Cool Coastal WeatherT

Today, to escape the heat (around 100) we packed a lunch and headed out to the coast.

At McKerricher State Park, in Fort Bragg, the seals were out on the rocks.  The tide was out (but coming back in) and people were checking out the tide pools.  The fog was getting ready to come in.  After a walk on the boardwalk and a picnic lunch, we headed further down the coast. 

There were plenty of flowers out, too, in a variety of colors.  The wild radish was plentiful in white, pink and yellow.  There was a wild geranium of some kind, brodeia, ice plant and some composites I'm not familiar with.

We wound up going further than originally planned, but with the fog it was all cool.  And that was the idea.  When we came back into the Hwy 101 corridor, the temperature was bearable, but with each mile we moved north it got hotter.  It was still in the 90s when we got back to the house and inside was hotter since it had been closed up for the day.  The fans came on and the temperature started coming down.

Not sweltering through the day as it heated up made a big difference - instead of sticky sweaty clothes, we came into the heat as it was starting to abate, so it's much better than last night.

It's different here

It has been really different trying to get used to the idea of planning my internet time.  On the other hand, it's very pleasant sitting under the roofed picnic area, looking across the shaded grass to the Thompson Falls dam and little island populated by Canada geese and a swan.  It's hard to ignore a large white bird twice the size of the geese.

 

 

And talk about a bumper crop of Canada geese - we saw these adults shepherding a gaggle of goslings across a back street to the water

Each trip to town we carry the computer so we can check out email, pay bills, do a little research, and so on.  So far, we get back to the "rancho" only to realize there was one more thing (at least) that we meant to do online.  It hasn't yet been anything major or serious, but it is a bit frustrating.

It's been hot here - in the mid 90s with medium to high humidity, so it feels hotter than it is.  And being from Grand Lake, it feels worse because we're not used to the 90s and 100s (we'll see some of that later this summer).  But, it really cools down at night.  We got from air conditioning & fans during the day to blankets and sometimes heat in the early morning hours before the sun starts warming things up again.

And the days are really long.  While it isn't really daylight at 5 in the morning, it is light enough outside to distinguish details, and when we go to bed at 10 or 10:30 it's still fairly light out.  It sort of reminds me of the trip to Anchorage several years ago.

We've got a little bit of gardening started, some lettuce, green onions, radishes, zucchini and tomatoes, and I've put some herbs in a window box on the porch rail. 

To give you an idea of the country around here, these photos were taken between Thompson Falls and the "rancho"

 

 

 

 

So, that's it for now.

 

Stay tuned!

Moose Close Call

This afternoon, we put Max out for an afternoon relief break.  As I started to busy myself with something I heard a woof from the side of the house (his trolley runs along that side of the house).  Before I could get to him he started barking more seriously.  I went out to bring him in and ...

Oh CRAP!  Not more than 20-30 feet from him, in the next yard (remember the only fences in our subdivision are low and open to allow flow of wildlife.  Of course, I yelled "Max!"  Of course he wouldn't/couldn't hear me.  Then the moose started moving toward him.  Still on the other side of the fence, but we're talking a fence almost low enough for me to cross over and an animal whose belly hangs well above that same fence.  It is not an obstacle to a moose.

For about a tenth of a second I thought about going down the stairs to grab his tether and bring him back, then survival kicked in.  I yelled, I clapped my hands.  I yelled some more.

Since yelling was doing no good, thank goodness I remembered the air horn, a portable canned air boat horn.  By the time I grabbed it from just inside the back door to when I got back outside, the moose had come closer. 

At least it was only a bull.  This time of year it's the cows with calves that are the most unforgiving. 

At one point Max was within less than a foot of our fence and the moose was within 2-3 feet of it on the other side.  I blasted that little air horn.  At first the moose didn't react.  Then he moved a little past Max and squatted the tiniest little bit and peed a little bit.  Maybe that was his bookmark for unfinished business, maybe it was a message to not stop here.  Then he moved on. 

Whew!  For years I have been terrified that one day we'll get out there too late, or not be able to do anything but watch.  This was probably the closest we've come so far.  As much as I love Max, I'm not going to go down and do hand-to-hoof combat with a half-ton pissed of powerful animal.

No photos - it was much too important to convince that bull moose to move along than to get his photo.

Pelicans are back

Years and years ago I saw my first white pelican, back when the park's bird checklist had it listed as "accidental".  There were 5 of them that summer.  The next summer they came back with a couple of friends.  Then there were 15, then each year more, until, one summer there were more than 100 where the Colorado River enters Shadow Mountain.  I don't think there have been that many in years since then.  Now, each spring we look for them to arrive. 

This morning, on our way to town, we saw a single pelican in the area, over by the islands in Shadow Mountain Lake.  On our way home there were about a half dozen.  Over the next few days I expect we'll see more and more.  I'll get a photo tomorrow - Max had to say home today, so we'll give him a good ride tomorrow and we'll go down to where the pelicans are, and we'll see if there are any yet at Windy Gap, near Granby.

 

We also saw 4 of them in the air in Granby, over the little pond by the railroad overpass.  One of them was a male in breeding plumage -  I could see the "

 

In the news last night there was an interesting piece about pelicans on the Front Range.  Somebody dumped a bunch of goldfish in Teller Lake, near Boulder.  The goldfish thrived.  In the news the goldfish were so thick it was almost more fish than water.  The Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife has been considering how they should clear out the goldfish.  One of the options was electroshock, where the use electric probes to shock the fish and pick out the "bad" fish, leaving the good ones to come to in a little bit.  Another was to poison the lake, then after the water was safe to restock with "good" fish.  Well, a bunch of pelicans have come in and are taking care of the problem.  They arrived at Teller Lake and are eating the goldfish.  One of the lake's neighbors showed how there are not very many fish to see at the lake now.  Sometimes Nature takes care of things in a better way than we would. 

