More Flowers Along My Way

The Flowers in bloom change as elevation changes and the season progresses.

Platanthera leucostachys

Two months ago the bog orchid was blooming near Mono Lake, at around 6500 feet.

Last week I found this example in a marshy area at 10,000 feet.

It is a tiny flower, each bloom less than 1/2 inch 

 with many on a stalk about a foot high.

Pedicularis Attollens

Smaller still are the flowers of another bog plant, little elephant's head.

Elephant's head is a larger but similar plant whose elephant shape is easy to see with the eye, this little flower needs the macro lens to appreciate the shape.

Dodecatheon alpinum

Yet another plant of the alpine bog is the aptly named "Shooting star".

My timing was off to get a picture, I was only able to find one example when I went out with my macro lens.

Lilium parvum

Yet another wetland flower blooming last week was the "Sierra Tiger Lily".

Though Calflora says it grows between 4000' and 8000' I found it at 10,000'.

Symphyotrichum spathulatum

 Other flowers, like this mountain aster, bloomed on the dryer slopes.  This semi-double bloom was a particularly attractive specimen.

Aquilegia formosa

Columbine is not fussy, it can be found in wet or dry areas.

Calochortus leichtlinii

The "Mariposa Lily" seems well adapted to dry slopes for that is where I usually find it.

These are a few of the flowers I saw last week in my world.  Find other views of our wonderful world at
Our World Tuesday

Birding at Eagle Lake

I am a relative newcomer to birding and birding wasn't on my mind when I decided we should camp at Eagle Lake in north eastern California.  While the grebes I shared last week were certainly the highlight, they were far from the only birds we saw.

There were water birds

I watched this pair of mergansers cruise by an American White Pelican.

This tern flew by me so close I've done almost no cropping on this.  At 300mm I couldn't focus on the whole bird and had no time to zoom out.  That is an unusual problem for me when photographing birds!

   

  

Western Tanagers were common in the campground.  These colorful birds are hard to miss but given the cloudy sky and dense forest I needed a high ISO and large aperture resulting in a lack of sharpness.  

What every birder enjoys, whether a newbie like me or an old hand, a new bird to add to the life list.  I got two this trip.

This little guy I believe is a brown creeper.  I felt lucky to spot him as he is well camouflaged.

The White-Headed Woodpecker is another new bird for my list.  This is a female as it lacks the red patch on the back of the head.

Yes, there are eagles at Eagle Lake.  I caught sight of this guy towards the end of the day.  In addition to the eagle there were osprey.  We have camped a lot of places but never seen such a variety of bird life.  I saw other birds as well, a Yellow Rump Warbler and another bird I couldn't identify.

We had a bit of excitement, too.  Some children playing with matches set fire to a tree.  There was a lot of discussion among the campers as to what to do about it.  I had a hose but it wasn't long enough, eventually someone did come up with a suitable hose and by the time CalFire arrived the fire was out.  The professionals leave nothing to chance they sprayed it with water, trenched around the tree and soaked the ground.  They stayed for several hours and then repeated the soaking.

See more views of the world at That's My World, Tuesday, hosted for us by Klaus, Sandy, Wren and Sylvia.

You can find more birds of the world ant World Bird Wednesday, hosted by Springman.

Grebe Courtship

Viewing the courtship display of Western Grebes has been high on my bucket list.  When we chose to camp at Eagle Lake in Northern California I didn't realize that the lake hosted a large population of the birds nor did I know that this was the time when they were pairing up.

When we went to the marina it was quickly apparent what was going on and we were treated to the full repertoire of breeding display.

According to the "Birder's Handbook" there are four different elements to the courtship display.  We witnessed all of them but I only got pictures of three.

The first shown here is weed dancing.  The birds stand up in the water each holding a piece of plant in its beak.

Unlike ducks and geese, the grebes' legs are far back on the body allowing them to stretch far out of the water.  They can hold that stance for quite a while.

Bob preening looks almost choreographed.

 First one and then the other will bob its head down in a preening motion.

Dip shaking, which I didn't get a picture of, is similar but the birds dip their head in the water and then shake of the drops.

The most exciting part of the display is rushing.  The birds run across the water.

Eventually one falls back into the water and the other one stops.  I wonder if they are saying to each other "look how strong I am, I can help you feed a large brood"?

We saw a great variety of birds at Eagle Lake, both in the water and in the woods.  Some were new to me and I'll show those in a latter post.

A word on the "Birder's Handbook", if you enjoy birding and aren't familiar with this wonderful guide you might want to check it out.  It isn't a field guide, it has no pretty pictures, but tells you where the birds nest, what they eat, which parents care for the young and has lots of information on bird biology and bird behavior.

I've linked this post to World Bird Wednesday, hosted by Springman.