Last week Juliet and I got away to the Harts Pass area for a ‘hike’ which turned out to be more of a plant walk than a vigorous outdoor exercise. Weather was perfect and bugs didn’t bug us too much. Flowers were great! Such a huge variety. She is much better than I am at identifying all the individuals or finding them in a field guide. On a good day, I can come up with family ID but seldom can I tell you the proper name of an individual plant. I carried a camera with only one lens – a macro – and no tripod. It was a little breezy so the tripod would not have helped. I was glad to leave the extra weight behind. The elevation is over 6000′ and there were still snow patches around. We also looked at and heard birds, bugs, butterflies and some mammals – a marmot, a big chipmunk, pikas AND we saw a Jumping Mouse on the way up. It had a little round body with an incredibly long tail and it jumped across the road with leaps and bounds! It was a lifer for me. What fun.
Tag Archives: wildflowers
We were fortunate to be at Lost Lake on the weekend when the Okanogan Highlands Alliance was leading a native plant walk on the 65 acres of wetlands and uplands they purchased last year. It is a remarkable place with an incredible variety of botanical species, some quite rare, and I feel lucky that the OHA was able to preserve this spot and share it with the public. George Thornton, president of their board, led the walk. He has many years of experience doing plant surveys for the US Forest Service and is well versed in the flora of the region. And he’s a good trip leader; in his other life he is a school teacher.
George ponders a question about the forest.
Bog Orchid
Gentianella propinqua
fourpart dwarf gentian
Lots of lupines blooming everywhere
Pyrola asarifolia
pink wintergreen
Twinflower (I need to get its Latin name)
As I paddled my boat, I was fascinated by the various shapes of the waterlillies. I don’t know if these are natives or not.
Despite a windy morning, Suzanne and I had a nice hike to the top of Patterson Mountain. The calendar says it is summer and yet the wildflowers still look like spring. I was surprised to see so many alliums in bloom. Some areas were carpeted with them. And still there are lots of bitterroot. In addition to wildflowers we saw a pair of Golden Eagles, a Lazuli Bunting and other birds. We are SO lucky to live here!
Bitterroot
Allium and a yellow buckwheat
A tiny daisy, maybe an aster?
Allium and its shadow
A hummingbird visits scarlet gillia to collect nectar with Mount Gardner in the background
Page Springs is a BLM campground located just south of Malheur NWR on the Donner and Blitzen River. Just ten days before we arrived high water had forced some campers to higher ground so we picked a campsite on a hill to avoid that possibility. A small stream came off of Steens Mountain and rushed by our camper. During the day as snowmelt and rain contributed water to it, the level rose dramatically. At night, with cold temperatures, it dropped. The Donner and Blitzen was so high and loud, it was like being next to ocean waves with a constant roar that covered up most other sounds and lulled us to sleep every night. Despite cold temperatures and wind and rain we stayed warm in the little pop-up trailer and slept well. The last two nights of our stay were a little warmer and we were treated to a bird song that repeated itself over and over through the darkness. Based on what others say I have decided it must have been a Yellow-breasted Chat although it did not sound like any ‘typical’, as if there is a ‘typical’, chat call that I am familiar with.
This is the creek that rose and fell each day. I expect many years it sees little water and is dry in the summer.
The junipers are really magnificent.
The mosses and lichens are pretty amazing too, especially in this year of much water.
Long-eared Owls nest in the junipers and we were fortunate that some folks showed us the exact spot. I had gone there and searched that same area however they are so cryptic I did not find them on my own.
Sagebrush violet growing through an old deer skull.
Bitteroot was blooming on the plateau above the campground.
Yup, that’s snow on the truck.
Great-horned Owl branchlings. The nest tree was growing in the middle of a pond, a very secure place for a nest assuming the young birds don’t fall out of the tree.
Reflections on a side channel of the Donner and Blitzen River.
Teasel, an invasive, growing next to the river.
Lush greenery in the riparian areas. We were lucky it was cold. Otherwise the mosquitoes would have eaten us alive.
Lupine, sagebrush and a lomatium.
Lots of wildflowers are out now. Mostly tiny ones like shooting stars and bluebells, buttercups and other tiny blooms. The lupine is almost showing color up here and at long last, balsamroot is blooming on our hillside. That’s a good sign.