Here's a photo of the 3 that were napping & grooming.  I never saw the bill on the one in the middle - it was deep asleep or ignoring the goings on around it.  The other 2 have the 3"x3"breeding bump on their bills.  Both male & female get them during the breeding season, then they fall off.  With the telephoto lens they look a LOT closer to that shoreline than they really are.

Bear Tracks!

This morning, while Tom was doing some spring wake-up tasks for the motorhome, he noticed some tracks.   He thought they might be bear tracks and came in to tell me about them. 

 

When I went out to look at them, camera in hand, I immediately went back for a ruler.  These were not wimpy little bear tracks - they were good size tracks and I wanted to document just how big.  The front paw is almost a full 5 inches across.  And the back foot is 8 inches long with the claws; 7 without.  It had just walked from (across?) the road and through the yard, right next to the motorhome, headed deeper into Columbine.  I think it's fairly safe to assume it came out of the park.

 

I think there's a good chance it's a large male.  A rule of thumb bear hunters use is to measure the width of the front paw, add one, and that's how long (tall) your bear is.  So 5 +1 gives me a 6 foot bear that might weigh around 250.  Actually it's probably lighter since it's still spring, and a lot of their natural food sources haven't sprouted/bloomed/fruited for them and they're still looking to start regaining the weight they lost over the winter.

 

I'm hoping this bear finds some good natural food sources.  We keep our garbage can in the garage, which is normally a safe practice.  If the bears get hungry enough they will break doors to get to the trash can.  There have been some interesting reports on the news recently, including one where the bear came into a garage (with a trash can) and accidentally closed the door it had used to come in.  Then it broke the overhead door window (and more) to get out of the garage.

 

 

Getting the mail

I remember when getting the mail was a matter of going to the front door and grabbing whatever was in the box on the wall just outside the door.  Other times it was on the floor in front of the door, if there was a mail slot.  But all that was years ago, in a different life.   From the time I left San Francisco in 1979, mail has been as close as across the yard, in a box on a post, to a few miles away at the post office. 

When I left the city behind I also left behind (in many ways) the “delivered right to your door” that city people take for granted.  We have to know whether a package will be shipped through the US Mail, or a parcel service before we provide an address.  The post office will only deliver to our PO Box; the parcel services will deliver only to our door.  At the beginning, before we learned the key words to use, it caused a lot of problems.  We didn’t get the payment coupon book for our mortgage because the office people with the mortgage company didn’t “get” that we don’t get mail at our house.  When it seemed like it had been too long I called and they told me it had been returned as undeliverable.  They admitted they had sent it to the street address.  I explained, again, that we only get mail at the PO Box, and they got it updated.  Had I not called, we could have lost the house before it was even ours.  Again and again I have to tell businesses that we do not get mail at the street address.  For the most part the person I’m talking to doesn’t really understand. 

Why am I talking about this?  Because on our very indirect drive home from the post office today, we enjoyed Pasque flowers at their peak (in the place they bloom early) and saw a marmot, as well as a cow and yearling moose pair up a different road.  How boring it would be to get our mail at our door.  That short mile and a half (more if we wander) has so many possibilities for exciting things to see.

 

Osprey Synchonized bathing

I told you yesterday I'd be posting more photos to Flickr and the osprey video to YouTube.  Both are done.  The link to that video is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4kqLlKWVV4

I hope you enjoy it.  If you have a camera, carry it with you.  You can always decide not to take a photo, but if you left it home you have no choice.  That's my biggest secret ... really.

 

Critters!

I made a run to Granby today to get some stuff for tomorrow's cooking effort.  I'm going to make ravioli - meat and veggie versions.  I'm cheating with the sauce & bought a couple of jars of Classico pasta sauce, making sure they both contain no meat.  We'll be going to a potluck with meat eaters, at least one vegetarian and some folks who like both kinds of food.

On the way home I saw a variety of wildlife.  First it was the pronghorn antelope.  They sometimes show up near the base of Coffee Divide (we drop from our area to a lower level where Granby is surrounds by ranch lands) in the spring through fall months.  There was a small herd, with a couple of the females closer to the road than the rest of them.

Then, as I came past one of the marinas, I glanced to my right and saw a Great Blue Heron hunting along the edge of Lake Granby.  I think it may have been a male in breeding plumage - see the long plumes on his head?  I got off a few shots and continued toward home. 

 

A little further along was a flock of Western Grebes.  We first saw them yesterday.  Tom tried to count them yesterday and there was a group of about 40, another group of at least 30, and some others scattered between the larger groups.  Neither of us remembers ever seeing more than just a handful at a time before.  I'll keep checking on them - I'd love to see their mating dance.  Of course, they could be just resting on their way to their breeding area.  I can hope, though.

Then, the most special sight of the day ... a pair of ospreys bathing along the edge of the lake.  I got a few still shots and a short video.  I'll post the video on YouTube once I go through it and see if I need to do any editing.  The funny thing is, I've never caught them bathing before, but yesterday we saw one osprey bathing in the same spot.  Right after than I saw one dive and come out with a fish, but the photo came out too blurry to share.

The "pelicans" I thought I saw turned out to be leftover piles of snow along the edge of the lake that were just about the right size ... but, still no pelicans yet this spring.

 

All on all, not bad for a return from the grocery store, wouldn't you say?