Sandhill Crane
The Sandhill Cranes returned to Northeastern California late this Winter. I have been fortunate enough to see them on several occasions.
A lone crane feeding at Poison Lake.
Sandhill Cranes
Poison Lake
Cranes with friends.
Which way do we go?
Solitude
Ruffled feathers
I think Big Bird must have been a crane.
Poison Lake
Sandhill Cranes of Ash Creek Wildlife Area.
Back to the coast today for inventory. This is the mill I went to. We are all done and headed home.
It’s a long drive and the girls are exhausted.
This young red-tailed hawk is feeding on a bird it caught.
His prey is more visible in this picture. It was a bird of some type, but I couldn’t identify it.
This young red-tailed hawk has made the mill site his home. He is a hard-working bird as I see him every day at his favorite hunting grounds.
This is his favorite spot. Every day he spends some time on the powerline watching the field in front of our office.
At first he would get annoyed when I stopped to take his picture.
Now he become a great model.
In case you were worried you weren’t going to get your osprey fix today, here is one for you.
We never know who might just pop by the Pole Yard. While driving through the yard the other day this rooster pheasant was strutting down the road. Unconcerned, he took his sweet time. I stopped, not wanting to run over His Excellency, and took some pictures to record this auspicious occasion. He finally moved out of the road, but seemed somewhat perturbed by the inconvenience.
His Excellency on parade.
He finally allows us to pass.
Even I have to admit, he is a handsome fellow.
Teka and Blitz were busy plotting against His Excellency!
Climbing down the ladder to the chip hopper. Hey, what is that black thing?
I’m working on a presentation that I’m giving at the Redwood Region Logging Conference on Friday. I wanted to put some new photos into my Power Point presentation. My favorite view of the mill site is from the top of the chip hopper at the Pole Plant. It gives a great overview of the entire complex, so I took my shots and climbed down. I normally post lots of pictures of wildlife around the mill site, but I haven’t shown much of the complex. By just looking at the wildlife pictures from my category called “Wildlife At The Mill“, one would think this place was a wildlife refuge. In a way it is. The wildlife here is accustomed to living next to and amongst the mill site. No one bothers them and they have adapted to their environment. It is truly amazing how adaptable nature is.
Mt Shasta rises in the background of the pole yard and the log decks. Mt Shasta is the second largest mountain in the Cascades at 14,179 feet.
The Otter Pond is surrounded by the sawmill, co-generation plant and pole yard. The otters don’t seem to mind. You can see the otter post Otter, Up Periscope. The tower with the osprey nest is just visible in the upper right corner. The osprey posts are, Osprey Remodel, Osprey Love, and Here Come The Osprey.
The Pole Plant.
Looking down the chip conveyor.
The osprey returns to the nest with a stick.
They began rebuilding their nest the day she arrived and the two osprey were back together. This is what they typically do after the winter storms take there toll on the nest. This particular nest is only one year old and must have weathered the winter fairly well. They spiffed it up the first day and that was that. They moved in.
The building materials arrive.
Doing some touch up to the nest.
Off for more sticks.
Just a bit of work and this nest is good to go.
The picture below is how the nest looking in 2011. Usually, they add a new layer to the nest every year. Not so much this year. In 2011 the nest had been built up much more and was on the opposite side of the tower. Normally, the nest gets taller and taller until a severe Winter storm blows the top of it off. I’ve seen the nest over 6 feet tall. Last year the nest survived some very bad storms. Late in the season the nest was gone after a moderate storm. I checked under the nest for debris, but found very little. I found out later that the local power company employees climbed the tower and removed the nest.
This was the nest in 2011.
When they osprey returned and found no nest they immediately started rebuilding. Although, as often happens with men and women they had a bit of a disagreement. They each began building nest on opposite sides of the tower. As typically happens when there is a disagreement, she got her way and the nest ended up in it’s current location.
The is nothing more relaxing then a cozy nest.
The Misery Whip.
Here it is, the final painting. I hope you like it.
Now that I finally have time to catch my breath, here is what happened since my last post. I left work and rushed home. I had about 20 or 30 minutes of painting left to do. When I finished the painting, we had about an hour and 5 minutes before we had to be at the dinner auction. I cut the mat and framed it. With that complete, we got ourselves ready and ran out the door. We arrived at the dinner, and presented the painting to the master of ceremonies so he could put it on display. After an excellent prime rib dinner the auction began.
