A Wild Life

Yesterday after Grams was done at work, we went to Barnes and Noble so I could look around and see if there were any books I wanted to buy.
I wandered around for a bit, and there were some books that looked interesting but I didn’t end up getting in the end. But there were a few books that I got and the total was about seventy nine dollars after Grams used one of her coupons.
One of the books that I bought was Spirit Animals Fall of the Beasts book five, which I was a little surprised to find because I thought the series had ended at book four, but I was glad it hadn’t.
Some of the books I bought weren’t in a series I was reading but I figured I’d give them a try because they sounded interesting.
After a while, I decided to go find Grams because my arms were getting a bit tired of holding the books.
I found Grams sitting on a chair not far from the area I had been wandering around in, and we went and bought my books.
Today I finished reading the Spirit Animals book when I was in Grams’s office when she was working, and I found out that there’s going to be another Spirit animals book coming out sometime.

The griffin is a mythical creature that has the front of an eagle and the back of a lion. It has four legs, but the front feet are talons. It’s head does have noticeable ears.
Because the lion was considered the king of beasts and the eagle was the king of birds, the griffin was considered a very powerful creature and the king of all creatures.
In ancient times the griffin was a symbol of divine power and a guardian of the divine.
Griffins also are known for guarding treasure and in Roman and Greek texts, griffins were associated with gold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffin

Today when I went down to the park for the second time, it was raining and a little bit windy.
When I was on the sidewalk by sage beach, I saw an eagle out on a post by the breakwater, but it flew off soon after.
When I was in the park, it was a little bit drier, and I heard some ravens.
I also noticed that there were a lot of Deerheart around.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was low tide and I saw a duck out in the water and some ravens scattered about out on the beach, and a white cruise ship way out in the water.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some sea gulls out by the water and some ravens and two ducks.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw a raven fly over the river.
When I was near where the foot bridge used to be, I saw that the trail camera was still on the tree.
When I was by where the foot bridge used to be, I saw some large white bags surrounding a metal thing with what looked like a start of a support for the bridge.
How many people were in the cruise ship at the time?
Why is there so much Deerheart at the park?
What was in the bags?

Yesterday dad came home and said that I could go on a hike with Paul up the back side Verstovia if I wanted. I decided that I wanted to I texted him and found out when I need to meet him. Once it was time for me to go I went out and met him then we went out to blue lake road and started hiking up the road a little ways. Then we turned off and went up the thimble berry and heart lake trail. We hiked up it a little ways then we turned off and went up a creek.

We hiked up the creek aways then we rested for a little will and sat in the sun then started hiking again.

It took us about two hours to make it to tree line, and by the time we got there my legs were killing me. There was still a lot of snow up there and since it had been sunny and I suspected that we would run into snow up there so I brot some sun glasses. Once I had been walking on the snow for a little while my legs stopped hurting. There was only a few none snow spots up there where we were. We worked our way to the first none snowy patch there. Once we got there we looked around it for a few minutes then we walked up a little rock face that was part of the first snow free area as we walked up it a little more I looked to the side a little in front of Paul and I saw a willow ptarmigan in the scrubby stuff. I told Paul and we stopped and we were able to get some photos of it. We went up a little higher and sat down and watched it for a few minutes then I decided that I would go down there and try to get better photos of it. I went down the hill a little ways and sat down a watched. Paul said that it was coming out the other way and that he would try to get it to go towards me. He walked down the hill a little ways and the ptarmigan came towards me but it flew away before I could get any photos of it. We went up and crossed some more snow to go to a higher snow free area on top of the ridge. We sat down and ate some lunch and watched a pipit that was up there and looked around we also saw a red tailed hawk up there. While we were looking around I first heard the willow ptarmigan then I caught a glims of it going back to the same snow free spot that I saw it on the first time. We spent about an hour up there looking around in a small patch that had no snow.

We walked down the ridge a little ways then we turned and walked down a different ridge and headed for indian river valley. The snow was pretty deep on that ridge but on either side of the ridge it was pretty high risk of avalanches. As we got further down the ridge we came across some fairly old bear tracks in the snow we followed them because they were going the same way we were. In one spot we saw where it had been having some fun sliding down the hill in the snow. We eventually made it to tree line and walked down the ridge into indian river valley. We walked along the trail and went home. It took us almost three hours to get home but I had fun.

                             The only flower up there was this buttercup                                             A butterfly we saw in the alpine                                                     Willow ptarmigan

Today when I went down to the park for the second time, it was sunny and warm with a breeze.
When I was walking out to the end of the breakwater, I saw a bunch of small fish in the water on the harbor side.
When I was nearing the park, I heard a raven in a tree.
When I was in the park, I saw few eagles flying through the trees.
I also saw a Townsend’s warbler in a tree and it had something in its mouth.
When I was nearing the battle site bench, I saw a squirrel in a tree eating a pinecone.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was sort of high tide, but there was still beach left and I saw some sea gulls out by the water.
I also saw one raven by the seaweed.
When I was near the trail by the river, I heard a squirrel.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some ducks on the other side of the river.
I also saw two people wading in the water fishing.
When I was near the foot bridge, I saw a robin on the ground on the river side of the trail, and I saw a squirrel on a tree on the forest side of the trail.
When I was on my way back home, I saw a squirrel eating a pine cone up on a tree branch.
What were the fish?
Why were the eagles flying through the trees?
What did the warbler have in its mouth?

