Tag Archives: nature

Blue Heron Park, Phoenix Oregon

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On September 8, 2020 the Almeda Fire swept through the towns of Phoenix and Talent. More than 3,000 acres, and over 2,500 homes and 600 businesses were destroyed, including the Blue Heron Park in Phoenix.

In 2021, a grassroots-group of citizens in partnership with local businesses and organizations took on the task of rebuilding this park, and on Monday members of the Ashland Garden Club gathered to see how Blue Heron Park has truly risen from the ashes. AGC members donated pollinator plants to add to the park’s community garden.

Photos by Goly Ostovar, Lynn McDonald, and Carlotta Lucas

N. Mt Park Heirloom Gardeners

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AGC’s Heirloom gardeners worked today in the North Mountain Park Heirloom Garden. The garden is looking good, but there’s always more weeds to pull! Today was perfect weather for gardening. ~Lynn ~photos by Lynn McDonald

Backyard Birds; Black-capped Chickadee

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Black-capped Chickadees:   Black-capped chickadees are found in deciduous and mixed deciduous-evergreen forests, especially near forest edges. They are commonly found near willows and cottonwoods.  And, they prefer nesting in alder snags and birch trees. Their diet varies by season, in the summer they eat mostly caterpillars, insects, some spiders, snails, and other invertebrates. In the winter their diet consists of insect eggs and pupae, seeds, small fruits and berries. At feeders they take mostly sunflower seeds that they stuff into bark crevices, but they will also eat peanuts, peanut butter, mealworms and suet.

Photo by: No machine-readable author provided. Mdf assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Backyard Birds: American Goldfinch

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American Goldfinch: The American Goldfinches are songbirds found throughout the United States in riparian areas, woodlands, orchards, weedy fields, agricultural lands, gardens and parks. The males’ bright yellow and black plumage makes them very recognized at the bird feeder. Females are brownish yellow with brownish black wings with white streaks; both are identifiable by their short conical bills and short notched tail. They are year-round residents west of the Cascades in the interior valleys. In the wild they eat sunflower seeds, thistle, asters, grasses, and tree seeds of alder, birch, western red cedar and elm. At the feeder they prefer sunflower seeds and nyjer thistle seeds.

Photo by  Mdf, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons