Wildlife

Janet has been feeding catfood to those injured geese.  It's mostly corn and seems to be better for fowl than for cats.  And the fish have learned to like it, too.  If you think fish can't learn, think again.  I think they see the geese "up there" on the surface and come up to wait with them.  It took weeks for them to learn, but they most certainly have done so.

I was curious what these fish were, so I dropped in a line with a salmon egg about two feet below a bobber and got this guy almost immediately.  It's really a Northern pikeminnow, but since they like catfood so much maybe we should be calling them catfish.

--Brian

It's been a busy summer for us and at the same time pretty slow on the water.  I haven't seen as many interesting boats as in the last couple of years, and the few I have seen I haven't had time to photograph and prepare for posting here.  Sorry.

Meanwhile, as far as I know the wildlife is not experiencing a recession.  Here are some geese that visited us for a few days.  There were actually more than a dozen and I have other photos.  Maybe some are even better than this one, but it will do for now:

This character is actually still hanging on the side of the house as I type.  Patient as a fisherman, but waiting for insects.  If he is patient enough he may get one of the termites that come out in the evening.  He's about 2" long right now, so I don't think he's fully grown.

--Brian

I photographed this Barred owl on Coon Island today.  I know this isn't technically floating, but he was surrounded by the river.  

--Brian

A lot of Ospreys live along the Channel. Here's one that was fishing opposite of us on July 31st. They aren't the greatest photos, but it's interesting how persistent s/he was. These are just a few shots of dozens of spashes into the same area in pursuit of some kind of fish.

--Brian

All of those Violet-green swallows fledged except for one. Janet and Taylor named him Sean and he just won't leave the nest. He's been in there for four or five days since the others left...

(Note: he did finally fledge, so all is well.)

--Brian

The violet green swallows really like our nest box. There are at least three in the nest right now. Here are two of them. This is their second nesting this year in this box. Busy times at the yacht club.

Here comes Mom to the rescue with some vittles. (Or maybe it's Dad or Sis or Bro - not sure!)

Yeah, I know: they are not floating. But hey, it's my blog!

 ... Janet points out that they are floating because they are on our houseboat.

--Brian

The Violet-green swallows like to perch on our TV antenna and watch their nest box.  We don't have a TV, but leave the antenna up for their convenience.

--Brian

This Sea Lion is headed back downstream after a season of hunting salmon, probably below Willamette Falls.

--Brian

Here is one of our neighbors, a professional fisherman.

--Brian

If you look closely, you will notice that there is an osprey sitting on the piling in these photos. Most of the people zooming by did not even notice him. He probably would have flown off except that he was trying to eat a nice big fish.

--Brian