Category: Nature

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Looking through a new lens

 

This week, unlike the last few, was filled with ‘doing’. The air quality improved and the sun was out.

We took day trips three different days.

Hit the Crooked River on a perfect fall day … caught no fish but had a great picnic.

 

We love areas like this … that said, we never travel unprepared, even on short trips.

The other two days we headed east toward Fort Rock and the high desert.

Came across a few road obstacles … nothing we couldn’t manage.

If you’ve spent any time on this blog it’s clear we are iPhone photographers. We subscribe to the adage ‘the best camera is the one you have in hand’.

However, the types of images we are attempting to capture require telephoto lenses that just aren’t available on an iPhone.

This week we took delivery on a new Sony camera and lenses. Similar to the system we rented in June and posted about in issue #38 on birding.

Storm front moving across the Summer Lake Wildlife Area.

Of course Summer Lake was one of the places we headed for. Unfortunately it’s hunting season and there was some obvious restrictions on where you can go if you’re shooting but not ‘killing’.

 

We stuck to the western edge, Anna Reservoir area of the refuge, and managed to get a ton of really great weather shots.

The Summer Lake valley presents lots of image possibilities … rain clouds, sunny sky and thunder heads simply by turning around.

 

There will still be iPhone pictures in the blog but this new system is going to bring a new level of photos, hope you enjoy.

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Season’s End

 

What is surely the last hot days of summer came this week.  Today it rained and the forecast is for cooler temperatures.

But this week we sat on the banks of the Crooked River and sought elusive patches of shade as the heat of midday beat down on us.

Yes … fall is a favorite time of year, but more to the point, we like that there are four seasons.

That space when the seasons are changing offers a perfect blend of both. We manage to take advantage of what every season offers.

Right now, fall weather is overtaking summer. Crisp mornings require caps, scarves and even gloves for the walk. The required sweater will be shucked by afternoon but never far from hand.

Winter’s snow may be early this year, it may stick around longer and deeper, but for now, we are taking in what is best about autumn days and trying to catch migratory flights and Fall Caddis hatches.

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How’s the Weather?

 

Years back in Bozemen, Jim Murphy, a friend who grew up on the plains of eastern Montana, commented about feeling confined by trees and mountains. He didn’t like not being able to see the approach of weather.

At the time it didn’t make sense to me. There was lots of weather … you just had to look up.

I grew up surrounded by mountains forested with larch, spruce and balsam. We then moved to Pacific Northwest’s forests made dense by rain, doug fir and hemlock.

And then … we moved to Central Oregon and the edge of the High Desert.

Now Murphy’s comment makes perfect sense.

The sage and scrub pine open up to an expanse of sky that gives fair warning to any changes in weather. As well as what is happening in the next county.

 

 

Unrestricted by dense forest canopy, we’ve become observers of clouds, the sky and by default the weather. There are lots of trees and mountains around us, but there is also a great expanse of sky.

Near Biggs, Oregon

If you’ve been visiting this blog then it’s apparent we post a ton of images that take in the landscape and with it cloud formations.

We have regular day trips that carry us out into the high desert … just to observe and photograph clouds and weather patterns.

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Nothing typical about this week

This week has been interesting to say the least.

For the last six months we’ve been observing pandemic guidelines. Now to be honest, I rather like the whole social distancing part. It’s nice not having someone crowd you at the checkout, so waiting 6 feet away is actually preferable.

But then,  just after Labor Day came the  wildfires. Oregon was hit with a series of blazes on the west side of the Cascades. Large fires, unlike anything that side of the state has seen.

 

The result … air quality at hazardous levels.

For the past week, or more, we’ve been inside, unable to spend any time outdoors. There have been small breaks with the worst of the smoke coming late afternoon and evening.

An eerie haze hangs over the landscape. Face covers, mandatory for interior travel, are now necessary outside as well.

Just taking Tip for a walk brings tears to our eyes.

Friday finally brought a shift in the weather. It rained for the first time in weeks. Wind direction shifted and moved dense smoke out of the Willamette Valley and into Central Oregon. Hopefully it will keep moving east and while the fires still burn the really bad smoke / air quality is on the way out.

In the meantime, we are getting caught up on reading, cleaning and home organizing projects.

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A Pine Tree Maze

 

A favorite day trip spot is the Upper Deschutes river. This point is too far upstream for sea run or any of the huge fish the Deschutes River is famous for. However, the stream IS full of 8 to 10 inch Rainbow and Brook Trout.

There are about eight miles of stream from Lava Lake, the headwaters to Crane Prairie Reservoir. Along that stretch of highway are pullouts and parking spots, as well as a day use area on the northern end. We usually find a great picnic spot along the bank and not see another person all day. It is also a favorite river for Tip to fetch sticks and floatie toys.

Unlike the lower river, this stretch of water meanders through flat pine forest and grassy marsh land. There are lots of open meadows, but there is also a hatchwork of deadfall. The paths that lie either bank are an obstacle course of weathered logs. In places the downfall resembles jacksticks.  This makes it a bit more difficult for old legs to navigate, but only to the point of slowing us down a bit … Tip finds the steeple chase an extra bit of fun.