Sadly - Lots of Flags

The small town of Elgin, Oregon is situated in the rural country side on the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains. It is about 60 miles southeast of Walla Walla, with about 2,700 people living there at an elevation of nearly 1,700 feet. It has a large lumber mill and a small Elementary School.

Stella Mayfield is the elementary school there and it is located along highway 204 as you enter the town from the west

Each Memorial Day weekend the students place small flags on the lawn in front of the school. Beside each flag stands, unseen, the soul of a soldier that died in the Iraq war - one flag for each soldier whose life was taken away too soon.

The front of the school lawn is covered and the flags extend down the far side of the building. The Iraq war, for the most part has concluded but other conflicts still rage on.

On this Memorial Day pause for a moment and say thanks to those who gave their all, regardless of which conflict. It is very sad to see so many flags.

Let us know if you have any questions

All the Best
George and Deanna

May 18th Bluebirds

Tom Scribner and I made an excursion on Sunday May 18th for the purpose of checking Bluebird nest boxes and replacing any that might be damaged. This short post contains a few images from that trip.

We headed east out of Walla Walla past Pomeroy and turned south on Sweeny Gulch Road just before you get to Alpowa Summit Rest area. The circle in red on this image indicates the general area where we were.

This is a Male Mountain Bluebird very vibrant blue in color. On this particular trip we only saw Mountain Bluebirds no Western Bluebirds and for some reason no Tree Swallows. We always find a few Tree Swallows utilizing some number of nest boxes.

We are at a little higher elevation about 3,600 feet and we frequently find these Cassin's Finches. Very striking birds and at one point we saw a flock of about 14 Cassin's. Neat birds

This is a very old and worn out nest box. It has lived well past it's usefulness. Tom took this one down and we replaced it on the post with a new one.

Now it gets to be fun. The clouds rolled in and it started snowing, that nice spring corn snow. The road and the surrounding ground was turning white. Who carries chains for their car in May? Glad we have 4WD.

Accompanying the snow was a big drop in temperature. It got down to 34 degrees and keep in mind this is the middle of May. We both looked at each other, laughed a bit and questioned "What the heck are we doing here"

This gives you a little perspective on the snow. There were nesting Bluebirds in probably 80 percent of the boxes we checked with either eggs or young bluebirds. Many nestboxes had Bluebirds sitting in front or adjacent to the box so we just left those alone.

Tom is checking another box. It is starting to snow harder now. Who said checking Bluebird nest boxes was dull and boring?

We hope you enjoyed this collection of images. Understand that checking Bluebird Nest boxes is not always such a memorable experience. This was a fun day, really.

Let us know if you have any questions

All the Best
George and Tom