2023

Dang it, Wes Crusher! You're always running away and not letting me get your portrait!

The wet prairie pond needs more water...

This one flew in as I walked up the street towards the park. I think she's a Red Tail.

Annnnddd she flew off before I could get closer.

But I could see where she landed next!

Oh the clouds today!

Hmmm...

Rock cairns are used to mark trails in some places and so building new rock cairns randomly is considered vandalism... it messes up the view for other hikers.

Rock cairns in the city seem pretty innocuous. Except for one important thing... creatures live under those rocks. All kinds of wonderful creatures!

So even if you think that rock cairns are Capital-A-Art... it's not worth it if you've put thousands of creatures out of a home by lifting up their rock!

∞ What are Rock Cairns and Why You Shouldn't Build Them

The ponds in the forest are pretty pathetic too.

Ah Spring! Pussy Willows!

and from the news...

∞ Cartoonists say a rebuke of Dilbert creator Scott Adams is long overdue

Yeah. I have to agree. Scott Adams has always been kind of a POS. And now he has revealed himself to be a major POS!

And I am happy to report that Dilbert has been removed from my local newspaper! Good Riddance!

They haven't found a replacement comic yet and so currently, the space looks like this...

It's dreary and chilly... about 6° below normal, it's 48°F when it should be 54°. But my spirits are lifted right away because a guy on a bike goes by, throwing out peanuts in the shell to the Crows and Scrub Jays! Yay Peanut Guy!

Oh cool... A male Downy Woodpecker is pecking a hole. Looking for a bug, I suppose, but that's a pretty big dent in the tree!

haha... this girl looked at me...

And then decided to look at me from a safer spot!! :)

There's an RV show going on at the nearby Events Center. They roped off the grassy areas... it's parking space during the summer when it's dry. But right now it's a Wet Prairie puddle.

And it looks like a bunch of RVs went around the ropes and drove into the grassy area. It's now a muddy mess with deep ruts. Very ugly and very stupid.

But! The deep ruts and churned up mud have confused the worms who live there, and the robins are having a heyday gobbling them up. And, it's attracted these Killdeers to the party as well!

So today when I'm getting pics of the happy Killdeers, a lady with an excitable Golden Retriever walks by. Documenting the damage?

I turn to her with a smile, Actually, there's a couple Killdeers over there! And then, while her dog is slobbering on my hand :) I tell her that I was distressed about the damage at first, but the Robins are loving it, for all the worms!

And, just as a side note... The Yellow Rump Warbler has all these spots of yellow. And the Namer of The Birds has to focus on the spot of yellow on the rump? Sheesh! no respect!

Ah, Spring!

Typical... so very typical.

But first we start with this one, bouncing around right outside the door... a Townsend Warbler, so bright and cheerful.

and of course, this is the clear pic I get...

Henrietta Heron, and a female Hooded Merganser. heh, I wonder if tiny, little duck is worried about going past big heron?

Oh, wow! This is awesome! A tree planting party, going out on bikes!

The blue bikes are rentals... which is a brilliant thing, tho it's limited to downtown and the university area. It costs 6$/hour to ride, or you can get a membership for 15$/month. There are hubs all over the place where you can pick up a bike. And you can leave the bike anywhere inside the usage area, and those are marked on the app map.

And here are some fun stories about bikes...

∞ AWADmail Issue 1083
I loved the story about the guy trying to get his tricycle back from the German government after the Nazis confiscated it. And the next story after that, building the special tandem bike for Nobel winner, Eric Cornell and his wife... Aww, so sweet!

Back to my walk... Here's a flock of Cackling Geese, they all pop their heads up to look at me!

And a mink!!!

I only had seconds, as he swam by... so yeah, the pic is pretty blurry.

I am fairly sure he's a male. the wiki says male minks can get up to 24inches long, not including the tail. Females are a bit shorter. And this one was def on the longer side.

