February 2021

Wetland Activity -- February 1, 2021

Rabbits, every time I go down to the wetlands.

Kinglet, because of the crown. Always moving.

Yan poses next to wetland sign.

Trail Cam

I purchased a "Trail Cam" which you see on the left. At the top is a motion sensor. Then below that the circle is an opening for a camera. In the upper camouflaged area are infrared LEDs that act as a flash to allow night pictures to be taken.

I put the camera on top of the rock wall and left it over night. Just to see if it worked I walked past in the daytime. As you see on the right it took a reasonable photo of me.

The first night I captured the above images of two coyotes at 3AM. I discovered that branches near the camera reflected lots of light causing everything else to be very dark. By adjusting the light levels the coyote images were recognizable. The eyes reflect lots of light.

Then I moved the camera to a tree and got no usable images for a few days. So I moved the camera so that it pointed at a beaver dam.

The red arrow points to the camera. The camera is pointed at the beaver dam that you see in the lower left of the photo.

The first night the camera recorded night traffic over the dam.

At 6PM there was a small animal going upstream. A similar animal was observed going upstream at 8PM and then downstream at 1AM.

A larger animal was observed going upstream (quickly) at 1:30AM.

This little animal was going upstream at 2:50AM.

And this animal was also going upstream at 3:40AM. The tail does not look skinny like a nutria and the animal appears to be going fast. There is evidence that after it passed the camera it make a big splash. So I'm guessing a beaver.

With so much traffic I was certain that there would be more activity the next night. Instead, there was nothing. Perhaps the camera was taking a vacation. But last night and this morning there was activity.

This is a 3AM racoon.

On the left, a nutria approaches the dam going upstream at 10:40 AM.

The nutria blends in but it is in the center of the photo moving to the right.

The rat-like tail is clearly visible so it is a nutria.

It takes the nutria 4 shots to go past the dam. The beaver was only in one photo.

A egret makes an appearance at 11 AM.

The egret is so white that the camera just records 100% white.

At 11:30 AM a male hooded merganser appears for just one photo.

Now this is strange. It is back in the very same place at noon.

And stranger still, at 12:30 PM a female hooded merganser takes the same spot.

I don't know my birds. So I touched up the above photo and gave it to Google images. It told me the species. In looking at other photos of the hooded merganser it is clear that Google is right.

Mallard ducks were swimming around but they had their heads under water most of the time.

Close to the ducks was this nutria with just a bit of the orange teeth showing.

February 8 -- Planting More Native Plants

A crew from Ash Creek Forest Management puts native plants into the wetlands along our townhomes. It is nice of Clean Water Services to get these people to make our wetlands more natural. I talked with most of the workers. Most of the crew had been working together since last July but this was the first job for one lady.

When we arrive here a couple years ago there was a large, dead blackberry patch in front of this worker. Having killed the blackberries the ground had some grass but was mostly weeds. It is nice that native plants are being planted there.

Most of the native plants that were planted about a year ago have survived. As these plants get larger this area will change from mostly grass to mostly shrubs.

This sign was recently put up along Kaiser Road.

This photo is taken from the area in front of the homes looking back into the Townhomes area. New plants along the rock wall are tagged with pink tape. These plants continue into the area behind the homes. Last year some homeowners mowed the native plants that had been put in their "lawn." Will these new plants experience the same fate?

Other signs along Kaiser Road.

February 10, 2021

4:30PM

5:50PM

6:30PM

11:00PM

7:40AM

February 11, 2021

Rabbit moving fast at 8:08PM

What does the coyote have? The clues I used are the shape of the tail, the lighter color of the face and comparing the fuzzy image to images of opossums.

It was introduced in Oregon around 1915, apparently from releases of animals brought to the state as pets or novelties. They are active nocturnally.

Coyote with Opossum at 8:17PM

Rabbit moving fast at 8:25PM

Virginia Opossum

Two Coyotes at 8:53PM, Temperature is 23F and there is no moon.

Still 8:53PM

9:03PM

February 12, 2021

Photo courtesy of Harold Rosenberg (15424) taken at 9:15AM. Arrow shows location of trail cam since February 10.

February 13, 2021 -- A Walk Thru the Snow

Lichen

Lichen and Moss

Look for the three sporangia (spore capsules), pointed like arrows.

Many of the sporangia look blunt-nosed.

A closer look at the sporangia.

Bird feet prints near a spring.

Water drops from melting ice in a tree.

Likely a Virginia rail.

Young willow branches coated with ice.

Red osier dogwood branches coated with ice.

Our rock wall. Young willow on left and red osier dogwood near center. Also a Douglas fir. Bethany wall in the distance. Lots of rabbits live in this rock wall.