Friday My Town Shoot-out: Flora and Fauna

The idea of the My Town Shoot Out is to post photos of your community every Friday, and hopefully improve your photography skills. This week's assignment was chosen by the Town Blogger Team.

All photos shot in or near Corvallis, Oregon.

The wild countryside that surrounds my town abounds with exciting animals: cougars, bobcats, black bear, elk, deer, osprey, eagles, spotted owls all make their home here. You will have to take my word for this because I have never managed to photograph any of them!

It is much easier to snap pictures of the critters close at hand.

So here is a picture of Eddy, our Portuguese Water Dog,

and Reuben, our moody pound dog.

The local fauna likes to eat the local flora.

Sometimes the local fauna likes to watch the other local fauna (or is that "fawna?")through the (dusty) window by the front door.

Some of the local flora is gigantic. This is an old-growth Douglas Fir, native to the region.

Way down on the ground, this little girl is observing a slug.

See? Slimy!

A gopher snake making its way through my garden.

Do ducks sleep with their eyes open? I don't think so.

Corvallis is in a broad river valley that lies north-south, so it is a major flyway for migrating birds. These are snow geese who come through twice a year as they travel between the Arctic tundra and the American southwest: 5,000 miles round-trip.

The Pacific Ocean is an hour west of us, another great place to watch birds.

Or sea lions.

Oysters, rock fish, steamer clams, Dover sole, bay shrimp, and salmon are all caught or raised locally.

A lot of people love to catch Dungeness crab when it's in season. Delicious, but you have to work for it!