Mountain wildflowers

In early summer, some of the most beautiful sights in the Cascades are the abundant and colorful wildflowers. Meadows full of blooming wildflowers are a welcome sight. Several hardy flower species are sometimes present on steep rock slopes (bottom photo). One morning I watched a hummingbird gathering nectar from the flowers at the top of this slope. A close-up reveals the dominant species on this slope are Indian paintbrush, penstemon, and bleeding hearts (next to bottom photo).

Hiking along trails through the woods, Trillium plants, also known as wake robin, were abundant (middle photo). Young Trillium flowers are white, and older blossoms turn purple. During the 10 days we were in the mountains, all the Trillium flowers turned purple.

In moist habitats, near creeks and at the edges of the lake, I found shooting stars (next to top photo) and monkey flowers (top photo).

Morning in the mountains

During our stay at Odell Lake, each morning, the fisherman got up early to fish. Some days he fished for the super-abundant, but still wily, kokanee, which are land-locked sockeye salmon (bottom photo). Other mornings, Bori fished for Mackinaw, which is also known as lake trout. He caught a 20-pound Mackinaw one morning (see photo). And yes, Mackinaw grow that large by eating kokanee.

While Bori fished, I generally went out walking/hiking through the woods, or up the road, and often took my camera to capture flora and fauna. As this is the beaver state, I always look for fresh beaver chews (middle photo). I also look for dippers, one of my favorite birds. They are gray, about the size of a robin, and can walk underwater looking for prey (next to top photo). This year, we didn't see as many mergansers (a diving duck) as in past years, but I always enjoy seeing them (top photo).

Odell Lake

We have just returned from our annual trip to Odell Lake, which is located just below Willamette Pass in the Oregon Cascades. At about 5100 feet, the pass is the site of a ski area, which bears its name. Not much snow at the ski area this time of year. Looking north from the lake, the Willamette Pass ski runs are visible (bottom photo). Looking east, tall spruce trees frame the lake, at the level of the lake. Looking southeast, spruce branches frame the lake, and our little marina, from the road down from the pass. Snow-capped Diamond Peak rises above the lake, to the south. The top photo is our little cabin in the woods.

More photos to follow, stay tuned.

Low tide in the rocky intertidal zone

This morning's low tide was a minus tide, -1.8 feet. So, I grabbed the camera, a bucket, and my pry bar, and set off to gather some mussels. These photos are (from bottom to top) sea anemones, mussels, and starfish (also known as sea stars).

Walking the nature trail

Some days the beach calls to me. Yesterday, the neighborhood nature trail beckoned with wild rhododendrons blooming everywhere. The rhodies started blooming about a month ago, and are rather spectacular. Layers of their pink blossoms grace the understory beneath large Douglas fir and spruce trees, along the lakes behind the forested dune.

Another walk on the beach

In between squalls, the sun came out today, so I headed out for another beach walk. I spent the first mile and a half looking for interesting things, and the next mile and a half picking up storm debris. I hauled 2 bags full and several arms full of plastic and rope off the beach. As I was gathering debris, I had the great fortune of finding another glass float. This one is a rolling-pin float, 6 inches long. It was rather dirty, and looked rather drab amongst the other debris along the drift line.

I brought the float home, and scrubbed it off, picked up the camera, and returned to the beach to photograph more debris. The bottom photo is the cleaned-up rolling-pin float near some kelp.

Early in the 20th century, glass floats were extensively used by Japanese fishermen to hold up their fishing nets. After World War II, the floats may have been manufactured from melted down Coke or sake bottles, which explains their color. After plastics became widely available, fishermen replaced their glass floats with plastic floats.

Along the drift line, where the high tide had deposited debris, today I noticed lots of tiny pieces of plastic that looked like confetti (and included a pink plastic dog, middle photo). Plastic doesn't decompose, but gets brittle and breaks into smaller pieces. Marine animals mistake the tiny pieces of plastic for prey, and ingest them.

The top photo is some of the beach debris, just as I found it.

Beachcombing after the storms

The Oregon coast has been blasted by storm after storm for the last few weeks. We have experienced sideways rain, sleet, hail, and thunderstorms that delivered violent, unsettled weather, with only occasional sun breaks. Today our weather calmed a bit, and a light west wind blew. I took advantage of the weather window to walk on our Pacific beach. Soon after I began walking near the water's edge, I started seeing all kinds of flotsam that had washed ashore.

A very large pile of flotsam, named the Great Pacific Garbage Patch floats in the central north Pacific Ocean, trapped in a gyre (a giant eddy) by current and wind. The patch has been estimated to extend over an area the size of Texas (or even larger), and is thought to consist of 80% plastics, weighing 3.5 million tons. Although the patch is growing, west winds occasionally deliver some of the trash to the beaches along the Oregon coast.

On my walk today, I encountered a huge variety of plastic and glass bottles, plastic and styrofoam fishing floats of at least 15 different shapes and sizes, one tractor seat, one hard hat, a couple of shoe soles, plastic baskets, and other debris.

I have lived here on the Oregon coast since 1982. Back in 1982, on another day with a west wind, I plucked a large glass float out of the water, just off the beach. Since that day, although I have spent hundreds of hours walking on the beach, and looking for floats, I haven't found another glass float, until today, when I found two. They are 2 1/2 and 3 inches in diameter.

I was really looking for sandpipers, but I'll settle for glass floats!