On a recent camping trip, this Eastern Kingbird was very tolerant of me in my kayak and kindly posed for me most days. Kingbirds are flycatchers, catching their meals on the wing. They patiently wait on a good perch til they see a juicy morsel in range.
The girls and I had a nice hike on the Pacific Crest Trail recently. We started out watching and listening to pikas on a talus slope. Willow and I watched from the trail while Sky looked for a shady spot. She’s seen them before! On the way back I stopped to search for a pair of ground squirrels who were whistling back and forth. And LOTS of wildflowers. It may have been the peak of the season since the snow melted early and everything is drying out quickly. There were no little streams and only the smallest of snow patches for the girls to cool their bellies and feet. I think the helicopter was looking for wildfires since we’ve had a fair amount of thunderstorms recently. It was a nice day in the mountains.
Butterflies and bees
The girls and I had a good hike this week. We covered a whole variety of habitats and saw lots of great wildflowers, some baby birds and beautiful blue butterflies. I had hoped the fireweed would be in full bloom but it was too early. The buckwheat and paintbrush were the real stars of the wildflower show. There were Mallard and goldeneye ducklings and I found two Lewis’s Woodpecker nests in burned snags. The aspens were full of bird song. I came across an active burrow that is home to what? Maybe a badger? The girls enjoyed cooling off in a lake and tussled over a stick too.
Who recognizes the location of the first photo?
This is not one of my favorite hikes and I seldom do it anymore but it does offer great views of the valley and of the mountains to the west. It’s not a long hike but it’s steep and the trail has a lot of loose rock. It turns out, those were the least of my worries. As I was getting close to the top, a couple coming down warned me about a mountain goat at the top. Mountain goats are potentially quite dangerous. They have killed hikers in the Olympic National Park and last year, our friends’ dog, on a leash, was gored by one on a popular hiking trail near here. So I don’t like to see them when I am out hiking with my dogs.
As I approached the top, I leashed Willow, the youngster, and kept Sky by my side. Soon I saw the goat walking down the trail towards us. I leashed Sky and we got off the trail to let him pass. But no, he was curious about us and peered over the edge where we were trying to be out of his way. I yelled and pretended to throw something and he backed off and then popped up in another place. Finally, he moved on and we went back to the trail. Of course, I didn’t see where he went. It was soon obvious; he was next to the lookout and stamping his foot and huffing at us. At that point, I figured we were not going to the top so we moved over to a rock outcropping and had a break, ate our snacks and drank some water. The dogs did not get off the leash. They were very aware of the goat and he continued to watch us, stamping and huffing but he did not move away from the mountain top. After our short break, we hurried down and away from him. The close ups of the goat were made with a 600 mm lens. We were not as close as it appears.
The flowers were beautiful. I especially liked the western clematis and the buckwheat. I don’t know the species (there are lots), maybe it’s thyme-leaf.
My Everyday Photos 