Seanbirds Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 4 hours ago, Clip said: we did not feed them. Good for you! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smskelton Posted October 20, 2021 Share Posted October 20, 2021 We were staying at Portal when someone told us about a bird we were after up a canyon past an old dam. We hiked up there with the camera and didn't find the bird but ran into this small deer on the way back to the trailhead. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 Sockeye salmon in surprisingly large numbers. Lots of Chinook and pink as well. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Connor Cochrane Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 2 hours ago, Aaron said: Sockeye salmon in surprisingly large numbers. Lots of Chinook and pink as well. For people not from an area where salmon live, all the washed up bodies of salmon on the shore is regular and is part of their lifecycle. Any river in late fall which salmon live on is going to be covered in dead fish. Salmon die after spawning and wash up on the banks. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clip Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 8 hours ago, Connor Cochrane said: For people not from an area where salmon live, all the washed up bodies of salmon on the shore is regular and is part of their lifecycle. Any river in late fall which salmon live on is going to be covered in dead fish. Salmon die after spawning and wash up on the banks. Just wondering if you find them freshly dead are they edible and how many bears to they attract during this time? I'm guessing bears love it for the easy food. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 (edited) 9 hours ago, Connor Cochrane said: For people not from an area where salmon live, all the washed up bodies of salmon on the shore is regular and is part of their lifecycle. Any river in late fall which salmon live on is going to be covered in dead fish. Salmon die after spawning and wash up on the banks. Yep, the dead fish help fertilize the forest with nutrients from the sea. Edited October 21, 2021 by Seanbirds 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 56 minutes ago, Clip said: Just wondering if you find them freshly dead are they edible and how many bears to they attract during this time? I'm guessing bears love it for the easy food. The salmon run is always a big event for bears. That's when they do most of their fattening up for the winter. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smskelton Posted October 21, 2021 Share Posted October 21, 2021 We have a relative of Punxsutawney Phil near us. Below Devil's Flow on Satan Creek in the Cascades there is a pile of rocks that holds a colony of Marmots. Also know as Rock Chucks, or Whistle Pigs, they post one lookout that emits an ear piercing high whistle to alert the colony to danger. It also has the effect of you jumping out of your shoes if you don't expect it. The lava flow above the colony is a great place to see hawks sitting on a high perch to watch the meadow below. The meadow was a meeting place for Native American tribes and there are pictographs and rock art more than a 1000 years old on the lava. Also, early explorers and settlers carved their names on some of the rocks in the area. John C. Fremont and Kit Carson came through here in the late 1800's. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 9 hours ago, smskelton said: We have a relative of Punxsutawney Phil near us. Below Devil's Flow on Satan Creek in the Cascades there is a pile of rocks that holds a colony of Marmots. Also know as Rock Chucks, or Whistle Pigs, they post one lookout that emits an ear piercing high whistle to alert the colony to danger. It also has the effect of you jumping out of your shoes if you don't expect it. The lava flow above the colony is a great place to see hawks sitting on a high perch to watch the meadow below. The meadow was a meeting place for Native American tribes and there are pictographs and rock art more than a 1000 years old on the lava. Also, early explorers and settlers carved their names on some of the rocks in the area. John C. Fremont and Kit Carson came through here in the late 1800's. Nice! Love Yellow-bellied Marmots. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 12 hours ago, Clip said: Just wondering if you find them freshly dead are they edible and how many bears to they attract during this time? I'm guessing bears love it for the easy food. I wouldn’t think so… their bodies start deteriorating as soon as the leave the ocean as they don’t eat anything on their journey here. Lots of the alive ones will have patches of rotting flesh on them (plus who knows all the parasites they’ve picked up) so I definitely wouldn’t try it! They do attract a lot of bears, and you’ll often just find random salmon heads or exploded fish and eggs around. Lots of eagles and gulls too and trout that feed on their eggs. This was at the Adams river in Tsútswecw provincial park, which I think the largest or one of the largest breeding grounds for sockeye salmon. They follow a boom cycle of about 4 years (2014,2018,2022), but there’s always some spawning in between those years just in lower numbers. Next year is the big year, and there will be ~millions~ of them in the river. It’s very cool to see as the river does literally turn red. And of course all those millions of salmon die and it’s one of the few reasons why I don’t drink the tap water! I’d definitely recommend coming to see it if anyone is planning to be in the interior of BC next year around early October. It does smell quite bad though, but you get used to it. Tstutswecw is a very nice park to walk around as well any time of year… I bird there quite often. