| CARVIEW |
This is one of my favorite winter birds. If you’re local they love peanuts and will come to the feeder during the winter months. In the spring and summer they nest high in the mountains to breed and have their young and come down when the snow fall is deep in order to get nuts. If you’ve seen Blue Jays or any Jay really they’re about the same size and often will steal dog food out of our puppy bin. This is a Rocky Mountain variant of the Blue Jay. I’d say a comparison in size would be a small sized crow. Often when I’m on my deck they’ll dance above my head on the deck above and sneak down the cable dish to steal peanuts from the bowl. I’ve noticed that all the markings seem to be the same irregardless of age or sex.
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Adult Female
An amazingly “tropical” looking bird that resides in our pine forest year round. When they flock to your feeders they can and will eat a huge amount of black sunflower seeds. They also have a very distinctive trill to their song which after three years of birding I’m finally being able to recognize and know where a flock is located. However … usually they’re located as close to black sunflower seeds as possible! In the Colville National Forest they are isolated to the northern Washington locations.
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An adorable small little bird that is both colorful and friendly. I almost always see them in small bushes including choke cherry. They flit around fast so it’s especially nice to finally see one. The distinctive markings are the eye line {all white – all the way around} and can be singled out simply by that with all other warblers and of course it’s strikingly beautiful yellow underparts. Adult males are distinguished by having a red spot on the top of their head.
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Quick Pygmy Nuthatch facts; When they exist it is an indicator of a good healthy ponderosa pine forest. These lil guys were caught stealing from my feeder; which get a lot of winter activity alongside of the chickadees and other nuthatches. This little beauty is one good reason to keep sunflower seeds in the feeder during winter months.
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Location; Mt. Bisbee
This is a tiny flower that grows as a ground cover which looks very similar to bearberries. The leaves were made into a tea and for about seven days in May through Aug., the flowers bloom are lovely and are very fragrant.
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Location: Mount Bisbee (by Trout Lake) Washington
Information: This is a tiny little plant but striking in many aspects. Though edible (usually the bulbs were collected in April or May before the flowering period which is late June and August) it’s not recommended to eat this lily. Usually wildflowers that will not grow in your own garden, like some of the paintbrushes and some lilies, it’s never recommended to eat them in the wild as it threatens future generations from enjoying them. Our version of the tiger lily and this mariposa lily is also among these kinds of flowers and is only recommended as a matter of survival. As a means of survival the plant can also be eaten. It’s rumored that the bulbs are very sweet and were roasted or eaten raw by both settlers in this area as well as Indian tribes. The distinct qualities of this little flower has made lily lovers attempt many times to grow it in their own gardens with no real success. Once again nature has offered us a unique beautiful flower that it seems “she” can only produce.
Identification: The primary means of id’ing this particular lily is seen easiest in the second shot. The Sagebrush Mariposa Lily is defined by the green stripes up the backside of the petals; this feature does not exist on any other lilies. The second means is the sepals (the long thin “petals” between the three primary petals) are much longer than the three petals.
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Location: Mount Bisbee (close to Trout Lake) Washington
Information: This plant is sometimes known as western monkshood as well. There is a lot of interesting information regarding this plant – the one of primary importance is that it is lethal. The herb wolfsbane is a general name for a group of plants all related; other names of this general plant family are aconite, monkshood, wolfsbane, leopard’s bane, women’s bane, Devil’s helmet or blue rocket. The plant is actually so toxic that hospitals will administer an antidote to save a persons life. Our version the Columbian Monkshood is less toxic than other species in the family however all versions are poisonous. It is not even recommended that a person pick the flower without use of gloves. The name wolfbane came from the idea that if one was to show this flower to a werewolf – the werewolf would actually return to its natural human form and thus can be rid of properly. The term Wolfsbane probably sounds familiar because it is; Hollywood and writers have used the term for years when attempting to apply witchcraft to a scene. Many examples are on the Wikipedia page on Aconitum plants.
Meanwhile, without question it is uniquely designed and created and one can see why it’s captured the attention of so many through our written history.
