Oregon Coast

Posted on by kritterspaw

Oregon’s coastline is one of the most beautiful diverse places to experience. Oregon has done a terrific job of situating scenic State Parks along the route, 18 in all.

Alfred Loeb State Park
Beverly Beach State Park

Each park is unique in it’s own way. Some are day-use only, others offer camping (tent only or full hook-up). Many abut the ocean with access to it’s beachfront for shell seekers, surfers, fisherman, and walking along the gorgeous shoreline.

Bandon
Coquille River Lighthouse

Picturesque lighthouses litter the drive along capes like Heceta Head, Yaquina Bay, Cape Blanco, and Cape Meares just to name a few.

Beverly State Park

Some are tucked along ancient forests of Sitka trees, which mostly only exist along the Pacific Northwest where rain and fog are abundant.

Other stops along picturesque coastline include little marina’s and quaint bays with scenic walking trails and plenty of fresh seafood. We even enjoyed the occasion to do some crabbing for fresh dungeness crab.

Kelly’s Marina at Brighton Bay

On the northern end of the Oregon Coast lies Ft. Stevens, home to the Military Historic Site and concrete artillery gun batteries and the popular tourist destination of the Peter Iredale wreck, left to rust, stranded ashore since 1906.

Peter Iredale Wreck

We barely scratched the surface of all the so many places to visit along the 343 miles (a mere 8 hour drive), that we did in 3-weeks. Maybe next time.

Sea Otters

Posted on by kritterspaw

The sea otter is the largest member of the weasel family, but the smallest marine mammal.  These cuddly fur balls can only be found in select places.  Their numbers were once in the hundreds of thousands, but were hunted to near extinction for their furs between 1841 to 1911, until the practice was made illegal. 

Today they are on the endangered species list and their decreasing population had fallen to 1,000 – 2,000 animals worldwide, and remain tenuous due to their sparse range.  Today it is estimated that 3,000 animals exist along the coast of California from Half Moon Bay to Point Conception.

Morro Bay is one of my favorite spots along the California coast, and home to a small population of sea otters who come to the Bay for its calm lagoon water to have their babies and protect them from predators (namely sharks).

The otters have no blubber to keep them warm in the cold waters.  Instead, they have a double layer of fur for insulation from the chilly waters which they groom frequently to keep clean.  If their fur gets exposed to oil it loses its insulating factors.

Sea otter pup’s fur traps so much air that they can’t dive underwater.  If a mom needs to go out and hunt for food, she wraps her pup in kelp so that it bobs to the surface like a cork.  The pups begin to learn to swim after 4 weeks and wean from mom by 8 months.

The otters feed on kelp forests and sea urchins keeping the marine environment healthy, and enjoy crabs, mussels, and clams.  They give birth in the water and cuddle their young while floating on their back.

We watched as two ‘teenagers’ horsed around in the water dive bombing nursing moms and babies in the ‘nursery’ to less enthusiastic little ones that spilled into the water whining for mom.  It was fun to watch and beautiful to see the otters flourishing in this special place.

Always Learning

Posted on by kritterspaw

We just got back from a great Grizzly bear trip, and the best part was, aside from the grizzlies themselves, was the people we met. In particular, we met a kind and generous photographer, Mike, who was open to my incessant questions and a wonderful, patient teacher.

It was not only a great refresher of some things I have tried to embrace, but also of new tricks and techniques I had yet to learn.

I am fond of the close-up / fill-the-frame wildlife portrait, and Mike reminded me, that while a portrait has it’s place, including some of the atmosphere and environment the animal lives in makes for a more compelling photograph.

While the foggy and raining days were interesting and added a lot of character and moodiness to the scene, they can also be difficult to get sharp images through the haze.

In bright high contrast lighting situations, I learned to try rim light shots by stopping down my exposure to compensate for the harsh highlights.

Getting low to the ground allows one to take advantage of the reflections on the water, and bring the photograph eye level with the animal.

Action makes for compelling photographs, but it should be of the face with the animal coming toward you, not butt pix of the animal running away.

Capturing personality and gesture are key to a more successful image.

For birds in flight shutter speeds of 1/3200 sec are best. Sadly, I only got foggy golden eyes and eagle.

A blue sky makes for a terribly boring background, made so much more interesting by landscape.

Probably the most important lesson was that there is just no substitute for great light, where your subject is well lit.

I came away with lots of grizzly photographs and furthered my education in my passion of photography. I can’t thank Mike enough for his help and mentorship.

Thank you, Mike.

See more grizzlies here …https://kritterspaw.com/2024/10/20/grizzlies/

Collared Peccary

Posted on by kritterspaw

It sounds like a spicy green you put in your salad. But in reality collared peccary is better known as javelina. It’s as foreign to these parts as spicy greens. Down South, you know, Phoenix / Tucson area is a more suitable home for the herbivore desert swine that subsists on desert fauna like mesquite beans, prickly pear, and desert greens.

