North Fork of the John Day River

I just got back from a 3 day river trip- we floated 40 miles of the North Fork of the John Day River. It was a great experience and I saw some really cool places. I schlepped along both of my cameras, carefully guarded from the water. Here are some of the highlights:


Townsend's solitaire- a life bird! One greeted us at every camp we went to.






Foothills of the Blue Mountains at the put in


Western Buttercup- very abundant and one of the first signs of spring in arid lands


Fern leaf desert parsley




Right near here we heard and saw the flash of a peregrine falcon hunting... sadly it was too dark to see details. Our first camp is at the river's edge in the center of the picture.


Remnants of the super moon- taken at 4:32 am


Exploring a side creek- we hiked to the ridge in the background the previous night.


Amazing basalt flow formations- originating from the Picture Gorge volcano millions of years ago, which is a different source than the basalt flows in the Columbia Gorge.

It was a fantastic trip- made even better by stumbling upon the town of Fossil and getting the chance to do a little digging in the fossil beds behind the Wheeler County High School football field:





My finds-Metasequoia needles- 33 million years old!


and maybe alders?

What an amazing place to visit! We were really close to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. I would love to go back some time and visit the paleontology center there. These fossils are part of the Bridge Creek Flora of the John Day Formation- Oligocene Age- 32.5 millions years ago when this area was not a desert, but a low lying swampy forest.

Other bird highlights include the whistles of a Northern Pygmy owl late at night in the forest, magpies in droves, the first swallows of the season, and a few mystery birds I still can't identify. Here is the bird list from the trip:

Canada Goose
American Wigeon
Mallard
Common Merganser
Peregrine Falcon
Killdeer
Northern Pygmy-Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Say's Phoebe
Stellar's Jay
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Northern Rough-winged swallow
Black-Capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
American Dipper
Western Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
American Robin
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark

Today I helped some friends who work for the local conservation district plant lots and lots of trees along a stream that is heavily used for cattle grazing. Scouler's wIllow, spirea, red osier dogwood, snowberry and blue elderberry were the plants of choice. It was hard work, but very gratifying and beautiful- the sun even made an appearance.

On my way home I decided to try to find some Native American teepee sites that are still visible. I wandered on a gravel road through the mountains, and as I passed a particular pull-out I got a good feeling so I stopped to hike around a bit. As I got out of the car I scared off a large adult bald eagle. Damn, I thought.

It was a lovely spot with big, old moss and lichen covered oak trees and firs. I could hear a lot of birds- nuthatches, robins, ravens squaking, even a pileated woodpecker banging away somewhere. I sat in the sun enjoying the silence when I heard a wing whir, something big, and looked up to see a juvenile bald eagle landing on a snag nearby. I grabbed my camera and caught these:





It stayed there for longer than I did, which was a while. We definitely looked at each other and it didn't seem to mind me being so close. Needless to say, being in close proximity to a wild eagle is awe inspiring in the least. I never found the teepee imprints, but had an amazing experience nonetheless.

On the way down the hill I spotted a pair of ruffed grouse on the roadside:



These are the first live ones I've seen, a year ago I came across one dying on the road right after it had been hit by a car. It was a sad day. Today, however, was a good day as these grouse were alive and well.

The sun came out today for the first time in quite a while. Even though I had to work, I still made a little time to visit the small wetland area by the railroad tracks. I brought my camera to work for this very purpose, and I had a rather National Geographic-like photo shoot in the reeds. I crept down into the marshy area, climbing through cattails and blackberry thorns. The red-winged blackbird males were making their typical spring ruckus, yelling "conk-a-ree!" over and over to defend their breeding territory and advertise to females. I wanted to get some pictures of this cool behavior, especially the song-spread display where they spread their tails and wings partially and flash their bright red epaulets.











Sadly, there are some grasses in the way, but I am still pretty pleased with the results.

There were some double-crested cormorants there, I never knew they had such amazing turquoise eyes!



and here is the ruby-crowned kinglet... I am pretty sure it is the same bird I mistook for a Hutton's vireo in the same location last spring:

Rain... Snow... Sunshine...

The weather around here has been crazy lately. We get several inches of snow, the temperature rises and it melts, we get rain, then it snows again. I thought that I would put out my hummingbird feeder to lure some of the year-round population of Anna's hummingbirds to my window. It didn't take too long before one came zipping by to get some nectar:



If anyone is interested in hummingbirds, I recommend this PBS show you can watch online:
"Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air"
They are some of the most amazing creatures on the planet, and this video really highlights some of the things that make them so extraordinary.

In other news, a flock of 20+ robins is moving through the area, and they have sought refuge by the creek behind my house. I took the opportunity to grab some quick portraits of them:




checking me out





and a lonely little sparrow on a snowy morning:


One of my favorite things about photographing birds is that I can take a common and otherwise un-exciting bird that I have lived around my whole life and capture its beauty, thus making me appreciate how lovely even the most seemingly mundane things in life are.

Great Backyard Bird Count 2011

Hooray for the Great Backyard Bird Count and the signs of spring popping up everywhere! I went to Catherine Creek today with a dual purpose- to kick off wildflower season 2011 and to hopefully find some unique woodpecker species for my bird count checklist. I didn't see any woodpeckers, but I did get nice shots of some Golden Crowned Sparrows:







A little further down the trail the coolest thing happened. I heard rustling in a bramble of blackberry and snowberry, and when I looked I saw a flash of what appeared to be a Fox Sparrow. I remembered that I had my phone with me and on it are the recordings of all the western bird songs. So I whipped that sucker out and started playing the Fox Sparrow song. Immediately a very curious Fox Sparrow started making agitated call notes, and eventually responded to my song by mimicking it. I got a few quick pics of him popping his head up through the thicket to check me out...




A very concerned Fox Sparrow singing to my iphone

On the wildflower front, the Grass Widows were in full form:









I love it when wildflowers start to emerge from the decaying remains of last years blooms:


Columbia Desert Parsley, Lomatium columbianum


Pungent Desert Parsley, Lomatium grayi

Lesser goldfinch




Waxing crescent

While the rest of the country gets pounded with snow, we have clear blue skies in the Pacific Northwest- go figure. It is mighty cold, though. I still knew I should get some vitamin D while I could, so I went out to Catherine Creek to do a hike that I discovered there a year ago. I brought along the SX30, and I am glad I did. I came across some chickadees, and Mountain Chickadees at that, and they were being as cooperative as they could be for such busy little birds.









I know some of these are a little out of focus, but it's hard to achieve perfection when the bird is constantly flitting around looking for bugs. I also saw a new bird for my list, a brown creeper, and I snapped some un-post-worthy pics of him. They are even busier than chickadees (if such a thing is possible).

On a totally unrelated tangent, here are some pics I shot of the moon:




I labeled the second one with some of the bigger features visible- it is very satisfying to take a picture of the moon, then reference a moon atlas to pick out its features. Very cool.