Swainson's Thrush 2022

 The first spiral trill of the Swainson's thrush was heard this evening. Hooray! My wife is thrilled.

They arrived early despite our delayed spring; the Salmon-berries are still small and green. Hopefully that means they will stay around a while. The 18th of May ('eruption day' in the Pacific NW) is commonly when their one-note calls are heard first, but the 14th was when I first heard their 'whipp' and 'breeek!' monotones. This evening I hear the more settled 'whip/brrrr' call a few times, then the call came at last. Nesting season at last?

This is one of my favorite "SURPRISE!" images. I took this photo featuring the towhee and cropped the image tightly, only later aware that he was being shadowed by a Swainson's in the uncropped image! I've recropped (shown here) to show the elusive thrush in its favorite place - under cover. :^) Too bad about the nail and pitched pole, not quite a pastoral scene.. also too bad I didn't have a longer telephoto lens, as the image did not crop without artifacts.

to record highs, and beyond!

 Dry season is one thing, but heat season is another beast entirely. And fear fire foes, it is upon us - several weeks sooner than usual!

As stated succinctly at Cliff Mass' blogsite, the forecast is consistently forecasting that high-temp records will break throughout the region. Even more bizarre, the expected changes that weather models make when a big event is closer to starting - well, the models have become even more certain of major heat! Usually when 110° shows up on the west side of the Cascades, a subsequent model shift removes it - but this event could be the exception.

Only the immediate coast is safe, as the thermal trough will sit atop the Willamette valley and allow the coast to remain at a mere 80° plus or minus. The valley itself will bake, and the Cowlitz and Puget areas are in on it as well. Monday was supposed to bring a reprieve, but models are even relenting on much of it; a low will dent the high but not remove it entirely. 

Portland's 107° and Kelso's 108° all-time records are at risk (see bottom of post), while June records could be set wherever airports actually keep records from Tacoma to Medford - and east side as well! Late June records in Portland are barely over 100° so the perfect (heat)storm has hit at a good time to leave its mark in the record books.

Thursday's WUnderground forecast for the hill-top. WU forecasts are often near the extremes - but it could happen this time!

So - this year's plan for planting a spring lawn is officially over. The one spot that I had plowed did not sprout (old grass seed) and the rain disappeared before the new seed was spread. Dry weather March-May, a week of drenching rain and now parching heat means it's going to be an autumn effort this year. Ah well.. the last big storm did allow for (exactly!) 100% of average rainfall for June. On to July!

In other news, that drenching rain filled a few containers outside that were not intended as such.  I was set to overturn one to keep the mosquito larvae from hatching out.. but the wriggling forms did not act in the appropriate way for proto-skeeters. 

That's because they are Tadpoles! 

Now to watch their new 'pond' and keep them cool through the hot spell.

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Update - Thursday evening forecast is a pinch cooler each day. Many new records will still be in the making at the lower temps, so trifling differences overall.

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Friday AM update: cooler end of period - but a bit warmer on Monday!

Also, an updated post at Cliff Mass' site.

Truth: Portland broke its all-time high record three times with 108, 112 then 116° Sat-Mon. Ugh! Kelso and Longview set new records at 109°, and also had three-day streaks of 100 or more (as did Seattle!). 

Here on the hill-top we hit 99.5 102.4 and finally 105.6° by 3PM Monday - then the west winds took over and we dropped to 61° at midnight. That evening low erased the morning minimum temp of 78.6 on Monday morning. When I was a child a low of 60 was awful. We hit mid-60s lows soon before leaving Portland. Now this one. 

Dreadful.

spiral songs at last!

The Swainson's Thrush arrived at their usual time, May 18-19. Alert hweep!s and relaxed hwips were abundant the past ten days - but no attract-a-mate up-spiraling calls? Those usually begin within a few days, but perhaps the females arrived a bit later this year. No point in showing off one's best singing with no attractive audience to hear it!

I should probably stop hwip∙ping at them when they announce their presence; I might be canceling an appropriate alert before it's prudent, or telling them 'this spot is taken' and driving them away from us to sing up a new family!

pay no attention to the towhee at left, but instead his sneaky Swainson's shadow on the right!

Lórien is feeling quite cheerful now that her favorite bird call is in the neighborhood. Cheerful is good.

from allaboutbirds.org - Swainson's Thrush

curse the fuzzy earwigs!

To the creatures of the outdoors I've always been a fairly reasonable guy, for the most part. I've fed the birds for several years, and added corn cobs for the squirrels to keep them from raiding the seeds. Everybody's happy right? 

Well I'm sure not!!

A few weeks ago I noticed that the majority of our string of Christmas lights had gone out. Soon thereafter we had quite a windstorm blow through, and I noticed that a piece of the strand was lying broken on the deck. I figured that a part of our fence had fallen off the deck and the string was stretched to its breaking point. Then I remembered that part of the fence was already down so it wasn't the cause. Curious!

Then a day or two later, I saw a squirrel sitting atop a post on the deck. He was holding a rather large globe in his hands - a blue one. Yes, he had nibbled the strands off the perceived nut and was claiming it! I stode out furiously but he made off with it - perhaps I'll find it at the base of a tree soon? Part of me wishes the lights ran at a higher voltage so other squirrels would see the stunned or dead one and decide those nuts are poisonous..

I promptly stripped the remaining fragments of light from the deck, to prevent loss and to stop wasting the squirrels' valuable time eating wire and hoarding light bulbs. Damn idiot vermin.

I missed the lights though, so I moved a set of very not-bulbous LED lights to the fence. Your basic small and pointy white lights.

Yep, they're being stolen now too. Off they came!

I've re-ordered a new set of pointy white LED lights, and they will remain hooked on nails just beneath the gutter-line where the beasts cannot reach from above or below. Nice, but less personal.

And the corn-cobs are all distributed. Will I buy some more and encourage the beasts? 

Don't bet on it.