Sadly, Oregon does have some mink farms. And I hope this one is an escapee. And I hope he flipped them off on his way out!!

Oh my gosh! My friend and nemesis, the Kingfisher! She sat for a moment with me! and even let me compose an artsy pic with other people in the background!!

*laughs*

So that's female Belted Kingfisher at the top. A male Hooded Merganser is grooming himself and looking funny in the middle. And a female Hooded Merganser at the bottom, probably looking sweet except for the fact that she's all blurry in the background.

And now, I shall not make fun of her broken Mohawk!
heh.

But, seriously. How many times has she laughed at me as she flew by???

And, if you look very close, Henrietta Heron is in the above photo!

But the snow!

*laughs* I admit, we don't get much snow. so it just seems remarkable, when we do get it! :)

Here's a happy thing!! This is the half blind Nutria, of the other day... no longer squinting her eye shut! (and with a male Mallard looking on! ha!)

And her other eye is good as well!

I'm so glad she recovered!

The real roses are just thinking about putting out new, spring leaves... but the Lenten Roses are blooming!

You know what? I don't think this view of the new Downtown Riverfront Park will ever get old! I just love the chrome Heron and the chrome art pavilion and the river and the Steam Plant on the right!

And a little bit further along, the Steam Plant is losing some of its colourful banners. They were put in place last year for the opening of the park and the World Athletics Championship.

Ha! She's got my number!!!

I don't see much wildlife on this part of the river walk, so I'm happy a hawk found me.

An artist paying tribute to Suspish on the North Bank 2.5 mile marker.

You can rent a canoe or paddleboard and travel along this canal that's on the north side of Alton Baker park. I would like to try that some time!

The canal goes thru a peaceful pond, too.

Here's one of the Kalapuya Talking Stones in Whilamut Natural Area. Whilamut means where the river ripples and runs fast.

Fun watching this boy bounce around on the branches!

Settling on a branch. Like a nice and normal woodpecker...

And then... WHAT THE HELL!?

DON'T DO THAT! That just gave me nightmares. Jeez!

oh no! There's something wrong with this Robin. I noticed her on my way out... she was just unusually still and quiet. And she's still here on my way back, over an hour later.

Poor baby. Is she sick? There is a building nearby, maybe she hit a window? sighs. I hope she recovers.

So I got up to get ready for my walk, and when I came back into the room I noticed this and COMPLETELY FREAKED OUT!

This is what Computer #3 was doing when it was dying. And I just can't go thru that mess again.

But when I waved the mouse around, disk usage went back down to nothing. And I realized, with that spike of Ethernet, the computer had probably downloaded something and was installing stuff after I walked away.

A perfectly legitimate thing for a computer to do, and no reason to think the computer is dying.

But, jeez. Don't do that to me!

Shake!

But those aren't the droids I was looking for.
oh, um. Those aren't the crocuses I was looking for!

You see, the Community Garden now has a facebook page. I don't do facebook, but the page is public, so I can look at it. And there's a photo of some crocuses... and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one growing crocuses at the Garden!

Sure enough! My little patch of Crocuses matched up with the photo on facebook!

And I'm thrilled that anything in my garden plot could inspire someone to take a photo! *laughs* Always on the edge of getting kicked out because of the weeds, this is a nice change!

Other garden plots have Daffodils blooming.

and some garden plots are growing Robins.

Pretty pretty. Lenten Roses blooming!

But when I zoom in... haha, kinda buggy!

Turns out Lenten Roses have their own species of bug... the hellebore aphid! Upside down Babies!

Happy, Happy Abortion Provider Appreciation Day!

∞ Ms. Magazine: A Love Letter to Abortion Providers
A great article!

∞ American Medical Student Assoc: Celebration in the Face of Adversity
Good info here.

∞ National Abortion Federation: Support Abortion Providers today and every day
You can send a thank you note from this page!!

