Uinta mountain trip

The three of us drove up Mill Hollow road in the eastern Uintas yesterday.  Just to see where the snow line was!
Just above 9000 feet was the end of the road, for me at least. A barren but beautiful landscape, ready to bloom again. The aspen tree leaves were that special green of young leaves. A young mule deer couple pranced around.  The male seemed to have something on his mind but the female was cool at least until they got into the thicket!
Molly ran and ran, waded in the water, ran up and down the hills and generally wore herself out, thank goodness.
Enjoy!

The cute couple..

Looking west above Mill Hollow ..

Molly in her environment - water..

Black-chinned hummer

Queen of backyard beauty...

Western tanager - hard to miss..

Refuge Thursday

The refuge started out quiet - stayed that way mostly except for the Sandhill Cranes and their chicks.  I got to watch them for about 30 minutes.  Fascinating.
Later the Black-crowned Night Heron, Boattailed Grackle and the Bullfrog showed up.  There were a couple of Great Egrets out in the reeds and a few Snowy and Cattle Egrets scattered about.
Quiet day..

The Crane family

Big boy..

Left behind..

Night Heron

Grackle..

Backyard beauties..

A couple of beauties from just around the yard...

Hawaii memories

  Some shots from trips to the Big Island in 2011 and 2013..

Windswept alien landscape

Blown' in the wind..

In your face beauty

Magnifique' - sunset

Sea turtle

Stylin'...

Sunrise at black sand beach on New Years morning, 2012

More memories..

A few more memories ...

From North Carolina pond..

Guinea hen at the zoo

The next four are from Elk Lake Montana

Morning fog..

Checking out fishy looking people

This is MY road dude!

Walking with friends...

Refuge Monday

I took a nice long walk down the dike at the refuge yesterday, to see what I would see. As expected, the Herons gave me a wide berth. Fortunately the bugs did also despite the large quantity that were out.
The Newbies were the Eared Grebes (aka Blackneck Grebe).  True transients they are very colorful in their breeding plumage.
Cliff Swallows were the other beautiful addition to the morning. Of course they were where the bugs were most prominent.
A good day...

American Avocet

A small bug swarm..

Cliff swallows...

Common tern

Eared Grebes

Swamp sparrow

Sing your heart out blackbird......

California again

From Bowling Ball Beach to wine country - great places to visit...

Bowling balls....

Grapes at Greenwood Ridge Vineyard

Point Arena sunset

Point Arena lighthouse

Road trip time - Highway 1 along the coast..

Nature's art..

Turkey buzzard..

California to Seattle...

A mixture of beauty and frolicking..

California poppies...

Chihuly glass exhibit

Point Arena, CA dock

Glass in the grasss

Hexagonal eyes

Biding time...

Point Arena sunset

The Muppets Hut...