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| no partners | | Finally made it outdoors after weeks taken up with my daughter's wedding, a vacation to Cannon Beach, OR, going back to work and catching a very terrible cold/sinus infection. The morning looked cloudy, but I was determined to make it to Sholtz Lake before the rain started.
Garland Prairie has gotten its fair share of moisture and there is standing water in the meadows. The sunflowers and other wildflowers are everywhere. I saw pronghorn, a red-tail hawk and a bald eagle on the way to the lake. There weren't any other cars at the trailhead, and the sun was shining when I started, but there were clouds in the distance. I took the clockwise trail around the lake to the farthest point where I took photos of the cormorants and ducks. Another couple people came in after me, but they took the counter-clockwise trail with their dogs flushing the birds along the shore. But then the thunderclouds built and lighning and thunder took over. I turned back to the trailhead and decided to drive out to White Horse Lake to see the osprey.
There was one bird in the big nest in the ponderosa by the road, but that nest is very hard to photograph because it is so high. I continued down the road and the cry of an osprey caught my attention. It was coming from a small nest near the end of the lake, so I parked and hiked over to find out what was going on. A young osprey was in the nest, hopping around and crying continuously. At one point it flew--and it had a fish in its claws! It landed in a tall snag and continued to cry for about 30 minutes before it settled down to eat. I'm thinking this might have been its first successful fishing trip and it really didn't know what to do.
As I drove back I detoured over to Dutch Kid to see if the buildings were still standing--they are, but the metal thieves have stripped away anything valuable that was in the big cabin--romex, a big old double cooler, some of the farm equipment. I hope they got a few dollars for all the history they stole  .
The storm was building all around the prairie and the fire south of Williams really took off. I think they are just letting it burn at this point. I tried taking lightning pictures but I'm too slow on the shutter. I need to get one of those electronic doodads that triggers the shutter.
I wanted to to some night photography out there, but its too cloudy tonight--its been that way since June. I'll probably be out there in the winter freezing at night. |
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Wildflowers Observation Substantial
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