In the past, I've sent out happy We Love Abortion Providers postcards to thank all the independent abortion clinics in the US.

There were a little over 100 clinics. It took me around 9 months to send a postcard to all of them. And I did three rounds. For some reason, the fourth round never got going.

I would love to start this project again!

I just need to find a good photo to turn into postcards!

Ha. For a second, I thought he was a statue!

Did you know that 80% of orange cats are male?

Oh no! She hit the fence! Gah, what is this? Injured Robin Week???

Oh great. It's that time of year that I hate.

Spring Forward... And we all lose an hour of sleep. And it makes us all grumpy and heart attacky and car accidenty!

Oh sweet Hawaii. Oh sweet Arizona. Puerto Rico and Guam, how I love you! If only the rest of the country could join you in your sanity!

Just a trickle coming thru the spillover.

Oh cute little bird, Why do you always have to be blurry?

I've gone to the other side of the river to visit Pluto! But they haven't replaced poor Pluto yet. foo.

Sometime last year, Pluto disappeared. The stand is still there, but the tiny little dot that was Pluto is missing.

∞ Eugene Solar System Trail

Oop! Someone disturbed the Cackling Geese!

It's nice to walk a different part of the path!

Oh! Look how cute you are, little shorebird!

Oh! Look how cute you're little footprints are!

Dang, so cute! So happy I met you, even tho I don't know who you are!

oh so dark! A Manky female Mallard.

Oh no! This must be that Robin that hit the fence a couple days ago. Still alive, but she can't fly.

It distresses me. She can't even get an aspirin or anything and that wing probably hurts a lot. Is it broken? And she has to hop around and pretend it's okay in order to not call the attention of a predator.

sad sigh.

These two were staring hard at something down stream...

Oh my gosh! It's the mink again!

Look at his cute lil nose!

Hmm. Are we sure this is the same mink? I don't know... how many minks escaped from the EVIL Mink fur farm?? LOTS, I hope!

But for now, I suppose, we will stick with Occam's Razor on this and assume he's the same Mink I saw briefly the other day... Entities are not to be multiplied without necessity

And now Mr Mink has a name: Entity! *laughs*

Oh my gosh, the cuteness... he closes his eyes before diving!!

Dang. I just cannot get over how cute he is!

You see I was able to follow my furry friend for several minutes. And not once did he stop to look up at me.

Seems odd... the Otters are always curious and stare at me! But nope, this one, Mr Entity Mink :) wasn't interested at all!

It was 100% rain on my walk this morning, and I had resigned myself to very few photos. There just aren't as many creatures out and about when it rains, and if the creek is full, even the ducks avoid being in the water!

But these Mergansers found a shallow and sheltered area in the creek.

The slightly warmer days have brought out the Cherry Blossoms on the tree next to Blazey's old spot. (Sighs, I am still very sad about Blazey.)

So my annual quest for the perfect photo of Cherry Blossoms, begins. I'm pretty sure that the sun should be shining, for that perfect photo, and there's probably some blue sky shining thru the pink.

So no perfect pictures today in the rain! *laughs*

There's also a Red Flowering Currant that's coming to life.

The sun came out, but that didn't stop the rain!

And I was thrilled to hear some frogs singing from one of the Wet Prairie Ponds! I've been missing them this winter, and I closed my eyes to listen to them for a while.

Oh, sighs. A sick duck. Female Hooded Merganser.

The male is okay, but he's looking hard at her. I can almost hear him, What can I do?

Yeah. I don't know.

I'm also keeping a look out for the poor Robin with the bad wing. I don't see her, tho. Sighs.

I take photos of her relatives, instead.

It's dreary and cold, and I'm wearing all my warmest layers. But the day is kind of getting to me.

Spring is trying to do it's thing!

Huh. First time I've seen a cat on this trail. I love cats, but they are damn murderers. They should ALWAYS be kept indoors!

Part of the little waterfall that Hidden Trail runs next to.

