I saw these three Long-eared Owlets at the Summer Lake Wildlife Area in southeastern Oregon last May. They were perched within a thick stand of willow trees.
There were rumors of these owls being in the area and I wanted to get a quick glimpse of them. I was lucky to spot these secretive, well-camouflaged birds. Older Long-eared owlets like these are referred to as “branchers” since they often perch on tree branches near their nests.
If you’d like to see an impressive collection of treasures of the Wild West, be sure to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. This world-class attraction is in Cody, Wyoming, an hour’s drive east of Yellowstone National Park.
The Center contains five museums, including the Buffalo Bill Museum. There’s something for everyone at this museum.
During his lifetime, William F. Cody worked as a ranch hand, bison hunter, fur trapper, wagon train driver, Army scout, prospector, and Pony Express rider.
Cody is perhaps most well-known as a showman. He helped create a traveling show called Buffalo Bill’s Wild West. He took on the persona of Buffalo Bill.
Source: National Portrait Gallery. Smithsonian Institution.
Cody and his crew of performers put on outdoor western shows, highlighting (and romanticizing) the legacy of the West. The show began in 1883 and continued for 30 years.
Bison grazing under the beautiful Lamar Valley sky in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.
Today I’m sharing an owl shirt & sign I created. I’m featuring a drawing I did of a Flammulated Owl, Psiloscops flammeolus. When I originally drew this small owl with pen and ink, it was one of my favorites. In fact, I liked it so much I made it my logo for the art business I once ran.
First, I’ll share a photo of the t-shirt. I used sublimation ink, sublimation paper, and a hot press to transfer this image.
As mentioned in a previous post, I’m still learning how to do sublimation printing. This time, my first transfer didn’t work well at all. I used the settings included with the hot press. When I redid it, I used the settings recommended by the sublimation paper manufacturer. On some fabric products designed for this transfer process, there may be an additional set of instructions. I figured out you should keep extra blank products to discover the best settings.
Here is a closer view of my owl shirt. A few areas aren’t as dark as they should be, but it turned out well overall.
Next, I’m sharing a picture of a sign from my one-time business, NatureWise Art. For a while, I participated regularly in arts and crafts fairs with my wildlife art. I sold stationery, prints, boxes, and rocks featuring my artwork. Creating this post showing my owl shirt & sign reminded me of the many hours I put into participating in fairs.
Since I’m an introvert, these events weren’t easy for me. I thought I must not have inherited my family’s salesperson gene. Later, while working as an elected School Board Director, I learned successful politicians rely upon the key qualities of salespeople regularly. Over the 12 years I served, I became a salesperson. Though I no longer work at fairs or serve as an elected official, I “sell” information and entertainment on this blog site.
I have always said that everyone is in sales. Maybe you don’t hold the title of salesperson, but if the business you are in requires you to deal with people, you, my friend, are in sales. Zig Ziglar
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
First Friday Art (FFA)
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Clouds collect overhead, darkening and protecting the landscape
Cumulus curtains part and the earth awakens
Colorful voices shout from sloping shorelines
At West Thumb, magma boils below
Cooled by lake water’s ebb and flow
Alkaline frosting marks the shore
Thermophiles collect, framing more
I saw these Rudbeckia up close while walking along the Deschutes River trail in Bend, Oregon.
In photography, the way you show objects in small and large scale can have a big impact.
When I’ve seen grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, most of the time they are hundreds of yards away. I took this small scale picture through my spotting scope of a sow with two cubs in the Lamar Valley.
To see a closer view of a grizzly bear, I visited the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. They are massive creatures.
Sometimes, bonsai masters sculpt smaller versions of objects of nature. This is a juniper tree bonsai, recently purchased at the Bend Summer Festival. It measures 4 inches in height.
Continue readingI decided to take pictures of some of the fruit and flowers in our garden today before they fade away.
Delicate petals of nodding hollyhocks filtered the sun’s light
Snapdragons filled the landscape, exploding in shades of pink
Iceplants with purple punctuations slid towards the pond’s edge
Here’s the High Desert Voices August 2024 newsletter for your reading pleasure. Lots of nice photos as well! This newsletter is published by and for volunteers at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. I’ve been working there as a volunteer since 2013.
Articles this month include one on the Natural History Pub lectures, one on the Lost in Place writing workshop, one on sea otters, and one on the Sensing Sasquatch exhibition at the Museum.
Please enjoy the High Desert Voices August 2024 issue!
