Another Day, Another Feather

I'm starting to think I should have titled this blog "Feathers" because nearly every time we've been to the Patch, I have found a feather. Could it be that hunting for trash on the ground has a good side?

Anyway, this is the tail feather of a Stellar's jay.  We saw two lurking around.  Seeing these two made me pause later when I thought I heard a red tail hawk, because Stellar's jays do a decent red tail imitation.  This time, however, after searching around, we saw a red tail flying high overhead.

We picked up the clothes left behind from the camp and all the other trash we could see.  Not really too much today.

Fall is beginning to tinge the trees:

The spiders are webbing in:

And there's even a new flower that popped out of the ground:

This appears to be a cyclamen, and although I don't think it is native, it was a bright spot in an area much trampled by former campers. 

The Beginning

Several weeks ago, I ran across a posting for volunteer "site stewards"  Choose a site owned by Metro¹ and walk it at least twice a month, just to keep an eye on what's going on. That sounded easy enough. I need volunteer hours for my Master Naturalist certification, so my husband was dragged into yet another project with me.

After filling out an application and having a criminal background check (were they afraid I was going to steal a tree?), we met with Bonnie, who told us a little about our patch and gave me my "uniform" and supplies.  Next was to set up a meeting with the Natural Resource Technician for the site.

We met Adam, a Metro employee, at the site for our first visit.  Finding the site was a surprise, since I have lived within a few miles of it for decades and had never noticed it. This made me wonder about the many other little treasures hidden at the end of roads and within neighborhoods, isolated little islands of green in suburbia.

Adam showed us around the patch and told us what he knew about it.  He showed us where crews had worked on taming invasive species. He commented on two well worn paths through the patch, telling us that people had been using the forested area as an unofficial campground.

After walking a bit, we saw someone on a bicycle bumping along the rough dirt path.  Then we created a small dam for the flow of dog walkers who just happened to all pick the same time for their constitutional today. (For the record, Metro's policy is to ban dogs from its properties, but while this patch is undeveloped, the policy is not being enforced.)  We had a nice chat with the "regulars," Adam doing a little PR work for Metro.

Although this patch is not big and not wilderness by any means, I am excited to be underway!

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1 Metro is a regional government in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. Metro's agenda includes preserving green space and supporting regional trails. Metro purchases properties with bond-supported funds from willing sellers.  The particular property that is mine was acquired so that a regional trail connection could be put in.
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