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox, though in English kitsune is normally is the name for magical fox spirits or nine tailed foxes.
Stories described them as intelligent creatures that have a long life and magical powers that increase with their age.
All Kitsune have the ability to shape shift into a human form. Some stories describe kitsunes as tricksters, using their abilities to trick others and other stories describe them as friends, guardians, and lovers.
Other magical abilities that a kitsune may have are possession, mouths or tails that create fire, invisibility, and illusions.
The more tails a kitsune has the older, wiser, and more powerful it is. They can have up to nine tails and when a kitsune gains its ninth tail, its fur becomes white or gold.
There are two common descriptions of kitsune,The Zenko, meaning good foxes, are associated with Inari, And the Yako, meaning field foxes, tend to be mischievous or malicious.

My sources are

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsune
And
http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Kitsune

Today when I went down to the park, it was cloudy with some wind.
When I was out on the breakwater, I saw a raven on the rocks with something that was yellowish and looked about maybe apple sized, but was eaten on in its beak. The raven flew off before I could get a better look at what it had in its beak.
When I was on the sidewalk by sage beach, I saw two ravens chasing each other.
When I was in the park, I saw and heard two chickadees.
When I was out at the battle site bench, it was sort of low tide and I saw some sea gulls out by the water.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some sea gulls and two wigeons out in the water.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some mergansers and ducks in the water on the other side of the river. I also saw some shore birds in the grass on the other side of the river.
When I was near the end of the trail by the river, I saw a few small green caterpillars on thee salmonberry leaves.
When I was on my way back home across the road from the harbor, I saw that someone had parked their car on someone’s lawn.
Why had they parked the car in the lawn?
What was in the raven’s beak?
What were the shore birds?

This morning I went down to the park and looked around. It was cloudy and little windy but other then that the weather was nice.

I walked out onto the beach once I had made it to the visitor center. I walked along the shore line. I did not see many shore birds there so I walked along the beach to the end of the park. I did not see any shore birds until I got to the river. I saw a few dowitchers a couple greater yellow legs a a few dunlins. I also saw some gulls and a few bald eagles. I walked up along the river then headed for the turnaround once I got out of the park.

I walked up  to the turnaround and looked around. I saw a lot of semipalmated plovers, a few whimbrels, some dunlins and a few dowitchers along with a hudsonian godwit and a greater yellow leg. After I was done there I walked back to the road and headed for the lake.

I walked down a long the lake there was not much stuff at the upper end of the lake but there was a little more down at the lower end of the lake. I saw a few american wigeons and a green winged teal along with a wood duck and some mallards. I talked to a person I knew down there then I went home.

1. Question how long will the hudsonian godwit stay here for?
2. Question where were all the other shore birds?
3. Question why was it only cloudy and a little windy?

The Sswainson’s hawk is a member of a genus called Buteo (Buteo is a genus of hawks that are medium to fairly large sized and wide ranging hawks with a robust build and broad wings). It was named after William Swainson who was a British naturalist.

The Swainson’s hawk is common over western grass lands but only in summer. I will eat birds,reptiles and rodents but it will mainly eat large insects if they are available.

It migrants to south south America in the winter in the summer it migrants to the western grass lands.

It makes a stick nest in a trees and on cliffs. They can have up to 5 eggs in a nest and it takes about eight weeks for the eggs to and hatch and the chicks to fledge.

I got my information from wikipedia, All About Birds, and Birds of north America by Kenn Kaufman.

Today when I went down to the park for the second time, it was cloudy and it rained on and off.
When I was walking out on the breakwater, I saw a crow walking along on the railing.
When I was out on the breakwater, I saw a few sea gulls out on the water and someone with a dog out on that thing that I thing sometimes holds small fish.
When I was near the park, I saw a red breasted sapsucker on the other side of the road on a small tree.
I also saw a raven on the beach.
When I was at the battle site bench, it was sort of high tide but there was still a bit of beach, and I saw some sea gulls out by the water on the beach.
When I was on the side trail near the trail by the river, I saw some sea gulls and two buffleheads.
When I was on the trail by the river, I saw some ducks on the other side of the river.
I also saw a song sparrow and a chickadee on the side of the river I was on.
When I was nearing the foot bridge, I saw that the trail camera was still up in the tree.
When I was by the foot bridge, I saw that some workers had dug a line across the trail by the bridge and someone was poring something into it.
When I was on my way back home, I saw an eagle up in a tree.
Why did they dig a line there?
Why was that one person out on that thing?
Why was the crow walking along the railing?