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Lake Walcott: What Happened?

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Journeys, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Wildflowers, tagged , , , , , , , , on July 18, 2012| 8 Comments »

 “The man who never alters his opinion Is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.” William Blake.

These flowers bloomed while I was gone. There were big bunches of them all along a short section of the bank in the upper tent campground. — Photo by Pat Bean.

Life Goes On

And the milkweed plants, which the butterflies love, here at the park went from this … — Photo by Pat Bean

I’m Back now at Lake Walcott, after leaving for four days to fly to Texas for a granddaughter’s wedding. I had a marvelous time. I got to see a new great-grandson, now almost seven months old, for the first time. And I’m still feeling the love from all the family hugs I received.

Homecoming, when it involves loved ones, is always sweet after an absence. It’s a benefit that helps make up for the distance my chosen on-the-road life and the scattered residences – from Texas to Florida, Illinois to Arizona, with Argentina thrown in for good measure – of my children and grandchildren.

But while I was gone, this southern Idaho state park where I’m volunteering for the summer continued its ever-changing life cycle, welcoming me back with new wonders.

My hummingbird feeder was empty and the bird seed feeder, which I had filled to the brim before taking off, had only a few sunflower seeds remaining in it. I had left both full, not wanting to disrupt the continuity of the birds that visit my RV site.

A black-headed grosbeak and an American goldfinch – a study in orange and yellow – were at the feeder when I pulled in. It was the first grosbeak that had visited and I was delighted to see it. I suspected that the Bullock’s orioles had emptied the hummingbird feeder as I’ve only had a few hummers visit this year.

Black-headed grosbeak — Wikipedia photo

My first walk around the park after being back was full of changes too. Along with coming across branches that had blown down from the weekend storm I missed, I noticed that the milkweed had matured, and that some bank plants had come into bloom while I was gone.

It was fun to see the changes, which so often are missed on a day-to-day basis. Life goes on where ever one goes.

Bean’s Pat: Katmai National Park http://tinyurl.com/765d97z Fishing bears. I couldn’t resist sharing this. Blog pick of the day from the wondering wanderer.

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Favorite Places: Jamaica

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , on July 17, 2012| 1 Comment »

This passing boat looks just like the one I cruised the Black River in. — Photo by Pat Bean

“The Mark of a successful man is one that has spent an entire day on the bank of a river without feeling guilty about it.” Chinese Proverb

Typical passing scenery at the start of the river cruise. — Photo by Pat Bean

The Black River

Toward the end of the cruise, it was just one mangrove tree after another. — Photo by Pat Bean

I had one day to spend in Jamaica as part of a Caribbean cruise, and I chose to spend it cruising some more — on the  Black River.

But first there was a ride in a rickety old bus to get to the other side of the island. 

“No problem.” That describes the Jamaican way of life I learned. 

It was a fun bus ride, and a fun boat trip.

George — Photo by Pat Bean

 One in which a crocodile named George came at our boat captain’s call, and one in which all aboard toasted our captain with a Jamaican beer after he called the alligator over to say hi.

Honest!

Bean’s Pat: Retiree Diary http://tinyurl.com/7orn9dq Keep traveling with this blog, which takes you to Croatia. Blog pick of the day from this wondering wanderer.

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Lake Walcott Has Many Moods

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , on July 11, 2012| 11 Comments »

 “It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here.” – Edward Abbey

Always the Same But Always Different

 

I often sit on this bench to watch birds. The area is a favorite hangout of western kingbirds and Bullock’s orioles. — Photo by Pat Bean

Before I became a full-time wondering wanderer, I enjoyed the familiarity of my frequent hikes on the benches of Utah’s Mount Ogden, whose shadow stretched down to touch my pleasant home.

From day-to-day, season-to-season, year-to-year, I got to watch the same landscape in its different moods and growth. It was an awesome experience.

While I truthfully tell everyone the only thing I miss since paring all my belongings down to fit into a 22-foot long RV is my bathtub – showers have just never been my bathing choice – I’m beginning to think I also miss the continuity of watching one particularly landscape change on a daily basis.

My volunteer position as a campground host here at Lake Walcott State Park for the last three summers is what started me thinking about this. I walk all around this park daily, several times in fact since my canine traveling companion, Pepper, needs an outlet for her energy. And I never tire of seeing the same landscape over and over.

Today the lake is mirror smooth, and so provides a canvas for the landscape to paint.

Part of that is because it’s ever-changing. The slant of the sun, the shadow of a cloud, the arrival of the nighthawks, a new flower opening its petals, the mirror smoothness or crashing waves of the lake against the shore, all this and much, much more add variety and delight to my walks.

Edward Abbey got it right. It’s as important to enjoy the land as it is to protect it. The first, I suspect, will make us fight all the harder to accomplish the latter.

