Not many sights prettier than the full moon rising.
Author Archives: Teri J Pieper
We took the dogs up a steep hill on the game range near Twisp. It was sunny and cold. We could walk mostly on dirt although the dogs enjoyed little snow patches. Luna especially likes them. She does better in cold weather and isn’t looking forward to the end of winter. And she seems to not care to have her photo made. I had hoped to find sagebrush buttercups but it is not the warmest hillside in the valley. We did find other green shoots and soon there will be more. Probably not this week with nightly low temperatures forecast to be in the teens. Brrrrr.
Sawtooth Mountains in the distance
Sky is practicing for her cover girl and calendar photos
Where’s Luna?
Mary Ann tells Sky not to hit her with that stick again!
Quincy helps
Bitterroot leaves looking like sea anemones.
Bitterroot growing right out of a lichen covered rock!
A Red-tailed Hawk watched us and scolded.
This might be the leaves of yellow bells
Quincy and Frida
What do you mean? Why do we have to go back to the car? We’re not done here.
Last week I was photographing artwork for someone in a gallery and when I was finished I could not resist making a few images of the flowers growing on the windowsill. The gallery owner had planted bulbs once a week so she could have fresh new flowers every week early in the spring. What a good idea! On a gray day with ice still piled around Twisp, it was lovely fresh scene that brightened the day.
You can see what I was working on here
Despite what the calendar indicates, Spring is bursting out all over. The animals feel it. They are out foraging for fresh food. Insect-eating birds have returned from their winter vacations and are having no trouble finding bugs to consume. A Northern Pygmy-owl spent a couple of days here eating the voles whose dirty handiwork is emerging from the melting snow. I’d hoped the owl would stay longer to put a real dent in the vole population but it has moved on. Both Western and Mountain Bluebirds have arrived. The Western’s are checking out nest boxes and making plans for the upcoming breeding season. It is fun to watch the pairs take turns examining a box and seemingly discussing the pros and cons of each one. ‘Look this one has a nice view’. ‘ Ahh but I like that one over there with the better perch’. Well what about that one out there?’ ‘Too close to the dog corral’. And on and on it goes. The Say’s Phoebe, a pretty bird with a soft, sometimes two-note call has also returned. It is a member of the flycatcher family and easily identified, unlike some of its relatives. And high on our hill I found a singing Western Meadowlark – truly a joyous sound of spring! Most of these birds were pretty distant for photography, except the ferocious looking owl. But that didn’t keep me from trying.
And on another note, Ken took the lids off of his two beehives and sure enough, they are still alive and ready to start foraging as soon as the flowers start to bloom!
Say’s Phoebe with Northern Pygmy-owl in the background
Say’s Phoebe with Northern Pygmy-owl in the background
Say’s Phoebe
Western Bluebird
Way distant Mountain Bluebird against a bluebird sky
Singing Western Meadowlark
Honeybees
Angry honeybees
One of our neighbor’s new nest boxes on an aspen that burned last summer
Northern Pygmy-owl
Eyes on the back of its head
I got out of the valley one day last week to do some birding in areas that really are ready for spring. We were hoping for a few winter specialties like Snowy Owls and Snow Buntings. We did see two very distant Snowy Owls in a field of green winter wheat with the last traces of snow still on it. But we dipped on the buntings. Other highlights included singing Sagebrush Sparrows in the coulee, a first of the season Mountain Bluebird, quite a good number of Rough-legged Hawks, three Golden Eagles and one sleepy Northern Saw-whet Owl. We were mostly in northern Douglas County but found the little owl on its regular roost near Bridgeport State Park in Okanogan County.
Moses Coulee, a result of the Ice Age Floods
It’s hard to imagine these columnar basalts were once lava flowing out of the ground.
Dutch Henry Falls
He barely opened one eye to look at us
My Everyday Photos 