Even with gas prices possibly prohibitively high right now, summer is Road Trip Season, so let’s celebrate!
If the moth flying out of your wallet is telling you, “Not this year!” you can still enjoy learning about a few of Oregon’s best Roadside Attractions and make plans for the future!
Summer in the forest. Hopefully much cooler than in the valley. Always a special flower, Twinflower is an evergreen creeping groundcover one might call it a shrub or subshrub.
Ninety miles roundtrip seems like a long distance to travel in order to take a color picture of a certain wildflower, and the performance may seem to justify my being facetiously labeled as a nut by a certain Cave Junction wild canurican (not found in Webster: a flexible and handy term handed down to me by my wild canurican dad and my w.c. grandfather, especially applicable to explosively energetic wingless birds who never-the-less insist on flying in the face of any and all odds in order to keep this wobbly old world rocking and rolling to the desired rhythm).
We’ve met this week’s crawly before, but with the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the United States – we just have to revisit our National Bird (with some updates). Meet the Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).
On one of my recent journeys into the Rogue River National Forest, I managed to hit at least 10% of the *POTHOLES* on Abbott Creek Rd.
And yes, *POTHOLES* because they have gone far beyond “potholes” at this point. Some could swallow a small vehicle.
I’m about ready to unload a cat. He’s been with me for about 16 years and is as affectionate as can be, but he’s beginning to be a little too independent for his own good. I call him Inspector Moustache for a couple of reasons. The first is the white under his nose that looks like a mustache. The second is his cat curiosity.
Welcome back to Part II of Oregon’s iconic, coastal birds! If you missed Part I last week, go catch up, we’ll wait.
This week we’re headed up the coast to the North Split of Coos Bay (2 hr. 48 min. drive time) to meet Brandt’s Cormorant, Rhinoceros Auklet and White-winged Scoter.
I can remember back to my childhood days. My home in California had been built by a gentleman whose grandmother lived in England during the area known as the Cotswold’s. So, in landscaping the grounds around the home he used plants one would find in around English homes.
Some of our oddest, prettiest, and most interesting wildplants are to found among the saprophytes (that get their nourishment from decayed or decaying plant matter) and parasites (those that pilfer their food, or most of it, from living plants).