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Vancouver Island Trip – Day 4

Today started with an amazing sunrise. As we headed out about 10 miles to sea for some halibut fishing, the sun played with the waves and the mountains. As we neared to area for our fishing, the seabirds to abound. Rhinoceros and Cassin’s Auklet leapt into flight from the swells. Pelagic Cormorants and Glaucous-winged Gulls […]

National Bison Range and Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge

At the end of May, Tom Forwood and I went for a little birding jaunt around the Ninepipe National Wildlife Refuge and the National Bison Range. We encountered many species that were in a photogenic mood, and these are the results.

Vancouver Island Trip – Day 3

Waking in Tahsis is a muggy, damp experience. It had been raining all night and it was still coming down hard as I left my Dad and Nardy sleeping the motel room (which was rented from the Tahsis Lounge…convenient). I wandered through remains of an industrial town with rusting pillars and beams like bleaching bones […]

Hanging Prayer flags at the Garden of 1000 Buddhas

Today Vida and I had the great opportunity to work at the Garden of 1000 Buddhas as the Ewam Sangha prepares for the month-long retreat in July. Along with Charlie Pearl (our personal favorite), we moved lumber and replaced the tattered prayer flags near Rinpoche’s house. Prayers flags are very important in Tibetan Buddhism as […]

Vancouver Island Trip – Days 1 & 2

Earlier this June, I was more than fortunate to be able to go with my father and a family friend on an extended fishing/birding trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island. I tallied 18 lifers on the trip, including a Black-throated Sparrow near Vanguard, Washington (the first lifer of the trip even if the wind threatened to blow me […]

Glen Lake in the Bitterroots

On Sunday, I undertook a “short” hike up to Glen Lake in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area. I was told that the hike was 2.5 miles, but it is closer to 3.25 miles and bit more uphill than I had anticipated. Almost the entirety of the trail takes you through the post-fire environment left by the massive […]

Plethora of Pied-billed Grebes

This year I have seen more Pied-billed Grebes than I can ever remember seeing before. The ponds of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge seem to have at least one pair in each of them. The following images come from April and May (I know I am very late in posting them).

Summer keeps rolling along

Yesterday was a completely enjoyable, we went for a hike and last night was host to spectacular lightning storm. But the day got off to great start with a surreal sunrise. The hike was along Bass Creek to the old log jam at the boundary of the Bitterroot-Selway Wilderness. It was about 5 miles and just enough […]

The Scaly Lifer – Western Fence Lizard

“There it is!”, I exclaimed as the brakes pounded down against the floorboard. A large lizard basking itself near the top of a lichen-encrusted boulder. Large by lizard standards (~8 inches) and thickly bodied, it was much more so than I had expected. Overjoyed to finally find this reptilian, the Western Fence Lizard, a sense […]

Preparing the Garden of 1000 Buddhas

This past Saturday, Vida and I joined a group of others to help prepare the Garden of 1000 Buddhas for July Retreat to be led by Tulku Sang-ngag Rinpoche. This place has a special energy about it, and with each passing day this vibration seems to only increase as the Garden approaches completion. These images hopefully do […]

Blue no longer, the Dusky Grouse

I still have to stop myself from calling them Blue Grouse. The former Blue Grouse was split some time ago into the Sooty Grouse of the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and Pacific Coast, and the Dusky Grouse of the Rocky Mountains. The Dusky Grouse inhabits the dry forests and foothills, and during the spring, male Dusky Grouse […]

Rufous, Black-chinned, and Calliope – a hummer of a day

There is a few feeders that hang outside of the restaurant at Quinn’s Hot Spring along the Clark Fork River…these feeders are covered with hummingbirds. Calliope, Rufous, and Black-chinned all made their appearances, much to my delight. These tame little critters are more than photogenic as these images can attest.

Another rainy morning spent with swallows and Bobolinks

I awoke this morning to the soft drumroll of the drizzle outside. The drizzle ever ease or increased – just a drizzle. So, I did what I always do I went birding. This time I birded the Sweeney and Bass Creek Roads. Which yielded Swainson’s Thrush, a variety of swallows, and a plethora of Boblinks.

Bobolink and Barn Swallow Morning

This was rather gloomy, so dark that taking any images was difficult. Luckily, I stumbled upon a cooperative Barn Swallow and Bobolink along the Bass Creek Road. The Barn Swallow was just one of fifty or so that were feeding over the fields of timothy, which were also full of singing male Bobolinks.