March 14: A new duck

I almost titled this post "Another rainy day in Astoria," and then I began to wonder how many posts I already have by that name and how many I'll have in few years if I keep that up. Probably lots! After seveal days of beautiful weather, that is what we had today, another rainy one. It started last night. Above, you can see the big log that's been stuck under the neighboring building the past few days. The mass on the left side is a big growth of root on one side of the tree, but I couldn't get a good photo of it.

This is just rain patterns on the river with sticks floating around in it. We get a lot of big broken grass stalks this time of year, too.

Someday I'm going to get an SLR with a nice long lens. I wonder if this is a male northern pintail duck (Anas acuta), as they winter in this part of Oregon, but it doesn't have the white throat. Would that make it a youngster, or could it be a hybrid duck? I was just looking at some duck hybrids online and it does seem to confuse the issue. I haven't taken a picture of a duck like this one before, and I wanted to see what it was. I haven't particularly noticed them before. We do have a lot of bufflehead ducks and some mallards on the water now.

This seagull was strutting around on the end of the catwalk for awhile in the downpour.

I especially liked the color contrast between the protective flange at the base of the tower and the chipping red paint higher up.

I slept until about noon. I knew I was tired, but didn't realize I was that tired. And I've been working online the rest of the day wtih blogs and albums, and spending some time on Facebook. We had more orders in the gift shop today than we had last Saturday and early Sunday. I wonder if it's all this online activity or if people are feeling better about economic news.

A 40-year "snow event" in Astoria . . . the saga continues

Today we had rain, then icy rain, but the temperatures were well above freezing and the net result was melting. It's not all gone yet, but driving is much easier. You can see the rain on the window better if you enlarge the photo. (Scroll to the bottom for info on the "snow event.")

This is taken from our doorway at TPF (The Animal Store). I was working right up through the end of the day, so I didn't go out and find new places to photograph.

You can just see the smaller (brighter red/orange) ship behind the darker red Mary Ann Hudson. The smaller ship (May Star) has been out there all day. I should have gone out early and counted the ships. They're harder to count at night, but last night after dark, it seemed it seemed as though there were at least a dozen ships that could be seen from town, which is a large number. Anyway, the May Star had been out there all day, when the Mary Ann Hudson came shooting past, providing an interesting color juxtaposition and size comparison. The MAH looked huge.

Take a gander at what this seagull is doing with its head! You might have to click on the photo to see the gull better. I didn't know they did this.

And now, here's the 40-year "snow event" info I was referring to in the title. I'm editing a bit from the e-mail sent out by the Weather Underground web site. I use it all the time. It looks like it will be raining and even warmer all week, but here's our historic moment:

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A historical perspective on the December 20-22 2008 snowstorm... Plenty of snow has fallen across the region this past weekend... as well as last week. In fact...with a brief period of light snow this afternoon...today became the 9th consecutive calendar day where at least a trace of snow fell on the Portland Airport. Generally 10 to 16 inches of snow fell across the Portland and Vancouver Metro area. [Note: we got less here in Astoria; I don't know what the figure is.] Historically...this is the biggest snow event for the valley floor locations of the Portland Metro area since at least 1980. For some areas outside of downtown Portland [they may be including Astoria here] ...this event was the heaviest snowfall in at least 40 years...when the big December snowstorm of 1968 hit the area. Despite being the biggest snowstorm in a generation...this storm did not quite make the all-time top ten list of snow storms for downtown Portland. This is due to several bigger snow events between the late 1800s to mid 1900s...when double-digit snow accumulations were much more common for the Portland area. A storm is defined from the onset of steady precipitation until the end of the showery period behind the storm. Often...this may be a 1 to 3 day period. The 2008 storm is from Saturday morning through Monday morning.

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Astoria Airport (period of record: 1892-present)...
December 20-22 2008 storm totals.........4 to 7 inches

(note: totals varied greatly by proximity to the ocean)

biggest snowstorm

1969 Jan 19.1 inches
1964 Dec 16.0 inches
1922 Dec 12.5 inches
several storms of 6-8 inches

snowiest decembers

1964 19.0 inches
1922 12.5 inches

snowiest months (all winter)

1950 Jan 26.9 inches
1969 Jan 26.3 inches
1964 Dec 19.0 inches
1943 Jan 13.8 inches

Info by NWS Portland climate staff

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So you can see that while 4-7 inches is not earth-shaking, it's in the record books for this area. The airport is across town and across Youngs Bay, closer to the ocean, and I believe we got more snow here in town. Since we're only a block from the Maritime Museum and they may have a record, I'll check with them in the next few days. This has been fun :)

~ Sheryl

July 18: Lazy scenes of Astoria and the river

I still feel like I'm just beginning to investigate this new place. It seems there's a lot to do if you just go out and do it. Unfortunately, money is really tight, but it would be nice to just pick a few concerts and events and go.

What's free is the ever-changing river scene here. I took this photo from the Sixth Street Viewing Platform.

Here's another shot from the platform. Over the roof of the restaurant, you can just see the top of the hill near my apartment. It's actually a bit east.

This is the deck of the Sixth Street Viewing platform looking at the buildings upriver (east). When I was trying to decide whether to move here, some of the few photos I found online centered around this pier.

For some reason the lens makes a lot of the photos come out crooked, and I don't even notice until I see them. In this case, I like the result.

Here's the old pier below my apartment again.

I love this tall tree. Once again, I can't get the wire out of the view, and I'm too much of a historian to photoshop it out. If I were doing something with the photo, I would, but I'm just recording it for now. It really is a lovely scene, though, yes?

The power line is out of the frame, but you don't get the majestic feel of the tall tree.

These are my back steps. The ones further into the frame go up to the street on the outside of the building.

I like the patterns of the sunlight and the slats in the railing.

Overlooking Astoria on another matchless summer day. The max. temperature was 64 degrees. Average for today is 67 degrees. It can get into the 90s or even 100 or so, but it's rare. I've been told that there are only a few days each summer where the temps get that hot - maybe as few as 4 or 5 days per year. I still can't believe my good fortune in finding this place!