Metolius Oregon Community Garden

Coralie aka Mrsroadrunner | Metolius Oregon Community Garden

Community Garden (Clicking on photo will enlarge it) Metolius Friends Community Garden Here in Metolius Oregon we have something special going on, a community garden! Everyone is welcomed to this community garden which was started a few years ago to help the community fight the hunger issues that have plagued the community in these hard economical times. I personally like to go over and just see how things are growing and changing. Every time one either grows their own garden or visits someone else's garden no two times is ever the same! Nature has a way of making sure of this. Of course being a photographer I speak mainly through photographs so , lets get on with the photography! I like the looks of these just because! Have some corn! I have a tendency to eat these right off the vine here in my own garden! These are good in stir fries. I am a huge fan of Zucchini! Add them in veggie dinners,fried,salads ,breads yummie! Rhubarb for those who like it. We even have one in our garden! Smell great! Tasty! Please contact if you plan to take these flowers for your soups,salads etc. Some folks do not know these are used in your recipe. If you would like the Catnip you need to say something. In our area Catnip as well as other species of the mint family grow VERY well. Thus, such plants as this Catnip are plucked and thrown out as a weed. Mind you, this Catnip is at or coming very near its mature age,meaning the seeds will produce more and more plants. Bottom line is, there is time to say something if you want such a plant. Caution if wanting to grow this on your property! The Metolius Friends Community Garden can be found on the Metolius Friends Community Church grounds at 575 Hood Ave Metolius Oregon 97741. Contact Information; Senior Pastor Ron Mulkey at ronmulkey@gmail.com Or Deb Mulkey at 541-546-6109 if you would like to email Deb   ronmulkey@gmail.com If you are concerned about organically grown produce please contact the above names. This organic gardener does not know if the community garden is grown organically or not? Photography and this article by Coralie mrsroadrunner.com Contact mrsroadrunner@mrsroadrunner.com Misc Photographs from the Community Garden

The Tale Of The Bread Thief

Coralie aka Mrsroadrunner | The Tale Of The Bread Thief

As I was sitting in my spot watching the birds,butterflies,bees just enjoying the nice weather we have here in the high desert of Oregon I looked over to one of our ponds and seen the swimming young frogs wanting their piece of bread.

Well, I can not just feed them one day and not the other right? I admit I am against feeding the bigger wildlife, however these smaller wildlife do not have much of a life span and are not typically hunted.

So I headed in and got them their bread breaking it up into chucks to get water logged which is the only way they can consume such a thing. Went on with the other thing I found to do, which was photographing a spotted new species of frog who showed up.

Not to stress out my little visitor I left the spotted frog to go back to my chair. Folks I am sure understand that photographing wildlife can be a thankless thing with a lot of waiting around, and waiting and waiting!

As I wait, I observe the activity around me. There is so much activity! I looked over to see how the swimming young frogs were doing with their bread. Geesh, quite a bit of it was gone!! They never ate their bread this fast before! Something was up!! So I give a dirty look at the dogs, thinking one of them got into the pond and ate the little pieces of bread even though the dogs have never did this before!?

So I wait.

Soon a pair of Brewer's Blackbirds showed up!

As a bird as smart as these blackbirds are, this Brewer's Blackbird being no different, the female walked out into the pond grabbed a piece of bread from the swimming frogs and devoured it. Oh you little stinker!!

That was not the end of the show! Oh no end of the show yet!

The male Brewer's Blackbird jumped onto a rock we have in this pond for the birds. He grabs a large piece of the bread and eats it right in front of his female! The female was not impressed! She ran in grabbed a small piece of the bread and flew near the other pond!

The male was hot on her tail with his remaining piece of bread in his beak!

I swear you could actually see the wheels turning in the females brain!! How do I get that bread from him?? She walks over to the edge of the water of this other pond. Walks in the water and pretends to eat something?

Well, this was just to much for the male to bare, not knowing what she was eating and all. So watching her, he moves towards her. Mind you he still has a good junk of bread left himself, but greed is getting the best of him!

He moves closer to her to see what she is eating.... she sees her opratunity and takes it! She flies to his bread, grabs it in her beak and off she flies! Whipping those wings near me, with the male hot on her tail and screaming at her!!

I just laughed!!

This is the tale of the bread thief. Hope you enjoyed it I sure did as it was happening haha!

Fenders Blue Butterfly

Fenders Blue Butterfly

This Boisduval's Blue Butterfly is yet another one of our endangered species here in Oregon.

These butterflies rely on the wild Lupine flower to survive. Wild Lupine which is disappearing.

The two butterflies featured here were shot in two different parts of Central Oregon. One spot was the Ochoco Mountains, the other spot was Mt. Jefferson Wilderness area. Now the Ochoco Mountain spot was a short hike in, while the Mt Jefferson Location was a lot more of a hike and the trail had not been traveled much by people.

These shots of mine look as if both males, they stand out because of their pretty blue color. Both were found around water.

The Oregon State Web site lists these Boisduval's Blue Butterfly as Fender's blue butterfly. How confusing is this?? Note, I am not a scientist, schooled etc. I just photograph wildlife and nature. I just capture with my camera what I see, and research all this on the computer. Advice is for you to do your own research.