Oh! Fawn Lilies are coming up too!

Ha... the deers have munched the tops off the Camas Lily leaves!

A funny thing happened today.

A guy in Denmark offered to buy my domain.

I've got a couple domains, and one other time a guy offered to buy one of them. I wasn't actually using that domain, so it was an option. But I didn't like the idea, so I just ignored his emails.

But this guy. heh.

This guy wanted to buy Static8.com! And he offered 100usd!

I was quite flabbergasted. 100$.

100$ isn't even going to cover my costs to change all the photos that are marked Static8.com. Not to mention all the other intricacies involved in a heavily used domain name!!

I mean, my god. what was he thinking??

If he had opened at a couple million USD... then maybe we could talk! :)

As it is, I replied with some snark. I didn't hear back from him. Which disappointed me extremely. I'm thinking about emailing him again. Because, really. What was he thinking??! *laughs*

Oh my bouncy little Kinglet. The camera can't figure out where to focus!

I couldn't decide which photo I liked more... :)

Bahaha! What are you eating? The stem is still attached!

Yeah, you check on that! *laughs*

Or maybe I could call this blog post Trees and Sticks, since I have a couple today...

Oh! Hello again, Mr Entity Mink!

So cute. So studiously ignoring the human.

At the garden, and Aww! I hope they are considering one of the nesting boxes!

Ah Spring.

Oh wow, I cannot get enough of these Crocuses!!

Henrietta Heron, on the hunt.

and a bunch of blurry photos that I'm not going to show you... Except this one!

I was driving down the street last week, when I saw what I thought was a Vulture soaring above.

Vultures migrate outta here in the winter, and if this was a Vulture, it would have been the first one I've seen this year.

But the street I'm driving on is lined with parked cars on both sides. And humans and squirrels tend to pop out, randomly. So I need to keep my eyes down, on the road. Not up in the sky. And the Maybe-Vulture was gone, the next time I looked up.

You know what I should have done? Just stopped the car and looked up at Maybe-Vulture!

haha... There's a car stopped in the middle of the street for no reason. Yeah. But it's okay. That's just that Crazy Vulture Person!

*laughs* But now I've got photographic proof! That's a Turkey Vulture, above!

A cute lil Green Wing Teal and a cute lil Hooded Merganser. They are both winter visitors at our creek (tho I think they are in the area, generally, all thru the year!) and I wonder when they will be moving on.

The Cackling Geese are still here too.

∞ Idaho hospital will stop delivering babies as doctors flee state due to abortion ban Near-total ban on abortions is driving doctors away, hospital says, leading to lack of nearby labor and delivery care for thousands

DUH.

Abortion is health care.

Seriously, folks!

ABORTION IS HEALTH CARE!

And when you make health care illegal, bad things happen.

People die. Doctors run away.

When doctors can't perform all of their duties... when doctors literally can't provide lifesaving care, because of abortion ban laws, they will run away to a different state.

Like I said, this is not the United States of America, any more. There are states where people can get health care. And then there are states where more than half the people can't get health care.

Aww! Aren't we sweet!

Believe it or not, Wes Crusher the Western Grey Squirrel is here somewhere in this mess, behind all the branches! Haha!

Wes Crusher hardly lets me take his portrait. But I see him from my bedroom window many mornings.

Oh wow, this yellow tree!

It's a Cornelian Cherry Dogwood. Native in southern Europe and western Asia, the fruits are sour but used for syrups.

There are some Rhododendrons blooming!

Oh! This is great to see! Volunteers have cleared out a LOT of invasives, and piled them up here! So Fabulous!

Invasive plants here are Himalayan Blackberry, English Ivy, and more recently English Holly.

Um? What the heck?

Is it a tumor or something?

Avian Pox. Causes wart-like growths around any unfeathered skin, which can interfere with feeding, sight, breathing or perching. But if the birds are able to eat, they can recover!

