The fire to the northwest of us continues to create beautiful sunsets. A bit of weather moved in last night and if we get any rain out of it, the air quality will improve dramatically. We had a beautiful sunset last night but I was being lazy and just watched it instead of getting out on the front porch and taking a picture. This sunset was from two nights ago.
Mount Baldy can be discerned in the distance.
Even if the sky is smokey, the sunsets feel serene.
Yesterday we went on another birding trip around the area and explored some areas we’d seen on a map. This is the first summer we’ve done much in the way of exploring this part of the country.
Our first stop was the largest lake in the county, which also happens to be the lake closest to our home, roughly 30 miles distance.
Looking north from the swimming beach, located on the south end of the lake.
Looking south from the swimming beach.
The picnic area in the state park has a swimming beach cordoned off from boats. There are a lot of motorboats on the lake, as well as jet skis, but it is never very crowded. There simply aren’t very many people in the area.
Right now the only swimmers in the pool were two pair of Canada Geese and more than their share of babies.
"How many babies did you say we had? I think Andy and Shirley gave us some extras and went to Acapulco for a vacation!"
Watchful parents and their broods.
Swimming lessons over, heading for open water.
The goose in the front of the line looks like they’re counting heads, or giving a lecture.
"Now watch, this is how it is done."
Getting past the floating barrier is no problem for adults or youngsters, who are only a couple of weeks old at most.
The babies were so cute climbing over. They would flap their stubby and fuzz covered wings to show how clever they’d been, and the adults would nod their heads in approval.
We heard a Northern Waterthrush calling, and saw a Red-necked Grebe on Curlew Lake. This is the far southern edge of the breeding grounds for these two species.
Our next stop was Mud Lake, which wasn’t particularly muddy. It did have some interesting birds for us to watch. We added Ruddy Duck, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Gadwall, and Marsh Wren to the list of birds for the 2009 county list. Coots were also present, babies in tow. A pair of Cinnamon Teal rounded out the waterfowl floating about on the water.
We had hoped to find Black Terns here as one of the most likely places in the county, but no such luck.
On a road branching off of the San Poil River corridor where we were last weekend, there are several lakes located in forest service property, all three of which have campgrounds and boat launches. These lakes are home to a northern species of bird, Common Loon. Like the Red-necked Grebe and Northern Waterthrush, this is the far southern end of their breeding range. We found a pair of loons at each lake, which was quite exciting. These birds are extremely sensitive to disturbance from people, and they are becoming very rare.
First was Swan Lake, the largest of the three lakes and the most popular among the local residents. In addition to the campground, Swan Lake also has a very neat interpretive trail which goes completely around the lake, an easy level hike through very pretty lakeside woods and over granite outcrops. There is also a very nice picnic area overlooking the lake.
The trail passes over these rocks which are way across the water from where I took this picture.
The first summer we moved here, we visited this lake and found wild blueberries along the trail. I made a batch of pancakes with said blueberries.
Ferry Lake was the next place on our travel plan. A loon was quite close to the boat launch when we got there, and then moved off to an area close to reeds on the waters’ edge. We saw fish jumping out of the water near the loon. No doubt, the loon was having great success finding plenty to eat.
This is a fairly small circular lake and no motorized boats are permitted.
They float low in the water, sometimes totally submerged except for a head peaking up above the water. We always think of a submarine when we see them doing that.
Swimming away from us, this bird first surfaced within 20 feet of us, but was my camera ready? No!
Loons have a fantastic call; it was very disappointing we didn’t hear them making any noise but it was pretty late in the day by the time we arrived at the lakes, lunchtime to be exact.
The last lake we visited was Long Lake. On this lake we actually got to see a loon sitting on a nest. This lake is long and narrow, nestled between tall granite cliffs on either side. The boat launching area is shallow and not the least bit muddy, and it will be a great place for us to go floating around in our Klepper folding kayak. We’ve had this kayak since the late 1970’s and it is very neat to have a place so close to home that is perfect for its use. We need to buy some hipwaders.
The granite cliffs go straight up, and have fractured into scree slopes.
We can't see all way way down the lake from the boat launching beach, the lake bends around the corner.
