Towheeblog

The most impressive birds actually nesting at Emigrant Lake each year are the Osprey. Bald Eagles that fish there nest several miles away. The Golden Eagles hardly associate themselves with the lake, preferring the open grasslands above the reservoir.
The Emigrant Lake Osprey have nestlings now. Here’s a pic of mother on nest with a young one’s tail showing next to her. The father had flown off just before I arrived, perhaps having left a fish behind.
Our “purple mountains majesty” owe their seasonal color to the blooming vetch. It is plentiful, pervasive, invasive and pulchritudinous. In spring it carpets the lower reaches of the Cascades where the soil is poor, the moisture limited, the sunlight unlimited.

Chuipoiung Sparrow in ponderosa laong Little Hyuatt Lake Road, 4500′.

My first view of blooming Iris chrysophylla.

Northern Rough-winged Swallow near Emigrant Lake.