my birthday at the zoo

so this post is a little overdue, as my birthday was the 3rd of march. i flew solo to the oregon zoo and it was great. a lot of the animals i don’t normally see where out and about. normally i start at the great northwest exhibit and work my way down and around, but this time i just sort of wandered aimlessly.

 

visayan warty pigs

 

sun bear

conrad goofing with his sister tasul.

 

 

there are two new wolves that arrived to the zoo from minnesota  in december. the mother is a gorgeous silver color and named cheyanne, and the pup is named yazhi. 

 

the elk were doing exactly what they always do. sitting there.

 

thought this was a good promo pic if these sheep were in a baaaand. i’m sorry. 

 

had a great long moment with this bobcat. we just stared at each other for 30 or 40 minutes. children would come up and get right up to him and tap on the glass and he would just look around them straight at me. 

 

 

this bear looks so soft!

 

 

and i finally went in and fed the lorikeets. this is a lot of fun. it’s only a dollar and at one point i had 4 or 5 of them on me. 

 

good birthday!

April Fakeout

so we’ve had three consecutive days now of the most spectacular weather. 70’s, sunny, warm at night, the whole nine yards. this is my favorite. J says things will get worse before they get better. this is what is going on at 1907 at this very moment.

 

this squirrel is living the dream on our neighbor’s roof. 

and here is my new garden we (n wong, j statz & i) worked on yesterday.

at the moment i have planted peas, beets, purple carrots and kale, with some tomatoes and eggplant starts in the works and maybe broccoli raab coming soon. here is the lattice that n and i made for the peas.

more news as things develop.

reggae all day.

Day O by the Techniques

Spring Visitors

seeing some new faces around the neighborhood the past few days.

american goldfinches in the backyard.

 

 

 

 

 

and this mysterious hummingbird. i am positive i saw a female rufous hummingbird the other morning, but it was hard to see the reddish feathers in the overcast light today. so i’m not sure if she’s a rufous or a black-chinned hummingbird. either way, i’m psyched that she’s becoming a regular visitor.

 

 

and here’s gram parsons’ great version of the richie havens tune “high flyin’ bird”

feeding nayla

my new friend carli works at the oregon zoo and was able to take me back to this area where they train animals for educational demonstrations and the wild animal stage show. i got to see the newly arrived eurasian eagle owl and also to feed a little food nugget to this amazing prehensile-tailed porcupine named Nayla. made my month.

Birds of 1907

here’s my newest book! hot off the presses. 

 

 

for Ashen Ledger #003 i made drawings of the birds that i watch from my windows and porch here in portland. 1907 is my address. 
 

Birds of 1907 contains 9 new drawings, 5.5″x4.25″, b&w, and it folds out into an 11″x17″ poster. 
 

pick one up today! HERE.

bathroom window #1

 

my bathroom window is my new favorite spot to view the nature around my house. it is on the second floor and faces north. today it was pretty clear, especially to the east. i could see mountains in the distance. to the west forest park was obscured slightly by fog. i noticed a scrub jay and some little sparrows in a neighbor’s tree, and a cat in the window.

i watched this little squirrel dig in thesoft dirt next door that is covered with hideous orange paint flakes from the walls of the house that is being renovated. he found a nut or something and took it up the tree to his perch. after that he hopped in front of the cat at the window and then came over to our porch to sniff around and eat some scraps (i throw food scraps in the “compost heap” that is our backyard. THERE ARE NO RATS HERE IN PORTLAND). while he was doing that i got my camera and came back and took a few pics. then he climbed up the tree to within a meter or two from me and i took this video.

 

 

i also just bought a suet feeder and some seed for an old tower feeder i found. this one is sort of hidden in some bamboo right outside our window, which i think makes a great hidden spot for some little songbirds to come snack, but it will probably take forever for them to find it. the suet is out on our front porch. hopefully i’ll have some birds stopping by soon.

 

ridgefield national wildlife reserve

i visited the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, just north of vancouver, wa with my mother and aunt after thanksgiving.

first up, nutria! mother and baby:

not long before we saw an adult bald eagle and several juveniles. these birds are huge!

this one was setting on a tree with a peregrine falcon (down there on the left)

 

oh and we also saw this kestrel on our way to the refuge, a first for me in the wild.

 

there were tons of ducks, mallards, a snowy egret and a merlin in this marshy bit, but too far for good pics.

geese

 

so then we are passing through this scraggly forest area where there had been owl sightings of late. we crept along in the car (this refuge is one that you drive through and where for most of it you have to stay in your car) scanning everywhere. tons of hawks, no owls. then near a bend my mom spotted her sitting in a tree at some distance. looking right at us with the most beautiful orange eyes. my first wild great horned owl.

 

i took a pic through the binoculars

 

there was allegedly a small eared owl in a different part of the park, but the stand of trees where it seemed most likely to be was too far away. and we had to be getting on, so we sort of skimmed over the last 1/4 of the refuge. there were lots of great blue herons and more nutria

 

highly recommended for people interested in waterfowl and raptors.

rainy day at the oregon zoo

went to the oregon zoo with kim, sully and dom in october i think. november maybe. a lot of the animals were hiding or in their heated night quarters. but i did get a chance to see Samudra, the new baby elephant. she is a cute one.

 

hanging with her mom

 

and doing her own thing

 

also saw this other female elephant outside.

 

i belive i mentioned this last time, but i still think one of the best parts of the oregon zoo is the Great Northwest section. these animals were prety unphased by the inclement weather. no lynx that day, but the otter was playful

and the cougars were sleeping together again now with a third, seasonal bedfellow.

a pumpkin which probably weighed almost as much as one of them.

the wolves weren’t out again. i need to figure out what is the best time to be at their enclosure.

this huge guy was floating around

 

kim and sully made some new friends

 

 

got a great view of the babirusa running around

 

 

and i was very excited to see the amur leopards again. last time i only saw one.

 

 

and kim is the same size as a sun bear

october embroideries

need to do more work.

 

 

and for a show at the AG Gallery back in brooklyn in november:

“zootica”

went pumpkin patching at the roloff family farm this weekend. this farm is run by the family from that tv show little people, big world. it was crowded and though the pumpkins did look cool (various stages of green/orange) in retrospect they were expensive. but it was fun and there were all these hilarious hand painted signs with the pumpkins saying funny stuff and pathetically begging you the visitor to pick them. this was our favorite.

.

 

 

then there was this “zootica” part, which was basically a little shed with a tortoise and this little “chocolate” skunk named dagwood out front.

 

 

some guinea pigs

 

sleeping ferrets

 

this jumpy lizard

 

then as we were leaving this woman was walking around with two pythons on her. she was talking about them and i touched them. she was barely paying attention to them, and one was very curious about all the small child faces. this was going on behind the woman’s back.

 

my pumpkin cost $4.20. not sure what to carve.