Long Lake added a Vaux’s Swift to the county list, and we heard several variety of Thrushes singing in the woods. This lake was just gorgeous and the woods were full of flowers.
These wildflowers are in two colors, blue and white. The flowers get all fuzzy when they go to seed after blooming.
I would be willing to bet that if I planted clematis in our flowerbeds that the deer would munch them right down. The wild plants grow by climbing up into trees and avoid this fate.
This violet is one of three colors, and all three will grow in the same area.
It might be my imagination, but it seems like the white color variety of violet grows taller than the blue or yellow varieties.
Delicate with blue veins through the white blossom.
The yellow variety of violet is the most widespread in this area.
A carpet of last years' larch needles on the ground behind this flower. Larch needles are golden when they fall.
This isn’t Oregon, and these aren’t grapes….
This evergreen Oregon Grape has pretty yellow flowers and red berries, and shiny leaves. A common and widespread wildflower in the mountains.
After lunch by the lake, we went up into the mountains. The highest mountain pass in the state is located in this county, and there are some forest service roads which branch off the main highway. This is where we went exploring next, hoping to add some rare birds to the list for the year.
This short paved trail loops through woods and out to an overlook at the top of the pass.
This whole area is under consideration for wilderness designation. It would be wonderful if that were to occur. I personally think a new national park would be a better use for the area as it isn’t truly wilderness anymore, and development of camping areas and trails, and management of the forests might actually be of more benefit to correct some of the prior abuse of the forest. As far as a boost to the local economy, a national park would work wonders. Most likely the local politicians are too short sighted to see this benefit since it would cut into use of the forests for logging and cattle grazing, both sacred cows for this part of the state.
Our Forester is most at home on these sorts of roads.
These cliffs were adjacent to the road.
The granite cliffs turn a very dark charcoal gray when the iron in the rock oxidizes. The ligher rock appears when portions shear off and fracture.
A deep canyon separated us from this rock cliff.
We went off the main highway about 7 miles, and encountered one SUV about 4 miles in. We stopped and chatted with the man and woman in the other vehicle, and the conversation went something like this:
Them: “Do you know where Copper Butte is? We’re supposed to meet some friends there.”
Us: “No, but we have a good map.”
We handed them the map and told them to look on page 116. They found Copper Butte immediately and didn’t look the least bit inclined to go back the direction they had just been to get there. It was actually pretty funny. They told us that immediately behind them (the direction we were traveling), was a bog in the road and they had almost gotten stuck. Naturally we were a bit concerned since their SUV was a lot bigger than ours and they had tires more suited to muddy conditions than our all-weather radials. But we continued on anyway. Dan must be a better driver than the other man was since we had no problems with the muddy spot described and can only surmise they had driven off the road or into one of the muddy ruts in the road. They told us they were going to go back to the main highway and see if they could find their friends and then return. We didn’t see them again, so they obviously decided to stick with paved roads. Tee hee.
The road surface felt very weird since it was still partially frozen or only recently thawed. We saw remnants of snow in several places along the road and out in the trees. We also discovered, much to our delight, a lot of wild blueberry bushes with tiny berries growing on them. And I do mean a LOT of bushes. This whole area burned in the 1920’s, evidently providing a habitat for the berry bushes that they like a lot. Mid July we’re going to be up there picking berries. It is already on my mental game plan list of things to do this year. If there is any place in this area to come across a brown bear, it will be in the middle of the blueberry plants.
Thunderstorms moved through the mountains, dropping enough moisture to get the roadway wet in places. It is amazing how much the clouds can change the character of the landscape.
We were up at roughly 6,000 feet elevation when we decided to return home. The road continued back at least another 13 miles and had some very interesting looking sideroads off of it for exploring. We decided that since we didn’t have a tire pump with us, discretion was the better part of valor and we’ll just return again soon. There are multiple trail heads up there, all climbing to the top of the mountains, and one very nice campground.
We didn’t add new of the rare bird species we’d been hoping to find. Oh well, maybe next time. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and I picked up vegetables with which to make tempura for lunch today. And some strawberries for dessert. Yummmmm.
“Swim at your own risk”??? The geese aren’t particularly scared! Took me a while to get through the entire story, but a fascinating tale indeed! Great stuff!