A Wild Life

A couple of days ago dad told me that some one had reported an alder flycatcher out at the airport, so I got ready and headed out there.

It was cloudy out but it was not raining or very windy.

I walked over the bridge and down to the old airport road. I walked down along the road and when I got to a spit of land that had a bunch of small trees and some brush on it I looked and saw a small flycatcher come out of the brush and sit on a limb I got my camera out  figuring that that was the alder flycatcher I took some photos of it then it flew to another branch and started singing. I took some more photos of then it started working it’s way down the road and towards the airport fence. I followed it down the road towards the fence. Once it got to the fence it had landed quite a ways out on the fence so I looked around and look photos of plants and stuff waiting to see if the alder flycatcher would work its way down the fence towards me. It did eventually work its way down the fence towards me so I took some more photos of it then if fly back out again so I decided that is was time for me to go home so I headed home.

This afternoon after we dropped grandpa off at the airport. I went down to the park.

I walked down along the harbor and out on to the board walk. After that I worked my way down to the entrance to the walk. I went out onto the beach for a few minutes then I went into the park. I walked down the trail, it was nice in there, since it was cloudy out side it would not be sunny but I was happy that it was not raining.

I stopped and took some photos of plants as I worked me way to the end of the park. Once I got to the end of the park I walked out onto the beach and walked along the beach to the other end of the beach then I went back into the forest. I walked up along the river and took photos of plants as I went. Once I got to where they were working on the bridge I went on a different trail and continued up the river until there was trail that went up to the campus. I walked up the trail and went onto the campus and took photos of plants as I walked home.

This morning, Dad, Granpa and I went to Magic Island for the low tide, though I didn’t really want to go.
One the way there Grampa gave us all donuts which was nice.
When we go there it was a pretty low tide, and I went and waded out in the water to look for fish or anything else I found interesting.
Some of the things I found were a lot of Decorator crabs, three of them I caught on had blue coloring on it’s clawtips and one was white. There was also a large sculpin that I was unable to catch, and what I’m pretty sure was a Crested Gobi but I was unable to catch it as well.
I did manage to catch a fairly big shrimp and one sculpin, a small green eel, a fairly large snail, and later on near the end a Fluffy sculpin.
I walked around the edge of the island after wandering around in the water by the left side of it. Near the not too far from where I had been wandering around, I found Grampa and talked to him for a little bit, and just after I had started walking away from him I saw a mink with a large eel in it’s mouth. After it saw me it ran up the rocks and somewhere into the forest.
When I made it to the right side of the island, I saw dad wading in the water and talked to him for a little bit and showed him what I had caught but he didn’t take photos of them, he said he’d do it later.
After I had talked to Dad I kept on walking and that was when I caught the Fluffy sculpin.
After I caught the Fluffy sculpin, I went back over to where I had been wandering around before.
I saw what looked like a large blackish eel in the kelp somewhere but I was unable to catch it because of all the kelp.
Dad came over after a while, and I told him that I had caught a Fluffy sculpin.
Dad still didn’t take photos of what I had in my bucket and wandered off to look for some sort on kiten I think, and I sat on a rock waiting for him.
While I was waiting, I started messing with the string on the bucket, which I had in between my boots on a thin upwards facing rock, which wasn’t the best idea. I think I gasped when the bucket tipped over spilling what was in the bucket in the the cracks in between the rocks.
About a minute or two later as I was looking into the cracks were the fish, shrimp, eel and crabs had fallen, dad appeared and I told him that I had lost the fish, shrimp, eel and crabs and only had the snail left which he didn’t need a photo of.
I was able to recapture the shrimp, but that was all.
Before dad took photos of the shrimp, we wandered around a bit and flipped over some rocks, and caught two Gunnels and a crab.
I took photos of all the things we had, but I don’t think dad took photos of the crab.
After that we went and got Grampa who was napping on the rocks at the top of the beach, and went home.

Last week during Grams’s lunch break Grams took me to Barnes and Noble again. She dropped me off by the door and went to a store nearby.
First, I went to where the journals were, which was by where I normally look for books, just to see if they had anything I wanted there. There were some interesting ones, but I didn’t get any.
Then I went over to were I normally look for books and started looking around there.
There were some books that looked interesting, but not interesting enough to buy, and there were some books that I had seen before that I knew I wanted to get so I went and found those. But that was after I had found some other books called the Wereworld series. Grams had come by just after I pulled out the books and that series and asked if I would like her to take some. I gave her the books and went and found some other books.
In the end I got nine books. Three of them were in the Wereworld series. Then some of the other ones were, The Night Parade, Going Wild and The Erth Dragons The Wearle.
They were all together something like eighty four dollars and some cents, after Grams used her coupon.
I still have some money left.
Now I have about twenty two books that I’m going to bring back home, plus the two books that I brought up to read until I bought some books.

