April 2024
Here are photos from our trip to the scablands of Washington
Tundra swans at Turnbull Wildlife Refuge, which features glacial erratics, pothole lakes, and mima mounds
Rock Lake, south of Turnbull, formed by ice age flood digging a channel into the Columbia basin basalt.
A horned lark...
The snake river at the bottom of Devil's Canyon, south of Kahlotus. The Columbia basalt forms the deep banks...
Tom turkey in display
Common mergansers taking off on our arrival
These
parallel ridges along the snake could be grazing trails, or possibly
water marks from the ice age floods. The floods were known to
back water up on the snake river for over 50 miles...
The red eyes say this is a western grebe...
The area of the devil's canyon is full of beautiful basalt forms...
Palouse Falls in spring. The huge basin and canyon are evidence of much larger historic flows...
April 8
Everyone is talking eclipses today, which didn't really happen here, so here's a shot from our back window in winter:
They are frozen disks of ice from the top of buckets backlit by candles...
April 9
A pair of hooded mergansers on the mill pond today--The male's white hood was never raised while I was watching it...
April 14
Osprey nests on utility poles are easy to find, this one is natural, along the side of our local ridge...
This has been an exceptional year for spring beauties, which bloom over a long period, opening and closing their petals daily...
Male downy woodpecker (the female lacks the bit of red)...
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