tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-285382712009-11-03T22:00:31.790-08:00Hikes, birding, paddling, biking, wildflowers, camping, places and nature in the Pacific NorthwestCathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-52089203165167373562009-11-01T04:47:00.000-08:002009-11-01T04:48:06.038-08:00

I'm sure glad we heard that it never snows in Beijing.  Otherwise, I might think the white stuff falling from the sky  for several hours this morning was snow.   Brrrrr.

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-9217796865648040262009-11-01T04:42:00.001-08:002009-11-01T04:42:45.012-08:00

Flat. As a pancake. The cliché was designed for Beijing's topography. Which makes Beijing perfect for bicycle transportation. After watching Chinese traffic for a month, we traded our walking shoes for pedals. Actually, we traded one hundred dollars for two bikes equipped with fenders, a rear rack and front basket, and two heavy cable locks. Then we cycled into the twilight zone of traffic.

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-85749580976625798042009-10-18T00:21:00.001-07:002009-10-18T00:21:57.499-07:00

October 1 was National Day, the celebration of the founding of the People's Republic of China. We were fortunate to be here on the 60th anniversary of the founding. Sixty is an important number for the Chinese because, as I understand it, their calendar runs in 12 year cycles (5 x 12 = 60) and sixty is considered a life cycle. There was much excitement and flowers all over the city leading

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-80186148667841355092009-10-01T17:27:00.000-07:002009-10-01T19:06:47.817-07:00

If you visit Orlando, you go to Disney World. When you visit Beijing, you must make a trek to the Great Wall. On a beautifully sunny day, we made sure to cross that off our list before our first month was over. The Huangyaguan section of the Wall is about two hours from Beijing (three if you take a "shortcut"). A road approaches the Wall in a river valley. We easily gained access to the

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-91017057015144457642009-09-29T15:48:00.001-07:002009-09-29T15:48:19.797-07:00

Be there Sunday night!   The notice said we should not bring cameras, purses or bags because of strict security.  We were good and did not do so, but were sorry later when we saw many other people with cameras.  And there were many Kodak moments as we dined with approximately 1800 others in China's Great Hall of the People.   While there are no pictures with this post, someone sent me this

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-83390988606994688512009-09-28T20:26:00.001-07:002009-09-28T20:26:42.048-07:00

In the past, our domestic water supply was not among the top ten things in my daily thoughts. I used to go to the tap, turn it on, and drinkable water would come out. In the back of my mind, I knew that we are fortunate in the USA to have good, drinkable water issue forth from the tap. But tap water wasn't high on my list of concerns. Here, water has become a BIG DEAL. I think about it every

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-43429197796460969472009-09-19T17:27:00.000-07:002009-09-19T17:30:16.388-07:00

  Imagine every sort of item to which is affixed the label "Made in China." Now, if you can, imagine all those things on display in tiny booths, crowded together on six double-football-field-sized floors in a garishly decorated building. Cram thousands of shoppers into narrow aisles, bumping each other with large packages and stuffed shopping bags. If you can envision it, you are imagining

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-40354437324859409372009-09-06T18:42:00.000-07:002009-09-06T03:46:55.214-07:00

Little kids do it. Older people do it (just not as intensely). It was "Stare at Americans Day" at Bei Hai Park in Beijing on Wednesday. Of course, we brought much of this on ourselves. It wasn't bad enough that we were foreigners in the park; we drew even more attention to ourselves by also staring—it's just that we were gazing through binoculars and we were looking at birds. Our first big

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-36919882999901697632009-08-26T08:18:00.001-07:002009-08-27T07:32:19.714-07:00

One summer, when I was between semesters in college, I got a job cutting potatoes for seed. Every morning for several weeks, I and my coworkers descended into a dark potato shed, aligned ourselves at a conveyor belt and proceeded to slice the potatoes that rolled by for several hours. I fought boredom by singing, which, fortunately for my coworkers, could not be heard over the roar of the

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-62467170101682438932009-08-09T06:02:00.000-07:002009-08-09T13:45:39.658-07:00

In 1985, Ronald Reagan was president, leaded gas was officially banned in the US, and I spent my last semester as an official student. That was too long ago to fully prepare me for the rigors of last week.As part of our commitment to teach in China, Cal and I are in the middle of a two-week, 100 hour course that covers Chinese history, culture, religion, politics, economics and foreign policy as

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-29967041658056313132009-07-03T17:14:00.000-07:002009-07-17T15:22:50.985-07:00

We needed no zoom lens at the Dean Creek Elk Viewing Area near Reedsport. The big guys easily leaped the fence and seemed only wary rather than afraid of us as they strolled across the grass and into the parking lot.Elk belong to the same family as deer. Both lose their antlers every year in winter. It seems like deer and elk antlers should be all over the place, but rodents love the calcium and

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-89248216733707793372009-06-30T10:25:00.000-07:002009-07-01T17:13:18.694-07:00

I'm trying to learn Mandarin Chinese and one of the first lessons was numbers. It occurred to me while learning to count in Chinese that teenagers only exist in the English-speaking world. Not that youth in other countries don't go through the same aging process, it's just that "thirteen", etc., does not exist in other languages. (For those of you keeping track, it's shi san in Chinese.) Does

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-23792361737865127242009-06-27T11:04:00.001-07:002009-06-27T17:54:18.135-07:00

