Tag Archives: Birds

Birding & Getting Out

Since our life hit the brakes and had to readjust last summer, we’ve haven’t had done any birding or anything to get out….too busy trying to get it back together. Going by our birding list, exactly 6 months since we listed anything. =(

We made a point to get out today and explore a different part area that we are now living in. It was also the 1st time I’ve been in our Jeep Wrangler since we brought the Pontiac…..felt good to be back in the Wrangler. =)

We checked out Camano Island and Cama Beach State Parks. Very happy that we stopped at the visitor’s center at Cama Beach. The staff member there was very helpful on giving us advice on where birders have been going.

We ended up in a wetlands area by a river and got to see our first short-ear owl and northern harrier! They were putting on a show. =) We saw at least 3 owls just flying around and 2-3 norther harriers. We even got to see an immature bald eagle, the head was almost finished changing to white.

It felt totally great to get out and do one of our favorite things. And the weather worked with us……no rain. =)

Hubby is working on the pictures now. I’ll post when done.

Not Too Bad

Wow…it has gotten a bit chillier, at least when the wind picks up….bbrrr

I’ve been doing good on getting my work and lists done. Overall, I’ve been staying pretty focus. I do like it when that happens, means my life is where it should be at. =)

I need to figure out how I want to start getting my exercise. The last few times I went roller skating I wiped out. So not cool. =( And it has been when others are around. Now I’m wondering if they are getting in my head and without having wrist guards, I don’t want to be wiping out and break my wrist. I have the knee, elbow pads and mouth guard….but no wrist guards. When you fall that is one the spots easy to break because you instinctively put your hands down even though logically you know better.

Either way, I need to do something….butt is getting too big. I really do miss the routine and discipline of the gym…..we did that for 4yrs, normally 5days a week.

Taking the 4/5hr drive down to Oregon this week to clean out one of our storage units. Looking forward to Oregon, not looking forward to the long drive there and back. Also need to put a few things in the other unit and take a few things out….like unburying my bowling ball….even if I haven’t bowled in years….lol…at least I’ll have it when we do.

Been seeing a lot of immature eagles, which is so totally cool! Never get tired of them. We saw a river otter the other day. And next week, we are meeting up with birders we meet in AZ to learn more about the local birds around here. I do miss other birders for learning.

We had our close friends come out this weekend with their dog. =) We had a lot of good smoke, wine, chili and talk. A lot of inside jokes about our dysfunctional untrustworthy morally wrong relationships…..grin At one time or another, we each had been told one of those things….so with the four of us, it works…lol Love the selfie hubby got of all of us….even got their dog in the back ground. Love that we are going to be closer to them this summer. Hoping to pop over for visits more often.

Right now, I’m in a weird place mood wise….nothing to that is making me unhappy or stressed more then usually, think it is just my hormones. I was fine mood wise until today, I ended up with heartburn the night before and it SUCKS!! I just wanted to die…..blah. That is what happens when your tums is buried in the meds cabinet so you forgot to take it before bed. That is not happening tonight. So that just totally tired me out since I should’ve been sleeping and the hormones….not a good combo…blah!

Holy Crap! It’s a Sea Otter!!!

Holy Crap! It’s a Sea River Otter!!!

I was just finishing the last blog posting when Pauline saw this Sea River Otter running across the camp towards the water. I was able to snap off a few decent pictures as the Sea River Otter ran across the road onto the parade ground and over a ledge just as a Bald Eagle was swooping down.

That was cool!

Oh, and a pic of Drew… yawn.

*Edited April 21, 2014 @ 2:27pm

A Park Ranger said this was a River Otter as Sea Otters never leave the water…

STILL TOTALLY COOL!!!!

It’s gotta be 4:20 somewhere…

Hello!

It is just after 4pm on Sunday April 20, 2014. I have my AC/DC playlist jamming away while I have my window open so I can not only get some fresh air, but I can also hear the Rufous Hummingbirds come and go from our feeders.

While not in the great number or varity of hummingbirds we was so lucky to have while in Patagonia, we still get a kick out of these few 5-6 Rufous’s. With a Anna’s being seen every so often.

Our friends Daphna and Allen visited us this weekend and as usual, we did nothing but laugh… Ok, we ate and drank more, but you know, a good time was had by all. They even brought Maude so Drew could day “Hi!” to her. Sakura of course is above them all and stayed in the bedroom pretty much the entire weekend.

But she made her presence known…

When Daphna and Allen got Maude, we got them a dog toy. One of those “squeak” toys that we thought nothing of. We saw it, squeaked it once, threw it in the cart and later sent it off in the mail forgetting all about it.

Until we visited a few weeks later to be informed, that not only is there 1 squeak in this toy, but 18 of them. And Maude LOVED this toy above all others. To the point that when they took the toy away, Maude would cry. Both Daphna and Allen work from home. They voiced their appreciation in many tones and ways and very colorfully.

