Someone Goosed Me!

I took a drive to Bear Butte Lake yesterday, despite the pre-tornado wind velocity...had to scratch the itch ya know, see if anything is migrating...

Yep, it's official...the Canada geese have begun to move...I saw a small flock flying overhead on my way to the lake, and there were two small groupings on the lake as well. Sigh. I love autumn but we don't get any autumn here in S Dakota...at least 2/3rds of it is gobbled up by early winter...our first snowfall is predicted for tonight in fact...boo hiss! No Deb, I am not ready for winter #6...whhaaaaa...

Besides the geese, I saw lots of coots and this lone killdeer, which were all too far away to get a decent shot of.

Sea Scraps 'N Scapes

One more Pacific NW shout-out...The scraps are objects I took photos of on my last day of beach therapy in N Calif., at Clam Beach just a few miles N of my hometown...


One of countless crab shells seen on the beach...








Part of a good-sized jellyfish; I put my keys by it for perspective...there were a lot of these large purple jellyfish at a couple of the beaches in the area, not something normally seen...the tentacles are always missing, no doubt torn away by the rough ocean current...

Seaweed is also a regular sight...this bit looks like a sagging palm tree...



A shrimp shell...


Salt water bubbles, looks like a cutsie paw print...

A razor clam shell...the stuff clam chowder is made of...MMMM...

A gull print in the sand at Clam Beach...

Looks like whimbrels, which winter in CA...legs aren't yellow, bill isn't as long as a curlew's and it's too small...these were hanging out near the statue (below)...

This statue of a commercial fisherman is at the far end of the Woodley Island Marina in Eureka, CA, my hometown...

This memorial stone, near the statue, has the names of the commerical fishermen lost at sea carved on it...there are names on three of the four sides. The star stands for those whose bodies were never recovered.

Spearfish Canyon in Autumn

It's barely autumn, officially, but here in W. South Dakota, autumn is very short-lived unfortunately. Winter hogs the show...anyway, Sat. was supposed to be "the" day to see the colors in the canyon but the Huz had to work so we took a drive on Sun., a blustery, overcast morning...
Bridal Veil Falls can be seen from the road through the canyon...the fall colors came on strong during the 2 1/2 weeks I was gone...

Fall colors from the roadside traveling down the canyon...

A double-seated bench by Spearfish Creek, behind Spearfish Canyon Lodge about halfway down the canyon, in Savoy...

Another bench along the creek behind SC Lodge...the sun was trying to come out...

Sod House Ranch

While I was at the Malheur Nat'l Wildlife Refuge in E Oregon, south of Burns, I visited the historic Sod House Ranch. Established in 1872 by Dr. Hugh Glenn, under the management of Peter French. The French-Glenn Livestock Co. reached 140,000 acres over 25 yrs., and at the time was one of the largest cattle ranches in the US...

This is the original homestead, the first bldg. constructed in 1886. The foreman and his wife lived here until the ranch house was completed. It no longer exists.

The two-story bunkhouse, with the long barn in the background. The bunkhouse slept 10-12 buckaroos upstairs in beds that were casket-like boxes filled with straw and their bedrolls. Those cottonwood trees were planted in 1894.

An old wagon near the bunkhouse...

Original corral fencing still stands...the original homestead and carriage house are in the background.

The Flowers of a NW September

Here's the rest of the flower photos I took during my trip to N. California...

I took this photo back on the 11th, at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in E Oregon...it's a rough blazingstar, surprisingly not as showy as the tenpetal blazingstar found here in the Black Hills (posted on 8-24).

The fuchsias have been growing in my parents' back yard since I can remember...

Marigolds in my parents' backyard...

Coast buckwheat was growing along the roadside near Samoa Beach, just across the Humboldt Bay from Eureka, CA, my hometown...

Ice-plant with yellow flowers was also growing along the road to Samoa Beach, between Humboldt Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

...A really pretty dahlia in my folks' back yard...Dad is the gardener...

You can't get more orange than the nasturtium! These are growing in my folks' back yard also...

The hydrengea bush growing in my folks' front yard has different variations of blue blooms...

This looks like blood sage, a salvia... growing in front of the head-quarters of the Humboldt Bay Nat'l Wildlife Refuge just south of my hometown...

Silverweed, a rose, creeps along on sandy shorelines...I saw this at Clam Beach, not far north of my hometown.

This is a red ice-plant flower. I saw this at the Arcata marshes...

Fried on Friday

I'm home! I'm zapped but so glad to be back; the Black Hills looked so gorgeous as I drove along the eastern side of them today...so good to be in my own home, own 'hood, with my hubby...not that I didn't have a great trip, but you know, home sweet home...

I was going to do a Thoughts on Thursday post yesterday to respond to comments on my Oregon and N. Calif. posts, but yesterday afternoon before my mom and I landed in Billings, Montana for the night, I came down with a migrane and didn't get the laptop out. So this is my T on T on Friday instead...

