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About 15 years ago, my son and I dug out two back yard fish ponds with a back hoe, to...
Heron
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By January Bethany Lake in NW Oregon, just west of Portland, gathers storm waters from hundreds of acres of avoided wetlands....
6 min read
Name’s Red. Red Woodman, Major Mammal Crimes Detective. This is supposed to be my last day on the job is...
3 min read
The hummingbirds dash around my back yard, as hard to track as a feathered 3-card monte game; are there 2...
9 min read
For starters, this “No Trespassing” sign isn’t on private property. It’s on Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation Lands that are open to...
5 min read
Hard rains just swept across NW Oregon and vicinity. The creeks climbed their banks. I watch Rock Creek, and its...
2 min read
For 20 years, I’ve tracked the movements of herons and egrets where I’ve worked and walked. I’d been working at...
1 min read
A backyard pond turns oily. A DIY oil test confirms it’s more than iron oxide, I found tiny broken eggs...
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An Oregon developer of a proposed gas station next to a creek and wetlands has withdrawn his application. In short: ...
2 min read
The skies have not yield a moment of rain for months. But I knew how to make it rain. I...
4 min read
It’s especially hard to organize folks these days. You can’t call a meeting. It’s tough to talk and listen with...
3 min read
But of course the damsel flies are not really drinking; they are laying eggs. They contort on the edge of a...
5 min read
I’m just an old race horse out to pasture, pawing the ground when the race track bugle sounds. I still...
5 min read
I’d always felt there was more than one heron that’s been visiting my backyard ponds for the last ten years....
3 min read
The inch-an-hour storms have driven the anglers away from my Neighborhood’s Bethany Lake. It’s full of hungry trout but the...
9 min read
I reached for the grimy tumbler. It was empty. Not even any ice. I reached for the whiskey bottle. It...
3 min read
But just a day or two after Billy Heron, the patriarch of my back yard gardens and ponds left, Cocky...
7 min read
“Oyez, I call Frog Court into session,” rumbled Chief Justice Jeremiah, himself a very large bullfrog. “Bailiff, read the opening...
2 min read
Although evening temperatures skirt 32 F, the native Chorus Frogs of NW Oregon continue to meet and mate. I spotted...
4 min read
The Tualatin Valley of Northwest Oregon forms a shallow bowl, about 50 miles in diameter, with 1000-2000 foot tall eroded...
3 min read
I began tracking the migrations of the Great Egret (ardea alba), when I worked at a golf course near Banks...
3 min read
Sundown in Portland Oregon was at 4:32 pm. At 4:40 pm, I walked past my kitchen window and startled a...
3 min read
I walk from my house to Bethany Lake, west of Portland Oregon, on many days. The Lake is adjacent to...
4 min read
He wakes up at dawn and peeks out the window, looking for the heron feeding at the fishpond in the...
2 min read
The Great Blue Heron is one of the largest birds in North America, standing 4 feet tall with a six...
2 min read
I often walk around Bethany Lake, 10 miles west of Portland Oregon. Swollen creeks pour into it from two directions, after...
2 min read
I fly to pieces, Every time that I see you preen I fly to pieces, I can’t forget what I’ve just seen....
4 min read
The Serengeti National Park in Tanzania is especially known for its mammoth annual migrations of 1.5 million wildebeests and 250,000...
3 min read
I ventured out into a crisp Autumn morning with my camera. This was the first year we’d successfully grew artichokes...
2 min read
At 8:59 PDT, a Great Blue Heron glided from a nearby roof into my backyard, next to my gold fish...
2 min read
The Great Blue Heron abruptly appeared at my back yard this morning at 10:13, and promptly ate two large goldfish...
2 min read
At 5 am, the heron seems to take form out of the backgound grey half tone morning skies. It approached...
4 min read
For over a decade, Great Blue Herons have visited my backyard ponds in NW Oregon. They’ve eaten some of my...
Herons are taking fish and frogs “to go” out of my backyard ponds, for trips to their nearby nests. I watch a...
Lucy Siale, a 16 year old Bay Area resident, called for, organized and MC'ed Oakland's 1000+ strong DACA rally yesterday,...
