Butterflies, Sauk Mountain

On the way back from Newhalem, we took a hike through the meadows Sauk Mountain, which was glorious. We saw pikas and marmots, heard the haunting tones of a varied thrush and thorougly enjoyed ourselves.

The view (that's the confluence of the Sauk and Skagit rivers):


The flowers (shown here with pine siskin).


...and the butterflies.
Mylitta crescent on orange agoseris.


Um, some kind of blue. Genus Plebejus, I think.


Clodius parnassian.


And a fine looking unidentified caterpillar.

Other kingdoms, Newhalem

Fungi: The elegant agate-like fans of Trametes versicolor, or Turkey Tails.


Protista: Fruiting bodies of Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa or coral slime mold.


Plantae, Fungi, and Bacteria: come together in the lichen Lobaria oregana. Along with a fungus and an algae, these lichens have nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria. When they fall from trees, they fertilize forest soils.

Raven conversation, Sitka, Alaska

This video is the latest from The Old Duffer's Nature Cinema, a fine, fine blog.

Green Lake Grebes have four babies, one egg

As of this afternoon, the pied-billed grebes nesting at Green Lake had four stripy, big-footed babies, and one egg to go. My count last week was wrong.
They're keeping the parents busy.


Previous posts (apart from the one I just deleted for being incorrect):
June 3: one egg.
June 10: seven eggs.
June 27:first hatching.
June 28: second hatching.
June 30: three babies, two eggs
July 1: still three babies, two eggs
July 3: three babies, one egg
July 6: two babies, away from nest.
July 21: One baby left, but what are the parents up to?.
August 12:Five eggs in the nest

Douglas squirrel, Newhalem

Is that a tail or are you happy to see me?

I had the good fortune to spend the past weekend camping in Newhalem. My son plucked this little fellow out of the Skagit River. He's a tailed frog, an amazing little creature that lives in rushing mountain streams. The tadpoles have suction cups to hold on to rocks. The tail is how I can tell it's a male. It's not really a tail but a reproductive structure. They fertilize internally, then the female lays the eggs.

Good for the sunsets, bad for the lungs

NASA Earth Observatory has a revealing picture of smoke hanging over B.C. and Washington a couple of days ago.