  Spring green colors and the smell of deep forest greet us as we exit our vehicles. Today, we hike to the heights of the Columbia Gorge's southern cliffs with Oregon Wild's Wendell Wood. (In my opinion, Wendell is THE MAN when it comes to botany in the gorge. Wendell often refers to Russ Jolley's wildflower book, but I've never hiked with Mr. Jolley, so I can't compare the two. All I can say

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-56786013827779852492009-06-02T19:21:00.000-07:002009-06-09T22:00:18.715-07:00

These are the days of strange noises. This morning, early, I heard an agitated scrub jay. I wondered what was going on, since the last time I heard such excited utterances was when the scrub jays were being stalked by a cat. As I was working out in the yard later, I kept on hearing buzzy scolding sounds, like a hoarse squirrel. Later in the afternoon, I finally spied the culprit—a gray-headed

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-34404463477310180022009-05-04T18:14:00.000-07:002009-07-21T18:29:40.588-07:00

Sheets of wind-driven rain pounded the roof and sides of our little trailer, perched on a hillside near Florence, Oregon. We were snug and warm inside, but our mood matched the gloom. This downpour was as welcome as a house cat under the bird feeder.The next morning showed us the error of our disposition. We ventured out, toward Mapleton on Highway 126, across the Suislaw River bridge and right

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-66018601186024317822009-03-13T14:29:00.000-07:002009-05-04T19:34:43.717-07:00

According to the bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus), nesting season has arrived. Within the past week, the little bushtit swarm that completely covered our suet feeder has pared to two birds. Kenn Kaufman says that when winter bushtit flocks break up, the birds pair off to establish nesting territories but do not defend them, tolerating other bushtits even near the nest. Last year, I first noted

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-70457995660747330052009-03-12T14:23:00.000-07:002009-03-12T14:38:27.662-07:00

For the third year in a row, red tailed hawks are nesting in plain sight of this webcam. How convenient!Okay, okay, the camera was installed after the hawks built their nest on the fire escape of a Portland, Oregon office building in 2007. Last year, I tuned in frequently to see how parents and eggs, then babies, were doing. This is fascinating stuff, way better than most of what's on

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-87673996081319403132009-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:002009-03-06T09:34:03.056-08:00

For all (three) of you who read this blog, my long silence has nothing to do with the doldrums of late winter, although that would be a good excuse. In fact, we just returned from nearly a month in Georgia and Florida.Exploring a new area can be overwhelming. My mind attempts to assimilate all the new plants and birds into known categories. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. I

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-71942673557352921572009-01-16T17:22:00.000-08:002009-03-16T18:01:49.511-07:00

We rarely travel just to bird. There's usually a little hiking involved, sometimes visiting. But we made one short trip solely for the purpose of looking at birds.Sea birds topped the list as motivation for our grand tour. Being the "frugal" travelers that we are, I got this wild idea of doing a pelagic trip on the cheap--by ferry. After reviewing our options at this time of year, we decided to

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-24883619549801762782009-01-03T12:23:00.000-08:002009-01-03T22:32:31.522-08:00

One of the great things about being outside is that you never know what you are going to find. We had planned a little morning birding outing at Fernhill Wetlands in Forest Grove, Oregon but we couldn't get close enough to see anything even with a scope--the road came to an abrupt end and we didn't bring our boat: Next stop, Jackson Bottom in Hillsboro. Besides abundant tundra swan west of the

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-91853590647808709772008-12-27T09:07:00.000-08:002008-12-27T09:54:41.326-08:00

Full in the midst of his own strength he stands,Stretching his brawny arms and leafy hands.~VirgilOaks cover the low hills of Baskett Slough NWR in a microcosm of olden-days western Oregon. A short year-round trail and a longer spring/summer trail allow a glimpse back in time to what much of the Willamette Valley must have looked like almost two hundred years ago when David Douglas arrived.On a

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-53429631909547892152008-12-24T11:04:00.000-08:002008-12-27T14:16:57.973-08:00

Looks like our two weeks of winter are coming to an end. The progression of the accumulation of precipitation was matched by the progression of the height of my footwear.

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-79266149946542440482008-12-17T21:02:00.000-08:002008-12-17T21:44:56.819-08:00

Seasonal Guide to the Natural Year: A Month by Month Guide to Natural Events : Oregon, Washington and British Columbia by James Luther Davis My review rating: 5 of 5 starsShould be on the shelf of every nature lover in the northwest. Places to go, things to see and you'll probably learn something just holed up inside reading. Know the difference between Rocky Mountain elk and Roosevelt elk?

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-80434923989552861482008-12-17T11:24:00.000-08:002008-12-19T13:43:50.455-08:00

People seem to have a visceral dislike of crows. I have never understood this. True, they are as black as a starless night, and their "song" has as much charm as the neighbor's car alarm. But have you ever watched crows playing with the wind? I cannot think of any other way to describe their flight on gusty days. I've also noticed that the wing beat of crows somehow lacks the urgency of

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28538271.post-87953623196721728922008-12-15T13:43:00.000-08:002008-12-15T14:05:21.697-08:00

In the lowlands of the Pacific Northwest, we joke about our two weeks of winter, two weeks of summer and the remainder of the year as alternating between spring and fall. Snowfall west of the Cascade Mountains is as rare as a winter swallow (thanks, Balzac). Yet, here we are today with snow on the ground, frigid temperatures and an east wind that stirs the dry snow into glistening whorls.

Cathy Crandall (aka cescoutdoors)http://www.blogger.com/profile/14908280414499913149noreply@blogger.com0