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbvol50 Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 8 hours ago, hbvol50 said: Man that Eastern Box Turtle is GORGEOUS! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smskelton Posted October 22, 2021 Share Posted October 22, 2021 My dog actually alerted my to this Gila Monster's presence. They are our largest lizard and the only native venomous lizard native the the United States. Their bite injects a neurotoxin from a chewing action. They are slow moving and not generally dangerous to smart humans who leave them alone. Each one has a unique pattern like human fingerprints. They spend most of their life underground. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkG Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 This is from July. I see foxes from time to time during my bird walks, but normally as soon as they see me they run off. This one eye balled me for a few minutes and I was able to get a nice photo of it. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clip Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 On 10/21/2021 at 11:05 PM, hbvol50 said: Good looking Box Turtle! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clip Posted October 23, 2021 Share Posted October 23, 2021 1 hour ago, MarkG said: This is from July. I see foxes from time to time during my bird walks, but normally as soon as they see me they run off. This one eye balled me for a few minutes and I was able to get a nice photo of it. Love the color variation on this one. Nice Photo! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smskelton Posted October 24, 2021 Share Posted October 24, 2021 in my view, the North American River Otter is endangered in the Oregon Cascades. They are a prized pelt by trappers as their fir is very dense, one million hairs per square inch. The problem is that there are very few left, and five years ago a trapper came in and took most all of them. After five years, we have a few back at our lake. They actually have a den at a nearby lake and they commute overland about a 1/2 mile to feed on the crayfish in the rocks along our lake shoreline. They seem to spend about 1/2 of their time playing, which makes them really fun to watch. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMe Posted October 25, 2021 Author Share Posted October 25, 2021 On 10/21/2021 at 9:51 AM, smskelton said: Devil's Flow on Satan Creek Would be interested to learn how these names were chosen for these areas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smskelton Posted October 25, 2021 Share Posted October 25, 2021 1 hour ago, MacMe said: Would be interested to learn how these names were chosen for these areas The short answer is I don't know. The longer answer is that there references to Devils Pass, Devils Hill and more back in the the late 1800's. There was no road through here until about 1925 because the lava fields blocked passage until modern construction equipment became capable of dealing with lava. The first road went uphill and around the flows around Devil's Lake. Satan Creek is a spring that comes out of the bottom of Devil's Flow and runs into Sparks Lake about 1/4 mile from the source. Many names in the Cascades have an unrecorded history. There was a naming commission that examined names and redid many of then in 1962. Their job was to take inappropriate and often racially derogatory names out of maps. In 1962, Mud Lake was renamed Hosmer Lake after my wife's grandfather. 1 hour ago, MacMe said: Would be interested to learn how these names were chosen for these areas 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMe Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 Red Paper Wasp 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMe Posted October 26, 2021 Author Share Posted October 26, 2021 10 points if you can identify these 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 13 minutes ago, MacMe said: 10 points if you can identify these Sandhill Cranes, right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Posted October 26, 2021 Share Posted October 26, 2021 2 hours ago, MacMe said: 10 points if you can identify these Fake bird. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seanbirds Posted October 27, 2021 Share Posted October 27, 2021 (edited) Ignore Edited October 27, 2021 by Seanbirds Deleting this post because it probably sounded stupid 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacMe Posted October 27, 2021 Author Share Posted October 27, 2021 22 hours ago, Seanbirds said: Sandhill Cranes, right? 20 hours ago, Kevin said: Fake bird It was kind of a trick question - and you are both right! 10pts. **yay celebration** They are a metal sculpture thing that seems to be made in the image of Sandhill Cranes 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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