peregrine falcon

Once an endangered species in the United States, North American peregrine falcon populations have made a great comeback due to bans on usage of DDT and similar pesticides.

These falcons are formidable hunters that prey on other birds (and bats) in mid-flight. Peregrines hunt from above and, after sighting their prey, drop into a steep, swift dive that can top 200 miles an hour.

California Brown Pelican

In North America, the brown pelican is endangered, but populations are recovering to some extent. The sea birds were devastated by chemical pesticides, such as DDT, which damaged the eggs of pelicans and many other species.

Columbia River Gorge in Autumn

The Columbia River Gorge in northwestern Oregon is especially beautiful in the Fall.

The Columbia River Gorge is a spectacular river canyon cutting the only sea-level route through the Cascade Mountain Range.
It's 80 miles long and up to 4,000 feet deep with the north canyon walls in Washington State and the south canyon walls in Oregon State.

On any given night, more than 1,400 sleep on Portland's streets. Homeless people can be adults, young people, couples or families with children. They are living on the streets, either temporarily or long-term, for a variety of reasons.

They may be homeless because of an untreated mental illness, a physical disability, domestic violence, the loss of a job, or an addiction. Some may be experiencing a financial crisis and have been evicted from their home. Others may have cycled in and out of homelessness or are chronically homeless, having lived on the streets for many months or even years.

Portland After Dark

A visit to Portland Oregon, the Willamette Valley and the Columbia River Gorge would not be complete without a photograph of the Portland skyline at night. I shot this on Friday evening just past dark from the Eastbank Esplanade. Flanking the Willamette River and between the Steel Bridge and the Hawthorne Bridge was a ideal spot to shoot from. Tripod mounted 2.5 sec at f/16.

The Willamette Valley is protected from Pacific storms on the west by the Coast Range. On the east the Cascade Range draws the boundary between the Willamette Valley’s misty, cool climate and the drier, more extreme climate of eastern Oregon. The often pernickety Willamette Valley climate is truly the Promised Land for my favorite Pinot Noir’s in America.

As autumn commences in the Columbia River Gorge, the colors are in fact quite impressive. The landscape is fast changing and the beautiful trees of green, yellow and red are everywhere. It’s somewhat like in the Judy Garland film, Wizard of Oz, when everything changes from black and white to vivid color.

Sunset

Watching an Eternal Autumn Sunset (by Dan Mathews)

There is damp grass underneath
Broad strokes of Red and Orange overhead
Ever fading into pale blue
against blackened pines and wilted oaks
whose most noble purpose
is now to latch onto my memory

The sun neither dips nor rises
The chilled breeze pierces
it etches it's will into me
I am translucent against the backdrop of it's
Majesty

The contours of my face
are lit with a poor reflection
that even though poor creates me again
my skin and hair, eyes and soul become
as one portrait
It is dark where I am
And so I look to the light

You unmake me
as I am caught gazing into eternity
Watching an Eternal Autumn Sunset