a ruckus

this afternoon there were a dozen crows flying around the neighborhood raising cain; i had seen hawks in the skies recently, although we live a mile or more from the freeway, where the red-tailed hawks are plentiful. I had seen an adult Cooper's in the tree across the street last week, and a juvenile last year on top of our car, so i expected that the crows were trying to bully one of the Cooper's. What i didnt expect was an immature red-tailed hawk to land in our tree and stay there long enough for me to get a few pictures and round up the family, including my darling wife who was showering at the time, to come outside and take a look at this magnificent bird. the picture does it no justice whatsoever, the day was ultra-bright, the bird was very close, alert, looking into my eyes through the binoculars, it was exciting for us all.

Bitte kann ich habe ein alt Bier

it turned out delicious, that Alt style i made two weeks ago. Malty, red in color (my favorite color of anything is red) and very very quaffable.

Being Out There

GBBC was pretty much all i did today, and for a long time all i was able to view were the regulars... I guess i had hoped something exotic might drop in, a brown pelican or something swoops in for some millet. No of course not. Just juncos and chickadees and the like. Later on at their second feeding i saw the american goldfinch stop in, and the hummingbird no one has seen for 4 weeks was at the feeder for a moment. A pair of golden crowned sparrows, and two pairs of house finches were the only other variety from the morning feeding.

So we changed our point of view.

We got in the car and drove to Battle Ground Lake State Park up the road in Washington. It was busy with families fishing in the picturesque lake, a couple of boats putt-putting around. It was quiet, it was quick to get to, and it had no birds.

My wonderful wife and my two young but growing boys and I took a trail around the lake, maybe a little over a mile. One of our greatest pleasures is walking in the wild, and we are getting our kids' boots muddy whenever we can all get moving in the same direction-to the woods.

It was a beautiful walk, great fun for all of us, but devoid of any birds at all save for the mallards on the lake and the poor dead cormorant we came across on the trail. We came across a dozen people fishing, we climbed over rocks and roots and looked and listened... it was a really nice walk.

On the sunny side of the lake we saw some common mergansers and some living cormorants. After my wife and oldest son ran from my youngest and me down the trail in search of quieter adventure, the pair of us made our way slowly and rewardingly down the trail. A 'jar' of pygmy nuthatches had us diving for cover as these speedy little grey bullets came at us chest high. Really cool for us both.

Another hundred yards or more we heard an irregular thumping coming from the hill above us. I thought it was just a camper setting up a tent and ignored it for a minute. I listened for any bird call and heard nothing. Nothing but that thump getting louder. I searched the tall trees for a second and was thrilled to see a female pileated woodpecker. The largest woodpecker in North America. I had always wanted to see this bird, it was very big, very impressive in its hammering and throwing bark out of its hole, and just really a gorgeous bird. I only wish i had had the camera.
The last bird we came across was a tiny, curious winter wren. I have a pair of bewicks wrens in the backyard, and this was half their size.

Archie and i finished our walk, caught up with the other half of our family and we played on the play structure there. We scoped out the campground in search of future camping possibilities, then we got in the car and drove home. Along the way I counted half a dozen red tailed hawks, some perched, one in flight.
I realize its not "backyard" bird counting, but we had a great time of it, our family had a very nice little trip to a nearby woodsy destination and i got to see an exotic bird after all.

backyard bird count

even if your interest is small, or mini-obsessive like mine, find 15 minutes to relax in your yard and take notice of the birds there. if you dont submit your results to the GBBC website, you've at the very least spent 15 minutes relaxing! if you do want to log your viewing, go to their website and follow the instructions there. http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
Have fun!

BMW

Let me take you back to 1968, February. car # 286 off of the line. the 287th model 2002 ever built. I am a proud owner once more. I bought this car in 1991 and drove it regularly for 2 years until i went to Russia for 4 months, so i sold it to my sister who needed a car. To Destroy. She then gave it up to my mom. To Ignore. And ignore she did, with a little Destroy tossed in for good measure. I stayed out of it, i was driving a 1975 2002 for a few years so i figured they could do what they wanted. Deep down i did feel bad. It was a precious car to me, that '68.

It has been parked in a coastal town for the past 5 years, mostly under cover, though the engine bonnet gets some rain and droppings from the myrtle tree nearby. Surprisingly, there is little other to distract from its inner beauty. the interior needs some love, though the headliner is in great shape! It still has that giant steering wheel, those awful 318i seats i put in it thinking they might be more comfortable, and the gear shift still wobbles.

the windows are in good shape, but the window gaskets need replacing. The biggest deal i need to tackle is the brakes. it needs new ones all around, as well as the hydraulic thingy under the lid. master cylinder, thats the word. i need to replace it.

