A friend and I chose to stroll to Nugget

[mouakter13]

Despite the prolonged miserable weather during the so-called “spring”, the deciduous trees leafed out nicely, birds sing, and woodland flowers begin to bloom. On my home pond I’ve seen several broods of mallards at different times: one of three fuzzy ducklings, one of five, and one of eight. The small broods only stayed a couple of days before moving on. But the brood of eight stayed for over a week, losing one duckling, perhaps to a predator, until they began to get real feathers. In early June, a sleek, well-grown young junco appeared on the deck railing, fully capable of flying and feeding itself but an attentive parent also fed it. Several younger junco fledglings, sporting fine brown streaks, came to feed on seeds too. A pair of red-breasted nuthatches brought their brood of four fledglings to feed on suet and, later, some peanut butter.

Falls on a morning when — Hallelujah!! — no cruise ships were in and the parking lot and trail would not be jammed with excessively numerous visitors from the monster ships. And no thundering country email list helicopters headed up the Valley toward the glacier. There were a few friendly folks on the trail, presumably locals and independent travelers.

So the stroll was peaceful and the birds were singing. Some robins already were feeding chicks but their songs continued. Wilson’s warblers sang their punctuated song from deep in the understory brush. Orange-crowned warblers, also invisible, added their high-pitched trill. And we heard what was possibly a warbling vireo. Down at ground level, fringe-cup was blooming, many flowers draped on a fairly tall stem, and pink pyrolas had big buds.

My curiosity may get me into trouble sometimes and it certainly gets me into things that are over my head. In this case, it’s plant physiology. And so I must content myself with reporting the basic observations.