Smilin' Jack: Open Spaces

Or: The Villages, Part Deux

We've been this way before back on the 9th of May. That was our second outing with the ASLC and it was as much fun as the first one was.

And, while I don't believe the circle is complete, we have kind of come full circle in a fashion. From then until now a lot has changed. First it was Carol, who became a member of the Society. It seemed logical as she is the birder in this duo plus we began to get to know the other members better.

We've made every bird walk they've offered and then I made the BIG MISTAKE. I agreed to go with Carol to a Board Meeting Potluck Dinner. "It's a dinner," I thought, "what could go wrong?"

Hahahaha, when it was over not only was I a paid up member of the ASLC, but somehow, by some trick of magic, I was also the Vice President of the Lincoln City Chapter of the Audubon Society.

I've had some time to digest and accept this strange twist of events and....what the heck!?! If you can't beat them (as I am obviously unable to do now) then join them and have some fun.

And so I am wearing my title proudly, albeit while concurrently attempting to keep that particular light under the largest bushel I can find. Hahaha, it's a fact of life now and that is all there is to it.

(Memo to Self: Don't go to any more ASLC Pot Luck Dinners!!)

OK, my whining is finished. For now. Let's get to what was happening today. It was another Open Spaces Walk sponsored by the ASLC and this one was at the Cascade Head. As I mentioned, Carol and I have made this walk before so we sorta knew both the ropes and the route this time.

We arrived a bit before 0900 which is, after all, my norm. I shoot to arrive early because, as I've mentioned earlier, if you ain't early....you're late. And I heartily dislike being late. And it worked out because while I was there waiting while the group assembled I spotted this fine fellow posing for me high up in a tree.

Hahahaha, I was super pleased because I met my goal and we hadn't even left the starting area yet. I've been feeling guilty because I go on all these Bird Walks and come back and find I have, usually, zero pictures of birds. I feel like an interloper here so I resolved that when I go on these Bird Walks, I would work at getting at least one picture of a bird....sorta justify my being there and taking up their time and space, y'know.

So I'm standing there, looking around when I caught sight of him and, like Greased Lightening, I whipped up my trusty Canon and got this shot. And, y'know, it ain't half-bad. Forgive my vanity but, well, I'm always pleasantly surprised whenever one of my shots looks somewhat reasonable.

Like this one.

Then, I hit again when Carol found this guy, a genuine Ctenucha Rubroscapus.

Hahaha, for a moment I thought Internet had failed me as I searched for a name for this guy, but, after a while, I found a link for him after I typed in "black moths in oregon during july." Thanks, Google!!

Fun Facts: Also known as the Red-Shouldered Ctenucha Moth, he's part of the Arctidae family. This moth was first described by Menetries (more on him later), in 1857. It is found in western North America, where it is limited to low elevations west of the Cascade Mountains and south of Chehalis in Washington. The habitat for this moth, consists of coastal grasslands adjacent to the ocean as well as wet boggy meadows and wet prairie. Well, sounds legit so far. Adults are on wing from late June to September in one generation per year!! Wow!! I guess we were sorta lucky to spot him. It is, obviously, a day-flying, diurnal species.

More Fun Facts: Edouard Menetries, the fellow who named our moth, was a French entomologist, zoologist and herpetologist. Born in Paris in 1802, he passed away in 1861.

He was chosen as the zoologist on a Russian expedition to Brazil in 1822, led by Baron von Langsdorff. On his return, he was appointed curator of the Zoological Collection at St. Petersburg. In 1829, he was sent by the Tsar on an exploratory trip to the Caucasus.

Most of his named species are from Russia and Siberia but, at the museum, he was able to study insects from other parts of the world, too. Here's where he comes into our little story because he was able to study two collections made during the expeditions of Alexander von Middendorf and Leopold von Schrenck to California and Alaska as well as Siberia. It was from these studies that he named the Ctenucha Rubroscapus.

Whew!!

And we saw him today!!

And then, still before we'd even left the assembly area, someone spotted this fellow and I was able to get a shot of this Band-Tailed Pigeon to complete my Trifecta!!

And all before we even started!! I was on fire, folks!!

And here's our band of Merry Men....and Women.

There were 12 of us for today's adventure. We started out with 11 but we collected up a woman walking her dog as we made our leisurely way to the beach to make it an even dozen.

While we were waiting, Ian Keene, the Open Spaces Coordinator for LCO, stopped by. He was on his way to do some work on a trail with a couple of fellows.

And he dropped off these books before he left. Carol quickly snagged one. Neat book!!

There's Ian in the white SUV after passing out the books.

And, after introductions and some general info, we were off. This group was, like the others, uber-friendly. We got to meet and talk with several new people. That's always one of the big pluses for Carol and I, meeting new people while getting in a good walk. Oh, and occasionally I get to see a bird. Hahaha, gotta prioritize.

This group moved a lot slower than the others and, pretty much, sorta hung together for most of the walk. It could have been because of the small size of the group but I think it was mostly the personality of the folks involved. We were, I think, friendly and comfortable moving together.

Then!! Some eagle-eyed individual spotted this guy...a Western Tanager!!

