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Okanogan Highlands Weekend

On the weekend of June 1, I visited my friend Betty for a long weekend of birding. North Central Washington Audubon Society hosted a big day on June 1, in hopes of counting all or many of the birds in our four-county (Chelan, Douglas, Ferry and Okanogan) area. It’s a HUGE geographic area. And much of it is remote and lightly populated with people.

Betty lives in Ferry County, the area with the fewest people and lots of really nice bird habitats. I birded my way over there on Thursday; Friday we scouted our area and visited a friend in the next area; Saturday we marathon birded from early in the morning til well into the evening and Sunday I worked my way home slowly til it got too hot to be any fun. We had some rain and once it came down in such a downpour we were concerned for our safety and decided to make a hasty departure. There was hail and lots of sunshine too. Somehow I managed to only photograph birds and not Betty or the dogs or the horses or chickens. Looking forward to next time!

Barrow’s Goldeneye with babies
drake Mallard
Northern Shoveler and Black Terns
Black Tern
American Coot
coot baby
Redhead
Coots are pretty cute
Pied-billed Grebe
Yellow-headed Blackbird. Or as Ken would say, Black-bodied Yellowbird.
Ruddy Ducks have a very dramatic courtship display
I think he is admiring himself
Mallard
Mallard pair
Common Loon nesting in the rain
Common Loon in a downpour
Common Loon carrying her youngster
Common Goldeneye with babies
Common Loon on a nest in the sunshine

Spring Walks

Of course we enjoyed lots of walks and here are a few highlights from the last month and a half.

The weather continues to be unsettled
Serviceberry
Aspen
Balsamroot
Smelling spring
balsamroot
lupine and balsamroot
bitterbrush
paintbrush
lupine
Luna’s tail always gives her away
paintbrush
Why does Sky look older than Luna
Penstemon, so much penstemon
More penstemon
Cutthroat Lake
Sky made a new friend named LeRoy Brown.
Sky tried to take LeRoy’s toy.

Spring Birds

After our big trip to Alaska, I got pretty far behind on my photos around here so yes, I am catching up. Here are a few pretty migratory birds I have seen on our hillside.

Western Bluebird
Western Bluebird
White-crowned Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
I think this is a Brewer’s Sparrow. Even the little brown birds are interesting.
Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow
Tree Swallow
Pair of Tree Swallows
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill
Red Crossbill

Bird Life

Remember the Great Horned Owls from this post? I continued to visit them, not too frequently, but often enough to follow the progress of the nest. I was up there on May 11 and 23 and June 6. Three days later all of the owls were gone – mom, dad and the youngster. I don’t think the little one had any flight feathers so I don’t think it survived. On the 6th, there was someone camped in front of the nest and also the adjacent vacation cabin had a LOT of guests. Maybe it was disturbance? Maybe the owlet died of natural causes and the parents left? Maybe they could not feed it enough although I think it looked healthy. Maybe mouse poison or pesticide use? I’ll never know. Hopefully they will return next year and try again.

Late Spring Hike

Red Molly joined us for a lovely hike in the mountains earlier this week. The weather was darned near perfect – sunny and warm but not too warm. It is a dry hike so I carried water for the dogs. There is one spring just off the trail about 1/3 of the way up and Luna knows where to find it. It’s generally more of a mud hole but this time it held a little bit of running water.

Views were outstanding and the flowers are just starting at that elevation (6500 up to 8200 feet). Ladybugs were abundant. I don’t know why they converge at high elevations. I have observed them at this mountain top several times over the years as well as at other places in the Cascades. There are many kinds of ladybugs (technically a beetle, not a bug) and many of them are convergent. I have no idea what they are eating up there and when they will leave for more friendly habitats. I do know that later in the summer, they won’t be there, based on my observations which are not science-based at all. Is anyone studying them?

Here are the birds I saw on this hike: Dusky Grouse, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Clark’s Nutcracker, Common Raven, Horned Lark, Mountain Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Mountain Bluebird, Townsend’s Solitaire, Cassin’s Finch, Pine Siskin, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Savannah Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Western Tanager.

I like this hike. Here is the trail in the fall.

This forest burned in 2006
So energetic at the start
Roger Lake
First patch of snow
A well-used trail
Larches are just leafing out
What are you looking at girls?
Setting up for a timed selfie
No Molly, that’s not how we do it
Let’s try it again
Molly! Sky says this is how you do it Molly. Look at the camera
Oh gosh, someday I will remember to wear a hat.
Oh look, Sky got a stick.