Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Cedar Flats - Oct. 9, 2013

Gifford Pinchot National Forest is an area we are just starting to explore.  Christine Colasurdo told us about a beautiful view of  Mt. St. Helen on the way to Cedar Flats Natural Area.  It was a clear, crisp morning and there was still frost on the interpretive sign at the viewpoint.

SE View of Mt. St. Helen from McClellan Viewpoint

 

Our destination was Cedar Flats Natural Area, a 120 acre preserve along the Muddy River, that was never logged. It is a research area that has been set aside to protect 650 year old trees: Western Red Cedar, Douglas Fir, and Western Hemlock. The trail provides a small loop through these ancient trees where you can walk, and see, and smell, and feel what it must have been like in this valley so very long ago. 


The sign is rather faded, but it has one of our favorite quotes from Aldo Leopold that explains why we preserve areas like this: "To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." 


"Looping through a cathedral forest of massive western red cedars and Douglas-fir, this trail offers a lesson in forest ecology. There are countless examples of life springing from death. Huge logs lie across the valley floor-the remains of ancient trees that finally died of age. Vibrant, young trees now grow from these great logs, nourished by the decaying wood of the old giants. Lush mosses, lichens, and ferns carpet the forest and give the trail an emerald glow. From the second half of the trail, you can enjoy views of the Muddy River." (from Day Hiking: South Cascades by Nelson & Bauer.)

You can't really get an idea of the size of the trees until you see someone standing next to them.  Can you spot Marianne in the picture below?


Tom stitched together several pictures to get the height and width.  See what looks like a white "V" at the right side of the largest tree? That is actually the sunlight reflecting off her hiking pants--you can see her hiking stick to the left of that.

We kept seeing portions of orange mushrooms all over. They were bright orange Lobster Mushrooms.

Why doesn't this have a traditional mushroom shape?  It is actually a white Russula mushroom that came up with a parasitic fungus inside it.  It is a bright orange mold.  The mold prevents the mushroom gills from develping, alters the graceful from to a crude knot--but Voila!  It is a delicious and marketable delicacy, a lobster mushroom.  We didn't take any since this is a protected natural area, but it was tempting.

There were more mushrooms than one could count, of many different types.

Some looked like wildflowers.



Others look like coral that belongs on the ocean floor.


A magnificent place we will visit again.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Picture of the Week

Panther Creek Falls - September 18, 2013

Panther Creek Falls is one of Gifford Pinchot National Forest's hidden gems.  Since there is no real hike to the falls, it stays off the radar of most hiking guides. There is a short trail from the road that leads to a viewing platform.  Panther Creek is in the Wind River Watershed in Skamania County, Washington.The waterfall consists of two drops, with the largest at a height of 102 feet.  

It is a really unique waterfall combination (here Tom has combined more than one photo so the whole falls can be seen.)   You see two separate waterfalls converging into the bottom of a moss covered canyon. The main fork of Panther Creek comes in from the right and swerves around a corner.  Then on the canyon wall a series of gushing springs spread out over the rock face, creating a beautiful stream of white rivulets. (thanks to Curious Gorge Blog,  http://curiousgorgeblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/49-1.jpg) for some of that description--he gives it *****)

After viewing the waterfall, we headed for another trail "off the radar" of most hikers: nearby Whistle Punk Trail.  It is a trail around logging relics, left after steam logging of the area in the 1920s.  Interpretive panels explain the logging history. 


Monday, September 16, 2013

Picture of the Week

We haven't posted in almost 4 months over the summer.  Lots of pictures, but no time to blog.  So, we decided maybe the way to get back into it was to post the best picture each week.

Barred Owl  - Oaks Bottom, August 23, 2013

The Barred Owl, Strix varia, was first reported in Oregon in the early 1970s and it has since spread to forested areas throughout most of the state; in some areas it has become fairly common.It has moved into habitat of the threatened Northern Spotted Owl. 

The northern spotted owl is an icon of bitter disputes between the timber industry and environmentalists over the use of Northwest forests. Because of its dwindling numbers, the spotted owl was listed as a threatened species in 1990, which resulted in logging cutbacks and lawsuits.

Barred owls are bigger, more aggressive and less picky about food. They started working their way across the Great Plains in the early 1900s, and by 1959 were in British Columbia. Barred owls now cover the spotted owl's range, in some places outnumbering them as much as 5-to-1.


Juvenile Coopers Hawks - Oaks Bottom, September 7, 2013

We had seen a Coopers Hawk, Accipiter cooperii, the day before.  But this day we saw one chasing crows.  Tom started taking pictures.  Then Marianne realized she had her binoculars on another Coopers Hawk--there were two of them!  Then they started playing tag with each other, finally landing in a tree.  