Bean’s Pat: Life in the Bogs http://bogsofohio.wordpress.com I chose this blog as my pick of the day because its author/photographer frequently posts pictures of the same pond in its many moods. I never tire of seeing her pond day after day.

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Route 66 Icon Recalled

Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , on July 9, 2012| Leave a Comment »

 “In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these.” – Paul Harvey

Now I Know The Rest of the Story

1931 Studebaker President Sedan in Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan. — Flicker Photo by Steve Brown

I don’t know how many of you recall Paul Harvey, a folksy radio personality whose career began in the 1930s and continued into this century. “And now you know the rest of the story,” became his trademark on completing a tale after intermissions for advertising.

Knowing the rest of the story, what goes on behind the scenes, has always captured my wondering interest. I hate it when I’m left hanging, which is exactly how I felt after neither myself nor my readers, could identify the model of car that sits as an icon to Route 66 off Interstate 40.

Now I know, thanks to bloggers Brian and Shannon at: http://everywhereonce.com The two of them are wanderers like me. I’ve accused them of following me around, but then they could say the same of me. It’s quite fun, actually, to read their take on places I’ve also visited.

Time and age have turned this old 1931 Studebaker into an art memorial for Route 66. It sits off Interstate 40 (note semis in background) that replaced the Mother Road. — Photo by Pat Bean

Today, their blog is about Petrified National Forest, which I visited in May. Like me, they mentioned the same glorified clunker that sits in the park as a memorial to Route 66 , which still passes through the forest.

The big difference in the two blogs is that my May 24th post didn’t identify the make and year of the vehicle – and theirs does.

It’s a 1931 Studebaker.

I truly should have known, especially since it was a 1948 Studebaker convertible in which I learned to drive. Of course that model and the rusted remains of the 1931 Presidential Series Studebaker that sits in the Petrified Forest have little in common.

Anyway, Now I know the rest of the story and will sleep better. Perhaps there are other wondering minds out there who will also sleep better now, too.

Bean’s Pat: Colors of the Rainbow http://tinyurl.com/cdw7omj Fantastic photo taken in Yellowstone National Park. It touched my nature-loving soul. Blog pick of the day from a wondering wanderer.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement

Posted in Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , on July 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »

“Every man is a creative cause of what happens, a primum mobile with an original movement.” — Fredrich Nietzsche

 Pendleton Roundup

Yeehaw! — Photo by Pat Bean

“Never confuse movement with action.” — Ernest Hemingway

I think you could call this movement. — Photo by Pat Bean

“The least movement is of importance to all nature. The entire ocean is affected by a pebble.” Blaise Pascal

 

 

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Lake Walcott: Red-Winged Blackbirds

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on July 5, 2012| 6 Comments »

Fall sketch of red-winged blackbird at Antelope Island State Park in Utah

“Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self, in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one’s nakedness can always be felt, and sometimes, discerned.” James Arthur Baldwin.

One Thing Is Not Like the Other

Female red-winged blackbird — Wikipedia photo

Back in my earlier days of bird watching, I came across a small flock of birds at Green River State Park in Utah that I spent an hour, field guide in hand, trying to identify. They just didn’t quite fit the description of any North American bird, or so I was coming to conclude.

And then a lone male red-winged blackbird flew past – and the light bulb came on. My flock of birds were female red-winged blackbirds. It wasn’t that I hadn’t seen them before, I had just forgotten how unlike their mates they look.

You can find red-winged blackbirds anywhere you live here in North America.

Here at Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho, the males flash their scarlet epaulets boldly, saying look at me, look at me. The females, however, mostly stay hidden in the reeds growing on the lake bank, where they build their nests, in hopes they won’t be seen.

The show-off male — Wikipedia photo

It’s a rare day here at the park that I don’t see both birds, the females because I know where to look, and the males everywhere I look.  This morning one was even checking out the fresh supply of sunflower seeds I had put in my bird feeder.

Life doesn’t get much better.

Bean’s Pat: Lady Romp http://tinyurl.com/cekabj8 A message we all need to remember. Blog pick of the day from this wandering wonderer.

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This and That

Posted in Nature, Travels With Maggie, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2012| 9 Comments »

 “An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious – just dead wrong.” – Russell Baker

Did You Know?

It was Fred and Wilma Flintstone who were the first television couple to be shown together in the same bed. I didn’t know that. Did you.

It’s my goal to learn something new every day, whether it is learn-worthy or not. These facts I came across either amazed me or tickled my funny bone. So I thought I would share.

1. The first toilet tank ever seen on television was on “Leave it to Beaver.” I think I missed that.

2. In Singapore, it is illegal to sell or own chewing gum. because people disposed of it in public places, like under tables or chairs. No problem, I don’t chew gum.