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So, when you think of trees on the westside of Oregon you probably think of evergreens, right? However, trees associated with more tropical locations also grow there. This is a Chinese windmill palm, Trachycarpus fortunei, growing at the Oregon Garden in Silverton.
Windmill palms have been cultivated in China and Japan for thousands of years so their exact natural range is difficult to determine. This hardy palm has been planted throughout the world. The tough leaf fibers of the Chinese windmill palm have been used in making rope, sacks, and coarse cloth.
Wind palm trees reach a height of 10-40 feet. In southern China, these palms grow at elevations as high as 7,874 feet. They tolerate cold temperatures, wind, salt, and drought.
Today I’m sharing a fringed gentian drawing I created from a photo. I used colored pencils for this drawing. Originally, I planned to paint over the drawing with water since I had used watercolor pencils. However, I decided to leave the drawing as is because I liked how the texture of the lines turned out.
Did you know that the fringed gentian, Gentianopsis detonsa, is the official flower of Yellowstone National Park?
If you visit the park in the spring, you’ll see lots of wildflowers in full bloom. We were there in the beginning of June 2024.
I took this picture at Black Sand Basin, just west of the Old Faithful area. As soon as I saw these blooming beside the boardwalk, I knew I wanted to do a fringed gentian drawing to try to capture their beauty.
I previously featured another photograph of fringed gentian and showed how they look with three different photo processing techniques. These flowers look pretty, no matter how they are presented.
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
First Friday Art (FFA)
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When I looked at the pictures I’d taken at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, I thought several images were like abstracts adrift.
The northern sea otters rolled themselves up into buoyant balls.
Moon jellies fell like brilliant blue windblown blossoms.
Seeing pairs of bronze bulls bash together in winter blizzards
and a couple of cascades crashing down craggy cliffs
Seeing two octopi slip and slide over seaside skyscrapers
This antlers & horns & skulls chandelier is at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center and Trailside Museum in Yellowstone National Park. A metal circle is adorned with bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain elk antlers & horns & skulls. It’s suspended by heavy metal chains.
This museum is small and probably overlooked by many visitors to the park. I recommend stopping by to see its collection of historic bird specimens. If you want to see mounts of many of the park’s birds to help identify them in the field, this is a great resource.
The hot pools of the Lava Hot Spring tourist attraction are in the city of Lava Hot Springs in southeastern Idaho. Four blocks from the hot pools, you’ll find a water park and indoor and outdoor swimming pools, also heated by hot spring waters.
Swooping red sunshades over the hot pools offer visitors shelter from the sun.
The five outdoor pools in the Hot Pool site have water temperatures ranging from 102 to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. Lava Hot Springs uses over 2.5 million gallons of hot spring water per day to heat their pools.
I enjoy using cameras small enough to fit in a pocket. I recently got a new flying lens as a gift.
Here it is. What, can’t you see that it’s a camera?
How about if I unfold it? Yeah, it’s a drone. I still have the lens protector on the front in this photo.
Here’s the controller. I like my new flying lens because it stops itself from crashing into things in 360 degrees of direction. It will also land from where it took off with the touch of a button.
Today I’m sharing a gray squirrel drawing and photo I created. I drew the squirrel with a charcoal pencil.
It’s fun to work with charcoal because you can change its appearance by using different techniques. You can “stump” it by using the side of a charcoal stick, your finger, a chamois cloth, or other materials to spread it. Since it lifts easily from a surface, you can erase or scrape parts of it off. Some artists mix charcoal with water or other liquids .
I’m also sharing a photograph I took of a gray squirrel at Three Island Crossing State Park in Glenns Ferry, Idaho. I like this picture because it looks like the squirrel is giving me a fist bump. The diagonal streams of water from a sprinkler in the background add an interesting detail to the photo.
Here’s a picture I took of a pair of puffins at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. This photo shows them in breeding and nonbreeding plumage.
This bird lives most of its life at sea, but they nest in burrows that can be more than 5 feet deep. A pair of puffins will feed their young tiny fish, which they line up crosswise in their bills. Sometimes they will carry as many as 20 fish at a time to their nests.
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I awaken on the shores of a High Desert playa
Dust devils on the distant shoreline dance across the flats
Dry soil at my feet cracks and crumbles
The funnel of a dust devil hovers over me and carries me a few miles away
I drift over a lake of summer and a ridge of winter
Water meanders its way through marshlands of green
On our recent trip we stopped at several hot springs of the West. Each site was special in its own way.
