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Rowena Point overlooking the Columbia River, U.S. Highway 30/Interstate Highway 84, Old State Highway 30 and a freight train headed for Portland. Photo: Near Mosier, Or 4/13/2006

Burrowing Owl “Athene cunicularia” Length 9″, wing span 21″ and weight 5 oz. Mom and pop with 7 chicks. I was probably a couple hundred yards from the nest and any movement caused the young ones to quickly scurry down below. Photo: Near Burns Or 6/20/2009

Twinflower “Linnaea borealis” Honeysuckle Family (Caprifoliaceae). Perennial, creeping evergreen 2-6″ tall with shiny green leaves and pale pink fragrant flowers. Common in the Cascades, Coastal & Blue Mts. of Or. & Wa. and around the world in the northern latitudes. Carl Linnaeus chose this plant to commemorate his name.  Photo: Lolo Pass near Zig Zag, Or. 8/4/2005

Pacific Treefrog “Pseudacris regilla”  These little frogs (1.5 inches long) are brown or green with a characteristic black stripe extending from the snout to the shoulder. The males call in a great chorus and they can make quite a racket.  Photo:  Near Rainier, Or 9/04/2006

Western Grebe “Aechmophorus occidentalis”  Length 25″, wingspan 24″ and weight 3.3 lbs.  The courtship dance of these birds in the spring involves “walking” on water and it is quite an interesting ballet.  Photo:   Near Burns, Or. 7/02/2009

The Annual Oregon Mycological Society Fall Show in Portland, Or. is in October.  The displays are artistically done and very educational.  There are experts at the ready, demonstrations and lots of books.  The bottom photo is a succession of  the developing Parasol Mushroom “Lepiota procera”.  Photo:  Forestry Center, Portland, Oregon 12/18/2009

Peggy is a “shay”  and was built in 1909 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio.   She was shipped around Cape Horn and unloaded in Seattle.  She worked in the woods in the Pacific Northwest and retired in 1950.  Notice the absence of the large horizontal cylinders.  Shays had two or three small vertical cylinders and were better adapted for use in the woods.  When my dad was a boy he used to watch the shays push a string of cars loaded with logs across the high trestles and then a shay on the other side would hook up to the cars to pull them on across.  Photo:  Forestry Center in Portland, Or 10/20/2009

Sourwood Tree “Oxydendrum arboreum”  Native to the S.E. United States and one of our finest specimen trees for landscaping.  Slow growing with a height of up to 40′. Pendulous white bell shaped flowers in mid-summer, gorgeous bright scarlet leaf color with with fruit capsules in the fall that persist through the winter and glossy green foliage in the spring.  Photo:  Forestry Center in Portland, Or 9/18/2009

Russian Thistle “Salsola kali” Goosefoot Family (Chenopodiaceae)  Annual, plants 1-4′ tall, stems are green to red, flowers without petals but the bracts are the same color as the stems and are spine-like.  When the plants die, they break loose from their roots and then turn into the more familiar tumbleweeds.  They distribute their approx 50,000 seeds as they travel.  Blooms in late summer in disturbed areas in Eastern Or & Wa.  It is not a native and it is originally from Russia and Siberia.  Photo:  Near Sherars Bridge by the Deschutes River 10/01/2009

Jeffrey Pine “Pinus jeffreyi” Pine Family (Pinaceae)  Tree growing 90 or 100 feet tall, needles in bundles of three (or two and three), cones generally greater than 6″ long, bark has vanilla/pineapple/chocolate odor.  Similar to ponderosa pine but trees growing on serpentine soils (high in magnesium) are more apt to be Jeffrey pines.  The resins from the two species are different chemically but they are lumped together by the loggers.  This tree was growing on serpentine soil and was 12 – 15″ in diameter and 12-15′ tall.  Photo:  Rough and Ready Wayside near Cave Junction, Or. 10/08/2009