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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Methow Valley Spring

The wildflowers have been been stunning these last few weeks. They started early and as expected, they are fading early too. Maybe the morning’s rainfall will bring on a new flush of color. Hummingbirds and swallows continue to be a big presence at our house. I thought the hummers would not settle in after last year’s fire but they seem to be just about as numerous and as ravenous for the juice I put in the feeders each day. I’m afraid I’ve created a bunch of tiny sugar addicts. There are Rufous, Calliope and now Black-chinned Hummingbirds here. Occasionally, especially in the fall, we see Anna’s Hummingbirds. Here are a few images from the past couple of weeks.

From the hill above our house, above the fireline
Balsamroot so deep, you can only see puppy dog tails!
Tent caterpillars on bitterbrush
Lupine
Death camas
Geum triflorum, prairie smoke or old man’s whiskers. It survived the fire.
Violet-green Swallow
Hummingbirds can be very territorial
Calliope Hummingbird male
Blue, a type of butterfly
More blues
Painted lady
Hillsides carpeted in balsamroot above Pearrygin Lake
Mountains over Pearrygin Lake with serviceberry in the foreground

On the Edge of the Salish Sea

Last weekend Sky and I went to an agility trial at Mount Vernon, just across the Cascades from here. We stayed in the little camper at the venue and had a terrific time. Sky was impressive with her drive and enthusiasm for the courses and she even managed to get one qualifying run out of thirteen chances! We need to spend more time training but this is a process and it’s great fun for both of us.

In addition to the trial we got to spend time with an old friend and her dogs. Theresa took us to a couple of places for walks in the evening. We liked getting away from the venue and enjoyed some leash-free time. These images are from a low tide walk near the mouth of the Skagit River. While the dogs played I got to enjoy looking at some interesting plants and I watched for birds too. It was a nice break.

Pure happiness
Look! I found a stick!
Uh oh, I lost my stick.
Rex, can you help me find my stick?
Nope.
Here comes Becca!
It’s always good to be around someone else that loves dogs so much.
Camassica quamash. I didn’t know it grew along the coastal areas.
Common camas, Camassia quamash
An interesting lichen
DYC. Darned yellow composite
Serviceberry. Another surprise for me to find growing there.
Wild allium
Madronne tree
Can’t someone throw something?
Oh look! I found another stick!
There were Bald Eagles standing out on those exposed mud flats in the distance
High point
Becca teaches Millie about chasing butterflies
She says, this isn’t my pack
Ahhhh.

At some point, I’ll figure out how to get Sky’s videos uploaded and posted to the blog.

Spring Scenes

Spring brings new growth and birds on the wing. We continue to work on restoration with new plantings and weed pulling. It could be a full-time job. But we’re not like that. We need to spend time enjoying the natural world around us.

Tree Swallow on a nest box on the garden fence
More Tree Swallows at another nest box
Balsamroot and lupine
Mountain Bluebirds
Western Bluebird
Pileated Woodpecker on a tree near our house
Lupine
Lupine, balsamroot and Patterson Mtn in the background
Lupine and lomatium
Cat’s ear lily. Calochortus sp

Shades of Green

This time of year it is easy to soak up all the shades of green like a refreshing drink of water. Soon many of those greens will be shades of pale gold and brown. This pretty draw is on the Big Buck section of the Methow Wildlife Area. The big cottonwood in the clump of aspens always stands out for me.

New Honeybees

Four of Ken’s six beehives burned in the fire last summer and the replacement bees arrived last month. Ken and I went over to Dave’s house where other local beekeepers were gathered to get bees to start new hives or replace colonies that didn’t survive the winter or succumbed to other things like mites, pesticides, fire, etc. I think there were over 120 boxes of bees delivered to start their new lives in the Methow and Okanogan valleys.

We quickly brought them home and Ken got to work moving them into their new bee boxes. After that he checked the two old hives and discovered that one of them had died in the last couple of weeks. It had been the weaker of the two but after surviving the fire and the winter, it was a great disappointment to lose them just when things should have been improving.

A stick bug. Dave was sharing them with friends.
Baby stick bugs
Boxes of bees
This border collie waited patiently while her person talked about bees.
Wall art
New bees still in their cardboard box
The smoker
Smoking the bees forces them to move down into the box and makes them less likely to sting.
After being smoked.
A few bees that need to be poured into the hive.
There’s the queen.
She is kept in there with a piece of hard candy. The worker bees will eat it and free her.
Ken and his bees.
Luna watches the bee work from a safe distance.
The hive that died had plenty of honey so it wasn’t for lack of food.
Frames from the dead hive.