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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Post cards from the Oregon Coast

I’ve always loved going to the ocean but now I find that tempered a bit with the recurring images of the tsunami that rolled over the Japanese coast this spring. As I stood on the rocks and watched waves rushing in, I imagined what it would be like if they just kept coming and did not retreat. Most of the time I managed to subdue that image in my brain and enjoyed the waves and the sand and the rocks and the birds and tide pools.

 

 

 

Gooseneck Barnacles

 

Sea Anemones

 

Sea stars and mussels

Dungeness Crab shell

 

Strange colors in that deep dark spruce forest on the way to the beach

 

Waldport Green Bikes

 

Wreck of the Iredale

 

Fort Stevens near the mouth of the Columbia. That’s Washington across the way.

 

Ken got to ‘go fly a kite’

Another kind of kite flying that we did not try

 

Brown Pelicans

Caspian Terns – maybe some of those from the colony that collapsed due to pressure from eagles and gulls on Sand Island.

 

 

 

 

The Newport Aquarium

Once we left the interior of Oregon, we headed straight out to the coast and set up camp at Carl G. Washburn State Park between Newport and Florence. The weather wasn’t always nice and we spent one day at the Newport Aquarium. It was a great way to while away a rainy day full of fascinating animals displayed in large spaces with great viewing opportunties. Being near the end of the school year, there were many student groups out on field trips. They were having lots of fun and maybe learning something too.

 

Some of the displays surround the viewer with water all around. This is looking straight up.

 

 

 

These jellyfish – Sea Nettles – were my favorite.

 

 

Moon Jellies

 

Not all the species were water based.

 

Tufted Puffin

 

Common Murre

 

The seals and sea lions looked like they were having so much fun gliding through the water.

 

 

Malheur National Wildlife Refuge

We stayed six days at Malheur NWR. Originally we had intended to stay maybe three days and then move on to the Redwoods and southern Oregon however the long days in the truck were really wearing and we were enjoying Malheur very much despite weather that ranged from rain to snow to hail with lots of high winds thrown in just for fun. Most of the weather came in sudden bursts with sun breaks in between. We generally timed our outings to avoid the drenching rains and managed to get in good birding, some nice walks and a brief bike ride. Sadly the weather conditions did not make for good photography conditions. I made the best of it when I could.

 

Frenchglen is a must stop in that part of Oregon. It has a school, a BLM office, a store that is rarely open and then with a surly shopkeeper, and a historic hotel. And it is usually swarming with birders!

 

Much of our birding was done from the truck in order to avoid wind and rain. Note the various layers of clothing. We wore many combinations in order to stay warm. I was happy to have my rubber boots with me.

 

White-faced Ibises. There were many thousands of them, it seemed.

 

 

 

The Hooded Warbler. If you look at your range maps, you will notice that this bird should not be in SE Oregon. Going through Frenchglen one morning we saw lots of birders searching with their binos; we even ran into birding friends from the Walla Walla area. Turns out everyone was searching for the Hooded Warbler that had been seen the day before. Alas, we did not find it despite tromping around in the wet grass and brush for an hour or more. The next day, at the P Ranch, as I rode by on Ken’s bike, a man said, ‘Hey, are you interested in a Hooded Warbler?” Screech, went the brakes! Oh yeah. What a find.

 

 

My, what big ears you have.

 

Lots of nesting shorebirds including this Black-necked Stilt.

 

The air was often full of the sound of winnowing Snipes.

 

I know, it’s hard to see however there is a Sandhill Crane on a nest down there.

 

Magnificent landscapes everywhere we turned. And water. So much water.

 

This intersting allium had me stumped. I still don’t know its species. It was on top of a basalt mesa.

 

One in full bloom.

 

 

 

Here you can see the outlines of the tops of the basalt columns that make up the mesa.

 

The rains produced lots of watering holes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diamond Craters

Diamond Craters is an ‘Outstanding Natural Area’ in SE Oregon just east of Malheur NWR. I searched the BLM website to find out just exactly what defines an area to be an ‘Outstanding Natural Area’ and didn’t come up with an explanation. Let’s just go with the idea that it’s a pretty cool place that came about due to natural forces. The Diamond Craters are a series of lava craters and domes and tubes where lava poured out of the earth perhaps as recently as 6000 years ago. It is in an area of Oregon’s high desert country with nice shrub steppe and juniper habitat. We saw pronghorn and interesting birds including a Black-throated Sparrow – a lifer for both of us.

 

A landscape that harkens back to the old west.

 

Standing above a large crater. You can see our truck near the lower rim for prespective.

 

Ripples of lava hardened to basalt rock covered with mosses and lichens.

 

This one had Rock Wrens and Canyon Wrens singing in it.

 

More ripples. It looked sort of like asphalt.

 

Back in that cave, just under the ceiling, is a Barn Owl. From the looks of the site, it has a nest in there. We saw it fly around the crater and wondered if it was scoping us out.

 

More amazing mosses and lichens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Page Springs Campground

Page Springs is a BLM campground located just south of Malheur NWR on the Donner and Blitzen River. Just ten days before we arrived high water had forced some campers to higher ground so we picked a campsite on a hill to avoid that possibility. A small stream came off of Steens Mountain and rushed by our camper. During the day as snowmelt and rain contributed water to it, the level rose dramatically. At night, with cold temperatures, it dropped. The Donner and Blitzen was so high and loud, it was like being next to ocean waves with a constant roar that covered up most other sounds and lulled us to sleep every night. Despite cold temperatures and wind and rain we stayed warm in the little pop-up trailer and slept well. The last two nights of our stay were a little warmer and we were treated to a bird song that repeated itself over and over through the darkness. Based on what others say I have decided it must have been a Yellow-breasted Chat although it did not sound like any ‘typical’, as if there is a ‘typical’, chat call that I am familiar with.

 

This is the creek that rose and fell each day. I expect many years it sees little water and is dry in the summer.

 

The junipers are really magnificent.

 

 

The mosses and lichens are pretty amazing too, especially in this year of much water.

 

 

Long-eared Owls nest in the junipers and we were fortunate that some folks showed us the exact spot. I had gone there and searched that same area however they are so cryptic I did not find them on my own.

 

Sagebrush violet growing through an old deer skull.

 

Bitteroot was blooming on the plateau above the campground.

 

 

Yup, that’s snow on the truck.

 

Great-horned Owl branchlings. The nest tree was growing in the middle of a pond, a very secure place for a nest assuming the young birds don’t fall out of the tree.

 

Reflections on a side channel of the Donner and Blitzen River.

 

Teasel, an invasive, growing next to the river.

 

Lush greenery in the riparian areas. We were lucky it was cold. Otherwise the mosquitoes would have eaten us alive.

 

Lupine, sagebrush and a lomatium.