They are "accipiters", birds of prey with long tails.  They use their tails like rudders to negotiate the forests. They have long legs and long sharp talons  to kill their prey, and a sharp hooked bill used in feeding. They often ambush their prey, mainly small birds and mammals, capturing it after a short chase. The typical flight pattern is a series of flaps followed by a short glide. They are commonly found in wooded or shrubby areas.

We don't know if these were offspring from the nest in Oaks Bottom, or one of the many Coopers that were migrating over Portland at this time.   We sent Steve Engel at Audubon this picture and he called them "terror on wings."  They are just learning their prowess.

View from Ecola Point, Ecola State Park - September 10, 2013

One of our favorite places, on a beautiful late summer day. 

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Birding with Audubon at Jackson Bottom Wetlands

Last Sunday, May 19th,we were invited to join a special Audubon bird walk led by expert birders Shawnee Finnegan and Dave Irons. Shawnee kept the Bird Log on her iPhone and listed 61 species for the walk. We covered 2.9 miles, most of the Preserve.  Our path is mapped out below by our GPS.




We saw a lot of swallows, and swifts, and learned the difference between the species.  
Our favorite was the Tree Swallow. Birdhouses were provided for them along the trail, and we enjoyed watching their antics as they went in and out of them.  Two males were deciding whose house this would be.

 

Female Tree Swallow.



The male has the more colorful plumage.  It was 
iridescent in the sunlight.











Other than Canada Goose, we probably saw more Cedar Waxwings (89) than any other species.


 
A new species for us was the Red Crossbill.  Like the Cedar Waxwings, they were in flocks nibbling at seeds in the trees.  They are colorful, red and yellow. You can see the large beak, although not the crossed tips.




 Another colorful species was the Yellow Warbler.



 
 We saw lots of waterfowl, including ducklings: Mama Mallard and her youngsters.

A male Roufus Hummingbird gave his display for us.



Perhaps best of all, we saw an American Bittern flying overhead.




We had started at 8 am, so by noon we headed back to the car where Pam Meyers had snacks ready for us.  Thanks to Audubon and our expert birders for a great morning.


John Mills, Ann Ratcliff, Pam Meyers, Shawnee Finnegan, Marianne Nelson and Dave Irons.



Copyright 2013 Tom Nelson
All Rights Reserved
Please ask before you use my photos


Saturday, April 27, 2013

Heron Frustrates Eagle

It was a bright sunny day at Oaks Bottom. The Heron were out in the pond watching the carp spawn. The carp are just below the surface rolling and darting in a frenzy. Since they are 12 to 24 inches long, Most of them are too big for a heron to swallow. Since the heron can’t tear the fish apart, they have to swallow it whole.


Suddenly a juvenile Bald Eagle swept over the pond. He too is interested in eating the carp. But unlike his cousins the Osprey, eagles are not very good at diving into the water and hauling out a fish.


This is a “junior” eagle. The bald eagle characteristics of white head and tail have not developed yet. He is still learning all the tricks of the hunting trade.


One thing he has seen the older eagles do is to steal fish from other animals. If these heron will just grab a carp and pull it out of the water, then he can swoop down and take it away. He is watching and waiting. The heron are squawking their disapproval.


On the shoreline it looks like a heron has trapped a carp and put his foot on it. The eagle circles waiting for the heron to reach down and pick it up in his mouth.


But the heron is wise about eagles. He knows if the fish is in the water the eagle can’t get it. Both birds squawk at each other. “I want that fish”. “Go away it’s mine!”


The eagle circles and dives at the heron. The heron holds his ground, with the fish wiggling beneath his feet.


The eagle could attack the heron. But the heron is big enough to injure the eagle: abroken wing or bad cut is a death sentence. The eagle is frustrated. Finally he flew off a few hundred feet to rest and figure out what to do.


With the eagle temporarily gone, it’s now or never for the heron. He reached down and grabbed  the fish. It is quite big for him to gulp down.


First try. The Carp falls back into the water. Two ducks stare in wonder. (They don’t eat fish.)


Another try and he did it! The fish was in his throat! Could he hold it down? The bird looked top heavy. But the eagle couldn’t get the fish now.


The heron looked very uncomfortable. He literally won’t eat for a couple of days. The eagle sulked for a few minutes before looking someplace else for a free meal.




Copyright 2013 Tom Nelson
All Rights Reserved
Please ask before you use my photos




Sunday, April 14, 2013

Chocolate Lilies, Calypso Orchids and Camas


Wildflowers April 1-10

The season is moving quickly now. Each week more and more species are blooming. We took two trips to the Gorge and were delighted with what we saw.

 

April 3, 2013

 

Our first trip was to see if the Chocolate Lilies had bloomed. We made four stops all within a couple of miles of the Memaloose Hills.

