first weekend in July

Many of these are from July 2. I didn't share them on Tony's birthday, because I had the other one to post. :o)

The three baby golden eye. I absolutely love these little guys. I do hope they live to grow up, but odds aren't good. I've never seen a golden eye duckling survive to fly off in the fall. Which makes me wonder why they aren't endangered if a family of 10 or so can't survive on a small lake full of many other ducklings. This year there aren't very many on the lake. A handful of mallards and these three. 

 Sunset on Tony's birthday. Well, technically, it was 1246 am, so it was the third already!

 This was a fun find. I was inside on the third and heard the oddest noise. I can't even describe it! When I looked around, I spied a bird. I took several photos cuz I wasn't sure when it would take off.

 The camouflage is impressive on these spruce hen! But, she was perched on a dead tree bit keeping an eye out for little ones. I startled one of them and it flew up into a tree. It was much harder to photograph!!

 This lovely one was easy to take pictures of. She was munching away in the sunshine of the fourth!

 Everyone was out and about this stunning warm day. I think they were taking advantage of the nice, because by dinner time, the sky was overcast and it was starting to get chilly again.

 This is the squirrel who climbs into the feeder. I have seen it jump from the feeder, but not get into it. It is a tiny thing and is seen here 'at rest'. Any time I go to the window, it is nervous, so I was lucky to get this picture!

The last few days have been overcast and windy, although, it is calmer now as I type at 1030 pm. I'ev not been down to the inlet yet. I was told there is smoke often obscuring the mountains. Smoke from forest fires in Russia! I know it made the Buck Moon bright orange when it was on the horizon on the fourth. At the moment, there is a smidge of blue sky among the clouds. It might be a beautiful sunset, I'll just have to keep an eye on the sky!

Steve and Jon went up to the ranch on the fourth and cut wood. They also listened to a LOT of fireworks in town and watched a bunch from grandma's. There was a great deal of noise here, probably mortars. The moon, as I said, was bright, but very low and I didn't want to go out at 230 to see if I could shoot it. I was sleepy and the skeeters are fierce this year!

Hurry!

The flowers are rushing to bloom! The lupine of a few weeks back already have seed pods ready to burst, the daisies here look great, but many are dying back, and the fireweed is reaching for the sky in pink spires. (note: the yellow is an arnica.) 

 Here, in front of my bedroom window, are two fireweed plants. We'll hope the snow is as high as the tallest one and not that itty bitty guy! (height of fireweed is supposed to tell us how much snow the next winter has)

This fireweed below is almost as tall as I am. I'm 5'2" and the tallest spire is almost to the top of my head! That would be a LOT of snow~

 Mum has a rose bush from Aunt Sally's yard. (some of you reading may remember Aunt Sally) Mum says it is a Sitka Rose. Whatever it was, the bees were falling all over themselves to harvest from it!

 The birds were also in a rush today. There were all kinds of winged creatures out. Babies learning to go solo and grown ones grooming themselves in the warm sunshine.

 Every breeze blew a drift of yellow leaves down from the trees. It was a tad disconcerting to know fall is so near.

 Here is my bathing chickadee! The little guy looks dead, but  he is very much alive. I am sharing several photos so you can see how alive this little one is. From where he landed on the picnic table to spread his wings to when he flew into a tree to finish preening.

Once he was finished, he flew off all clean and fluffy. It was fun to watch!