Western Oregon is cool and damp and glowing with spring green. We are here primarily to visit family and are enjoying our stay, and finding the change of weather refreshing. We traveled from a Death Valley that was heating up to a Mammoth Lakes where spring was scarcely to be found. From there we crossed the Sierras to the Central Valley where spring had sprung and the farmers were busy planting rice and harvesting strawberries. Rain arrived as we left and it followed us across the Trinity Range and past magnificent Mt. Shasta to Oregon’s verdant land of pastures and great forests. Here the cherries are in bloom and the grass is growing faster than the cattle can eat it.

A short morning walk in a park found that black-throated gray and Townsend’s warblers have arrived with us. What a treat. We also found the local chocolate brown song sparrows and both black-capped and chestnut-backed warblers. This is definitely not the Southwest anymore!

Tomorrow will find us enjoying more reunion, and perhaps looking for a few more of the local specialties early in the morning. The band-tailed pigeon would be a good bird to find. We have to toughen ourselves up to the chill again and get started early. This morning the chill in the air and the sound of raindrops on the roof of the motor home kept us snuggled up under our warm comforter.

The moving west and north is changing the pattern of daylight on us. The former brings sunset later, and the later an earlier dawn. The lengthening day is a blessing, but also confusing to our feeble minds. Better weather would make it easier, but we guess that we have already experienced the warmest weather of the year. Alaska will probably be chilly. The Canadian Rockies are unlikely to be balmy. Perhaps we will find some hot days crossing the northern plains in August, but, if not, Vermont will provide a cool September.