated the situation. Whatever abrasions were caused by the Aveeno stuff probably got infected sometime last night. This morning, my eyelids were swollen so huge I could barely open my right eye. I got up around 4:30 and put an icepack on my eyes. It seemed to feel better, but I don’t think it lessened the swelling at all. When Keith woke up this morning, he was so horrified by my appearance that he got up and made some hot compresses with chamomile tea and put them on my eyes while I tried to get another hour of sleep.
Nothing seems to help. My eyelids still burn, and I look like a wreck.
At least it’s not debilitating. I can still get work done and go to school; I just don’t look so hot while doing it.
I think this may also be a stress-related thing. I used to get hives when I was stressed to my limit, and this has been a rather stressful week for me. Rather than get hives, it seems my eyelids are spontaneously exploding.

On a happy note, the last antibiotics that we gave to Lily have helped to give her a clean bill of health. The bladder infection she’d been experiencing for the past few months is finally gone. I am so relieved, too, because I have been so determined to get her well that I left in the middle of my camping trip last weekend to go back home and faithfully administer her medicine. So, luckily for Lily, she doesn’t have to go into the vet until later this year, when we have to monitor of her kidney.

Why can’t I just do some things half-assed?

So I’m sitting here debating about whether I should be working on an assignment which is due on Sunday night for my history of jazz course. “It’s Friday,” you’re all thinking, “You have plenty of time to get around to it.”
But, you see, I don’t. I’m going camping this weekend. Leaving tonight, in fact. And neither hell nor high water can keep me from the mountain. I have worked SO hard this week to make sure that I can get all of my homework out of the way so that I don’t miss any due dates in school. And even so, I've not been able to get it all done. But why does it really matter?
Have I ever missed an assignment? No. And frankly, that is just sick and wrong.
So I think... I will... for the first time ever... intentionally SKIP this one assignment.
There.
It is done.
I said it.
I worked on my chemistry homework for five hours last Friday, another six hours on Saturday, and (I kid you not) another NINE hours on Sunday to get it done. Oh, and I can’t forget the other four hours I spent on Wednesday. And those are just the hours spent on ONE course out of three. This is just ridiculous. WHY did I take 13 credit hours this term??? Am I insane?
When I return from my camping trip, I have three term papers to write. One is due next Thursday (I haven’t even started it yet), and the other two are due the following Sunday.
I just need a break. A *real* break. I am burning out fast.
Two more weeks. Two more weeks. Two more weeks.
I want my social life back. I want my LIFE back.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
Sooooo.... that explains why I’ve been AWOL on my blog.
Besides, even if I found time to blog, I have very little to say that is worth listening to. I am crabby-crabby-crabby.
Did you notice that I'm crabby?

We spent all morning and early afternoon at Tryon Creek State Park today during the Trillium Festival. They were celebrating the Trilliums that are now in bloom. The park was just inundated with tall, blooming Trilliums in purple and white. It was a gorgeous day. We bought a white Trillium for our fern garden in the backyard, as well as a few other native plants to put in the front yard. We'll eventually get our yard in naturescaped shape.

Truthfully, we were at the park on a tip from a fellow birder that there was a pair of Barred Owls nesting in a particular area of the park, so we were there to go owling. We've never seen a Barred Owl in the wild, and we were determined. Once we found the location, Keith played a recording of a Barred Owl call ("Who cooks for you?") and, literally, only seconds passed before this gorgeous owl came flying into the clearing. It landed on a mossy oak and just sat there for us to observe for almost an hour. At one point, we heard it's mate call from somewhere nearby, but we could not seem to locate the second owl. We did, however, get some nice video footage of the two owls calling to oneanother.

It was a perfect day of birding. Among other typical birds, we also spotted a Bald Eagle and an Osprey battling it out over a fish in the air above us, and saw several Gold-Crowned Kinglets, Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees and I finally saw my first Red-Breasted Nuthatch.

I definitely need to start saving up for some decent photography equipment to use for wildlife photos. I took some photos of the Barred Owl, but they are very blurry. Let's just say that that was my artistic intent.

We got the lab results back on Lily's latest blood panel, and - to my complete dismay - her results were normal. Her vet was shocked and excited to tell me the news, but personally, I was baffled. The vet had been telling us all the while that renal kidney failure is irreversible. So, why, all of a sudden, is Lily fine?
I think because I had resigned myself to accepting the fact that I would be losing my little darling, that when I was told she was alright, I just couldn't believe it. What an emotional rollercoaster! We're going to keep paying close attention to her behaviour, and such, because I just don't want to go back to thinking everything is alright and then have to go through the stress of hearing the worst again. She was certainly ill for a while there. Our assumption is that we caught on to the problem early enough, and switching her diet to the kidney-friendly diet was enough to curtail any serious damage.
I'm relieved, and totally confused. I guess she's my little miracle kitty. She's got eight more lives.

