Hiking

Banana Slug

Is It Pterodactyl Season Yet?

I spent most of the winter moving.  It was an especially snowy winter in the northeast.  Because of the cold and the snow I seemed to always use the back door.  On the rare occasions I used the front door, all I saw was snow.  Now that I am finally moved in, and the weather is almost Springlike, I am walking around my new neighborhood every day that I can.  I have recently noticed what looks from a distance like a mound of hay.

Upon closer inspection, I know that it is not a hay mound.  But I am not sure what it is.  All of the other apartments have pretty normal evergreen shrubs.

Mine is not normal, and it is surely not evergreen.  So I'm thinking it is a nest, a very large nest.  When the Pterodactyl returns to roost, I will take more pictures.    

West Coast Rain & Fun, East Coast Not So Much

Gus and Meara and the kids spent time on the coast this weekend.  It was raining but everyone obviously had a happy time.

This is a recent picture of the icebergs on the beach in Cape Cod.

Rosie Invents the Crab Dance

As we were leaving Ecola Park, Meara and I lagged well behind Gus and Rosie.

As we got closer we thought they had stopped to wait for us.

Then it appeared they were dancing.

Rosie showed us what they were looking at.

And then she showed us how to walk like a crab.

Oregon Coast

When Gus, Meara, Rosie and I went to the beach for Rosie's 3rd birthday, we stayed in a lovely house in Seaside Oregon.  The beach in Seaside was not very different than the beaches in Cape Cod Massachusetts.

Rosie Seaside 2014

Gus & friend Cape Cod 1985

Before going back to Portland, we drove about 20 minutes down the coast to Ecola State Park.  It was there that I found a very different coast than any I have been to on the East Coast.

We got to the beach just after low tide so we explored the tide pools and all of the wonderful creatures that attach themselves to rocks and wait patiently for high tide.

Green Heron

This morning it was nice enough to read on the dock.  The water is still cold so not many pond critters are stirring yet, just a few bullfrogs.  Birds on the other hand are everywhere.  And today I got to add a new bird to my life list. Two Green Herons came to the pond and I have never seen one before -- at least not since starting the list sometime in the 1980s.  Naturally I had no camera, sadder yet because they were so close to me and they stayed for maybe 10 minutes, one on each side of the pond.  But this picture is an exact image of the birds I saw today.   

      

Christmas For The Birds

Quite a few years ago I stopped having a decorated tree in the house for Christmas.  In place of that tradition I started a new one, a Christmas tree for the birds.  I decorate the tree with seed bells and suet cakes (for the birds) and small lights (for me).  The tree stands just outside my kitchen window.  

We've had some snow since the tree was first put up.

 The treats on this tree seem especially attractive to the smaller birds.  Like this little Downy Woodpecker.

And lots of Juncos.  My personal favorites.

Gloria

I have been spending a lot of time by the pond lately.  It's a lovely place to read.  And every day I feed the fish.  The vast majority are nondescript minnows.  And there are a lot of sunfish that we caught and moved to the pond because who doesn't love bluegills and sunnies?

And then there is Gloria.  Gloria is a Grass Carp.  (This is not a picture of Gloria, but this is what she looks like.)

Grass Carp are sweet vegetarians who eat the weeds (but not cattails) in ponds.  In NY you have to apply for a Grass Carp permit -- based on the size of our pond we were approved for 2 carp.  So two years ago we had 2 carp put in the pond -- at the time they were maybe 10 inches long, and I did not give them names.  They were delivered in May and we didn't see either again that summer, but we did see the weeds start to disappear.  Last year I started feeding the fish in late May and I did not see any Grass Carp.  Finally in June I saw a much larger fish than we had put in the year before.  She would come to eat the veggie pellets I feed the other fish.  For a couple of months we assumed that both carp were still in the pond, but by the end of the summer we were certain only one had survived.  The other carp probably succumbed to The Beast when he ruled the pond, or maybe a Kingfisher or Great Blue Heron -- he likely met his fate soon after coming to live in the pond when he was relatively small.

So this year when I started feeding the fish I worried when I didn't see any carp for a couple of weeks.  But then she suddenly appeared, gliding along just under the surface of the pond, with her mouth open to scoop up the floating pellets.  She is now about 3 feet long and so pretty when her green and gold scales catch the sun.  Grass Carp can grow to 5 feet. Yikes!  That will be like having a small adult swimming in the pond.  Because she has now survived 2 years and she has grown to a size that will be far too intimidating for turtles or birds, I have named her.  Gloria, for Gloria 'I Will Survive' Gaynor.  (This is a picture of Gloria which does not do her justice, but it is really hard to photograph a fish.)