3. To burn off the calories from one M&M candy, you need to walk the full length of a football field. Oops. Problem here. My guess is there are not enough football fields in the world for this chocoholic.

That’s a lot of football fields to be walked.

4. But at least, a Harvard studys says chocolate eaters live longer.

5. Pepsi Cola was originally called Brad’s Drink. Interesting, but I prefer Coke — and I want to know why the Coke I drank in Africa tasted better than it does in this country. My best guess is that it was because it came in a class bottle and contained real sugar instead of corn syrup.

6. A baby has 300 bones, but an adult only has 206. Huh?

Anybody else out there think these are gooseberries? — Photo by Pat Bean

7. The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time television was Fred and Wilma Flintstone. I thought it was the Bradys.

8. A hippopotamus can run faster than a human – no one told me that when I was in Africa and a hippo was roaming around our tent.

Oh, and by the way. I think my unidentified berries ( June 28 blog) are gooseberries. A reader identified them as such, and after looking at photos I agreed. Do you?

Bean’s Pat: Meat and Potatoes of Life http://tinyurl.com/bs6ckop How to catch a crab. I thought I’d keep to the theme of learning something new. And please keep laughing. I think it’s even better for your health than chocolate.

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Fleeting

Posted in Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged , , , , on June 30, 2012| 11 Comments »

Butterflies

“To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.” — Henri Carier-Bresson

One has only fleeting seconds to capture the image of a butterfly before it is off to the next flower. — Photo by Pat Bean

 “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don’t know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” — Unknown

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First Sighting of Cedar Waxwing at Lake Walcott

Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Art, Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , on June 29, 2012| 9 Comments »

“Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.” – David Brent.

A Poem for a Bird-Watching Artist

John James Audubon’s painting of a cedar waxwing.

She called herself an SOB – Spouse of Birder. It was a humid, hot mosquito day and she had tagged along with her passionate birder husband – and wasn’t enjoying herself at all.

I felt sorry for her. We avid birders really are a queer lot, as poet Stephen Vincent Benet noted in the 1800s. In our passionate pursuit of the next bird we’ll see, we forget that not everyone enjoys spending the day in a buggy swamp, or likes to get up at 3 a.m. to hike to a place so they can see a red-cockaded woodpecker at dawn, or stand patiently for hours in hopes a rare bird will appear.

The SOB finally went off and found a comfortable spot to read, while we birders continued down the trail this day at Brazos Bend State Park in Texas.

A second painting of cedar waxwings by John James Audubon

It wasn’t either hot or buggy yesterday morning, however, when I spotted my first cedar waxwing here at Lake Walcott. This bird with its rakish mask and lemon-yellow, rosy-brown and cool-gray feathers is always a treat to spot.

The waxwing, the first of many I’m sure I will see before I leave the park, was sitting on a limb in plain sight of the trail, which my canine traveling companion, Pepper, and I were taking for our first walk of the day.

I had my camera in my pocket, but my the time I got Pepper under control on the leash, and was ready to snap a photo, the bird had flown. Drats. I was left without a photo for my blog.

Back at my RV, I put my thinking cap on and came up with the idea of using John James Audubon’s painting of a cedar waxwing to illustrate my words. I typed in Audubon and waxwing and hit search. Up popped Benet’s poem titled, John James Audubon, which is what got me thinking about the SOB incident.

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Lake Walcott Birds

Posted in Birds, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged , , , , , , , on June 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

 “I made a circle with a smile for a mouth on yellow paper, because it was sunny and bright.” Harvey Ball

Bullock’s Oriole and American Goldfinch

Bullock’s oriole. This one was all puffed up on a cold morning. — Photo by Pat Bean

There are two birds I have seen almost every day since I arrived in Southern Idaho, a Bullock’s oriole and an American goldfinch.

The oriole hangs out in an untrimmed area of the manicured park located to the rear of my RV site. Its landscape is dotted with Russian olive trees, sagebrush, a few small cottonwood trees and tall grasses.

In the cool of the evening, when I sit outside with my binoculars in hand, I almost always see an oriole, or two or three, flit about in the foliage, lighting up whichever branch or twig they land on like a Christmas ornament. I often point it out to campers who stop by. Oohs and ahs are the usual reactions.

American goldfinch: Hanging out on a willow tree next to the lake. — Photo by Pat Ban

Competing with the oriole for the golden-yellow award is the American goldfinch. Last year they hung out at the finch feeder bag I put out near my RV, but since I haven’t put that out this year, I usually see them flitting among the shoreline trees near the park’s Upper Lakeview campground.

It’s common, however, for me to spot these two birds just about anywhere in the park. I never tire of seeing them.

Bean’s Pat:: Daily Diversion http://onetrackmuse.com/ One big, odd pig. What’s up in your neighborhood. Blog pick of the day from this wondering wanderer.

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