Woo-Woo!! This is the first time ever that I've seen this bird.

And, boy, was he helpful. He stayed up on that limb for a long time allowing me, with my finely honed photographic skills, to capture several pictures of him.

Fun Facts: This guy was obviously a male. His colors give him away. Females and immatures are a somewhat dimmer yellow and blackish.

These birds live in open woods all over the West, particularly among evergreens. While most red birds owe their redness to a variety of plant pigments known as carotenoids, the Western Tanager gets its scarlet head feathers from a rare pigment called rhodoxanthin. Unable to make this in their own bodies, Western Tanagers probably get it from insects in their diet.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Western Tanagers were thought to be a threat to commercial fruit crops. One man wrote, in 1896, "the damage done to cherries in one orchard was so great that the sales of the fruit which was left did not balance the bills paid out for poison and ammunition." Understandably, they were hunted. A lot. Today it is illegal to shoot native birds and Western Tanagers are safer than they were a century ago.

Finally, the oldest Western Tanager on record - a male originally banded in Nevada in 1965 - had lived at least 6 years and 11 months by the time it was recaptured and rereleased in Oregon in 1971.

Hmmmm, could this be one of his descendants? Maybe.

Hahaha, that was fun and I got me another picture of a bird!!

#nailedit

Here's birders doing what birders do. Birding.

And I was distracted by a dandelion. Hey, I like'em...in pictures. Not in my yard.

I'm gonna, someday, look up the recipes for some dandelion soup and make some. Someday.

#nogreatrush

And some pine cones.

Aw, c'mon...it's my blog, doggone it.

Someday I will get a good picture of pine cones.

Until then...

This is, I was informed by Caren, a Pearly Everlasting plant. What a cool name, right!?!

Pearly Everlasting.

Fun Facts: This is an amazing little plant. Besides being used as part of floral decorations, they can also be used for medicinal purposes. Common uses for this species included poultices for treatment of sores, boiling in tea or a steam bath for rheumatism, or smoked to treat colds. This plant was also used as a tobacco substitute.

The Pearly Everlasting occurs across most of North America except for the southeastern U.S.

I don't remember having ever seen this plant before. Well, better late than never.

We really took our time getting down the trail. I don't know if we were spotting more birds or if the group just liked staying in one area exploring for a longer time. Regardless, we took a much longer time getting down to Roads End than we did before.

Wait!! What the....!?! Another dandelion!!??!!

Hahaha, guilty. I had a chance to get this shot without bending over or kneeling down, both pluses in my book, and I took it.

#sueme

There weren't any irises out today....it's past their time, but we did see a lot of these Red Elder Berries. Lots of these red bunches around today.

Oh, here's our fellow traveler that we picked up. She's a member but hasn't been included in the mailings. Dawn took her info and so I'm sure she'll be on the mailing list soon.

An interesting person, she rescued the lab/whatever mix dog with her. He was mistreated before he came to her and, unlike every lab I've ever met, he wasn't at all friendly. Not that he was actively aggressive, he would just growl a warning if you reached out a hand toward him. He was just scared.

She got him as a support dog. She's got a problem with balance and the dog helps her stay steady. She proved to be an interesting person. We parted ways here but it was fun talking to her briefly while she was with us. She lives in a house along this road and as we passed it, she just went home.

Here she's talking with Jack, the Guest Leader for today's walk.

Look at that country lane. Less than two mile from our place.

Way cool.

I love to go a-wandering...along the mountain trail...

It was a great day for a walk.

I just went back to check something on the previous blog I wrote about our May 9th walk and, honest, the pictures from then and now are eerily similar. Hahaha, I sees what I sees.

If you're interested, the previous blog is titled, "For the Birds" and is dated 5/9/15. You can find it over to the right side of the blog under the title, Blog Archive.

Here I am getting all artsy-fartsy.

As we neared the end of the trail, Roads End Park, we passed by a couple of...ponds. And the dragonflies were out in force today.

Fun Facts: The skimmers and their relatives form the Libellulidae, the largest dragonfly family in the world. There are over 1,000 species in this family with a nearly worldwide distribution.

These guys like to perch on the tip of a vertical surface and will usually return to the same perch often.

OK, you've seen more birds than I normally have. Let me have my arsty-fartsy stuff, 'Kay?

We're coming out of the forested area of the path and coming into the more open wetlands area. It's not too far from here to the Roads End State Park.

Here's our Merry Band.

Lookin' good!!

Whup!!

Another skimmer.

And, hey!! Another bird!! Good golly, Miss Molly, I was smoking!!

Here's a female Red Wing Blackbird. Not quite as flashy as the male but, still, she's a bird and I got a picture of her!!

Hahahaha, there are times when I am so petty and childish.

Nearing the end of the trail.

Eureka!!

We made it. And what a pleasant walk it was. Not at all like the Death March up Mt. Doom....aka The Knoll.

This one was nice and easy.

And what a great day for a walk.

Doing some spotting along the beach.

After this, we all headed back to our cars. The return trip was a heckuva lot faster than the trip out. Carol said it reminded her of the end of the day when the cows are going home...they won't be stopped.