I have an old National Geographic article from November ’99 with a story in it about an Archaeoraptor, a so-called fossil eventually found to be a fake. According to another article written in USA Today, the so-called “missing link” dinosaur/bird is actually two animals pieced together—either as an honest mistake made by its discoverers in […]
Natural World
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Oregon Legislative “Busy Work”
In 1927, when L.L. Patterson was our governor, the Western meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) was chosen as the state bird by Oregon’s school children in a poll sponsored by the Oregon Audubon Society. It’s a familiar songbird of open country across the western two-thirds of the North American continent. It lives in Oregon on both the dry […]
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What’s goin’ on, Ma Nature…?
There’s something fishy going on with Mother Nature. I’m not an expert on bird behavior or comings and goings of wild animals, but the appearance of a Common Nighthawk over in The Swamp (Portland) last week threw me a curveball. Then there’s the complete absence of house sparrows (or English sparrows) at my domicile, the […]
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Why Government Environmental Agencies Matter
Watching over us and our homes
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is a state agency designed to help keep our planet Earth—and us—healthy. For one, DEQ encourages Oregonians to take part in a nationwide effort to collect unused, unwanted or expired medications so they can be disposed of properly. The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event took place last […]
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Natural World: Don’t step on the eggs!
There are two ground-nesting birds common to Central Oregon that need help when it comes to surviving during nesting time: the killdeer and common nighthawk. Both lay eggs (almost always four) that are all but invisible because they look like the pebbles surrounding them—often getting mushed by people, cattle or wildlife. Recently, while leaving Sisters […]
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Natural World: An unexpected encounter
The last thing the people at Lowe’s in Bend expected to see last week was a lone common poorwill (a bird very closely related to a nighthawk) standing in the middle of the garden center. You have to admit, that bundle of feathers with red eyes just doesn’t fit into a bird category—unless someone knows […]
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Natural World: Lights out for birds!
In the mid ’70s, Oregon’s environmental watchdog governor, Tom McCall, started the 1,000 Friends of Oregon. Those were heady days for old-growth forest management, water usage, fuel shortages and the use of electricity. McCall advocated the shutting down of unnecessary lights after sundown, and in his usual sledge-hammer style of making suggestions, targeted the businesses […]
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Natural World: It can be tough to spot a pygmy owl, but sighting one is well worth the effort
Ken Hashagen, president of East Cascades Audubon Society of Bend, and I often get together to discuss bluebirds, kestrels, Great Gray Owls, eagles and other boring topics. “Boring!?” I should say not. After just a few minutes we’re waving our arms about and I can feel my blood pressure building up as we get into […]
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Natural World: From Marsh Hawks to Northern Harriers
There was a time in the long-long-ago of “bird-watching” when today’s Northern Harrier was known as the Marsh Hawk, because the low-flying, small bird- and mammal-eating raptor could almost always be seen in western marshes, flitting along just a few inches above the foliage, always looking down and rarely where it was going. Those were […]
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Natural World: Owls, owls and more owls
Recently I’ve had some interesting phone calls to my home and travelin’ phones, giving me cause to suspect the alien barred owl population (from the eastern United States and Canada) may be on the rise, and people are confusing them with our native great gray owls. Great grays are owls of the open spaces in […]