Identification: One of the most facinating aspect is the small green pods that branch off right below the uniqely designed blossoms. The ones I ran into were dark blue almost to the point of purple and occasionally one will find them pink or white.
]]>Here is a young bear with what I assume is the mother. I’m guessing the first bear walking on the screen is an older cub.
Black Bear in Colville National Forest
A nosy little black bear found our trail cam on this last video.
Location: Colville National Forest (Ferry County)
Information: The American Black Bear is one of our most adaptive creatures in the woods and do not seem to be unable to live and thrive in almost any environment. (Which includes suburbs which creep up on forested lands.) Right now all bears are mildly threatened from “suburban scrawl” as all of them need ample space to eat and having their young. Tracking of bears are actually very simple however the very shy creatures are not easily seen. They are famous for poor eyesight which is why hikers are encouraged to make noise, especially talking, as they will rarely attack humans. Any time I’ve ran into they they choose to flee by simply saying loudly, “go away bear!”
Identification: A Washington black bear is not easy to identify except to say when in doubt call it a black bear. There have been occasional “grizzly” sightings however my guess is they saw a “brown” black bear and it was not really a grizzly. {For example of a “brown” black bear view the mom & young bear video.} Even forest rangers say that grizzly’s exist in this forest range however few photographs have been taken to record that effect. Here is a very informative page created by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Last thought; The video’s lost some of the quality by linking it here. If you’d like to see it at a higher resloution you can go to these links which will take you to the Youtube page and click on the link under the videos that says, “watch in high quality”
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Location: Nancy Creek Washington (Ferry County)
Information: Next to hemlock this is the most poisonous plant in the Pacific Northwest. It also creates confusion as the bulb of the Common Camas is strikingly similar to Death Camas. Common Camas was eaten often by Indians and was considered a delicacy. {A Canadian Indian recipe called for a mixture of salmon roe with dried crushed camas bulbs.} Since the bulbs were often dug up before flowered mistaking the two plants occurred. If ever deciding to partake in common camas it’s highly recommended that it’s only done during the flowering period. In this case it’s extremely important that you know your plant before eating it. Most survivalists simply avoid all versions of camas for this very reason. This plant has the agent zygadenine; which causes an irregular heartbeat, slows down respiration which eventually leads to convulsions and death. Other common names are Narrowleaved Death Camas, simply Death Camas and Grassy Death Camas.
Identification:
USDA Plants Database
E-Flora on Meadow Death Camas
Click here (to see Common Camas during flowering)
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flower
fascinating shaped leaf
not quite ripe berries
ripened berries
Location: Nancy Creek Washington (Ferry County)
Information: All nightshade plants are related to potatoes, pepper and and common vegetables that we understand however the problem comes with the alkaloids. This is a fascinating plant in many ways. First, it’s the green berries (see above) that have been noted to cause harm to cattle, sheep and humans. When the berries become red they contain less of the alkaline that actually cause harm. The leaves are high in the alkaline. Thus the plant is utilized for herbal remedies but should only be done by a high end practitioner and in general should be avoided. To give you an example when the green berries or the leaves are fed to mice they die, however, the red berries do not kill mice. It is never recommended for children to eat at any stage. Which causes a problem as the bright red berries often are alluring. If a child (you know) ingest the berries or any of the plant it is recommended to take them to the hospital immediately with a piece of the plant they’ve eaten. The second reason it’s fascinating is it is part of soothsaying and witchcraft and is often utilized for various rituals. And lastly, a toxic dose causes severe digestive upset, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, trembling, weakness, difficulty in breathing, paralysis and may be fatal. In summary this is a plant and berry one should never eat. Other names this plant is commonly called besides climbing nightshade is European bittersweet, bitter nightshade, bittersweet, climbing bittersweet, and even more darkly deadly nightshade. Some gardeners have indicated that when you handle the plant (by attempting to get rid of it for example) it should only be done with gloves as many have reported erupting in an uncomfortable rash.
Identification:
USDA Plant Database
E-Flora on Climbing Nightshade