Hot springs occur when geothermally heated groundwater emerges onto the earth’s surface. In areas like Yellowstone National Park, magma is present at shallow depths below the surface. Temperatures in Yellowstone’s hot springs may reach 198 degrees Fahrenheit. At the developed hot springs of the West we visited on this trip, pool temperatures are constantly monitored and modified with colder water.
Lava Hot Springs is located in the town of Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. In this picture, the scenic Portneuf Range mountains tower in the background. This post gives more details about the site.
Bozeman Hot Springs is in Bozeman, Montana. Remodeled in May 2024, this facility includes 12 indoor and outdoor pools. It’s gorgeous! The stage behind the outdoor pools will host future entertainers. Pieces of columnar basalt serve as seating and landscaping. Here is my description of this facility.
Maple leaves in the rain at Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden, Portland, Oregon
Here’s the High Desert Voices June 2024 newsletter for your reading pleasure. Lots of nice photos as well! This newsletter is published by and for volunteers at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon, where I volunteer.
Articles this month include one on accommodating visitors with disabilities, one on facts about local wildlife mothers, one on the High Desert Ranger Station, and one on a birding event at the Museum.
Please enjoy this month’s issue!
I had a major magical moment with wildlife while visiting Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland a few weeks ago. I took a little used side trail and paused briefly in the pouring down rain.
This Great Blue Heron walked right up to me before turning to stand near a pond. I could have reached out and touched the bird. WOW! I stopped snapping pictures when it was really close to me because I didn’t want to scare it.
I’m working on a book where the main character is a girl born with the powers of several animals. One animal is a Great Blue Heron. Was this heron showing its appreciation of my efforts so far on that book?
I had another magical moment with wildlife at Yellowstone National Park this week. We were at the end of the road at Slough Creek and saw a small critter weaving its way through the sagebrush. A badger!
I recently saw this white sturgeon sculpture at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Oregon. They are the largest freshwater fish in North America.
A couple months later, I watched these white sturgeon swimming around at the Oregon Zoo. These fish were three or four feet long, but this species can reach lengths of over 14 feet and weigh more than 1,500 pounds. Sturgeon can live more than 100 years.
Here in Oregon, white sturgeon live mainly in large freshwater streams and estuaries along the coast. They occasionally travel into the ocean.
Here is a picture of a much younger white sturgeon taken at the High Desert Museum several years ago. I wouldn’t mind having a sturgeon sculpture of this size fish. The other fish pictured are trout.
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A Jenday conure up close at my house. I sometimes take care of my son’s conure when he goes on vacation. It has beautifully colored feathers and a very LOUD voice.
Here’s a pen and ink drawing I did of a Brown Pelican. Brown Pelicans are big seabirds with a unique appearance.
They capture fish by diving into the water and scooping them up in their stretchy throat pouches.
I saw several Brown Pelicans perched on posts at Seafarer’s Park in Warrenton, Oregon last summer.
Seagulls and cormorants perched and flew nearby. This park is at the mouth of the Columbia River. It’s not far from Fort Stevens State Park, a popular destination for campers.
Do you have artwork you would like to share? Be sure to include the First Friday Art tag.
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Montpelier ranch under a cloud-filled sky in Idaho
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Last weekend, we drove to Brasada Ranch resort in Powell Butte, Oregon for a BBQ and art show event. They have spectacular views of the Cascade volcanoes from their restaurant. These red chairs around a firepit were a nice accent in this scene.
Here’s a closer view of some of the marvellous mountains.
This beautiful resort has received recognition from Condé Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure, Golfweek, USA Today, and other sources. Since we live close by, we did a staycation in one of their cabins a couple of years ago and it was great!
Seastacks before the storm in Tillamook Bay, Oregon.
This landmark is known locally as The Three Graces.
In early May, I visited the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland, Oregon.
The 9.5-acre garden contains more that 2,500 types of rhododendrons, azaleas, and companion plants. This site was donated by the Jackson family in 1950.
After paying admission, you’ll enter the garden over this beautiful bridge.
I decided to try kayaking East Lake, at Newberry National Volcanic Monument, on a spring day a couple of years ago.
“It’s spring,” I thought to myself. “The weather will be fine.” See how beautiful it looks in the photo below near the East Lake Campground?
However, the shoreline is at 6,400 feet in elevation and the weather can change fast. Be prepared!
I was captivated by the cliff-lined north shore and set my sights on reaching it. “It’s not that far away,” I thought. Later, I determined it was a 1.25 mile trip across the lake.
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