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Saturday, May 16, 2015

Little Balls of Fluff!

Don't forget to let me know if you want to join in on the reading challenge I'm starting.  I've gotten about 8 people involved which is exciting but the more the merrier.  I officially started my challenge year when I reached Canada and am already reading for one of the squares!  Updates on that to come in a bit.

I realized that I have too many cool things to share for just one post (this is a good thing!) so I guess I'll start with the most recent and work backwards.

Right before I left, my friend took me out to a sanctuary to see some great grey owl babies.  Great grey owls are one of my favorite birds, if not my favorite -- they are such huge, majestic birds and to me, seem the epitome of 'wise old owl'.  I catch sightings of them around NE Oregon periodically but have never seen the babies before.  Oh how stinkin' cute!  Little balls of fluff!  We found all 4 babies and their mom and I managed to get somewhat decent pictures of 2 of the kids and the mom.  Not only were the owls super cool, but the manager of this sanctuary takes great pleasure in 'his' forests...for a plant geek like myself, it was just a beautiful, pristine sanctuary of native plants...  It really was an amazing time and I'm glad that even though I didn't feel like I had the time to go amidst the mad scramble leading up to leaving for 5.5 months, I made the time.  There's a lesson in there somewhere... ;)








In all my years in the forests of NE Oregon, I've never seen a blue-flowered anenome...only white.  So pretty.


After seeing the fluff babies, Sue took me up to the top of the property which not only has an amazing view (no pictures of that because I didn't have the right lens with me) but the spring flowers that normally aren't around until June were blooming in full splendor because of the dry, early spring.  I've included just a few shots of my favorites.

Every color of Castilleja spp imaginable...red, yellow, peach...




And as a bonus...when we were leaving, I saw these flowers that I wanted to take a shot of.  Flying around, completely undisturbed by me was a hummingbird moth (officially a white-lined sphinx moth according to Sue).  How I got this capture was complete luck...they truly fly as fast as a hummingbird.  But luck or not, I'm pretty pleased with this shot.  And until I saw the photo, I never noticed the spider!


I'm not a superstitious person.  But the first year we were in Canada, as I was leaving town to head north, I saw a great grey and got some pretty incredible shots of him/her.  It wasn't an easy field season that year but it was peaches compared to what happened last year.  I'm sort of hoping that the great greys are my luck symbol and that seeing so many the weekend before I left means things will go smoothly this year!  One can hope.

Have you seen any amazing critters lately?  Share please!
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Now playing: My Sharona by The Knack


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10 comments:

  1. melissaMay 18, 2015 at 8:02 AM

    eeep! little balls of fluff indeed!
    they're so stinkin' cute - thanks for sharing!

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    1. RachelMay 18, 2015 at 11:22 AM

      My pleasure! These little guys were about 10 days old if I heard correctly...amazing!

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  2. kristieinbcMay 19, 2015 at 9:33 AM

    Those baby owls are adorable! What a treat to be able to see them. Things are blooming earlier than usual here as well. That was an awesome capture of the hummingbird moth! You asked me how I got that picture of the hummingbirds I posted on my blog. It might be hard to believe, but they were taken on my iPhone 6. The hummingbirds are so caught up in getting their food that I can stand right by the feeder and take their pictures and they don't even notice. I hope you are right about the great grey owls being a sign of a good field season. I'm not superstitious either, but a happy coincidence is worth hoping for.

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    1. RachelMay 19, 2015 at 2:20 PM

      Thanks Kristie -- at first I was worried about being so close to the kids to take pictures (maybe 50-60 feet or so), but the mom was pretty cool about it all and apparently 'knows' the manager who did the 'tour' pretty well so we weren't disturbing anything.

      Interesting that you took that hummingbird shot with your iphone! what i find so impressive about the one I took is that I do everything manual focus and so it just so happened that it came into the flower that I happened to be focused on. split second luck because there was no time to focus and take the shot as fast as that guy was moving! ;)

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  3. Denise May 19, 2015 at 11:58 AM

    I find owls so fabulous. I've never seen an owl as clearly as you have here. Wonderful! We saw a gorgeous string of white pelicans while we were up north a few days ago. Also, what we believe were several sweet little salt marsh harvest mice. Oh, and my first violet green swallow!

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    1. RachelMay 19, 2015 at 2:24 PM

      Owls are incredible...I hope that one day you do find yourself in a situation where you get close enough to just watch them...i like taking pictures but I also just love to sit and watch their movements.

      Pelicans...love those birds although I'm not sure I've ever seen a white pelican?? And I had to look up the violet green swallow since I'd not heard of that species (love birds, but not a bird expert!)...nice find! Very pretty bird!

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  4. AnneMay 19, 2015 at 9:11 PM

    Amazing picture of the hummingbird moth! And the babies are just too adorable... those eyes, that fluff! White pelicans hang out in Ladd Marsh in the spring.... one day when you get to stay near home you'll see them there.

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    1. RachelMay 19, 2015 at 9:43 PM

      Yeah - I have a feeling I'll be blown away by all the stuff at Ladd March year-round once I'm around and have time to visit more. on the plus side, Sue said she'd go out with me whenever so I have a new guide! And yes...very cool that white pelicans are there...I'm pretty sure I've never seen them so maybe next spring I'll be able to catch a glimpse!

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  5. kateMay 24, 2015 at 7:36 PM

    Baby owls!!!!! I'm sure you were talking about important things in here, but I am totally distracted by the cuteness that is baby owls. Sorry!

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    1. RachelMay 24, 2015 at 9:14 PM

      Yeah, I'm pretty sure there isn't anything as important as baby owls!

      Delete

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