∞ Avian Pox and Bird Feeders
More pics of the pox here. (And it cracks me up that the guy apologizes for the relatively poor quality of the photos! Way better than mine!) (then again, I don't have a bird feeder bringing birds within meters of my camera! ;)

oh good, somebody who isn't sick...

too bad I didn't get any good pics. oh well, maybe next time!

Oh WOW!

This is a Pilated Woodpecker, and I wish I could see them more often! They are huge, about the size of a crow.

And they are so similar to the extinct Ivory Billed Woodpecker, it just makes me pause. You know? Pause and appreciate.

Climate change is killing our Douglas Firs. It's mostly the summers that are too hot. But the lack of rain doesn't help, either. and then Bark Beetles finish them off.

This Cackling Goose tried to shoo me away. But his friend is all Dude! *laughs*

Sighs...

Chilly and sprinkling today... about 8° below normal, it's 50°F when normal for this time of year is 58°. And when I got to my turn-around place in my walk, snow fell for a minute! yeesh!

A temporary art installation. Haha!

part 2 for tributes to Blazey... I like this photo much better than the one I took yesterday. the angle and the light is much more interesting!

*laughs*

Ah Spring! Got some colour developing in the landscape!

Have you seen the video of the 100 year old woman protesting book bans at her local school board meeting? Oh my gosh, she's awesome!

This article gives some background, with some snark...

∞ 100 Year Old Lady At Florida School Board Better Patriot Than All Book Banners Put Together
(haha! I love Wonkette!)

Banned books, and burning books, are the same. Both are done for the same reason: fear of knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control. My husband died as a father of freedom. I am a mother of liberty. Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this.
~~ Grace Lynn

oh my gosh. Isn't she amazing! AND she made a quilt!

Fear of Knowledge. Yeah.

*laughs* I get out of the car and these two come running towards me! I don't have any treats and I kinda feel bad about it. :)

oh yeah! Check out the moody clouds today!

The spillover... such a good thing to see water coming in. It's been dry or barely trickling for most of the rainy season!

Oh! The Swallows are back! Swoop Swoop!

And a family of Turkey Vultures hanging out at the ponds.

My spot to listen to the river.

First sighting of an Osprey this year! Except she or he flew away before I could get their portrait.

What? Oh my gosh, little Woolly Bear, why are you awake?! It's too cold for you to be out!

Poor thing could hardly move and I scooped her up and tucked her under a leaf, well away from the path!

A fun article about pets in art, on NPR 20 feb 2023...

∞ Mr Whiskers is ready for his close-up: When an artist's pet is also their muse

but this article I found today absolutely delights me!

∞ We asked to see your pet artwork - you unleashed your creativity

So many amazing artworks!! I'd be hard pressed to chose a favorite! (Altho I will say the Animals In Motion art is a bit disturbing until you read what it's actually about... !) ha!

Oh! Are the Wood Ducks back at the creek?

Last year... was their 2nd year at the creek and they lost their babies to H5N1. Most of the ducklings and goslings died last year, along with some adult birds as well.

Avian Flu is still active again this year, and I don't know what's going to happen if babies just keep dying and dying. (Or... I do know what will happen. it's just too depressing to contemplate.)

∞ The Bird Flu Blazes On, Amping Up Concerns for Wildlife and Human Health Facing an outbreak that's unusually deadly for wild birds and spreading to more mammals, scientists worry about when, or if, it will end.

(The photo of the Caspian Terns, about half way down that page, is so heartbreaking to me. I cry.)

hmm? All up and down Blazey Cat's spot on the bike path...

It took me a second to identify, but I'm pretty sure these are Milkweed seeds! Last year I saw a guy spreading them further up the path.

Oregon has it's own native: Showy Milkweed!

This tree is awesome! Or maybe it's more than one tree. I'm not really sure.

But look! It's got one arm holding up another trunk!

