We had a lovely bird visiting the feeder this afternoon, the Northern Flicker. He didn't stay long as a miserable magpie came along and spooked him. I only got a few shots of him all of which were in the shade but thought I'd share one anyway as its' such a beautiful bird.
4 Comments
We see them all the time wandering past the fence but this is the first time I've seen the deer in the yard, no doubt because we didn't have any shrubs worth scoffing last year. I told Sarah yesterday that they were 'eyeing up' our shrubs and while watching the champions league football this afternoon a doe and fawn jumped the fence to take a closer look at those leaves. They weren't shy in coming right up to the window too before jumping into the neighbours yard for a while. Once back in ours the doe jumped out but the fawn wanted to stay a bit longer, eventually the snorting of the doe made it jump out and follow her back into the woods. The main image is 4 slices from 4 different shots of the doe jumping out. The gallery has captioned shots of the visit which was lovely to watch from the balcony and even better when they saw me but (because I stayed very still) just carried on with their grazing.
We spent a little time out front this afternoon preparing for the 31st, this year the kids can run the gauntlet of dangling things all along the pathway thanks to the frame I built to reroute the gutter earlier this year. On arrival there's a juicy spider almost as big as them waiting by the door.
After a couple of days at home I've gone through the Oregon photos and laid them out in the full trip following the usual format, so to see our third road trip in 2016 in full, click here to go to the detailed page.
At last we got to see some sunset over the pacific, not the most impressive of sunsets but sunset just the same. The weather this morning at Newport was horrible so we headed south along the Pacific Coast Highway until we found blue skies and sunshine. We stopped off at Thors Well and watched huge waves blow up and out of this incredible tidal 'blowhole'. We also stopped off at several beaches in Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area which is all stunning. We had lunch in the small town of Florence and spent the afternoon on the sand messing arround in the water and sitting on a driftwood log until the tide came and chased us away. We drove back to Newport for dinner and suddenly the break is over. It has been great but all too short, tomorrow I'll be driving Sarah back to Portland for her flight home and I'll be making my way by road..maybe directly or maybe via somewhere if the weather looks promising.
We were up 'up and at em' this morning waiting for the breakfast place to open. Once we had eaten we made the 5 minute drive into Newport town centre and parked in the harbour area, we walked along empty streets and watched the seals fighting over places on the moorings. After the harbour we crossed the bridge and visited the State Park on the south side where we walked the dunes. A quick visit to a long jetty kept us up to speed on the crab catchers who lined the sides jockeying for position like the seals on the moorings.
A coffee break in in town was followed by a visit to Yaquina Bay 'Outstanding Natural Area' and the beach and lighthouse there after which we headed a little further north to Depoe Bay and walked the shops and beachfront there. Lunch was a light snack back in Newport in the lovely Nye District which in places resembles a small cornish village. After hitting the shops in the Nye District we returned to the hotel to scrub up ready for a chinese dinner and a bit of sunset, it's been another great day on the coast. Great day today. We set out from Portland this morning heading north west to Astoria where we walked around the harbour area and pier 39. We stopped in at an old cannery for a coffee and cake and other spots for photos including this long exposure of an old cannery with the sun just lighting it up perfectly. We then made the drive south along the pacific coast stopping off at various places along the way. It was a grey day but that didn't matter at all, we talked to people on a long jetty catching Dungeness crabs with drop nets and an old lady who told us all about the salmon fishing in Nehalem Bay. Our hotel in Newport is right on the beach and our view of the pacific is stunning so it's a quiet night in the local restaurant and on the balcony tonight and then exploring the area tomorrow and Sunday.
Late last night I set out from Calgary to make the 13 hour drive to Portland, Oregon so Sarah and I could begin (yet another) short break. The drive to Portland was uneventful, I went via the Crowsnest Pass to Cranbrook, British Columbia where I grabbed a last minute room at a motel for a few hours. In the morning I dropped down into Idaho and followed a wonderfully scenic route through Bonners Ferry, Sandpoint and Coeur d'Alene. From there it was into Spokane, Washington then down into Portland. I arrived in good time and booked into the hotel before collecting Sarah from the airport, we went straight from there to a 'Famous Daves' restaurant where American sized portions of ribs, chicken, pulled pork, spud wedges, beans, coleslaw, corn on the cob, cornbread and fried bread made a ludicrous evening meal. Those who have read more of our exploits will be familiar with the huge dustbin lid of food as we have eaten in 'Famous Daves' in Branson, Missouri a few times back in 2007/8 (yes it is literally a dustbin lid). Anyway, this phone pic was the only shot of the journey so far as the weather was not conducive to image making, although northern Idaho tested that theory with it's stunning display of autumn colour but the lack of light meant the camera stayed in the bag for the whole journey. Tomorrow we head west to the coast and along the Pacific Coast Highway to Newport, Oregon where we will spend the next 3 nights exploring the area before heading back to Portland on Monday. I'll try to post more images along the way as usual but it is dependent on the quality of the internet connection on the coast.
With the sun moving further and further south everyday our supply of incredible sunsets is slipping away until next summer. Tonight we managed to get another truly incredible display thanks to low clouds right across the prairie sky. The main shot is picked from the middle of the sequence but the gallery below shows the whole sequence in order so, click the first image (left side) and scroll through to see the complete series which took place in just seven minutes.
|
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
All
Archives
January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
|