Fire

When many people think of Western Oregon, the Willamette Valley in particular, they think "green" and "rain," maybe even "water." This leads them to believe that drought is unheard of and to not take proper precautions when working with machinery near grass and other highly flammable vegetation. Here in Oregon our grass becomes VERY dry and VERY ignitable in August. I don't remember a year where this wasn't the case. In Southern Oregon we actually have ordinances against running machinery, chainsaws, tractors, cats, and trucks for example, after 10:00 (sometimes earlier when it's really hot/dry). Apparently we don't have these ordinances in the Corvallis area, or we do and people don't follow them. There was a fire at EE Wilson between August 7, 2008 and August 14, 2008. It wasn't very big, ten acres or less I'd say. The burned area is directly across from my favorite site. I had to walk by it this morning and boy did it smell bad! I've been around burned areas before and I don't remember any of them smelling this bad, part of what makes me believe it was a recent fire (plus they were running tractors all over when I left on Wednesday). The grass is gone, several of the trees are gone, others of them look as though they're going to die. It's pretty crazy. Even crazier is that I could here common yellowthroats talking in the burned area!

I saw an adult coyote this morning. She stared at me while I told her how lovely she is, she didn't move far when she did decide to move. I also told her not to be so trusting of people because here in Oregon people shoot coyotes for sport (which is legal, there is a bounty on them). I like the coyote pack at EE Wilson, I see them every week and they let me get pretty close. With hunting season approaching I can't help but wonder what will happen to them. Do people shoot them just for the hell of it? Or because they believe that coyotes will affect their hunt? Ugh, I dislike most hunters very much.

When I got home I took the dogs out to go potty. I saw a turkey vulture while we were on Witham Hill. It was eating a grey squirrel that had been hit by a car. Oddly enough it was in the grass, maybe it carried the squirrel there? Anyway, the dogs wanted to chase it as usual. I didn't let them, and I encourage the turkey vulture to not fly off, too many crows around that would snatch up its meal! It stayed and let me get a nice long look at it. It was an adult, probably male because it was on the smaller side of turkey vultureness. He was lovely, his feathers seemed a little dull but they molt before migrating back in spring, these feathers are over 6 months old. If you can't tell I LOVE turkey vultures, I wanted to snuggle this one. I find them to be supremely wonderful to watch, I've been friends with a few at the wildlife rehab center I worked at and they do a service to all of us by eating dead things.

Finally, the western tanagers were very active today (yay). I saw and heard the first white-crowned sparrows at either location. The cedar waxwings are flocking, which I assume means they're getting ready to migrate south, american goldfinch flocks are getting larger, purple finches are starting to flock up too (and some males came out of hiding). There were several warblers at the site I was at AND there was a flock of about 40 bushtits (hurray!). Also a belted kingfisher (love these guys too), a juvenile osprey, a juvenile red-tailed hawk (accompanied by an adult), several bewick's and house wrens and wrentits (I highly recommend people check these birds out-they're awesome and found only on the west coast from the northern Oregon border to southern California, they won't cross large bodies of water!), a ton of western wood-pewees, even a few swainson's thrushes. It was a good day!

On the huckleberry front . . . Annie, there is a nursery out here that I will try to get the name of, that sells huckleberry starts. They don't grow well from seeds, cuttings are ify, but if the rhizomes can be gathered they grow okay (that's my understanding). Huckleberries haven't domesticated well yet but there is a house about a mile from here that has some growing in their yard and the experimental seed station has some. Either way we'll send you some huckleberry something or other :)