Our first stop was to the Memaloose Rest Area on Interstate 84 at milepost 71.  On the trail not too far from the parking area there is a small clump of “Dutchman’s Britches."
(Click on any of the photos to enlarge them.)
Dutchman's Britches- (Dicentra cucullaria) J-161*.
These small dainty white flowers look something like their cousins the Bleeding Hearts. The flower’s white luminance makes them difficult to photograph accurately. They tend to become a white blur.

The Photo. Let’s talk for a moment about how this photo was made.The First step is positioning the camera.  I try to get down to the level of the flower, “Face-to-face”. The next step is to get as much of the flower as possible in focus. This means getting parallel to the plane of the flower. In this case that is easy: it is the plane of the stem. All of the britches are an equal distance from the camera.

Now the camera is a couple of inches above the ground. Luckily the sun is coming in behind us and so illumination is no problem. In order to increase the area that is in sharp focus I close the f-stop as low as possible, f/16 in this case. This picture was quick and easy.

Mission accomplished. We went over to the Historic Columbia River Highway, HCRH, and the Rowena Loops.  In our favorite patch of Garry Oaks the Chocolate Lilies were in full bloom, surrounded by emerging Poison Oak plants.

Chocolate Lily (Fritillaria lanceolata) J-27*

The deep purplish brown flower is mottled with a yellow-green. It sometimes has multiple flowers on a stalk.

The Photos. Positioning for these Chocolate Lily photos is the same in each case. I try to get slightly lower than the bell-shaped flower in order to see inside. I also try to get to one-side of the drooping stem so the viewer can see the flower’s structure. The problem with this position is trying to focus. Poison Oak is all over in this environment. I bring a garden kneeling-pad to kneel on. The LCD panel to see the camera’s view is essential, since looking through the view finder is not practical. My LCD folds out so I can look down on it. An alternative is to use a mirror to see the LCD screen.

I focus manually for these chocolate lilies because the camera gets confused about what to focus on. And once again I use the lowest possible f-stop, in this case f/22. That will increase the depth of field.

If you are just trying to record the fact that you saw these flowers it is possible to use a telephoto lens. That way you don’t have to get “down in the weeds”. But the problem is that often the depth of field is only a fraction of an inch deep. That means the front of the flower is in focus and the back is blurry.

Although I avoided the Poison Oak on this trip, I had not been so lucky in late March. Apparently I contacted it on my left hand and now, three weeks later, the sore is finally healing.

We moved on to the top of the Rowena Crest and stopped at Tom McCall Nature Preserve. There I found delphiniums or larkspur 

Larkspur (Delphinium nuttallianum) J-135 *


The deep blue-purple flowers are difficult for many digital camera sensors to see. The result is often an out-of-focus picture. Focusing on a flower center can side-step this problem.

After this brief stop we were off to the Memaloose Overlook, just a few miles west on the HCRH. As the crow flies, the Overlook is just above the Rest Area where we started out down on I-84. There were several new blooms of Indian Paint Brush. This plant was recently reclassified in the Orobanchaceae family, the same family as the parasitic Broomrape. It is believed that it gets some nourishment from the roots of nearby grasses. Thus, it is considered partially parasitic.
Indian Paint Brush (Castilleja miniata) J-521*

April 9

Our second trip was to a favorite place of Russ Jolley, the “Camas Patch” near Carson.Washington. We had heard that the Calypso Orchid (Calypso bulbosa) (J-50) was in bloom here. And the rumor was correct. It looks like a good year for this pink beauty.

Calypso Orchid (Calypso bulbosa) J-50
Photo. Most of the orchids we saw were 3-4 inches tall. Since my tripod would not set up that low, I set it aside and rested the camera on the corner of a ground cover. I could hold the camera still with my right hand and activate the shutter with a cable release in my left hand. (If you don’t have a cable release, use the camera’s self-timer.) I set the f-stop at f/22. The shutter speed was 1/60. For the next picture, I zoomed out to 18 mm. With Calypso Orchids particularly, the automatic focus gets very confused. I use manual focus and aim to get the “tongue” in focus. In post-production I use Photoshop to sharpen the focus even more.  

It is amazing that a pink flower can exist among the brown dead leaves of the forest floor and yet be so difficult to spot. Still this ability to remain hidden is a liability when it is stepped on. Any attempt to move or pick these flowers almost always kills them. They have tiny hair-like roots which are easily broken.  Among the many plants we found was this "bouquet."

The star attraction of the Camas Patch is the Camas Lily. The flower is two to three inches in diameter with delicate flower part. To photograph it, it is important to get the camera parallel to the petals.

Common Camas (Cammasia quamash) J -19*
Camas was an important plant to Native Americans. Its bulb was a food source and, when boiled, contained fructose for sweetening other foods.

Uprooted Camas bulb about one inch long
We found this bulb floating in a puddle in a recently disturbed area. 


*Refers to citations in Russ Jolley, Wildflowers of the Columbia Groge.

Copyright 2013 Tom Nelson
All Rights Reserved
Please ask before you use my photos