Over Hill....

Started the day sitting idly (as usual) watching the birds feed in Inez's yard. She has a huge flock of Band-tailed Pigeons, she refers to - understandably -as 'Pigs with Wings'. Those pigeons eat your weight in food every day. No lie! No photos!

Mid morning I abandoned Inez to her piano practice to check out the piers and harbors on the Crescent City shores. When I visit the area there are always different seabirds visiting. It's as if they take turns or something. One visit it's Rhinoceros Auklets, the next oodles of Marbled Murrelets off shore with the babies of the year, and the next visit it's Pacific Loons or Harlequin Ducks. This time it was mostly colorful Surf Scoters and a few Red-breasted Mergansers and Common Loons in breeding plumage. My photos are really sucky lately so only managed one or two even vaguely worth sharing.

Male Surf Scooter

While at the pier, I looked in vain for Surfbirds, my Godmother called. Enjoyed a lovely chat with her while watching a flock of Aleutian (Cackling) Geese wing by on their way to the wildlife refuge. My Godmother Bernice is 85 and so help me, in great shape.

Aleutian Geese - photo by Skip Hansen

At the pier: Selfishly Unwilling to Share Crab Breakfast
Saturday afternoon we drove north to Harbor Oregon. We treated ourselves to some great clam chowder, fish n' chips. There was also an unplanned shoe & book shopping opportunity. I got a new pair of walking shoes and a book of New York Times Crosswords (cannot WAIT to dig into those babies!).

Every Bookstore Needs a Resident Kitty
After leaving the shoe store, while strolling past a statue of a ship's captain, we had a surprise. The statue came to life, nearly scaring the pee out of me. The guy -as well as his little Collared Dove were very good at flash-freezing themselves.

Stoic Old Salts of Harbor Oregon
Had fun doing girlie stuff Inez, shopping and all. In the evening we enjoyed a dinner of Thai Soup (my all time favorite soup),Thai veggie rolls and chicken w/pineapple & brown rice and a movie. The movie, Cookie's Fortune is Inez's favorite and I got thought it was fun and surprising in the way things resolved. It's a Robert Altman flick (M.A.S.H., Goshford Park). It was strange seeing classical actress Liv Ulman playing a southern floozy - talk about not choosing a standard casting choice! Anyway, it was a thoroughly fun day in one of my favorite towns on the planet, not to mention my favorite Crescent City naturalist.

I love this photo of Inez. Reminds me of a commercial in which
2 little girls say of their parents, "They're so cute at that age".