Every night, just as I lay my head on my pillow and slowly sink into a peaceful sleep, my eyes snap open. I think, “Where’s the flashlight!? Where’s the fire extinguisher and my whistle!?” Scoff if you will, but like it or not, beautiful Central Oregon, those glittering snow-capped volcanic peaks are magnificent scenery, but […]
Jim Anderson
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Rare, But Not Unheard Of
Our band-tailed pigeon
There I was, checking my email, as I do every morning, when up pops one from my good friend and fellow airman down the road, Sage Dorsey. (Every once in a while, Sage will strap me into the back seat of his beautiful Bellanca Scout and we’ll fly out over forest and rimrock looking for […]
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Doing It Right
Outback Adventure Riders tread respectfully through nature
This story, dear readers, is like many of the tales I’ve shared with you over the years, a story within a story—this one about off road vehicles (ORVs). In this case it started out as a love/hate thing. What removed the hate part was the provider of the tale, Wade Bryant, and the fact that […]
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Killing Wildlife for Family Fun. . .
. . .is no fun at all.
When I was a kid, “growin’ up on the farm” in Connecticut, my uncles and I had a Thanksgiving tradition of going waterfowl hunting early that morning. When we had our limit in Black Ducks—the East Coast equivalent of our Mallards— we’d return home mid-afternoon, clean our ducks and prepare them for my grandmother and […]
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Getting Out of Prison to Work with Nature
Not that many decades ago, chain gangs were dragged out to do work on roads and other jobs needing to be done. Men were, literally, chained to one another and forced to work like beasts of burden. Why not—some people reasoned—they’re bad guys in jail and nobody gets a free lunch. Jails and state prisons […]
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The Wondrous Vole
Central Oregon is home to remarkable little mammals known as the vole. Not a “mole” but a “vole.” Just a tiny, short-tailed mammal of no significance—about the size of your thumb—a mere tidbit to a coyote, or a tasty snack for a badger. But put 10,000 of them in one pasture and they will eat […]
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Lying In Wait
The ambush bug and its kin
There are about 200 species of insects in this part of the country that makes life on Earth very difficult for other insects: Ambush bugs. They have that very descriptive name because: a) They wait silently and unmoving for their prey to get close enough to grab them (literally), and, b) they blend in so […]
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Fort Rock
Heaven’s Gate
The other day, my daughter Kristin — born in Bend way back in the ’50s, and who went with me regularly to Fort Rock in North Lake County — sent me a text that I had the good fortune of reading while looking at Fort Rock. The quote’s from a book, “1000 Gifts,” by Ann […]
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Children of Summer
Margaret Anderson (no kin, darn it) couldn’t have picked a better title for her exquisite book about Jean Henri Fabre, the father of experimental entomology, than “Children of Summer.” And as far as I’m concerned, you couldn’t pick a better book to introduce to your children—and entertain yourself—than Anderson’s 95 pages of Fabre’s observations. From […]
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Goodbye, Lake Abert?
Little known, and unfortunately and ironically, dying of thirst
Lake Abert is dying, if not already dead. But unfortunately, unless you are a limnologist, serious birder or just love Oregon for everything it has, Lake Abert doesn’t seem to matter. To begin with, Lake Abert, Oregon’s only saltwater lake, is a desolate place that (once was) a popular stopover for migratory waterfowl. It is […]