To my understanding many of the species of these small blue butterflies are becoming rare here in my state of Oregon. The photographs I take are not manipulated by any software, what you see is what came off my camera, this is just my style of photography. A nice video example is here .

These photographs are true examples of what these butterflies look like. I am hoping folks get to know these butterflies so when you see them, you will know what they are and to take the up most care around them. They need to be left alone, not put in a jar, or touched for butterflies do not do well when we play with their wings ect..

My Karner Blue butterfly post can be found here . I am comfortable saying with over 11,000 views this Karner Blue post has been my more popular one to date.

I have many posts of photographs I have captured that I just have not gotten around to post yet. Time permitting I will get more written.

If you like my efforts please come on over and visit in facebook ! https://www.facebook.com/coralie.photography . Of course to keep my efforts going, I do sale photographs. I do this if I have money in my pocket or not......

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Lunar Eclipse on Saturday, Dec. 10

Nature is a wondrous thing. At times doing things that frankly, amazes us!

The selenelion effect made these photographs come out rather neat looking, only with some cropping done. This selenelion effect is when both the eclipsed moon and the sun can be seen at the same time. Of course I get what I am given and these photographs are what I got. A well known fact is, I dont do night time photography.
It was so cold Saturday morning here in Jefferson County Oregon!!
Without much more talking, here are my photographs from the Lunar Eclipse here in Central Oregon.

Gray Jay Bicolored Ochoco Mountains Oregon

While deep in the Ochoco Mountains we ran across a nice flowing creek.
I love running water and just had to stop!!

Upon inspection of where we were it was obvious this spot had been used as a hunting camp. The legs of the elk and the "meat hangers" (we laughed for I am sure there is a real name for them ha) , that were nailed to the trees. The feathers laying around looked as if maybe a turkey was in the mix with the elk? Even a spot for a bathroom. Gave us this impression.
Guy wondered further down the creek then I for things happen to catch my eye. So I was wondering around on my own taking shots of the ice that was found where the water was not running fast.
As I was doing my thing I heard some racket that was obviously coming from the trees and from birds.
As you can imagine wild creatures do not just sit still so one can snap off photographs, so off I went to get this loud birds photographs! There were at least 3 of these birds, however non of them were all that impressed with any of us there! From the information I gathered of this bird, these must of been truly wild Gray Jays!! Not yet ingrained with human presents.
I first thought this was a nutcracker. We have many of those around so it seams. Same family as these Gray Jays, but so is the steller's jay,blue jay and the western scrub jay , the crows, the ravens there is a lot of species in the Corvidae family!! From the sub species of the Gray Jay and getting these photographs in the Ochoco mountains this determined these to be the Bicolored Gray Jay.
One thing all these birds have in common is, they are very smart!! Smarter then humans give them credit for! Over the Cascade Mountains  there is yet another sub species of the Gray Jay over there with different needs and habits. That Gray Jay does not like snow, the ones here better like snow!
Like all birds of the Corvidae family, they are pretty much scavengers, however it appears all the species of the Gray Jay have different food scavenger habits I guess is the way to say it?

I thought it interesting when I read they can remember where they stored food under as much as 3' of snow! Shoot that would be hard for most humans to remember! I also read where this Gray Jay will also make their nest on the south western part of a tree for the solar warmth. Is that cool or what?? We can learn a thing or two from nature hu?
Like several other species of bird a slang name for these is camp robbers too. I have a problem with people feeding wildlife in this manor. One thing is, if one is camping that person is not at home. I read where a female Gray Jay (maybe other kinds of camp robbers as well?), will actually leave her nest and leave the brood unprotected to go and get food from humans.

I wonder how these so called wildlife "lovers", would feel if they new they were the cause of a brood being killed just because they thought it cute or whatever that a so called wild bird is landing on them etc.. for food? Makes one wonder hu??
These Gray Jays did not want anything to do with me, or Guy or the dogs. So from what I read these individual birds were not "trained", or learned this behavior of humans being a food source. So frankly, if any one of these birds tried landing or whatever on me they would have the dogs to content with, if of course I  did not call them off or Guy get a hold of them before they got to the bird. This makes me wonder if this too would be the fault of the campers, hikers etc.. who trained such a bird to think humans were a food source?


Any way you think of this, there are birds at home you can feed from the bird feeder. No need to feed wildlife while hiking and camping. You are not doing the wildlife any favors and in fact maybe the one to cause the death of such a creature.
I did notice this one I have most of the photographs of was keeping a good eye on me. Screaming as well. Hopping from limb to limb which made photographs entertaining! I like a good challenge!!
In one of the flying photographs you can see some tree in its beak, the bird dropped this. Seeing the trees which grow in the Ochoco Mountains are a major food source. As well as small rodents, parts of fresh kills of bigger game, insects and it sounds like a typical scavenger with a very good memory of where it hides its food for the winter months!


Reading of the family dynamics of this Gray Jay was quite interesting as well! Having one of the young stay to help out, while the others are ran off. I read where t his one that stays is usually a male. Sound familiar within human history??
I tried to get a flying shot of the back of one of the birds feathers, however I take what I can get! The front shot the bird was trying to land on a branch that was not going to hold his weight.
Thank you like always for coming by!!

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