Welcome to Whitey's World
All of the banner background photos on this site were taken by Whitey.
Above is a close-up of the bark of incense-cedar (Calocedrus decurrens) in winter.
When looking at nature--and when taking photos--it's important to recognize the difference between how something looks when light is reflected from a surface and how it looks when the light passes through the object before reaching our eyes. This is particularly true of deciduous broad-leafed trees (e.g., maples and oaks) as well as most flowers. In this photo, the sun is on the other side of these tulips in my garden, so we're seeing the light after it's passed through the petals. Very nice, no? The view from the other side of the tulips may be attractive, as well, but the effect is not the same. (Photo taken 19 April 2024.)
And now spring has truly arrived here in the Upper Willamette Valley in all its loveliness (see photo above!). Most of the spring-flowering bulbs—crocus, daffodil, hyacinth, tulip—have finished blooming, and from now on, it’s other herbaceous plants and shrubs and trees that will be particularly eye-catching.
This last week of April almost always heralds the arrival of hermit warblers in Oregon’s West Cascades, and indeed, during a visit to the McKenzie Bridge area just a few days ago, I heard the warblers high in the forest canopy almost everywhere I went. But did I see any? Nope. They’re very small birds and they’re maybe 100-150 feet above me in dense forest, but I’m very familiar with their song—after living in this area for so many decades—that there was no question of what I was listening to.
The last week of April, typically, is also when huge flocks of greater white-fronted geese fly over Eugene on their way from their wintering areas in south-central Oregon to the tundra of Alaska and beyond, where they’ll breed during the short snow-free season there.
The big news in my food garden is the return of honey bees. My hive died out about two years ago, so I purchased a new colony and introduced it to the hive box just a week ago. It’s wonderful to hear the buzzing of bees again just outside my kitchen window, where I’ve placed the hive so I can watch it frequently as well as hear it. Watching and hearing bees is very therapeutic, did you know that? (Smile.)
And Life goes on!
Although rough-skinned newts are very common some places in western Oregon--particularly in coastal forests--they're rare indeed in the area of the West Cascades near McKenzie Bridge that I visit almost weekly, where I might see one every few years, at best. A full-grown adult is about six inches long, nose to tail, but this little guy I saw crossing the a forest road at an elevation of about 1700 feet on 31 March 2024 was about three inches long, thus a juvenile who probably emerged from its egg in spring 2023.
A very common shrub in the understory of mid-age Douglas-fir forests in the West Cascades is low (or dwarf) Oregon-grape (Berberis nervosa). These pretty clusters of yellow flowers are followed later in summer by equally pretty clusters of blue, pea-sized fruits; hence, the name "grape" because the clusters look like tiny bunches of grapes. If you look closely, you'll see what looks like dirt on the shrub's leaflets. It is in fact Douglas-fir pollen that is so abundant in these forests in April (the photo was taken 18 April 2024 at an elevation of 1300 feet) that, in the absence of rain, it simply accumulates atop everything growing on the forest floor.
(This page updated 28 April 2024.)