Natural World

An ancient juniper falls to an unknown hand,It once stood as an Old Friend to myriad wanderers that needed a place
to rest, a place to search for food, a place for shelter, and a place
to just hang out.
When Freemont, the "Pathfinder," and Kit Carson
wandered though here in the 1840s, my Old Friend was green and robust.
Over the ensuing years it survived countless wildfires. Native
Americans and early pioneers somehow passed it by while looking for
firewood to cook their game or warm their feet.
It is now nothing
but a pile of dead wood, cast aside for some reason known to only the
person who cut it down – the delightful old juniper snag on the east
side of Highway 20, near the irrigation pivots across from the eight
mile post.

American Bald Eagle adult. Come see them at Eagle Watch 2008.If you're a cross-country skier, snowboarder and looking for something
else to do on your weekend, here it is: Eagle Watch 2008. It's an
opportunity to see lots of eagles and hawks close up, learn about birds
in general and raptors in particular. All you have to do is set aside
the weekend of Feb. 23-24 and head for PGE's Round Butte Observatory on
Lake Billy Chinook where eagles gather for an annual nesting and
feeding frenzy. How's that for easy?

Thirteen years ago, Paul Patton,
a remarkable Oregon Parks and Recreation Department manager who looks
after parks in the Madras area introduced the first Eagle Watch in
cooperation with PGE, Warm Springs Federation and a bunch of other good
people.

Spotted Towhee willing to be tallied while pigging out on free food. If you're stuck indoors and wish you could get out to do some birding, don't feel bad. The Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is about to happen! For four days, Feb. 15 to 18, you can count every bird on your feeder. You will not only have a lot of fun doing it, but the results are vital to the welfare of birds in your area.
The GBBC is a partnership between Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, and sponsored in part by Wild Birds Unlimited. The annual four-day event engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It's free, fun, and easy-and it helps the birds.

House finch, or soon to be killer diller bird killer…? So there I was, sitting at my kitchen table watching the marvelous
assortment of birds on my feeder (including three beautiful orange,
white and black spotted towhees) when all of a sudden all "you know
what" broke loose!
A small, innocuous-looking – albeit belligerent –
male house finch decided the feeder was his and went into a tizzy,
attacking bigger and littler birds. Everyone scattered to get out of
the way as the combatant finch exercised his territorial imperative.
(A
moment while I digress (again). Stay away from bird feed with Milo in
it. It is nothing but a "filler" that costs you more and ends up on the
ground under your feeder, which may or may not be good for your soil.)

I just finished reading a short story about a firefly and a spider by Bruce Sterling in his paperback, Visionary in Residence, that is just too good to keep to myself.
For
all my dear friends who read my column and jump out of their skin when
confronted by a spider speeding across the floor – or dropping in for
lunch – Sterling's neat little caricature will help you with your fear
of spiders. Honest! And with that, please let me help you to enjoy
yourself as much as possible and read on…
First, about the fear
of spiders…There is nothing wrong with jumping out of your britches
when a spider suddenly – or even slowly – appears in your life. Spiders
are, from a human being's standpoint, the original "creepy crawly
critters."
 

OK, time to quit complaining about the smoke, the cost, loss of timber, damages to the watershed and Cascades ecosystem, the lost scenic values and all the other negative things about wildfire. It's over; it's done. There ain't no goin' back. As of the end of September, no one seemed to have an idea how […]