November sun

Fantastic buckets of sunshine today. When this happens any time between November 1 and May 31st in Oregon, you take advantage or regret it for weeks. The river is so different with the rain and the cold. The willows are bare and the nests that have been hidden all summer emerge. The willows that are standing in the current tremble, or sometimes dip out of sight, maybe gone for good. It's been birdy out, as the birders say. Every time you stick your ears outdoors there are 30,000 geese swearing at each other overhead, and flocks of bush tits and chickadees are whirling through the undergrowth in profusion. I saw two hawks chasing each other, or chasing something, on a flat, direct flight through the trees on the east side of the river, then later I saw a sharp-shinned hawk with something limp dangling from one claw, and then later I saw a bald eagle.

I was also buzzed by some kind of big darner (dragonfly), but he didn't come close enough to be more than an impression. In another incident, when I drug myself through a patch of flooded willows, I found tiny spiders and fragile gnats in my hair and lap. A tough time for insects you'd think, but probably they know what they're doing. In memory of the jolly old days of August, here's one of my better dragonfly photos of the past summer.