Country Road – Benton County Oregon
We took a backroad drive one day last week with no particular destination. We're still having hot summer days and walks have been limited so it was good to get outside. There's some smoke in our valley from fires in the hills up the Willamette River (not dangerously close to us). Summer means fire season here in the west — more than ever nowadays.
Pied-Billed Grebe
Like magic, our unplanned destination turned out to be the Finley Wildlife Refuge. (But really because the person driving the car knew where he was going all along.) We arrived in early afternoon, not the optimal time for birding, but we saw a few in the Marsh.
Great Egret
That's a fish at the Egret's feet. He must have already eaten his fill.
It's good to see green especially at the end of a summer that's been hot and dry in most of our area.
September is my month to feel nostalgic. Probably because our life revolved around the school year for so long, it really seems more like a New Year to me this month than does January. So with nostalgia in mind, this week's collage is a look-back at early September days from a few past years:
The top two photos are from roadtrips in 2019 — Fall color in Portland Oregon and the hawk at Arcata Marsh California. 2021 and 22 were the Covid years — we did some self-isolated camping during that time, but we were home in Oregon in September of both years. I photographed the bushtits in our daughter's yard in 2020; it was a new bird for me (I had ID help from wonderful bloggers when I first posted about them). The other two photos in the bottom row are from our grandson's backyard at a family gathering last year. The center photo is California Redwoods in the mist — another road trip to the state south of us in September 2018.
And back to the present (well, last week anyway):
Just a beautiful blue sky with a few fluffy clouds for interest — on the way home from our weekday drive last week. September really does start a new year for our older great-grands and their parents (several of the grandchildren teach as well as parenting) and for our daughter and son-in-law who are helping out with their not-old-enough-for-school grandbabies. For us, there's really no regular schedule to keep, but it still feels like new.
September mornings still can make me feel this way!
Links this week with thanks:
MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS; THROUGH MY LENS; MY CORNER OF THE WORLD; SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY BLISS; SATURDAY CRITTERS and RATHER B' BIRDING
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