life-long-intrigues-1

provided by:

Priscilla Sokolowski

Eugene, OR

Photos from personal trips AND trips with

“Birds of Oregon and General Science” (BOGS)

Priscilla’s

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TWO LIFE-LONG INTRIGUES

What was the story of that very old house which was left standing just around the corner from our house, even though it was in very bad condition? This picture from "Livonia Preserved" by Suzanne Daniel and Kathleen Glynn is very much the way I remember it.

The entire surrounding area had been built up into block after block of nearly a square mile of brand new suburban housing. Yet this one very old decrepit house remained on one corner lot. The photograph above is just the way I have always remembered it.

The house stood out in so many ways. It was on a very slight hill, while everywhere else was flat ground. It had a few nice old trees while the suburban homes had only newly planted sticks which didn't even look like they were alive. Many of them did in fact die. The landscaping around this old place - as you can see in the above picture - looked like it had been neglected for years, as did the house itself; while again all the newly build home on lots around it in every direction were nearly devoid of vegetation, sterile looking.

The old place was interesting! It was on just enough of a hill that when it snowed we took our sleds there to ride a mere 50 feet to the roadside. We were 6 or 7 years old. Any hill would do. Every time we did this and every time we rode our bikes past it or walked by, for all the years we were growing up, we wondered why this house was here.

Unlike every other corner lot everywhere around us this house had no sidewalk, only grass and mud with a single rutted path worn through it by bicycles and pedestrians. All those years, we didn't even think anyone lived there, but we may have been wrong!

The other lingering intrigue: Was that really an airplane hangar in that field of cattails in 1955?

I was only 6 years old when we moved into our new suburban house in the area and while we were driving one day, less than a mile from our house, I saw this strange building with a wide downward-curved metal roof out in a field. We were in Livonia - the newest and furthest west suburb of Detroit (Michigan)in 1956.

All my life I have had this simple and intriguing image in my mind of this airplane hangar (as my Dad had explained to me) and every time that image has come back to mind, I have wished I could have been a few years older so that I could have gone there and explored that field to find out what it was all about.

I have longed to know more about this strange thing. In my younger years, I wondered; airplanes couldn't land and take off from a weed-grown field like this, could they?

In the three years before I was old enough to go there it had vanished and become a 60-store shopping mall called "Wonderland Center"

All these years the unanswered questions and the longings to know more, have returned again and again to my mind.

But these days, with the internet, information about odd things such as these is actually not that hard to find. My questions have been answered and my curiosity has been for the most part sated.

The National Airways Airport on the southwest corner of Plymouth Road & Middlebelt Road was reportedly established in 1916

A circa 1930s photo (courtesy of Mike Denja) depicted 2 unidentified pilots in front of 3 biplanes (model undetermined) & a hangar at National Airways Airport.

This is the way the house looked back in those days 1956-66

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Immature Cedar Waxwing; incomplete eye-mask (plus no white border around it) Rudimentary beginnings of crest growing in.

Wrentit adult; my first sighting (while knowing what bird it was)

Wrentit Fledgling; Millrace 8/31/2017

American Goldfinch

One view from the Millrace path ...

HILEMAN COUNTY PARK; Aug 24, 2017

There was a lot of constant activity in some low bushes next to a pond near the entrance to Hileman Park. We spent about 20 minutes there as folks tried to identify what we were seeing. Some of the birds were more conclusively identified after a round of email exchanges with the photos sent to everyone who was on that walk. It took a while before the dust settled.

Juvenile Spotted Towhee, Hileman County Park, 8-24-2017

After considerable discussion, Donna came up with female Common Yellowthroat for this bird.

This might be a Pacific Slope Flycatcher, or it might be a Willow Flycatcher. If Pac Slope, it was my first time seeing one. (I didn't see the one at the Oregon Country Fair site back on May 25)

This bird was the most challening and bewildering for our group because it was so light colored and just basically unfamiliar to us. When I looked at my pictures I saw that it resembled the juvenile Towhee it was near to. But the wing feathers looked very different. Then looking further through my photos I saw it was not only hanging out with its "sibling," but the mother Spotted Towhee came by to feed it. Once I saw that, I realized it was likely a juvenile Cowbird. Donna and others confirmed my guess.
Photo by Chris Kilpatrick

Momma came by and fed the Cowbird baby.

I was surprised to find THREE of the birds all in one photo.

I think this is a juvenile Robin losing its spots and molting into the robin-red-breast plumage.

ELIJAH BRISTOW PARK; Aug 10, 2017
This is a favorite destination among many of the Summer BOGS birders. Steve came with us this year and enjoyed the walk with us.

