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While deep in the Ochoco Mountains we ran across a nice flowing creek. I love running water and just had to stop!! Upon inspection of where we were it was obvious this spot had been used as a hunting camp. The legs of the elk and the "meat hangers" (we laughed for I am sure there is a real name for them ha) , that were nailed to the trees. The feathers laying around looked as if maybe a turkey was in the mix with the elk? Even a spot for a bathroom. Gave us this impression. Guy wondered further down the creek then I for things happen to catch my eye. So I was wondering around on my own taking shots of the ice that was found where the water was not running fast. As I was doing my thing I heard some racket that was obviously coming from the trees and from birds. As you can imagine wild creatures do not just sit still so one can snap off photographs, so off I went to get this loud birds photographs! There were at least 3 of these birds, however non of them were all that impressed with any of us there! From the information I gathered of this bird, these must of been truly wild Gray Jays!! Not yet ingrained with human presents. I first thought this was a nutcracker. We have many of those around so it seams. Same family as these Gray Jays, but so is the steller's jay,blue jay and the western scrub jay , the crows, the ravens there is a lot of species in the Corvidae family!! From the sub species of the Gray Jay and getting these photographs in the Ochoco mountains this determined these to be the Bicolored Gray Jay. One thing all these birds have in common is, they are very smart!! Smarter then humans give them credit for! Over the Cascade Mountains there is yet another sub species of the Gray Jay over there with different needs and habits. That Gray Jay does not like snow, the ones here better like snow! Like all birds of the Corvidae family, they are pretty much scavengers, however it appears all the species of the Gray Jay have different food s

Mushroom Fungus Of Oregon Video I have not made it any secrete that I have many photographs of mushroom or fungus of Oregon. From wikipedia, "A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. Mushrooms are not plants: they are a fungus. They eat organic matter, they do not photosynthesize like plants do." Mushrooms are unique. They grow most everywhere, if one just looks. Some can be eaten, though really I do not have this kind of experience to put such things in my mouth. Though many do!! This is some of my photographs of mushrooms I just happen to come across. I do not go looking for them, they just happen to be where I am. Be it on trees, growing on the ground, or like one species it was hanging within the trees! Like that species just fell from the sky! Now some have been eaten by wildlife, some have wildlife in the photo! Some mushrooms are very big. Bigger then Guy's hand! Some species are very little. Some species do not even look like it should be a living thing! Nature is pretty neat!

"An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton (external skeleton), a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods include all insects, arachnids, and crustaceans. Their body plan consists of repeated segments, each with a pair of appendages. Their versatility has enabled them to become one of the most species-rich members on the planet. They have over a million described species, making up more than 80% of all described living animal species. They range in size from microscopic plankton up to forms a few meters long. [Source]"

I pay a lot of attention to Ravens. Some of my best photographs came to be because of the ravens. Ravens are really just a big crow. They are a very intelligent bird, which I guess some can argue with. They work as a team. As a family unit and are very bold creature. More than one raven is called "An unkindness of ravens", I can see why because wow can they drive off the biggest of creatures! There are ten species of the Raven with two more that are said to be extinct. The Magpie appears to be tolerated by the Raven, though they too are finally ran off by the bigger Raven. The Magpie we have here are very smart birds, though I really do not "listen" to them as I do the Raven. After seeing the all the Ravens in a small clearing it did not take Guy long to stop the truck and off I went into the brush. Guy seen a little of what the Ravens were doing, this was running off the eagles. There were two eagles. One was a big Golden Eagle, the other was a young smaller Bald Eagle. Many of these two species of eagles are showing up together these days. I have not noticed this in years past, but this year WOW has this been obvious! The Golden Eagle standing on the prey is the first thing we noticed after the Ravens. The prey I could not identify. Did I want to identify it, not really!! It was white and it appeared to have died some time ago. One thing people do not understand about Eagles, the Golden Eagle and the Bald Eagle is, they will take a meal whether they themselves hunted it down, or if it died by some other means. Eagles will do their best to steal prey as well. The species of eagles are opportunists. They can be scavengers. The Raven were doing the best they could to run off the Eagles, but the Golden Eagle was having no part of being ran off by Ravens! The young Bald Eagle was trying to grab some of the meal when I was getting close, but took off up into a tree to watch. These are the photographs of this event.

