Cape Meares

Friday was a loooong day. But, a great one at that. I did a reproduction plot from 500-700, drove to Newport from 715-1000, had a lab meeting from 1000-1100. During the lab meeting, I showed Rob (our boss)  my power point presentation with the eagle disturbances from my video, and then I showed him the awesome picture of the eagle right at the front of the video shot. He loved it! Yay! The meeting went well, and next week we will be discussing another paper. Maybe this one won't be about sawflies. lol. After the meeting, Cheryl, Emma (our REU student), and I drove up to Cape Meares to change out stuff for the camera, and also give us a chance to see Cape Meares. This is the location of the other intern, Sheena. Wow, Cape Meares is beautiful. I loved it, and was immediately jealous of Sheena. She's got such a great rock, such a great spot. However, her birds can't stick to the rock long enough to lay eggs before they are attacked by eagles. While we were there, Cheryl had me take photos of the rock so that maybe they can start doing repro plots at this spot. While were there, the rock was attacked by an adult and subadult Eagle. Wow! I haven't seen a disturbance in so long (May 25), so it was exciting to watch it. The entire rock cleared, so we immediately started looking for eggs. We found 7 on one side, but within 3 minutes, the gulls came and ate every single one of them. I watched a gull swallow an egg whole....seriously? Hilarious. Usually the gulls will bash the egg on the rock, and then eat the contents. We scanned the rock one more time to see if we found anymore eggs/birds...etc. I found one Murre sitting on an egg in a little nook on the front of the rock. It was kind of in a perfect spot because the eagles probably couldn't see it. Cool beans!

After all of that, we went and visited a tree called, The Octopus Tree. I immediately started singing, Octopus' Garden by the Beatles in my head. Then, we went and visited the largest Sitka Spruce tree in Oregon. AWESOME! After our hiking, we went to the Tillamook Dairy. Pretty much everyone tells me to go here....ever since I first got this job. So, I was so excited to finally get to go. The dairy is awesome. They have so much stuff there. And they give you free samples of their curds (squeaky cheese!!), and other cheeses. My favorite was their vintage white cheddar...sooo good! Then, we got ice cream. yum yum yum! What a great day. We then drove the 2 hours back to Newport, and called it a day. I was so tired, but didn't  bring clothes to spend the night at Cheryl's, so I decided to drive home. Bad idea. It rained hard the whole way home, got dark, and it just became very difficult for me to see the road. It took me forever to get home because I drove so slow. And on top of that I was EXTREMELY tired. I made it home safe, with no problems, but I won't be doing that ever again. It was a great day! Here are some photos...

 This picture is actually from our first lab meeting day in June a few weeks ago. This is me and the other intern, Sheena at Yaquina Head. 

 Really hard to see us, but this is me, Cheryl, and Sheena in front of the Yaquina Head lighthouse earlier in June. 

 Cape Meares in Tillamook, Oregon

 The forest on top of that bluff across the way is the oldest Sitka Spruce forest on the coast of Oregon. All of the other forests have been logged and replanted. 

 Emma and Cheryl looking for the Peregrine Falcon's nest. 

 I think this picture ended up on here twice, owell...more beauty! 

 Me in front of the Octopus Tree

 You can see how it got its name. 

 Some of the forest we hiked through....sooo pretty! 

 Walking along the trail, we found these salmonberries and ate them....delicious! 

 Some kind of flower that produces a fruit. It was pretty so I took a picture of it. 

 The largest Sitka Spruce tree in Oregon, although you can see the top of it has been broken off from a storm. Cheryl said it is still the largest girth wise even if the top has been broken off. 

 I had to hug this tree! 

 I'm like this little ant on this huge tree! 

Oh yeah, this our lab door at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. I'm official now!