Snail Spirals

Let's go on a walk, shall we? Emma and I went out to look at birds and flowers and butterflies, because it was such a lovely day.

First we went to one of my favorite bird routes, High Valley Road through Little Creek Canyon.



This is such a pretty place, with steep rocky sides and a rushing creek. The water is still quite high, and loud! We saw kingfishers, a dipper, and lots of sparrows and chickadees. The wildflowers are also starting to bloom.....



This is Duchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), and is that not one of the most gorgeous flowers you've ever seen? It's in the same genus as bleeding hearts, a long-time garden favorite. Almost every shaded damp nook near the creek was carpeted with these, growing about six inches high. Definitely made my day.

The road winds along the creek, between the ponderosa pines and craggy rocks, with western serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia) showing it's white blooms everywhere the ground has some moisture and the sun hits.



We stopped at a wide spot where the creek goes under the road and spent a while checking out the roadside and creek banks.



There weren't too many flowers here, because the slopes were pretty dry, but this was the jackpot for butterflies. In about 15 feet of roadside, we saw four species, two of which cooperated for the camera.



This is a Western Pine Elfin (Callophrys eryphron), one of my favorite early spring butterflies. It was everywhere. I have never seen this many in one place. It was great. The underside of their hind wings has a gorgeous purply chestnut sheen.

And this is a Mylitta Crescent (Phyciodes mylitta), another early spring favorite.



In addition to these two, we saw several Stella Orangetips (Anthocharis stella) and a Spring Azure (Celestrina ladon). I like butterflying as much as I do birding (and dragonflying, and snailing, and salamandering, and mothing, and, and, and...).

The road leaves the canyon and heads up onto a hilly sagebrush steppe. This is the view looking back toward the canyon and to the hills beyond. This area is at the southern end of the Grande Ronde Valley, so the Wallowa Mountains are to your left, the Blue Mountains are to your right, and the Elkhorn Range is straight ahead in the very far distance (very hard to see in this picture).



On the hilly, rocky uplands there are several farms and ranches. Most of the land is fenced for livestock range, there is a small amount of tilled acreage, and there is also some forested paper company land. The roadsides are pretty right now with a Phlox species.



It comes in several colors, ranging from light lavender to bright fuchsia. I like how the flowers turn blue after they fade.



After we finished High Valley Road, we spent a short time at Ladd Marsh looking at birds. I'm volunteering this weekend for the Bird-a-Thon, as part of International Migratory Bird Day, and I wanted to scope out my station, where I will be an "expert birder" from 6 am to noon on Saturday.

We saw 34 species, including a Great Egret, which is an occasional visitor here.



This is looking west across the Grande Ronde Valley. The tallest hump on that mountain is Mt. Emily, and La Grande is nestled along the base of the mountain.

We also saw Black-necked Stilts, always a thrill:



And a LOT of Wilson's Phalaropes, probably 75-100, all spinning around to feed. It's really hilarious watching them do this- they create a whirlpool to stir up little insects and such, then pick them out with rapid stabs into the whirlpool.

It was a fun day.