Two is for Mirth

Observer: Eloise Bacher
Date: 7 October, 2008
Time: 1225-1240
Location: Bridge between Goudy and Smith.
Weather: Sunny, a slight breeze, some clouds.

I’ve see this Scrub Jay before, I think s/he was the one that screamed at me a few weeks ago in this spot, from the small twisted tree by Smith. Now he’s on top of the rock next to the bridge and the Mill Stream, alarming again. I can see bands on his left leg; one of them is red. I get out my camera, but s/he’s too quick for me and flies across the path and into a tree. S/he starts out low on the tree, but continues hopping up, in and out of sight, until I can’t hear or see hir anymore. It seems like s/he’s disappeared completely, but then I see hir at the top of a tree a little ways down the path. Then s/he flies away again, back into hir original tree. I circle around the tree to see if I can find hir, and two crows fly through the tree, heavily flapping their wings. The jay is on the ground on the other side of the stream, pecking at the dirt.

The Mill Stream

Observer: Eloise Bacher

Date: 9 September, 2008

Place: Mill Stream, under a tree on the opposite side of the bridge from Goudy.

Time: 1005- 1020

Weather: Sunny but with a decent breeze and cool temperatures in the shade.

I'm sitting by the Mill Stream under a tree. I don't know what kind, but it's small and has white papery bark. Maybe a birch? Looking at the stream makes me wonder how it was different years ago. Where now it's shallow, wide, and fairly gentle, was it narrower and faster back when it wasn't confined by walls? What about when it was in the pipes underneath the campus? How does it change between campus and where it goes into the Willamette at Riverfront Park? I see a lot of ducks around, and now there's a crow in the tree above me screaming at something. Maybe me, maybe something else. What kinds of animals were here when the Mill Stream was just going through nature? Crows and ducks, most likely, but what about fish? A lot of animals probably showed up around here because of the water source. Was it the city that drove them away, or the water being put underground? Oh...darn. That crow just pooped on me. Great.

*Photo courtesy of http://salemdailyphoto.com/pics/wu_green.jpg