And then, occasionally, you may see me with my elbow hanging out the window of a shiny blue, tiny, zippy, and all around fun to drive, old car.

ghost bird

i had a sparrow taking a bath so i grabbed my crappy camera and this is what i got. Ghost Bird!

Bird Bonanza

Alright so i don't have a decent camera to take pictures of the new birds in my backyard so you will have to trust me...

I built a new tray feeder for the other side of the yard, stocked with black oil sunflower seeds, in hopes of drawing new visitors to the yard. It is about 7 feet off of the ground and very near some large trees. it is on the opposite side of the yard from the other feeders and i think its location brought some attention. Not only have i got the ever-present dozen dark-eyed juncos, the handful of house sparrows and song sparrows, bushtits, those darned starlings, a bewick's wren, black capped chickadees, and chestnut backed chickadees, western scrub and stellars jays, now i have more frequent visits from our red-breasted nuthatch, a townshends warbler has been visiting, a house finch was seen yesterday, and a winter-colored american goldfinch pair was eating from the nyjer sack yesterday morning.

My wife and kids have caught on to backyard bird watching too. It is often they who sight a new bird first. my wife told me on friday that she was in the side yard near the tray feeder and there were swarms and swarms of birds out there whooshing past her, and she mentioned she saw some birds with orange on them. i assume she meant the color. I haven't seen any orange colored birds yet, but i am keeping my eyes open. The kids, Duncan 6 1/2 and Archie, 3 1/2, have spotted flickers in the yard, duncan spotted the downy woodpecker on the pine tree during the december snows, and archie caught first sight of the goldfinches yesterday on the nyjer sack.

Just as i was wrapping this up, i spotted a starling on the suet feeder and i picked up the binoculars to get a close up view of this pretty though pesty bird, when a male red shafted northern flicker jumped on the feeder as well.

Brauerei Backyard

today i am brewing Alt, a reddish-brown malty style brewed in northern Germany. I've brewed several german-style beers in the past, and i have done an Alt before, but i thought that with further experience and skill i might make a better one than the first. However...

I have been plagued by mashing problems today. The hot water went in just fine, and mixed up nicely with the grain, but that is where the easy stopped and the pain in the rear began. it seems that i made a connection in the mash tun in error, laying the tubing atop the perforated drain instead of beneath it, and during a stir, the tubing came disconnected. I had to pull up the perf-drain and reconnect, but while i did that the grains fell beneath the perf-drain and now i would not get all the yummy wort out. The temperature would not not not hold at 148 today, i had to constantly heat it with my heat-wand, a big pain. Then, while sparging, the whole darn perf-drain fell apart, causing lots of large lumps of grains to fall into my collection tub, pre-boil. Long story short, i had to abort the sparge, dump the entire contents of the mash tun into a bucket and start the sparge again, which was a huge-mungous pain. I cant predict how this beer is going to turn out now, but now things are back on line and going fine, I'm hoping to be able to collect 9 gallons of wort for boiling. Normally i would get a pretty clear wort out of my mash tun, today it is cloudy, a turbid mash. so, i may not get clear results at the end.
(several hours later...)
through trials we find success! my wort hit all the numbers i had hoped including quantity, color and gravity. i'll let you know how it is in about 6 weeks!
Prost!

