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alanro and shikzoid for a few days. Alan took me on a fine hike/wander along an old railway grade yesterday, which was a good chance to talk as well as look at lots of flowers, and a pink-and-gray butterfly whose pink was the sort that would be described as a color not found in nature if not seen on a living animal. I also drank a bit from a random stream, getting one foot wet in the process, and picked and ate a couple of early salmonberries.
Today we went to the Arboretum, and got our shoes muddy on the marsh trail--the lake is very high. This time I found a few early red raspberries; there are lots of late yellow irises and early water lilies in bloom, and we heard lots of red-winged blackbirds. We also saw two gorgeous great blue herons, and a family of dabbling ducks (mother, father, two half-grown ducklings, almost at full length but still with baby fluff), which I got to examine long and closely enough that I was able to eliminate every sort of duck or duck-like bird in the Peterson's field guide: distinctive field marks were a white bib with a few dark speckles, and a dark gray rather than pink or orange bill. I'm guessing the male is a hybrid of some sort, the female might be a mallard, and the younglings are of course also hybrids.
My hosts don't have ssh on their machine, so I won't be checking email until Monday, though there's quite happy to lend me net access.
alanro and shikzoid for a few days. Alan took me on a fine hike/wander along an old railway grade yesterday, which was a good chance to talk as well as look at lots of flowers, and a pink-and-gray butterfly whose pink was the sort that would be described as a color not found in nature if not seen on a living animal. I also drank a bit from a random stream, getting one foot wet in the process, and picked and ate a couple of early salmonberries.Today we went to the Arboretum, and got our shoes muddy on the marsh trail--the lake is very high. This time I found a few early red raspberries; there are lots of late yellow irises and early water lilies in bloom, and we heard lots of red-winged blackbirds. We also saw two gorgeous great blue herons, and a family of dabbling ducks (mother, father, two half-grown ducklings, almost at full length but still with baby fluff), which I got to examine long and closely enough that I was able to eliminate every sort of duck or duck-like bird in the Peterson's field guide: distinctive field marks were a white bib with a few dark speckles, and a dark gray rather than pink or orange bill. I'm guessing the male is a hybrid of some sort, the female might be a mallard, and the younglings are of course also hybrids.
My hosts don't have ssh on their machine, so I won't be checking email until Monday, though there's quite happy to lend me net access.