We came upon a site last weekend I would like to share. At first I did not know what species of hawk this was, but with help from others the question of what kind of hawk this is was answered! Photography of wildlife is never to pass up a opportunity, even if you do not know exactly what species of wildlife.......

I am very pleased to get these shots of this Northern Harrier. I got these a couple hours ago down the road where we have seen this bird and another or so in a pasture. These birds have been seen on private land and I do not trespass so when this opportunity arose today, while this Northern Harrier was not on the private land I took it! While doing my research on this bird I came to realize why this bird of prey had a problem being still for me. Blending in is what I try to do with the environment, but being quiet is another story. This bird realize on hearing as much as sight when hunting. This bird was hearing me coming! The male and female of the species look very different I found out as well. This Harrier is the male of the species. I thought this Northern Harrier was on some prey, however after looking over the photographs it appears to be on some grasses.

The Turkey Vulture is not seen in Oregon all year around. There are five sub species of the Turkey Vulture. Our Turkey Vulture I believe is the Western Turkey Vulture, this sub species I have read is even broke down even further.

This Boisduval's Blue Butterfly is yet another one of our endangered species here in Oregon. These butterflies rely on the wild Lupine flower to survive. Wild Lupine which is disappearing.

This is my white Holiday Cactus. Not a true cactus, it resembled a cactus and the species likes to bloom in winter time. Being dormant the rest of the year. The leaves itself is striking and gives a different look in the garden.

This and the other species of this wildflower were blooming high up in the Ochoco Mountains. Use the little window and the photo will be a photo within a photo, it is really cool!

This species of wildflowers were spotting the landscape here in Central Oregon.

Karner Blue Butterfly Melissa blue butterfly. This is a endangered butterfly species found only in a few places now. The larva feed off the wild lupine, which is going away. They only lay their eggs on the wild lupine. This was captured at a wild breeding spot here in Oregon that we stumbled upon.

Another species of wild mushrooms to add to my mushroom photograph collection. Many mushrooms were found over the weekend.

I observe things. I caught one of the barn cats running off from me and the horses yesterday. The domestic cat , like other cat species, is very graceful. Very agile. I feel only in still photography can one really see just how graceful and agile they truly are!!

I found this Mountain Chickadee watching the horses and I from one of the trees. Several chickadee species are out, this one has the stripes. They eat bugs and seeds and I find they are often with other birds. Cute little guys!! If you would like to hear what this bird sounds like there is a great voice capture at the " allaboutbirds.org " site.

Just a few hours ago Guy took me around the block. Oh probably ten miles or so?? It was nice to get out of the house! I do not know about other places, but here this species of falcon are not real..... they take off as soon as attention is directed at them. In other words I have tried to get some shots of the sparrow hawk and finally I did. This American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in North America. Used in falconry so they must be pretty smart! I think they are pretty little birds! Eating grasshoppers, other small birds, and rodents so they are good to have around. Oh I believe they eat the lizards we have here too. It looks like we are in for more bad weather here in central oregon but the wildlife need to eat and I was happy we seen what we did on our short drive.

I have several species of these "Shamrock" plants.

The Black-headed Grosbeak is the monarch butterflies worst enemy! These are a species of birds who can safely eat the poisonous monarch butterfly. And is happy to do it!

This past week has been CRAZY!! Crazy good that is! This is not going to be a post about one species, I captured way to many things this past week for that. So this is going to be a mix of photographs, a mix of adventures.

This Golden Crowned Sparrow stopped by. The golden patch on their heads is hard to confuse this one with other species. The weather has been nice, so outside is where I can be found!