May 15, 2023
I took a morning off from gardening to wander around in the Little Slocan valley, just up the road from our home. The snow on the peaks is receding quickly with this hot weather, but there is still a goodly amount left in the higher elevations, as seen in this view of the Wolf’s Ears and a few of the other Valhalla peaks.
Hopefully our rivers will be able to handle the volume of meltwater that is rushing down the mountainsides now.
I hoped I might catch a glimpse of a bear foraging on the new spring greenery, but had to content myself with sightings of the more diminutive denizens, like this dark-eyed junco.
In the valley bottom, the early flowers, such as stream violet and wild strawberry, were in bloom.
The tiny pink false-box flowers were popular with various insects, including small butterflies like this one – one of the several, almost indistinguishable “blues” that frequent our area.
The saskatoons were also flowering and providing nectar for this hairstreak butterfly, among others.
A pileated woodpecker swooped in to hammer on a pole along the power line that runs through the valley, just long enough for me to snap a few pictures before it headed off again.
I capped off my morning by checking out the Koch Creek falls, where the peak of the spring freshet was making for quite the spectacular display.
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Thanks Karl, as always, your photos and musings are a prompt to get outside further than my yard! Although in (partial) defense of my inertia, my yard does provide quite the range of both wild fauna & flora! At this time of year, I hear the Slocan River roar, particularly at night, through my open bedroom window.