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Loons

These photos are from our recent camping trip. I love to watch and photograph birds from my kayak. Some birds, like Common Loons, will approach a boat if it is quiet and this family did just that. If I was close to the birds, I’d sit quietly in the boat and hope that they would come closer. They didn’t always. Early mornings and evenings were best. It was busier around the lake during the day and the birds tried to keep to themselves. The first day we saw the baby loons, they were not yet diving but by the time we left, they were diving and preening and acting like their parents. The youngsters have big feet, like a lab puppy and I imagine someone asking the parents, ‘do you think they will ever grow into those feet?’ Well, people still ask me that about Sky and she’s almost six years old, so no.

At another lake, I was able to look down at the loons and see them swimming underwater. They strictly used their feet for propulsion. I also observed this from my boat but they were too close for photos!

I know, this is a lot of photos but the birds are so beautiful.

Dog Friends

Little Bear
Finn
Finn and Sky
Luna
Finn, Sky, Little Bear, Luna

Bonaparte Lookout Hike

This is a steep, really steep hike, in my opinion. We started at the trailhead on the north side of Bonaparte Mountain with a trail a little less than three miles long with at least 2000′ of elevation gain. It starts out really steep for the first half mile or so and then is not quite so steep. There were no views til we reached the top as the trail is mostly in dense lodgepole pine forest. It does change to subalpine fir and white bark pine near the top. At the top, storm clouds and fog were rolling in so initially we had no views from the lookout either! But as we visited with the lookout himself, the fog and clouds moved around giving us views here and there til most of the 360 degree view was laid out in front of us. There’s a lot to see. From Tonasket to Oroville and Lake Osoyoos, Havillah and Chesaw and around towards the Wauconda summit and the Kettle Crest range of mountains and Sherman Pass. All well-known locations in Okanogan and Ferry Counties, some of the lowest populated areas of Washington.

As we relaxed more storms were coming in with thunder and lightning so we made a quick descent back to the truck.

This is after the first really, really steep part.
Break for snacks
The perfect Christmas tree
Native rhododendron
Bonaparte Lake is down there beyond that round mountain
Oroville and Osoyoos Lake in the distance
Havillah
Chesaw and Buckhorn Mountain
The lookout uses this fire finder to pinpoint lightning strikes and new fires.
It was his third day on the job.
The small building next to the lookout is the old lookout, dating back to 1914 and now used for storage.

You need to turn up your sound to hear the places I identified on this video

A Few Birds

The western larch trees, sometimes called tamarack, provide homes for Williamson’s Sapsuckers and other birds. The male and female appear quite different and there was a time when they were classified as two separate species. I found a nest just below our campsite and was able to photograph the two birds coming and going as they fed their young. It was a long ways up in the tree and I had to sit down and lean back to get these images and wait patiently while they foraged for insects in between feedings. If you scroll through the photos you will get a good idea of the two different plumages of the male and female. And at the end are a few other birds.

There were lots of loons and they will get a separate post.

female Williamson’s Sapsucker
The male waits while she feeds the young
And off he goes for more bugs
American Coot
Eastern Kingbird
Red-winged Blackbird

Camping Scenes

We all went camping last week and had a nice time away from home in a beautiful and place and offline too. It rained some. There was one big thunderstorm that went on for an hour or more. We never got too hot. Or cold. Sky may have jumped in a lake or two. Or three.