It was a fine day without sprinkles today, so we hiked up Breakfast
Creek today, a small spring fed creek that marks the entry into the
Brickel Creek drainage of the Inland Paper Company land. It was
full of lovely cataracts, but these two photos seemed most interesting:
The ancient stumps had been burned in the 1937 fire, but many still stand, covered with moss where not covered with char.
Here the water spilled over a log dam onto a flat rock, which splayed the spray in an interesting pattern.
May 5
Yesterday was the first day to go over 70, and it went over 80.
(We always say--we got two seasons in Idaho and temperate isn't one of
them) This is how the Mill Pond looked on the first nice day:
And the best variety of wild flowers is available now:
shooting stars
yellow violets
calypso orchid
and pacific wrens, more feisty for it being nesting season...
May 7
From our rambles today, another classic local wild flower: dwarf waterleaf:
May 10
It was a calm day on the Mill Pond yesterday, and even without a polarized filter I could see this bass under a log...
An osprey at the Mill Pond today.
Butters and his friend Kaiser cooling off in a temporary swamp along
the Mill Pond. Butters is lying down in the water to get the full
cooling effect..
May 11
Spring is such a picturesque time...
red necked grebe
I love our own cultivated flowers also, but the wild ones bloom first...
camas flower
Columbiana Virgin's Bower wild Clematis
Butters considering how to get off the log he walked through the water on...
May 17
After taking 127,000 pictures on my old camera, I've been wanting
another camera for a couple years, so I finally stepped up to a Nikon
DSLR 5500, which I got yesterday. After studying the book for an
hour and snapping a few photos inside, I was eager to snap on the
telephoto and rediscover our local ridge. I loved the way
everything focused so sweetly and snapped away. But apparently I
bumped it into special effects mode, so the pictures mostly came out
looking like illustrations:
Chipping sparrow
balsam root
I had intended to save the special effects for experimenting with later. Still I appreciate the accidental art...
May 18
I made the same trip as yesterday, in part due to losing the lens cap
for my telephoto... Today I got this picture of a pair of
rednecked grebes, which for the first time showed me possible
differences in the sexes, since they are so close:
The one in back is clearly a lot larger, so either it's older or one of the sexes predominates sizewise...
May 22
It went from cold to hot again, so I worked on tying raspberry plants
up this morning (and glazing) and went for walks in the heat of the
day...
the larkspur is blooming everywhere--pretty but toxic to humans and animals...
On the shady side of the Mill pond is the only place I've found heartleaf arnica around here, and it's just starting to bloom...
I was taking photos of the sunfish and bass and perch floating near the
top of the water when a female duck flew right towards me. The fish
boiled up...
All of us were startled, but I got the photo...
May 25
It's fairly rare to find a natural osprey nest, as they frequently
settle for power poles and stadium lights. But we found this one
up on the ridge a while ago. Here is one of the pair arriving at
the nest:
May 27
I was taking pictures of the rock or cliff penstemon which is at its
height currently. I didn't notice the dying pine in the
background, adding other colors and a different slant to the
photo. There are a lot of pines dying around here recently, from
disease and/or insect issues...
At the swamp at the end of the lake this baby pied grebe came out near
us, diving and circling, then disappearing into the swampy stuff, where
its family hopefully was waiting...
This is the view toward Mt. Spokane looking up Brickel Creek, with a Goldeneye...
Books read and other media of note
Cold
Dish by Craig Johnson Another regional mystery author, a bit
uneven in style, but a compelling story set in Wyoming and Montana, an
area I've been through visiting friends...