birding today

My lovely wife Peggy arranged a birding trip for us today, our first, with a group from Tryon Creek State Park. I knew we were off to a good start when i saw a colorful bird about the size of a jay land on a wire next to the road. I stopped the car and out loud i wished it to turn around. It promptly obliged and was happy to see it was an American Kestrel.
We met everyone at the Wapato area of Sauvie Island. We were given an introduction to birding talk, describing where we were going (a 2-mile loop around Virginia Lake) how to focus and use our binoculars, how to identify birds using several different methods, and general safety and common sense rules for the trail. The fifteen of us split into two groups and headed in opposite directions around the lake trail.
The Virginia Lake trail has a nice mix of habitat ranging from the lake, of course, to swampy vegetation, to blackberry thickets to a mix of deciduous and evergreen forest.
The first bird we heard and saw was a Red-Winged Blackbird. We then observed some American Wigeon paddling around the lake. Black-Capped Chickadee were abundant. It took us only about 20 minutes before we reached a spot that was alive with birds in the trees, the best find was the Downy Woodpecker. At about this time several Brown Creepers were seen. When the group reached the Multnomah Channel, we paused and watched the Cormorants dry their wings in the warming morning sun. Not much further down the trail we paused to talk about the time last year when the leader of the group saw a bald eagle in the trees not 30 feet above her head. As we were looking up a group of 5 Tundra Swan flew overhead, calling out their friendly honks. A moment later i caught sight of a large dark bird taking wing from the tops of the trees not 40 yards ahead, and we all watched it soar over the channel. We could only agree that it was a large dark bird that soared, but we were all excited at the prospect of seeing a bald eagle. Only 50 yards down the trail, as i was scanning the far side of the channel, i noticed a large dark bird in the trees and again everyone stopped and the conversations became excited once again. We were not able to identify this bird, but it was exciting to see nonetheless.
We met the other half of our group who reported seeing a large red-tailed hawk and a pair of coyotes. We had heard the hawk but not seen it. One hundred yards later as we emerged from a clearing we had a wonderful fly-by of two hawk-like birds and three of us tried to i.d. them. At the time some agreement was reached that they were Swainson's Hawks, but I'm not sure. They were overhead, squared tailed, light colored under-wings with some spotting but no large dark areas. Large, deep wings that beat regularly as they passed, nearly circling the three of us. We were watching some finch like birds when they arrived, and we promptly forgot about them, absorbed by the raptors.
I heard a woodpecker say peet and thought i would find another Downy, but this one was larger, with a longer bill- it was a Hairy Woodpecker. A pair! It was quite a sight.
Our group had done a lot of studying of the trees and underbrush, and were behind schedule. Some of the not-so-into-it of the group had forged ahead, and it had been four hours since food and bathrooms, so people were beginning to hurry the trip along. We passed some open grassland, more forest, crossed a bridge and the terrain changed again to more of a wide open farm and open pine forest area. There were plenty of birds going back and forth across the trail, but the absolute highlight was when i turned my head to look to where we had been and saw two birds coming out of a tall pine. These two birds were Red-Breasted Sapsuckers and they were just beautiful. Three of us stared for as long as the birds were present in the tree over our heads. They were fantastic to observe.
The last bird the group saw together was a Hooded Merganser. It was paddling on the still lake with the sun behind it, causing its head feathers to create a nimbus both on its head and in its reflection on the water.

The best came last, as if often does, when Peggy saw two Bald Eagles crossing the open fields to our left, headed across the channel on our right. They were very large, very handsome, mature Bald Eagles. What a finish!

birds.

last winter, or maybe the winter before that, but probably much further back than i can really put my finger on, i became very interested in watching birds. It came naturally from my love of the outdoors, hiking, camping, breathing... I would take notice of them, watch them wheel in the sky, eat, play, bathe, hover, hunt, but i wasn't really paying attention. Then, last year, i decided to pay attention, but i made the decision in january, and the weather was crappy, and it was hard to get motivated to go tromping when the weather is crappy, yes?

My wife and I bought a house several years ago in east portland that sits on a nice lot, larger than usually seen, and much more treed than is usual. we have huge pines, and something like a maple, a giant tree. we have lots of shrubbery too. with all these woodsy places, we have several critters we see regularly, such as squirrel, raccoon, possum, and many many birds. we have lots and lots of windows in our house providing us with a near 360 degree view of the wildlife around us. Of course, its not that wild, living in the city, but you make of it what you can, right?

anyway, to birds... I regularly hear the red-shafted flickers in the tops of the pines around us, and on the top of the telephone pole in the back yard. Starlings are omni-present when the weather is fair, robins, black-capped chickadees, all of them are usual visitors. Now that i am paying attention, i am seeing much more variety. I see dark-eyed juncos all the time, and today i think i had a slate-colored junco in the yard. Scrub Jays are regular, and there is a stellar jay or two that comes and goes. I have had a red-breasted nuthatch visiting this week, a red-naped sapsucker hanging on the tree 10 feet from the front window. A solitary bewick's wren has threatened to live in the bird house i built last summer, paying a visit once a week, feeding, curiously poking around in the little house and flying away. a flock of bushtits come and go. all manner of finches, sparrows, an unidentified warbler or two have been spotted, and, although we don't have a hummingbird feeder, i have seen them in and out of the pines in the backyard. I recently had a (what i think was) a juvenile cooper's hawk on the roof-rack of our car, in the driveway, it blew me away to see it up close.

whenever we go out of town, or even on an around town hike, i am scanning the skies and trees and listening for the birds around me. i hope to keep a list with me and begin to keep some kind of amateur-ish record of what i see and where and when. but i dont think i am organized enough for that. I would like to be efficient enough to take pictures of some birds. my family has become used to my sudden hushed cries of slow down, be quiet, move quietly. they used to worry what was wrong, but now they now its just a bird. they will even point out birds to me, or ask me what it is they see. it was my 6-yr old that pointed out the sapsucker on the tree outside the front door last week.

i was inspired to write a blog by my wife, who does a lot of posting, and it gives me a little outlet to write about things i find interesting.