This auction is a fund-raiser for the Education Fund of the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference. The money goes for forestry education for local students. The money supports Education Day for local 4th graders to tour the conference, that is where Mary gave her presentation, https://theforesterartist.com/2013/02/08/the-misery-whip-home-stretch/ . They also support the local college logging sports team, scholarships and a Spring woods tour, among other things.
Now back to the auction. The painting was item 30 out of 50. Not a bad place to be. If it is too early, some folks are holding back, keeping their powder dry, so to speak. Too late in the evening and many bidders start to leave. The bidding seemed to be going pretty high during the early portion of the auction. I was encouraged. Finally, The Misery Whip was up. Bidding started at $200. The bidding was short and frantic. Then, “SOLD” to the high bidder for $900. I was very happy to see my effort contribute to bringing in so much to the charity fund. I could not see who the bidder was.
Mary runs our booth at the conference, so on top of everything else we had been preparing for the conference and getting product ready. As a result Mary and I were exhausted and were planning to go home after the painting was auctioned, but I had a ticket for a drawing at the end. Since, we did not want to stay that late, I took the ticket to a friend from work who would be there for the drawing. He was sitting in the area of the high bidder, so I asked him who it was. He said “it was me”! He told me when he saw it on display he was determined to buy it and it was his way of owning a piece of me. I was flattered and humbled. Thank you Ted. I’m really glad he got it.
After weeks of getting to bed after mid-night, last night Mary and I were in bed by 7pm and slept for 12 hours. The truck is unloaded. Now it is time to fall back and regroup. All in all, I would say it was a very successful conference.
I’ve decide the name the painting “The Misery Whip.” I’m not done yet, but closing in. It is almost midnight so I’m packing it in for tonight. Here it is so far.
“The Misery Whip” a work in progress.
I have an impending deadline. I am creating this watercolor painting as a donation to the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference, Education Day live auction. It is a 1930’s era logger bucking logs with a crosscut saw, also known as a “misery whip”. I sketched it the night before last. I stretched my paper yesterday morning. Last night I started putting paint to paper. Tonight I have to finish it. Tomorrow I will need to cut the mat and frame it so that tomorrow night it goes to auction. whewww! I’m ready for a nap, unfortunately that will have to wait until Sunday.
This part is for any Conference attendees. I’m posting this to the Conference facebook page in case there are any attendees going to the Education Day Dinner and happen to look online. We want you to show up with your check books because it’s fundraising time. You can bid on this if you like it, or bid on something else if you don’t, but bid!
It is a WIP. This is where I stopped last night, but now I’m back at it. Updates will be forthcoming.
In the beginning, the line art.
The background washes and starting to find some detail.
Completed intial washes and adding some background detail.
You may be asking, why did he wait so long to start this? An excellent question and one to which I have a good answer. However, I can’t go into that now, because I just don’t have time. That will be another blog. Stay tuned.
The deer herd feeding in the hay field.
Something caught my attention, while cruising around the North end of the log decks. Lots of animals were running in the hay field. The mill property has a couple hundred acres of hay fields and ponds on the North end of the log yard. Each afternoon a large herd of deer comes into the fields to graze. This morning, they were already in the field and running all over the place. This is odd behavior for the deer because they weren’t leaving. They usually wander randomly around the field feeding. If anyone gets too close they just leave the field for the cover of the nearby Valley Oaks. This time they were running helter skelter around the field, but not leaving. I was about a quarter mile away and could not discern what was going on. I pulled out my camera and zoomed in on the action. Then I saw the three coyotes. This is what happened next.
Enjoying the sunny morning, the deer placidly graze. They seem unconcerned about anything going on around them.
Moving in on the deer herd, this coyote was intent on having venison for breafast.
The coyotes non-chalantly move closer and closer to the herd.
The big buck spots the sneaky coyotes.
Two does and the big buck aren’t going to tolerate the coyotes stalking the herd.
This brave doe takes the lead in dealing with the interlopers.
The two does surround the lead coyote. The coyote was not expecting this.
The second coyote decides not to stick around. No loyalty amoung coyotes.
The coyote is having second thoughts and a venison meal.
Deciding it isn’t worth it the coyotes back off.
No venison today for this coyote.
Perhaps a nice field mouse would be good instead.
With the threat dealt with, the herd goes back to a leisurely breakfast.
THE FORESTER ARTIST 