On Thursday evening Grandpa and I went down to ox bow reservoir. Once we got to the camp sit we got ready and headed for the river. I took and started using a little spinning pole to try and catch some crapy for catfish bait. After a while I did caught one crapy so I got my cat fish pole set up and handed the smaller pole to grandpa and  I started fishing for catfish.

After a while I got a bite but was unable to hook it. I tried to reel in my line but I found out that it was hung up on some rocks and I was unable to get lose so me line broke and that was the way it went for me for most of the evening I did manage to get one 9 inch catfish but tossed it back because it was to small. Grandpa caught a few crapy and  a lot of small mouth bass on the small fishing pole he was using and while he was fishing with he caught a couple of catfish that were big enough to keep. We fished for a while longer then we went back to camp and got ready for bed.

The next morning we got up around 0500 hours and went fishing we caught some more crapy and a few and then when grandpa came down I started fishing for catfish with the big pole and he fished for crapy and stuff we caught quite a few northern pike minnows  and grandpa caught a few trout and some bass I managed to get one catfish that was maybe 6 or 7 inches long which we tossed back because it was to small then after a while we went home.

Sometime in the past, like maybe two weeks ago or something, Connor, Grams, Uncle, Grampa and I were headed to the farm. But first we went to someplace by a reservoir somewhere near Carey city.
We drove up the dirt/gravel road for a little while, before stopping at the beginning of a dirt road headed up into the hills somewhere by a creek.
Uncle, Connor, Grampa and I got out of the car to look for agate around in the hills and Grams stayed in the car.
Later I wished that I had stayed in the car too.
Not long after we left, I found a Tick on my leg, I had also found some agate before that.
After I found the Tick, I started lagging behind because I kept on looking for Ticks on me, after the trip was done and we had made it back to the car, I had found a lot on me. Only one had been up higher than my legs and it was on my jacket. Most of the ones I found were on my left leg, and my left leg was where first hole in my pants were. When we were checking for Ticks before we got into the car, I found that some were on my pants where I had stuffed them into my socks. Grampa had avoided getting any Ticks on him until we were near the car, and a lot were on his pant legs. Uncle and Connor had some Ticks on them too.
Now that I wrote about all of that, I’ll go back to the hike.
I fell behind Connor, Grampa and Uncle for a little while, because I was checking for ticks on me and trying to take the route that had less Sagebrush.
When I was on my way up a small hill, I saw a lizard briefly as it ran away.
When I was at the top of the hill, I saw a butterfly flying around, and went it landed on a rock I got some photos of it. I also saw where Connor, Granpa and Uncle were and headed towards them, taking the route with less Sagebrush.
On my way there, I saw a Chipmunk on the rocks and was going to get a photo of it, but it ran off before I could.
Near where I saw the Chipmunk, I found a decent sized piece of agate, big enough that I couldn’t fit into my pockets where I had put other smaller pieces of agate, so I just carried it with my hand.
Eventually I ended up on the top of a small ledge just above where Uncle, Grampa and Connor were, so I found a place close by and where I walk down to where they were.
After that I started wandering away and ended up on a place farther away from where Connor and Uncle were and where they were headed, they saw me and told me where they were headed and that Grampa was just out of sight of me, he was going the same way to.
I kept on heading up the hill, it was fairy steep where I was, and I was still doing my best to avoid the Sagebrush.
Eventually, I saw Grampa, he was down lower than I was.
Where I was, I had a nice view of the place and could just barely see the car, it was pretty far away. By that time there were more bugs out and starting to swarm around me. When I started heading towards Grampa, who was waiting for me, I stopped for a little bit watching a Swallow fly around.
After I made it to Granpa, we started heading farther away from the car and up a less steep hill.
Nearing the top of the hill, I saw another Chipmunk but it disappeared before I could get a photo.
When we were sort of at the top of the hill, we saw this big stack of flatish redish rocks and started heading towards it. We had also seen another stack of less flat rocks that wasn’t as tall.
On our way there, we saw and picked up some goldenish brown agate and some redish agate.
When we got to the stack, I let Grampa use my camera to take a photo of me standing next to it.
Then we started down the other side of the hill where Connor and Uncle were supposed to be around.
We didn’t see them until awhile after, and they were way down at the bottom of the hill, I wished that I was down there to, but no! I was still basically at the top, with bugs swarming me. By that time I had gotten a bug bite on my left cheek.
I told Grampa I was going to head back down to the car, he let me go.
I was still trying to avoid the Sagebrush, but there was so much of it, I had to go through it, so I did my best to chose the less Sagebrushy way, and that lead me to a steep way down the hill. By that time, I was very, very frustrated, at the bugs which would NOT leave me alone, and about the Ticks, and at the fact that I was STILL up on the hill and had to go down the steep way, well I didn’t have to, but the other way was more Sagebrushy and probably longer. But I was still frustrated, and before I made it to the steep part I had been telling the bugs to go away and whacking at them as I walked, not that it helped at all. That part of the hike was not fun, at all.
So I headed down the steep way, which really didn’t take too long and walked a little ways down a mostly dry creek before deciding to just tromp through the grass and stuff, where I saw that Grampa was a little ways ahead of me!
Sigh.
He saw me headed his way and stopped to wait for me. When I caught up, he said that he thought I was farther ahead of him.
I probably I wasn’t farther ahead of him, because, one: I had still been stopping a lot, but not as much as before. Two: I had been trying to avoid the Sagebrush, and I don’t know what three would be.
Anyways we started heading to the car together, I guessed that Connor and Uncle were probably already there.
Once we stopped because Grampa had seen a bird shoot out from by his feet and he thought there might be a nest in whatever sort of clump of plants was there, and there was, I got a photo of the eggs and we continued our walk back. There were also some Antelope that I got some photos of, and when we stopped my legs were shaking. I predicted that my legs would be sore the next day. I was right.
I think I was in a bit better mood after I made it down the hill as caught up with Grampa.
I was happy when we made it back to the car, I little more unhappy when we found the ticks, but at least they were only on my pants.
After that we got in the car and headed to the farm, it was almost dark by then.
Throughout the hike, I had seen some Antelope and some birds. I had found agate too, most of the pieces were small enough to fit in my pockets, the other two Grampa let me put in his backpack.
I suppose if you took away all the Ticks and the bugs it wasn’t that bad of a hike.