We came across a Willow Flycatcher SINGING. We could see it singing. The bird was not close to us and it was backlit brightly so photos did not come out well. None-the-less, this was the first Willow Flycatcher which I have identified in the field conclusively. (width 1050 )

Red-breasted Sapsucker adult. A juvenile was nearby.

We heard some California Quail calling very close to us in the brush on the side of the trail. This one popped out onto the trail ahead of us and I took a short video of it. This is one frame from that video. It is either a female or juvenile

Don photographed this adult California Quail somehow

There is a state-funded project to monitor and assist the Northwestern Pond Turtles at Elijah Bristow Park. They lay their eggs along the banks of the spring-fed stream the trail follows. I did not see any of the invasive Red-eared Pond Sliders so common in town at places like Delta Ponds. (I also have not seen the Pond Sliders at the newly opened Millrace trail in Springfield)

Lots of Evening Grosbeaks were seen on our walk at Bristow Park. Most were high up and flying hither and thither, but we came across them feeding on Cascara berries. Every year we find a variety of birds feeding on these in late July and August both here at Bristow Park and also at Zumwalt Park.

TOTAL ECLIPSE: Aug 21, 2017

VIDEO (normal speed) Approach to Totality.

VIDEO (normal speed) The Sun's CORONA: End of Totality.

FERN RIDGE, SOUTH FROM ROYAL AVE PARKING LOT; July 27, 2017
(The path we took south from the parking lot, through the tall grass, is only accessible during the driest months - late July and August. We found an amazing number of species and birds in the scrubby brush / trees in that area as we walked south to get to the dike trails.

There were many juvenile birds of various species and we were all going through all kinds of mental gymnastics trying to identify them. One species we are fairly sure about was the Common Yellowthroat, mostly because I saw an adult of that species very near to this one and they flew to another bush together.

American Robin Juvenile still a little clumsy! Fern-Ridge 7-27-2017

View of the Fall appearance of the dike we came to after walking south from Royal. These dikes extend south to the Red-head and Barn Ponds; as well as also extending West towards the observation platform.

As we walked across the dried up ponds, Jennifer's mother Dale thought the patterns in the cracks in the mud resembled Batik patterns. I photographed them and sent her the files.

Black-necked-Stilt Fern Ridge 7-27-2017

Greater Yellowlegs; Fern Ridge, 7-27-2017

CLEARWATER LANDING; July 13, 2017

We only had brief glimpses of Yellow-breasted Chats on the Clearwater Landing trail. I saw one but didn't get any photos. Don managed to get this photo.

It's not all birds. General Science too! Mossy bark in a very 3-D structure

Red-tailed Hawk; Clearwater Landing 7-13-2017

WOODPECKER LOOP TRAIL, FINLEY REFUGE; JUN 22, 2017

Wilson Warbler; Finley Woodpecker Loop 6-22-2017

Betsy came up with the best photos of a Yellow-breasted Chat, including one of it singing.

BOGS member surveys a small pond at the topmost section of the trail

The Meadow at the top of the trail

A Rabbit was on the trail ahead of us.

Lazuli Buntings greeted us right near the start of the trail

ZUMWALT COUNTY PARK; June 8; 2017

Western Grebe

Pileated Woodpecker

Don's VIDEO in slow motion of a Pileated Woodpecker.

VIDEO (normal speed) - Pileated Woodpecker - by Don Laufer.

It was a gloomy day with spells of wind and rain.

OREGON COUNTRY FAIR SITE; MAY 25, 2017

Don got this prize of a photo of a Pacific Slope Flycatcher. Oregon County Fair site.

PERKINS PENINSULA; APRIL 27, 2017

Orange-crowned Warbler; photo by Sat Nam Singh

Our group scanning the reservoir. Pelicans had been seen flying in the distance

Western Tanagers were migrating through the area that morning

Golden-crowned Sparrow; photo by Sat Nam Singh

ALTON BAKER; APRIL 13, 2017

American Wigeon

American Kestrel

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown Creeper

SKINNER BUTTE; MARCH 30; 2017

Northern Flicker

FINLEY WILDLIFE REFUGE; March 23, 2017

Immature Bald Eagle

Rufous Hummingbirds

Western Meadowlark; photo by Gail Sandgathe

STEWART POND; March 2, 2017

Red-tailed Hawk

Green-winged Teal

These birds were far off and we struggled at trying to identify them. Sat Nam Singh sneaked up closer to them and got this photo, while the group did other things;
Dunlin; photo by Sat Nam Singh

Northwestern Garter Snake.
These were out and about at this time of year. I found another one a day or two later at EWEB Wetlands

EASTGATE (Heron Park); Feb 23, 2017

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Enjoy!
Priscilla