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Buttercups For My Birthday

When your birthday is on the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring, you might have some expectations for the day. I got it in my head that I wanted to see sagebrush buttercups – one of the first wildflowers that shows up in our shrub-steppe habitats. Well never mind that here at our house, there is still over a foot of snow on the ground. Wet, rotten, sloppy snow. Spring birds like bluebirds, phoebes, juncos and others have arrived so it does sound like spring but right now as I type this, it is snowing. Again. I keep thinking I am done with winter but it’s clearly not done with me.

So if I wanted to see buttercups, I was going to have go somewhere else. I went east and north to McLaughlin Canyon, near Tonasket. The day started out sunny but was soon overcast and breezy and fairly cold at 37° Fahrenheit. Good walking weather. There were a few patches of snow and there was lots of water everywhere. I imagine in the summer this place is very dry and full of rattlesnakes so this was a good time to visit. Melting snow sent cascades of water over the cliff faces and in the shady spots, the rocks and shrubs were covered with ice.

Shortly after I arrived I heard the wonderful song of the Canyon Wren! Have you heard them? Listen here. I heard several others while I walked. The trail starts in a narrow section of the canyon and all that water found its way to the path so it was a bit of a struggle to keep my feet dry. I was somewhat dismayed by all the weeds. This area burned in 2015 when much of Okanogan County was on fire and its recovery is slow. I did see that some pine trees have been recently planted so hopefully they will grow quickly and hold the ground in place during spring flooding.

I walked til I was overlooking the bottom of the canyon and the Okanogan River. Still no buttercups. The hill below me was steep and not appealing for walking but it did look warmer and dryer than the ground I’d been walking on. I used my binoculars to scan the hillside and sure enough, a good two hundred feet below me, I saw the bright yellow color of the buttercups. I found them. It was worth the climb down and back up.

The dogs had great fun exploring a new place and so did I. We were all grateful to be walking on dirt again.

Afterwards, we drove down valley and managed to find some Sandhill Cranes in the snow. It is the time of year when they migrate through this region but most years, the lakes and ponds are thawed and the ground is mostly snow-free. I imagine they are having trouble finding enough food to eat.

And here at home today it is still snowing. Big, fat, fluffy flakes. Winter needs a new calendar.

Public lands
See that dark spot just above the pine cone in the lower right? That’s a spring. Fresh water coming out of the ground.
The narrow part of the canyon
Newly planted pine tree
Not all the trees burned
Luna collected stuff in her fur
Buttercups
The buttercups were down below those two burned tree trunks
Could you two help me here?
Of several attempts, this was the best one.
This is rock cress which has white flowers later in the spring. Right now it has a yellow fungus on it that usually doesn’t kill the plant.
Lots of rock outcroppings
How did this get here?
Oh yeah, the county road switches back up there. Someone dumped a load of household trash into the canyon. Sad.
Enormous rocks that have fallen from the canyon walls
Sandhill Cranes.

A Few More Animals

We saw a few other animals on the caye. I think the hermit crabs were the most interesting. At night they were everywhere. It was really important to use our headlamps so we wouldn’t step on them. They hide in the bushes during the heat of the day and come out before the sun goes down. In the morning we’d see the artwork their tracks left on the canvas of sand. If they come across a new bigger shell, they may fight to take it over! The island is a ‘no souvenir’ place which means we could not take home any seashells.

The big gray lizard is a wish willie or a black iguana. However we were told that they are NOT iguanas. They are vegetarians. They sure did look like the green iguana I saw at Crooked Tree. And there were little anoli lizards flitting around during the day. Very quick and hard to photograph.

Anoli
Hermit crab tracks
Wish willie
This is a spiny lobster shell. I did see a couple of live ones while snorkeling but did not get photos.

