Bodhi, the Nine-Lives Cat
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Every block has a lucky cat. Ours is Bodhi — my neighbor’s beloved companion, and very likely the most fortunate animal for a mile in any direction. By my count
Category: Jonathan’s Journal
A Swallowtail on the Wing
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Between the birds, a bit of drifting color. Swallowtails are the big kites of the butterfly world — broad-winged, unhurried, and impossible to ignore when one comes tumbling through on
A Perfect Day at Oaks Bottom
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Some days Oaks Bottom hands you everything at once. Today was one of those — a flawless 75 degrees, the kind of blue overhead that makes you slow right down,
A Great Blue Heron, Hiding in Plain Sight
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You would think a four-foot bird would be impossible to miss. You would be wrong. This Great Blue Heron was standing more or less in the open, and I nearly
Lesser Goldfinch in Perfect Light
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Some birds you chase for the drama. This one I chased for the light. The Lesser Goldfinch is the smallest finch in North America — a tiny bird, hardly bigger
A Curious Raccoon
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Not every face at the water’s edge has feathers. Down at Oaks Bottom, this raccoon came ambling along the bank and stopped to size me up — black mask, bright
An Encounter with a Cooper’s Hawk
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After a week of kingfishers and herons down at the water, Sellwood Park handed me something with a very different job description. A predator. I had an encounter with a
The Fishers of Oaks Bottom — Part One: The Kingfisher & the Heron
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Oaks Bottom is a pond full of fishers — but a few of them are masters, and they couldn’t go about it more differently. One is all explosive speed; another,
Continue readingThe Fishers of Oaks Bottom — Part One: The Kingfisher & the Heron
Scenes from my Garden
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A few scenes from the garden this season — a rose letting go, roses planted for strangers, and lilies caught in the last good light. Different flowers, one quiet idea:
The Garden’s Smaller Guests — Bushtit, Chickadees, and a Nuthatch
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Some mornings the garden fills up with small, fast birds working the feeder. None of them hold still for long — which is half the fun of trying to photograph
Continue readingThe Garden’s Smaller Guests — Bushtit, Chickadees, and a Nuthatch
Spring Is the Time
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Spring is the season of new life. You can see it everywhere, if you slow down — in the hardhack (Spiraea douglasii) bursting open along the water, pink and soft
Backyard, Street, Refuge: Portland in Bloom
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This year the garden is talking back. Last spring I planted about five new rose bushes along my street — the small, sun-loving variety that you see everywhere in Portland
Red-Breasted Nuthatches in My Back Yard
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Some mornings the backyard becomes the story. This week a red-breasted nuthatch family has been visiting the feeder — mother and babies, working the suet, calling back and forth from
After 54 Years, My First Western Skink
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This morning at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge in Portland, I saw something I’d never seen before. A Western Skink, sunning itself on the stone steps along the trail. Brown body
A Male Anna’s Hummingbird on the banks of the Willamette River
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I wanted to share about the conditions on this shoot — the lighting was incredible. Around 5pm the sun hit the hummingbird perfectly, lighting up his rose-pink throat while the
Continue readingA Male Anna’s Hummingbird on the banks of the Willamette River
Wood Duck in Motion — Action Shots from Oaks Bottom
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Wood Ducks are one of the most stunning waterfowl in North America — the males practically glow with iridescent greens, purples, and chestnut browns. When one stretches its wings, all
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First Photos of a Black-throated Gray Warbler at Sellwood Park
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A lifer for me today at Sellwood Park, right along the Willamette River — my first ever photographs of a Black-throated Gray Warbler. These little songbirds are spring migrants that
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Golden Hour at Oaks Bottom — Eagles, Ospreys, and Spring in Full Bloom
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Perfect evening light at Oaks Bottom tonight. Seventy degrees, golden hour around 6pm, and the wildlife was out in force. The trails were full of people enjoying the spring weather,
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A Morning in the Cherry Blossoms —A variety of songbirds and woodpeckers
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Spring has arrived in Portland, and my backyard fig tree has become a stage for some of the Pacific Northwest’s most beautiful small birds. A suet feeder in the garden
Continue readingA Morning in the Cherry Blossoms —A variety of songbirds and woodpeckers
A Curious Visitor at Oaks Bottom
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I was out at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge the other day when I noticed movement along the water’s edge. A North American river otter had pulled itself up onto a