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Early Morning Birdwalk

I was up early and out on the wet hillside this morning, hoping to hear birds and try to figure out which ones were singing. It was a glorious morning after all the rain we’ve had this week. Rubber boots were the fashion statement of the morning. I meant to take the big camera but, somehow managed to leave it behind so once again, Instagram to the rescue. Really, I mean to get serious about photography again. Soon. Really.

 

That’s our nicest pine tree

 

The ground is starting to heal nicely after the April 17th brush fire

 

Sunrise!

 

I think these are Douglas sunflowers

 

I don’t think the pines down in the draw are going to survive

 

Here’s something new

 

Lots of chokecherry blossoms this year

 

Target practice?

 And birds. Here is the list of birds I was able to identify by sight or sound:

California Quail

Dusky Grouse

Red-tailed Hawk

Mourning Dove

Rufous Hummingbird

Calliope Hummingbird

Northern Flicker

Western Wood-Pewee

Willow Flycatcher

Say’s Phoebe

Warbling Vireo

Red-eyed Vireo

Common Raven

Tree Swallow

Violet-green Swallow

Black-capped Chickadee

Mountain Chickadee

House Wren

Western Bluebird

Mountain Bluebird

American Robin

Gray Catbird

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak

Brewer’s Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Cassin’s Finch

Pine Siskin

Rained on

June showers bring? June flowers? Well maybe a few more days of green hillsides in the Methow. Also good conditions for garden photos.

 

Walking or dancing Egyptian top-setting onions

 

 Native columbine

 

Pretty flowering catnip mint

 

Poppy bud

 

Raspberry flowers

 

 

Ken’s bees have been busy in the berry patch.

 

Hop vine

 

Something Different

I know it’s probably hard to believe but in addition to doing tons of personal work in my photography, I also am a professional photographer. Recently I was hired to create cover and featured photos for Methow Arts quarterly Arts magazine. They always feature a local artist and in this valley, there are lots to choose from. This season Julie Wenzel, creative director at the Merc Playhouse was the featured artist. I love the theatre and photographing there so it was a good match for me.

Here is Julie with her two month old baby directing a rehearsal of a readers’ theatre.

More photos from our shoots can be seen at my Reflected Light Images blog.

The Methow Arts article can be seen here.

Scenes from a walk

I confess. I like Instagram. Ok. It’s alright to like Instagram. And sometimes it is just easier to carry the phone rather than a camera or both.

Lots of small wildflowers blooming on our hill now. The Balsamroot and Lupine are past their peak at this elevation. Now, there are more blues to be seen, some pinks and yellows too.

Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva. On our hillside, it is much whiter, less pink than in other places, such as Patterson Mountain

Cat’s ear lily, Calachortus lyalli

A yellow violet (an oxymoron of a name), Viola sp. I don’t know which one.

I’ve always referred to this as a Brodiaea but looking at my field guide, I think its name has been changed to Triteleia grandiflora

Evidence that our part time neighbors celebrated the holiday weekend riding up and down our road on quads while drinking and tossing their litter around.

More bitterroot

And tired dogs.

Black-headed Grosbeak

My desk is in a loft office on the second floor of our house. There is a window directly over the garden and when I am sitting here I have views of the hillside and a ponderosa pine. The other day, while diligently working on wedding photos from last weekend, I heard the fluttering sound of wings against the glass. I looked over my shoulder and didn’t see anything and the sound was gone. It repeated a few seconds later. Curious, I walked over to the window and looking down, I saw a Black-headed Grosbeak perched on top of the garden fence.

I backed away from the window while keeping my eyes on it and soon the bird returned and clinging to the siding it looked in the window and then over at a round decorative piece covered with lavender beads.


The bird flew/hopped to the other side of the window and again fluttered at it as if to beat it senseless with its wings?

 

This behaviour happened several times over the next half hour or so. There’s no ledge so the bird could only hold on to the position for a few seconds at a time.

 

 

 

And then the bird left. The grosbeak must have felt that it had subdued the lavender beads and they were no longer a threat to him. I have seen territorial birds attack windows and mirrors when they see their reflections and perceive them as another bird in their territory but for some reason, this bird was obsessing on the purple beads. What’s up with that?