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Brad's Blog
June 1  A year ago I wrote about accidental destruction of habitat for the mountain lady's slippers. Yesterday we drove along the section of road and were able to see dozens of the plants in bloom, right next to the road in the road ditch, which wasn't disturbed by construction. One win for the wild things... June 2 As I was walking up the trail to our cabin after taking Butters for a constitutional (frequent walks are in his constitution, not to be amended), I looked up to see an eagle circling above me catching a thermal, so I snapped a lot of great photos:  This one had a great background. The sky was both dappled and clear in places so I could select for a nice background...  Here it is with the clear blue sky... Bald eagles have made a tremendous comeback in the last 50 years, such that in many places like ours they are commonplace... Yesterday we walked up to the ridge to where there's an osprey's nest (they're also awesome to watch, particularly fishing). As we approached an osprey was circling a tree nearby. I predicted there was an eagle perched in the tree, and shortly thereafter a juvenile eagle took flight.. Ospreys defend their sky-turf against all comers, particularly eagles... We don't usually feed birds in the summer, but we're getting so many interesting species like black-headed grosbeaks, and spotted towhees with their young, that we'll keep feeding for awhile...  male black headed grosbeak (taken yesterday) June 6 Moby was our chief greeter at the pottery shop until Butters took over.. Here's some of his winning style:  I guess it could be a tragedy with a different caption...  These butterflies are currently around everywhere--very lovely... I've been working on converting a shelter that was just a roof and some posts into a guest cabin. I've also been thinning the apples in our one red delicious tree for about a week... (There are a lot of apples in the tree, and they'll be as small as plums without thinning)... June 13 Usually I go for the rare and wild photos, but recently a pair of mallards have been visiting our bird feeder for the sunflower seeds on the ground... The male has gone off like the father duck in the classic children's book, Make Way for Ducklings, but we've frequently seen the mother duck visit our yard, as this photo from a couple days ago (after we rejuvenated from an inch of rain)  June 17 After church at Priest Lake we went to eat at Cavanaugh's, on the beach on the east side of the lake... This was the view...  The native tiger lilies are blooming up there now, mostly solitary blooms like this one:  We've also started getting a pair of Eurasian collared doves at our feeder 
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