Well, we took Lily to the vet for the third time this month yesterday. She fought up a storm with the vet, but they miraculously got another blood sample. They've been monitoring her creatine levels since we first took her in in the middle of the month (before the pet food recall). It turns out that her creatine levels have been increasing in her blood since the first time we took her in. She was vomitting a TON a couple weeks ago, and seemed to have a UTI, so we had her treated for that. But then a week later, the pet food recall was announced, and we took her back to check for signs of the poisoning, because we, in fact, were feeding her the recalled foods (Iams). She's lost about a half a pound in the past few weeks, and she's been drinking tons of water. She has this new thing where she just sits next to the water bowl, staring at the water, and drinking now and again. Long story short, she's been diagnosed with renal tubular necrosis, which eventually results in kidney failure. We'll begin giving her a daily medication to slow the damage to the kidney, and continue to give her a new low-protein, high-carb diet. She doesn't seem to like the new food, and that might explain why she's losing the weight. But I don't know what else to do. Her vet said that some kidney patients stick around for a couple of years, so that was the hope that she offered us. A "couple of years" doesn't sound like a lot to me. She turns ten in July, so she's still just a baby. I wanted to keep her around forever, and I have done everything I can to keep her safe by keeping her indoors. But something random like this happens, and now there's no reversing the damage. I haven't cried enough, and I don't know what I'll do without by little baby. I've tried to stay positive, but it's hard to know that I may soon lose my favorite little companion to something that could have been avoided if the pet food manufacturer had taken better care.
Sorry to bring up such bad news, but I wanted to let everyone know the diagnosis. In the meantime, we're still lucky to have her in our life.
Now I just have to figure out how to get Menu Foods to pay for this. I don't even know where to begin.

This pretty much sums up my winter term.

Some silly photos worth sharing:


Chillin' with Gumby



This is me and Mandy one Sunday morning after a hike. I pasted Tom Welling from "Smallville" into our little coffee get-together. He's cute. Tee-hee!



More fun with the Paint Program... *sigh* Johnny Depp! A first love is never forgotten.

January 26th

Happy Birthday Keith!!!

School Update

I have gone crazy this winter term and have decided to enroll as a full time student, while also keeping my full time schedule at work. It’s overwhelming and exhausting, but I am anxious to get to the classes that actually apply to what my whole purpose of going to school is for. In the meantime, I’m still whittling away at the required general courses. I am taking Theatre Appreciation, which is an easy class, because we just get out and watch plays throughout the town, and that’s fun. I’m also taking Medieval History and another Calculus class. Just ONE more calculus course after this one and I’m DONE with math. Seriously. I should throw the world’s biggest party when that day comes.

Also, the time has come for me to decide on a major, because I am all ready to transfer to Oregon State University. I have looked into their Zoology program, and really think it will be perfect for me. I’m so excited for when we actually move to Corvallis and start taking classes at OSU, but in the meantime, I will be dual-enrolled at both PCC and OSU, and will be taking classes at PCC until the time when we actually move to Corvallis. That won’t happen until maybe 2009 – at this rate. BUT, it’s better late than never.

As a side note:

On our return drive back to Oregon, we noticed an incredible number of barn owl carcasses on the side of the highway. In a stretch of about 8 miles, we counted over 30 carcasses! We were scratching our heads over it, and have been wondering why there are so many dead barn owls along that highway.

Barn owls hunt only at night, flying low to the ground, and often take advantage of the clear highways, like runways, to hunt for mice and other rodents without obstructions. However, many speeding cars travel those roads, and the barn owls eventually get hit. Apparently, this is a problem that has been increasing over the past few years.

Professor James Belthoff of the Boise State University in Idaho has been conducting a study over past four years about the increasing mortality of barn owls that are hit on the highway, particularly along I-84, just east of the Idaho border. He should be releasing his study later this year, and I am anxious to see what the solutions are. I googled for a story on this and found, among several newspaper articles, an actual news clip on the topic. You can watch it here.

I know it has been a LONG time since I posted anything substantial here. It has been a very busy few months for Keith and me.

In December, Keith and I drove to Utah for Christmas. We usually fly for the holiday, but our fabulous little Prius encouraged us to brave the weather and just drive the 12-hour trip for the first time in winter. The roads were fine for us, and we had a good visit. I have to admit, though, that the trip was a bit sad. Bittersweet, I guess I could say, what with all the changes that have been happening in my family, and also because my sisters Natalie and Emily were not there this year. I managed to cry so much during my visit in SLC, that I actually gave myself a sty by the end of the week!

We said good bye our little friend Ghost the Thursday after Christmas. I took her into the vet and stayed with her as she passed. It was very difficult to let her go, but she was very ill. I got the impression that she knew what was happening, but was alright with it. She purred and purred until her last breath, that sweet little thing. She lived a long and happy life. She was super spoiled in her final days, because we fed her albacore tuna and caviar in a crystal dish. I’m sure she’s enjoying albacore tuna and caviar in kitty paradise right now.

Not as many people showed up for our annual family reunion, which was too bad. But we still sang the “Hallelujah Chorus,” swapped silly and white elephant gifts and grazed on the always nutrient-deficient pot luck food. Yay! There are always potato chips and white rolls for the vegetarians! Ha ha! I shouldn’t complain, though, I admit. I never bring anything to contribute to the pot luck.

So that was our Christmas run down. Keith and I both caught the flu bug in Utah and brought it back home with us, so we were laid up for New Years Eve. But we still partied as much as we could, despite our sorry condition. I had a shot of DayQuil and followed it with a shot of NyQuil. Wooohooo! I know, I know… one must never mix his or her ‘Quils… but, hey, it was New Years! I had to let loose!

This is a poem about migrating birds, but also about how it feels to witness the passing of another year.

The Birds

are heading south, pulled
by a compass in the genes.
They are not fooled
by this odd November summer,
though we stand in our doorways
wearing cotton dresses.
We are watching them

as they swoop and gather—
the shadow of wings
falls over the heart.
When they rustle among
the empty branches, the trees
must think their lost leaves
have come back.

The birds are heading south,
instinct is the oldest story.
They fly over their doubles,
the mute weathervanes,
teaching all of us
with their tailfeathers
the true north.


Copyright © 1988 by Linda Pastan.