I wish I could say that Eagle Point, the town we lived in in Oregon, is as pleasant as my photos depicted that I posted on 9-17. The points of interest are nice, yes, but overall the town is crowded and I don't miss living there. I do miss my brother, though, who lives there, and my friend Arlene, whom I stayed with.

If you've never seen the Pacific NW coastline, you must, must, must!! From the beautiful beaches with large rocks jutting out of the water to the fresh seafood, the sea life...lighthouses, etc etc...it's wonderful...and the redwoods, they are incredible...

On 9-20 I posted the photos of the two beautiful Victorian houses...Eureka, like San Francisco, has many Victorian homes in it and surrounding towns...the huz and I have stayed in two Victorian bed and breakfasts in the past, really awesome.

About that elk photo... the area was covered in a low layer of fog that morning, I did not touch up the photo to look that way. It was too awesome for words, seeing the two large bull elk, one chasing the other away from the female 'harem'...all in the foggy setting of the morning...

Last but not least, thanks Tucker for helping me re-ID the 'plain titmouse' I posted on 9-21 as a black phoebe...the photo of the black phoebe in the field guide is not a great example...I looked up photos of the phoebe on Google and I see that you're right. Thanks!

Sea Lions, Lighthouses, and Seals, Oh My!

Mom and I stopped at the marina in Crescent City, CA about an hour after seeing the Roosevelt elk yesterday morning...

Battery Point Lighthouse in Crescent City, CA, can be seen from the marina there...the lighthouse was first lit in 1856...In 1964 a 9.2 magnitude earthquake, the strongest ever recorded in the N Hemisphere, struck in Alaska, creating a tsunami...the waves reached nearly 600 mph and the crests were up to 20 feet high...it hit Crescent City but miraculously, the lighthouse was undamaged and only 11 people in the small coastal town were killed.

Oh the life...this male sea lion seemed to have dibs on this particular dock...I love this pose...a human got too close and he dived into the water, but soon came right back to this spot.

Two male sea lions jockeying for position...while cormorants pretend not to notice...

There were also cute, spotted harbor seals at the end of the same dock...what bums...

This is the Coquille River Lighthouse in Bandon, Oregon, where mom and I stopped yesterday for fish and chips by the marina there. The lighthouse is 103 yrs old.

Roosevelt Elk

Mom and I hit the road this morning, and it didn't take long for nature to make our day. About 40 miles north of my hometown, in the Redwood Nat'l Forest near Orick, CA, there are protected Roosevelt elk roaming around. I had been real disappointed not to see any on my way to my hometown on the 14th. Upon leaving today, however, we saw this bull elk chase a smaller bull elk away from his harem. Then he threw back his head and bugled his victory. The gals were bedded down low in the tall grass in the heavy fog bank.

Perching Birds in No Cal

You didn't think I'd go without taking photos of perching birds, now did you? I'm doing tomorrow's post tonight since I'm heading back towards home in the morning...
An imm. starling by Humboldt Bay, in Fields Landing (just south of my hometown)...

A house sparrow near Humboldt Bay, at Fields Landing...

A white-crowned sparrow at the Humboldt Bay NWR...

A female Cassin's finch in wild blackberry briars at the refuge...this photo came out just like this w/o any touching up, I think it's kinda cool...

A scrawny mule deer doe at the refuge...

A song sparrow, also at HBNWF...

...An immature red-shouldered hawk?...definitely smaller than a red-tailed hawk...near the HBNWR.

A cedar waxwing at the Arcata Bottoms...got those in S Dakota...

A cute little tree froggie perched on a shrub branch at the Arcata Bottoms...

A plain titmouse on the edge of a marsh in Arcata, CA. (Correction: this is a black phoebe; thanks Tucker for pointing that out!)

We saw a few hummingbirds, hard to get any photos of...this was the best I could do. Looks like a female rufous hummer. Arcata Bottoms.

Pacific NW Water Birds

My CA sister (the other sis lives in Great Britain)..and I have taken a couple drives, along the shoreline of Humboldt Bay and to a couple wildlife conservatories in the area...here's the water birds we found...


My most exciting find...a black-crowned night heron! Yessss! It's belly-deep in swampy water.


A brown pelican, that was surrounded by gulls and terns in the town of King Salmon on the shore of Humboldt Bay...

We saw a lot of terns at the bay also...a royal tern I'm guessing...

A double-crested cormorant sunning its wings...

This great egret came in for a landing as I was photo-graphing a nearby great blue heron, at the Woodley Island Marina in Eureka, CA.

Ok, this is possibly a mature Calif. gull...

This looks just like a first-year California gull, but then there are 2-3 other gull species that look like this too. Naturally, a gull can't just be a gull.