The collared peccary is so called for their light colored collar around their neckline.

These small ‘pigs’ are relatively small in stature – only 2′ tall by 3-4′ long, generally 35 – 55 lbs. We encountered a small family of three – presumably the mother, father, and baby. They were very affectionate with one another and rubbed their scent on their skin to identify with one another.

The javelina are myopic and have poor eye sight, but rely heavily on their sense of smell and hearing. They spar with one another in a playful manner, as if to teach skills for the wild with predators such as coyotes, bobcat, and mountain lion lurking.

They were quick to vanish at the sound of danger, but slow to notice me watching with my camera.

They were more interested in the patch of lush green grass they enjoyed in an otherwise field of fallen dry pine needles in the thick forest they found themselves in.

Despite their unusual sighting, we were happy to see them and capture some fun shots of the peculiar beasts.

Luna Lake

Posted on by kritterspaw

Just East of Alpine nearly to the New Mexico border is a 75 acre beautiful lake at close to 8,000 feet elevation. It’s home to huge herds of elk, turkey, and a variety of waterfowl.

Campers, bicyclists, fishermen, four-wheelers, and hunters flock to the respite. It’s just off Highway 191, otherwise known as the Coronado Trail National Scenic Byway, which follows the trail of the explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who in 1540 sought the fabled “Seven Cities of Cibola”.

Wildflowers abound during the summer following monsoon rains, attracting birds, butterflies and other flying pollenators.

The Wildlife area provides a riparian area enjoyed by osprey, bald eagle, weasels, and tree frogs.

Whatever your allure, Luna Lake offers a little bit of everything for anyone who enjoys the outdoors and nature.

Blind Animals

Posted on by kritterspaw

I love this season. It’s baby time! It’s the perfect time to sit in my blind and hope that I get lucky.

There is something peaceful and relaxing about observing nature unseen by the animals that live in it. One can hear the sounds of natures – the movement of animals, the wind and rain that pitter patters on the ground; the foraging of animals looking for food, quietly moving through the forest, ever so graceful.

You can get close to them and observe their behaviors and get up close and personal with them in their environment.

Of course, it often takes hours and days of repeated ‘sessions’ in the blind to finally ‘get lucky’. Animals, after all, are by nature, are not necessarily creatures of habit. They mix it up to stay alive and avoid the predators.

But, over the course of a number of days, and a lot of hours, my patience and determination paid off with little white tail bucks, baby elk, and gray fox.

Whitehorse Lake

Posted on by kritterspaw

For a change, we went on a spontaneous camping trip, because of the clouds, instead of just going when we scheduled it. It paid off!

Our spontaneity was rewarded with gorgeous sunrise and sunsets.

Note to self: sometimes you have to seize an opportunity when it presents itself, not just following a prescribed journey and doing what’s convenient.

Greens Peak

Posted on by kritterspaw

North of Pinetop / Lakeside is an area known as Greens Peak. At over 10,000 ft, it gets plenty of snow in the winter, and is lush green in the summer. Hidden back along a well marked dirt road is one of our favorite places to camp, Carnero Lake.

I used to leave it’s actual name out of my posts, as it’s ‘our’ place. But it seems it has been discovered and become a bit over populated for our taste. Nonetheless, it remains a weedy haven for ducks and coots, and the occasional eagle and osprey.

For us, it’s a peaceful respite and place to relax and enjoy nature in all it’s glory.

Alstrom Point

Posted on by kritterspaw

Alstom Point is one of those stunningly beautiful overlooks that is hard to get to, but in the end, worth the journey. The point lies just past Page, AZ across the border of Utah, along a 40 mile dirt road that turns treacherous, rock crawling, and hard to navigate.

Sunset overlooking Lake Powell

The view at the end of the journey is it’s reward, with sprawling vantage points of Lake Powell and Gunsight Butte. The Lake was significantly low, at only 31% of full (or 141 feet below full), but offered new canyons, waterways, and ridges to gawk at from high above.

Our first camping trip of the year was only for an unfortunate short period of time, but the view while it lasted was memorable.

Sunrise pano

Use what you can

Posted on by kritterspaw

Pursuing my passion of photography has been difficult for me lately, but one must use what they can to ‘make it happen’.

As a result of a recent accident, I have a bum hand, but have found that with my camera on my tripod, I can set the camera up so that I can release the shutter from the camera’s rear LCD screen.

The simple tap of the rear screen focuses, and takes the photo in one fell swoop, making it not only possible, but easy to snap photos.

It seemed criminal to not take pix during our recent 2′ of snow. Where there is a will there’s a way.