Birds on Half Moon Caye

The big bird attraction at Half Moon Caye is the nesting colony of white-phased Red-footed Boobys and Magnificent Frigatebirds. The Belize Audubon representative said there were about 4000 boobys and 1000 frigatebirds. They do regular transects through the dense jungle to keep track of them. It seemed like a lot but I would not have guessed that many. In addition to the charismatic sea birds I also saw Great Blue Herons, Brown Pelicans, Great Egret several kinds of warblers including a good number of American Redstarts. I wanted to suggest to them that they’d best start thinking about migration. There are a few that breed near the Methow River in late May and early June.

Some of the Red-footed Booby chicks were already two months old while some nests still had eggs in them. I did not see any frigatebird chicks and many of the males were in full display with their red air sacks inflated for everyone to see. They looked like awkward fragile balloons and I wonder if they ever poke them on a branch or get attacked by other birds. The boobys may lay two eggs but generally only raise one youngster to maturity. That means the weaker one may fall or get pushed from the nest. Sometimes a tourist will bring one of these unfortunate birds to the Audubon staff and they will attempt to feed and raise them and teach them to fish on their own. It’s often a futile attempt.

Magnificent Frigatebird
The boobys are very graceful in the air but landing and getting about in the tree tops was awkward.
This bird was sitting on two eggs.
The flower of the orange-flowered ziricote tree. The boobys prefer this tree for nesting. The bird poop helps sustain the trees.
This snag (dead tree) provides an excellent perch.

Under the Surface

My generous husband bought me an underwater camera to take to Belize! I was very excited to try it and you can imagine my disappointment when the first time I put it in the water, it failed. On my first day on the Caye. Oh my gosh. I decided not to let it ruin my experience and later that week, Kim gave me her underwater camera to try. She wasn’t even sure it if it still worked since it was old and not recently tested. It did work very well and I was excited to use it!

I learned that there are people who watch fish like others watch birds! They know the names and have life lists too. I am mostly content to just watch them and enjoy their colors and movements in the fluid world. I have little snorkeling experience and I feel like a complete outsider under the surface so I mostly like to float and watch. The naturalist at the camp tried to teach us the names of the fish families and how to ID them but for me, none of that stuck. I did recognize a flounder and a shark.

I love how this one is peaking out at me from behind the rock.
Such good camouflage
I named this the purple cactus coral
Brain coral
Fan coral
The area around the Caye is a conch reserve so no harvest is allowed!
Peacock flounder
Nurse shark

Life on a Caye

Half Moon Caye covers only forty acres of dry ground. There is no electricity except when the generator runs in the evening. Our tent had a kerosene lamp and we used headlamps to get around after dark. Unlike at home, there is no prolonged period of dusk and dawn – just twelve hours of darkness and twelve hours of daylight.

So how did we pass the time? Days were busy with activities like snorkeling and kayaking and birdwatching. We often had talks on the island’s natural history. One evening our guides entertained us with drumming and dancing and stories of the Garifuna people’s history (it was not a happy story for the most part). We had wonderful meals prepared from fresh ingredients and our cooks always came out to describe the food for us. Most of the other guests were retired Canadians although two couples were from the US (Chicago and Pennsylvania) and one fellow was from the UK. Maybe three people had heard of Winthrop. They were mostly urban folks except for a couple from Nelson, BC.

We learned that coconut palms are not native to the Caribbean. They were originally planted and then drifted from island to island. And they are invasive. So some of the coconut palms were being cut down on the caye in order to preserve the native habitat preferred by the birds.

The dining hall
The conch was blown to notify us of meals and other activities. This is Sam, an Australian who taught yoga each morning.
Freddy describing our lunch
Clean up area
Activities were announced in the dining hall
The chalk board was used to sign up for activities.
Happy hour on the beach
Gathering after dinner for conversation and card games
Cleaning up
Our tent
Light cast from the kerosene lamp was not bright enough to dim the stars
Traditional drumming
Telling the history
Miss Anne demonstrates a traditional dance
Clint is her dance partner. He is also on the Belize National Soccer Team!
Getting ready for an outing to the Blue Hole!
A coconut grater
Bryan demonstrates how to drink and eat from a fresh coconut
Better coconut water than you can buy in a store!
Packing our luggage for the ride back to the mainland
Hard to leave.