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Tag Archives: wildflowers

Anniversary Hike

Yesterday was our sixth wedding anniversary! To celebrate, we hiked to our wedding spot and then on to Aspen Lake. It was a gloriously warm morning – we are finally getting nice weather. The wildflowers are at the peak of their bloom. Yes, it really was that vibrant. Bird song filled the air.

That’s the spot where we stood.
And here we are again.
Lots of blue larkspur
All of this burned in 2015 but except for dead shrubs, you can’t tell.
Sky celebrated with many jumps in the lake.
This yellow flower is arnica
This yellow flower is a lomatium
Most of these yellow flowers are balsamroot

Spring Changes

Everyday there is something to observe. With the melting snow, we can see where the dogs relieved themselves all winter. New wildflowers pop up overnight. Birds return from their winter haunts and declare their territories with loud calls and repeated banging. It rains. The mud returns. The sun shines. We go out and work furiously. And then it snowed.

Sunrise
Red-naped Sapsucker banging its beak on the wire
Northern Flickers discussing housing opportunities
Bluebells not yet opened
Vernal pond
I don’t know her
Fog follows rainy days
In Twisp, the farmers market opened
Garlic poking out of its mulch
Honeybees gather nectar and pollen from the tiny wildflowers
Promises of yellow balsamroot soon to come
Spring beauties
The steershead flowers are fading
Female Dusky Grouse thinks she is hidden
Female Dusky Grouse in flight
Finches at the feeder this snowy morning
Two mule deer
Yellow bells in the snow

Out Like a Lamb

March has brought us all sort of winter-like weather but I think that spring is finally settling in. Most of the snow is melted. For the first time in four months, there are deer walking around on our hill. It was a hard winter to be a deer in the valley. Wild Turkeys seem to be wandering around here too. Birds are selecting nest boxes and building nests. Tiny wildflowers are growing and blooming.

Good morning
Still looks like winter
Swallows
Vernal pond
Wild Turkey tracks
White-tailed deer
Robin’s nest on my Hok skis
Steershead foliage
Spring beauty
Yellow bells
Ash tree
Spring

Signs of Spring

Finally, the snow is retreating, leaving enough bare ground that a person can safely walk without getting her feet wet. Muddy, but not wet. Little patches of green grass are everywhere (except in our yard which is a whole other topic best left alone). Tiny forbs are sending out small shoots and I was even able to find one tiny flower. Sky found her own treasure.

Bitterroot leaves
Those might be steershead leaves
Sprouts against a sun-warmed rock
Waterleaf
Tiny lomatium flower
Balsamroot
octopus wood
I think these are currants
I found it. You throw it.

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.