So of course we felt bad and decided on our next visit to make this up to them but getting them more squeak toys and putting them in odd places around their house, while leaving a doggie treat next to it. What made this even funnier was at this time of this, Daphna and Allen had many sleepless nights prior to this night, so when we left at 8pm they went to bed…

Only to call us at 11pm letting us know they went to bed when we left but had to get up a hour later to search their house for a full hour for any more squeak toys so they could, at long last, go to bed and SLEEP!

They used many colorful words and gave us an example of what they hear over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over… Xs 1,000.

I tell you this so you can better appreciate this…

When we met up at Daphna and Allen’s hotel room for lunch, one of the first things we saw sitting on the bed, was Sakura’s squeaky mouse. Which is battery operated and very sensitive so any minor vibration will set it off.

My first thought was Maude stole Sakura’s toy, but then I realized I told Drew to watch Maude carefully so she won’t steal anything, so it must have been Sakura coming out of the bedroom when we was site seeing the park, and putting her squeaky mouse in Daphna’s bag just so she can also torture these poor, squeaked to death people.

Cat’s. They are evil.

Our visit even started off on a bang. Daphna told us she planned to leave at 1pm so she should be here by 3pm. We knew there was a zero percent chance this would happen, but we love her for trying. Around 4pm she texted that they just got off the ferry. Around 6pm Daphna text’s me “they are on “whatever road” so will be here in moments”

I heard of this road, but for the life of me, where is it??? Um… Wait a minute… I call Daphna.

After a few questions and a round of debate, Daphna and I concluded that yes, Pauline and I really are at Fort Flagler State Park and no, that we are not, nor have we ever been, at Fort Worden State Park, which is across the bay from Fort Flagler and about a 40 minute drive.

And honestly, this explained so much about prior conversations like “why did you get a room in Squim?” (hour away) and why it took them so long to get here but after hearing about their travel and recent events, it just adds more lore to our dysfunctional, untrustworthy, immoral lives that we all share with each other as we have for the last 14+ years at least.

I made some chili, this time I really went for it, and it turned out really good with a strong kick. Now I know how to get there!

We then took Maude and walked around the park, showing them a small section of Fort Flagler as we talked long into the night and watched the stars from a battery. The weather was as good as we could have had, it could have been 10 degrees warmer, but other then that, it was great.

They left around 12am and we met up at there room in Port Ludlow, WA (20 minutes away) They stayed at the Inn of Port Ludlow which was really nice, nice room, very nice staff, and good food at the restaurant where no one under 21 is admitted which is another reason to LOVE it!

After a really good lunch, we walked around the beach some to let Maude off the leash and she quickly took to the water and even swam with a large branch in her mouth. Apparently this is the first time this dog went swimming willingly.

After this we came back to the park, we walked where we walked last night due to a missing water bottle, we found that and returned home to get our Jeep as we showed them the rest of the park. They left around 6pm and Pauline and I still trying to recover. It has been rare where we have been on the go at this rate for 2 days.

The extra bonus is, we will be just 1 ferry and 1 hour from Daphna and Allen all summer.

This will be a good summer!

 

Our Saturday hike…

Pauline and I pretty much hiked the entire park on Saturday. Of course the GPS went from full to dead 2.24 miles into it, but I think we did just over 6 miles total. We was both feeling it later that night.

We saw a garter snake on the trail, I also had it focused in when he bolted into the bush, I found it again and once again almost got a good shot when he bolted completely.

*sigh

Sunday we took both cats outside. We now have new cat harness’s for both, and I feel much more comfortable using these over the old “strap” ones.

Drew is really starting to enjoy being outside. He is still cautious, he makes sure I am still near him after every few steps, but he walks with his tail up and purrs like mad at times. He will come to Pauline or me and put his front paws on our knees with the look of “I’m going to jump up any second, be ready” and will usually walk around us a few times. When I walk with him, he goes a pretty good pace, and he walks with confidence, and he always walks towards the RV…

He has no idea what to do when he gets to the RV, he just knows that this is his box and he should be in it. He doesn’t seem to want to use the metal stairs, last time he jumped over them both, yesterday I picked him up and put him on them and he wasn’t too cool with that, so I find that interesting.

Sakura still hates the big wide world. She lays as low as she can get, and if she is being held, she will dig in with her claws to make sure she is still being held. But she is getting better. She tucks her tail for the most part, but if we sit or lay down on the grass, she uses us as a cover, and will eat the grass some, and at times, her tail will come out. She enjoys the sun and grass and flowers, she just would rather not go outside to have them.

We will continue taking them out when the weather cooperates and when there isn’t much park activity, no need to give them too much over load of humans.

I used my iPhone on these pics, and honestly, I am so not impressed. I think we will start using our Pentax’s again, I have been too disappointed with pics off the iPhone lately. Tired of the front camera being such a low quality, and even in perfect lighting, they look bad.