Cascade Raptor Center

The Cascade Raptor Center is a local non-profit that provides medical care to injured or orphaned birds of prey as well as educational programs about the important role these birds play in nature. Perhaps you've seen their ambassador birds at a local event or heard about their work rehabilitating injured birds and releasing them back …

Taylor’s Checkerspot Butterfly: Endangered Species Mural

I love all of Cottage Grove's murals because they tell the story of Cottage Grove, from Buster Keaton and Opal Whitely, to the numerous historic downtown scenes, just walking through Cottage Grove gives a sense of our history. The latest mural added to our collection -- of the Taylor's Checkerspot Butterfly -- tells another part …

Changing habitat

“Plants have far more enemies than can be counted… [They] cannot run away from the endless legions of attackers that comprise an unrelenting menace.” —Hope Jahren, Lab Girl, p 104 It was by pure coincidence that I began reading Lab Girl by geobiologist Hope Jahren – which is part memoir, part botany primer – while …

Finley Never Disappoints

  One winter, many years ago, I was up on the OSU campus in Corvallis. I'd just gotten into my car and was starting to head home when a humongous flock of Canada geese flew over head. In awe, I pulled my car over, rolled down my windows and watched. I had never seen so …

Pick it up. Pack it out.

While walking at Row River Nature Park recently, we found a baby Canada Goose that had become tangled in fishing line. Its parents swam nearby as we freed it, but I'm not optimistic about its survival. It did swim off and join its family, but the encounter left it tired and perhaps injured. It wasn't …

Willamette Fish Hatchery: Oakridge

The Willamette Fish Hatchery sits just outside of Oakridge.  I can't tell you how many times I've driven down Highway 58 without noticing the road sign pointing toward the hatchery. Luckily, at some point it captured my attention, and the hatchery ended up on my "things to see" list. When we stopped by the hatchery last fall, I wasn't exactly …

Captivating Darlingtonia

Plants that eat bugs. Just the thought of them and I am instantly transported back to third grade, when our teacher brought several carnivorous plants into our classroom. I’m not sure I ever saw one eat a bug because, of course, the third grade boys liked to poke the plants to make them close. Regardless, as a …

A Whale of a Weekend

Last September, on a whim to buy tuna fresh on the dock, we found ourselves in Charleston, Oregon. It had been a long time since I had been in Charleston and I realized that it was a place that deserved more time and attention. So earlier this month we created a 4-day weekend and explored Charleston, the Coos …

Western Snowy Plover: Share the Shore

Last summer, while canoeing the Stiltcoos Trail we floated through Western Snowy Plover habitat.  From our seats in the canoe, we saw several plovers along both banks of the river. The plovers on the north side, which consisted of hard-packed sand, I later identified as the Semipalmated Plover. However, the plovers on the south side, which was …

Spring Has Sprung, part II

Last weekend we discovered that the spring wildflowers have begun their annual show out at Bake Stewart Park. This weekend, we discovered that the goslings at Row River Nature Park have begun to hatch. Check out these cute geese babies! Fellow blogger "the Cascade Rambler" was also at the Nature Park Sunday morning. The Rambler makes his …