Yesterday when we were head back from the farm, there was a thunderstorm and it was rainy with strong winds on the first part of our drive, then it just turned to wind.
After a while Grams and I started seeing what we guessed was sand, but when we got closer I started thinking that it might be smoke from a fire.
When we were near Glenns ferry we started seeing trucks getting off the road, and then we saw that it was a fire.
grams considered getting off the road, but there wasn’t anyplace to get off so we just drove through.
Connor and Grampa had gone ahead though we weren’t sure abut that untill Grams called and they told us they were already through the smoke and fire.
Before we fully entered the smoke and for a little while after we entered the smoke, I had lifted part of my coat over my mouth and nose nervously and I was tense. There were cars coming back on the right side of the road on the part where you’re not supposed to be on unless it’s an emergency and there were cars coming through of the other side of the freeway.
When we were in the smoke, we drove slowly behind a truck, and going through the smoke with the fire on both sides of the road was scary and cool at the same time.
We had the fan on and I realized that that might be where the smoke was getting into the car from, so I asked Grams when she was done talking to Connor or Grampa if I should turn it off (by that time, I could see the smoke coming from the air vents), one of us did turn it off, I cant remember which one.
The largest bit of fire I saw was on the left side of the road burning in the middle between where the other cars were going the other direction. When we were near that fire, it sort of felt like it was getting a bit hotter in the car to me.
Near the end of the fire, the land was black and in some parts it was smoking a whole lot and there was still small fires going.
After we got through the fire we stopped by the pickup and Grampa and Connor came out to talk to us.
I asked Connor if he had gotten photos, because I hadn’t, he said he had.
I was glad that we all had made it through alright.