Rain is Good ... Until It's Not

My only source of water is from the well, and the well gets its water from the stream.  I have been through lots of summers with very little rain.  You learn to take fast showers and you save your change for the laundromat.  And if you have plants in the ground you carry lots of buckets of water from the pond.  Living with very little water is no fun, so I made a vow (a long time ago) to never complain about rainy weather.  Even when we had a wet, cold Spring the year of Gus and Meara's wedding; and it caused the peonies wanted for the bouquets and table arrangements to stay firmly closed; even then I didn't complain much.  I believe that is why the sun appeared the day before the wedding so that the peonies bloomed perfectly just in time.  So this year we had an absolutely beautiful early Spring.  And now we have had an absolutely wretched late Spring.  Just when we started wishing for rain because all of our new plants were getting dry, we got what we wished for ... and it hasn't stopped.  I just went out to give aid to some plants that are about to float away.  I'm not complaining about too much rain but on my way back to the house I passed this lady walking by.  Quack.

      

Who Could Sleep?

 I have been told, countless times, that I never slept as a baby.  Even after almost 60 years, I still hear this.  It's one of those family urban legends that I will never live down. 

I was just watching the local news and the weatherman informed me that the record high temperature for today was 100 degrees, set in 1953.  He noted that several record highs were set in 1953.  I was born that year so I checked.  Here's a list - please note that record highs were set for 6 straight days in 1953 in Albany New York when I was 7 months old.  No wonder I didn't sleep.  Probably no one in the city was sleeping that summer.  

A U G U S T

DAILY NORMALS (1981-2010)           DAILY RECORDS (1874 THRU 2011)
   HI LO AVG HDD CDD    MAX      MIN     LO MAX   HI MIN     HI MEAN    LO MEAN  
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

29 78 58 68   1   4   95 1953  34 1982   57 1903  71 1984   81.0 1900  51.0 1965

30 78 58 68   1   4   98 1953  38 1982   60 1903  71 1979   82.0 1921  53.0 1965

31 78 57 68   1   4   93 1953  37 1965   62 1985  71 1959   80.0 1881  49.5 1965

S E P T E M B E R

DAILY NORMALS (1981-2010)           DAILY RECORDS (1874 THRU 2011 

HI LO AVG HDD CDD    MAX      MIN     LO MAX   HI MIN     HI MEAN    LO MEAN

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

1 77 57 67   1   4   96 1953  41 1967   59 1951  75 1881   83.0 1898  55.5 1991   

2 77 57 67   2   4  100 1953  39 1991   57 1951  73 1959   84.5 1953  53.0 1987

 3 77 56 67   2   3  100 1953  39 1976   58 1974  72 1937   84.5 1953  55.5 1994

The Mother of All Beasts

Back in March we had a week of unusually warm weather.  While crossing the lawn one day I found The Beast  heading towards our pond.

Though he was a relatively small snapping turtle, I didn't want him in the pond.  Last year Dan and I caught many sunfish at a friend's pond and we moved them to our pond.  I like sunfish and so do snapping turtles; I didn't want The Beast to eat all of my fish so I grabbed half of a nearby bait trap and put it over The Beast.

Mean as he was I didn't want to kill the little fellow so Dan took him away and found him a new home.  Then about a month ago I was out by the pond feeding the fish when out from under the dock came the mother of all beasts.  I had no camera and later when I went out to take a picture she was gone.  So I took off my flip-flops to give some perspective on her size.  The trap I used for the original beast was smaller than one flip-flop.

The new beast was longer than the width of the ladder on the dock - so about 2 flip-flops.

Two days ago I was out feeding the fish again when who should I spy but The Mother Beast.  I have been wondering why there aren't more sunfish - they should multiply like rabbits in a pond like ours.  But while we still have lots of miscellaneous little pond fish, we have seen very few sunnies.  Now I knew why and the dilemma was how to dispose of the sunfish-eating beast.  I Googled how to catch a snapping turtle.  As with all things Google I got hundreds of hits and then had to winnow the results - did I want to rescue the turtle (lots of methods but none guaranteeing that you could do this and still have 10 fingers when done), did I want to eat the turtle (a resounding 'No' to that option), did I just want the turtle gone ... yes.  So I saved some steak from dinner, Dan baited a large hook and attached the heavy-duty fishing line to the ladder - it didn't take too long and sure enough we caught a snapping turtle.

This was a very mad, very strong turtle - every time she tried to swim away she would knock into the ladder and the dock shook. Neither Dan nor I wanted to risk losing a finger so I agreed that the turtle needed to be put out of our misery as humanely as possible.  I retreated to the house and a bit later Dan assured me that she was now at the bottom of the pond and she would eat no more sunfish, or any of the pond creatures for that matter.  I have a vision of all the little pond denizens gathering around the now dead beast gleefully singing "Ding-dong the Witch is Dead" as the giant feet of The Beast curl into its shell.