Brad's Blog
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entry (after clicking, you can bookmark this page and it should always
take you to the current date).
Aug. 2
For the last week my birder son and daughter-in-law have been
visiting from Iowa, so we've been making lots of expeditions...
It includes a few new bird species for my Ebird life list....
One gull looks kind of like another (except immature gulls are all gray) but this is a California gull...
I'm always hoping to catch a photo of an osprey rising from the water
with a fish, but this is more typical, rising empty clawed and shaking
off its wings, all within a few feet of an unperturbed goldeneye...
This is a willow flycatcher, from our canoe trip to the west end of Spirit Lake...
Our distinctive 12 spotted skimmer dragonflies..
Least Sandpiper, Upper Twin Lake (as are the ones below until noted)
Kildeer
Long billed Dowitcher
Kildeer again, better photo, less artistic than the first...
You can see the reason fawns are spotted in this dappled sunlight...
Photos from the Post Falls Community Forest (Aug. 1):
Western Wood-Pewee
Pygmy nuthatch
Spotted Towhee
This is the view of a backwater of the Spokane River as it emerges from
the Post Falls hydro plant, at the edge of the new Post Falls Community
Forest...
Aug. 11
Here are a couple bluebird photos from Farragut Park this week:
The western bluebirds, usually easy to spot near their many birdhouses
in the open areas of the park, were found on this day at the radio
controlled airplane area, which has a watered lawn which attracts
insects and birds... The rest of the area was bone dry, as
attested to the bluebird getting drops of water from a drinking
fountain...
Last night was the annual Bluewaters Bluegrass Festival--I took my annual photos....
Aug. 21
We drove up to the Silver Valley yesterday, to see Fern and Shadow
Falls... It's a two hour drive from here, up the Coeur D'Alene
River...
The falls are in the same area and not labeled... To the left side is Devil's club, named after the spiky stems...
This is a closeup of the berries. Interestingly, besides in moist
areas of the northwest US, the plant recurs on Isle Royale and a couple
other islands in the great lakes. You have to wonder how
that came about....
'
There were lots of these small butterflies
And a few of these mourning cloak butterflies. Turns out they're
the Montana state butterfly, and common across Eurasia also...
These common monkey flowers were blooming along the side of the stream...
The upper falls was dark and cool on a 90 degree day. I didn't
have a tripod, but I tried various settings on my camera as well as
different angles...
This is obviously a long exposure from the streaming quality of the
falls, so I'm proud of holding it steady enough by hand instead of
tripod....
Aug. 26
We went to the county fair a few days ago. A young friend had won
reserve champion for her milk cow, but I could only get a photo of the
view from the rear, so I'm not posting it...
But this was amusing:
The vase for displaying the flowers was one of mine...
This child was showing his sheep how to do the agility course...
Yesterday we hiked near Lionhead at Priest Lake. This was the nicest photo of the water running over the granite...
This was the nicest surprise--a pair of mountain goats. Last year
we had to hike up the tallest mountain in Bonner County to see them--
this was easy...
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