Last week, when Uncle Jonathan was here, we went to a Malheur wildlife reserve mainly to look at the birds that were there, then we planned on looking for rocks on the way back. But that’s not what happened.
We ended up looking for rocks first instead. We went by Succor Creek to look for rocks, but on the way we stopped and looked at other smaller creeks that were by the road.
At one of the creeks, I found a good piece of agget and also saw a frog that I got some photos of.
Grampa ended up getting some Ticks on him, but he found them before he got back in the car.
At one point along the way there was this village or town that I can’t remember the name of but I think it started with rock. There was a Wilson’s Snipe there that Connor and I got photos of, it was standing on a log in the sunlight.
There was a camping sight we stopped at right by Succor Creek and some of us went to the out house and Connor and Uncle went to look for some rocks at the creek.
After we went farther up the road, we stopped at another creek, probably still the same creek but a different area and there I saw a Garder snake, a few green dragonflies and frog and some crayfish. I got some photos of the dragonflies and the crayfish, I would have taken a photo of the snake but I had been focused on the dragonfly and didn’t see it before it went across the creek and into the tall grass.
Eventually I headed back to the car before Uncle, Connor and Grampa did, and while Grams and I were waiting for them, I went and tried to take some photos of the bird that I heard singing while I had been walking back to the car and it looked like it had a blue head, but it flew off before I could get a photo.
But luckily there were a bunch more around and after I got some photos Connor, Uncle and Grampa had come back to the car and Connor and I looked in the bird book and it turned out it was a Lazuli Bunting.
While I had been looking around Grams called me back to the car to look at a bug that was there, it looked like a redish spider with long legs and when it jumped a little bit onto the paper Grams was reading she threw it off of her paper and out the open car door.
When were were nearing the end of the dirt road that went by Succor Creek, we saw some wild horses.
From there we went through some towns and in one of them we got lunch.
Not too long before we made it to the reserve area, we stopped on a side road because Connor, Grampa and Uncle wanted to look for some more rocks, I planned on staying in the car with Grams and reading some comics but Connor saw a lizard near by and told me about it, so I went and got some pretty good photos of it before it ran off and I went back to the car and read the comics.
Once we were around the area of the reserve, we didn’t turn down the road that Grams’s phone said to turn at to go to the visitor center, so we ended up going to another place to get a map.
After we got the map, we saw some Ibis’s, and turned down a gravel road that we had not planned to turn down, though eventually we got to where the visitor center was.
On our way there when we were on the gravel road we saw a lot of things.
There were some deer, which I got a photo of on that was near the road in the grass, one deer had also been on the road, but that was after I got a photo of the one in the grass.
There was also a Bull Snake on the road that Grampa almost ran over, and Connor and I got out of the car and got some photos of it.
There were also some Ruddy ducks and a Cinnamon Teal that were in the water that I got photos of.
And there were some pheasants that me and Connor got some photos of.
And there were some sea gulls and Shovelers and Coots and blackbirds and Mallards and Pintails and Ibis’s, and there were mosquitoes as well, unfortunately.
When we got the the visitor center, it was closed. There was one person there when we got there and he pointed out the Great horned owl that was in a tree. Connor and I got some photos of it.
There were also Ground squirrels around, there had been lots of those through out the trip.
And there were even more mosquitoes, I got some bug bites from them.
Just before we left, Grams cut up apples and cheese for dinner and I ran around trying to avoid getting bitten, Connor did too.
While we were in a hurry to close the doors and get going because of the mosquitoes, I accidentally spilled my food on the floor, but it wasn’t that dirty and I just picked off the dirt and ate it anyways.
On our way back, when it was getting darker, after Connor and Grams had fallen asleep, I started listening to my music. Every once in a while Connor would shift to use my shoulder as a pillow and I would let him, or shift back to the door, and every once in a while Grams would wake up.
When were were closer to the end of the trip, I had to adjust one of my legs so one of my but cheeks wouldn’t hurt.
I can’t remember what time it was when we got home, but it was dark outside and it was around eleven or twelve o clock.

Yesterday Grams took me to Barnes and Noble again and I got more books. Six more, just one book short of what I got last time!
More of the books I got were hardcover books instead of paperback books.
I all of the six books I got were in a different series’s, two of them were in the Zodiac series, two of them were in a Warriors series, and the last two were in the Story thieves series.
I most of the books were in hard cover because they didn’t have them in paperback and I wanted the next book in the series too, just in case the other one ended in a cliffhanger or something.
I spent a little while wandering around looking for more books, but in the end I just got those six books. All together they were seventy four dollars and some sense.
I want to go back to Barnes and Noble again sometime before I go back to Sitka.
I just barely started reading the second Zodiac book last night and I plan on reading the third book after I’m done. I think the third book is the last book in the series, I guess I’ll find out later.

On Tuesday Grandpa and I stopped by Strike to do some fishing from the float tube and the pontune boat. Once we got to strike we unpacked some of the stuff like the pontune boat and the float tube and some of the fishing gear. I got the pontune boat in the water and tied to the dock so that it did not float away. Once I was ready to go fishing I went and got in the float tube and started out into the open water. grandpa followed me out a few minutes later.

We fished for at least two hour and grandpa only got one bite in that time but did not get the fish.

After a while we decided that we would headed down towards where some other people were fishing from boats and were catching some fish. I went down turned them a little ways and decided to try fishing with a jig for a little while. So I fished along the trees with the jig and after a few minutes I caught a crapy. And in the next hour or two I caught about nine or so crapy and had several bites, but it was time to head back so we headed back to the harbor and while grandpa was packing up the stuff I fished from the dock and caught about another ten crapy. Eventually grandpa came and said that it was time to go so we left.