And it's got a squirrel. but that is a temporary situation. :)

Okay! At the ponds, and yay! One of the reasons I come here!

Getting mobbed by the little swallows! ha.

Fly away, hawk!

Oh cool! I LOVE this photo! It's not good enough to print, dang it. But still, how awesome!

Rain all night and Henrietta Heron is super focused for any food animals who have gotten displaced with the extra water in the creek! But the water is so turbid, I don't know how she's going to see anybody. I hope you get to eat today, Henrietta!

Here at the website, I have been archiving the 2022 blog posts for a couple months now: five at a time, every day... and I have now hit the end of the glorious blogging spree.

I wrote daily posts from January 2022 thru the 15th of July 2022. And then I stopped. Right in the middle of a partially finished blog post for the 16th.

Arg. I hate that I stopped!

My routine was disrupted by the heat of summer, and I never got around to creating a new routine that worked for me.

So. What next? I really really want to finish the partial post of 16 July 2022, because that was an awesome day!

But what I actually want is to complete ALL the July 2022 posts... And ALL the posts that I'm missing since then... AND THEN start working on the posts I'm missing from 2021.

And I want to do all this, and still work on the current blog posts as well!

Of course, probably not very realistic since I'm only averaging about one blog post a day. SIGHS!

How can I do More?!? I need to think about this!

Dreary day at the creek... but Spring is springing! Cherry trees blooming in pink and white on the left, the pale green on the right are pussy willows, and I need to do research and find out what the tree is with the bright yellow twigs!! (Quick look... Ha! It might be Yellow Twig Dogwood! How appropriate! :)

And then I came across my friend, the Anna Hummingbird.
(nevermind the pic I got. heh. It's almost worth showing. *giggles*)

I have been looking for her nest all month! Last year, she was about half-done, building her nest on 1 March. This year, it's a bit colder, and I suspect that everyone is a bit later with their plans!

But I've seen Ms Anna in the area of last years nest, quite a few times. If she does have a nest, I'm thinking it's on the opposite side of the creek, and I have no chance of finding it.

But I'm happy to see my friend now and then.

Today is just another dreary day... with some surprises. :)

Ah Wes Crusher...

Still not letting me take his picture. :) I took this pic through my bedroom window! ha!

I couldn't get a good pic of this Stellar Jay. But Look! We are gathering nesting material!!!

This is Blazey's Squirrel. People are still leaving cat food out for Blazey, even tho he is no longer around to eat it.

But she is still eating the cat food... And Surprise! She's Pregnant!!!

Just think!! Little Baby Blazey Squirrels running around!!!

oh dang it! Henrietta Heron caught somebody right as I came up to her and I wasn't quite ready to get the pic!

Okay. Here's a better photo of Henrietta. Aren't the feathers on her back amazingly beautiful?!

oh my gosh, I love this photo of lichen!

Ugh. More sick ducks today.

I came around a corner, and there they were. I was way too close, but they were too sick to move away.

A pair of Mallards. Sitting together in the grass, with their heads down on the grass. The female was worse than the male, who could lift his head a little bit.

I'm sad. My heart hurts. And nothing can be done to help them.

These orange flowers are Flowering Quince. It's a common landscaping shrub around here... non-native from southeast Asia, but not an invasive problem. The flowers get started very early in the season and last a long time!

A bit of sunshine today... but still about 5° below normal.

So the camera decided to focus on the twig BEHIND the bird?! Gah! WHY?!

*laughs* Fly away Blurry Bird!

These cherry blossoms are disintegrating, but aren't the colours lovely?

Yeah. I don't know what she was looking at! I couldn't see anything when I checked, so it must have been something small.

I got off the main path and found these. Pretty, huh? I have no idea what they are. And a bug. of course!

Happy to see a couple strawberry plants have survived at the garden plot.

And some volunteer Elephant Garlics... they look healthy!

And the Comfrey has started growing.