On coyote bush https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/203200043
Non-breeding adult Gavia sp.
I’m unsure how feasible it is to identify G. immer from G. pacifica based on skeletal remains.
Observed resting a bit before flying away. Had a silver-colored band on the right leg.
Almost open, closest to fully open of any in the area.
Small dead bird with blue feet... Lots of bird feathers at tide lines and fine, short (half inch?) pieces of something in other photo.
Flowers appeared in winter, sometime between December and January.
Ignore the time stamp, there is something wrong with the how the data loads onto my phone. The date should be Nov 25, 2020.
Newest photos from January 31, 2021. The "floral" parts appear to be seeds but could be flowers; they shatter easily when handled.
Five Rivers Boat Launch.
5 fused petals
I think, don't think this is a native one. Quite large.
This tree is located at wiring.ticket.scale in what three words, and the whole tree fell over. Its roots were exposed, and there were branches everywhere. Some of the debris had already been cleared to make way for pedestrians.
This tree self-planted in 2000. Had been very healthy until 2020 when leaves began to thin, grow in much more sparsely, small, and leathery. Several branches died off as well, and I found orange fungus growing around its base. Huge seed productions the last two years as well.
4 foot tall pack rat nest. This one looked active. More in area. Some active some not.
Beach between Newport's south jetty and Holiday Beach. This bird is so tiny I'd guess Cassin's Auklet.
Beach between Newport's south jetty and Holiday Beach.
D River Recreation Area.
Road's End Park & beach to the south.
Road's End Park & beach to the south.
Road's End Park & beach to the south. Very tentative identification!
Road's End Park and north along the beach. A shearwater?
This rat was found dead under my lawn mower stored in a lean-to near my barn. It was likely poisoned as there are rodent bait stations in the area. I must explain the many photos. I have a couple previous photos of rats from our place that were identical to this animal, but on the basis of size and pelage alone, I was not confident in the identification. With this individual, I obtained the skull and boiled and cleaned it enough to see pertinent features. The combination of scaly, scantly haired tail with the cusps of upper molars in three rows solidly puts the rat in Muridae, the old-world rats and mice. Even with Verts and Carraway's key in Land Mammals of Oregon, I was having trouble differentiating Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus. The tail was definitely longer than the head and body, but I was uncertain about the skull characteristics. However, I found a key to Muroid rodents online from the University of Texas at El Paso (http://museum2.utep.edu/mammalogy/key/keymuroid.htm), which was the best I have found. With this key I was more certain that this rat was R. rattus; it explained the shape of the temporal ridges much better. Even so, I leave a small possibility that there could be some hybridization of R. rattus with other species here, for two reasons: (1) the shape of the parietals on this animal are notably longer than wide, like the R. norvegicus in Verts and Carraway (thought the temporal ridges clearly are not parallel adjacent to the parietals), and not like the more equal dimensions illustrated for R. rattus; (2) This rat is really cute and attractive (haha), with beautiful reddish brown fur over the top with some black tips mixed in, and with beautiful white undersides, and white feed with gray tops on the feet (like Neotoma fuscipes)! This is not at all like a grizzly black rat I usually picture when I think of a black rat. Perhaps there is more to be learned about rats in this area.
Healthy, more in area, need to return to survey
Wayne Calder Wetland Conservation Area