Seeking Solace in EWA's Spring Desert...

Because there was nothing that we could do to affect the turmoil in our world on the first weekend of May, Mom and Don and I ran away to EWA for the weekend. There is something soothing about that area that allows us to shut out the troubles of the wet side for at least a day or two.

We have always appreciated the level of inner peace that there is to be gained in spending time enjoying the beauty of nature. Mom and I (along with Phoenix and Gigit) spent several hours walking in some DNR land that is within five miles of our house on the Potholes Reservoir, and found several wonderful new (new to us anyway) discoveries. It wasn't until that particular weekend that I realized that although I have walked hundreds of miles through the Shrub Steppe of the Columbia Basin over the years, I had never walked through the desert around the first of May. We wanted to share a bit of our adventure... and highly recommend a spring walk in the desert to anyone who gets the chance.

We have always admired the phlox on the hills along I-90 dropping into Vantage in the spring. We were very surprised to find several stands of them close to our EWA home... don't remember ever spotting them there before. When we went on our walk, a stand of phlox was the first thing that caught our eye. These were Long Leaved Phlox (Phlox Longifolia), and we only found this one grouping in the land that we walked. As a matter of fact, the wildflowers were all in certain specific sections.... not much intermingling going on at all. It was like a new discovery every time you rounded a corner or topped a hill.

I really don't understand how I can fail to grow creeping phlox so many times, and Mother Nature does it so perfectly. These were really cool when they climbed up into the dry sage....

They were so pretty, and there were clumps and clumps of them.....

We only found one Bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata) on our walk, and it made our eyes pop! We saw several more later in the State Park's wild area, but this was our first and it was lovely.

Not a very good closeup, but the best we had....

There were one or two clumps of Carey's Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza Careyana) where we walked. We had seen several others along the road.

Gray's Desert Parsley (Lomatium Grayi) was the only plant that was plopped here and there throughout our walk.

This was actually a homely little thing, but we had to take pictures of it anyway. It came in both yellow and purple on our walk, and we didn't find either one glamorous... Pursh's Milkvetch (Astragalus Purshii)

A close up of the yellow....

And the purple variety...

This was one of the most stunning displays as far as a clumping goes. Again, it just amazes that this little "patch" was the only one that we found on our entire walk. This is Thick-Leaf Thelypody (Thelypodium Laciniatum).

These were just stunning....

But hard to get a good close up of in the wind....

We only saw one of these babies, and again, it was hard to get a close up with the wind blowing so fiercely. This is a Thread-leaved Phacelia (Phacelia Linearis)

Another creature that would rather dance in the wind than get a good picture taken. Upland Larkspur (Delphinium Nuttallianum). We found three of these total I think.

Another beauty that we only found one little clump of, but it just glowed in the brown of the desert. Western Wallflower (Erysimum Capitatum).

The smelled every bit as good as they looked!

We had chosen this particular spot to walk because we had found a patch of trees on a walk there in February that had several old owl nests, and we had seen both a long eared owl and a great horned owl there. We figured that the owl babies should be fledging about now, and we wanted to see if we might get a sighting.

It thrilled me no end to spy this little kid watching us.....

It wasn't Phoenix's favorite part of the walk as she had to be on a leash (she had treed a porcupine here on our last visit, and I didn't want to chance her actually catching it this time!). It was well worth the trouble though, because this is the first time I have seen one of these adorable babies in person. Doesn't he look like a snuggly little thing? Long Eared owl baby.

That was enough of an adventure for all of us for one morning, but there were a few surprises still waiting on the drive home. There was still one Trumpeter Swan gracing the wildlife refuge pond....

And some adorable Black Necked Stilts. We had never seen these here before either.

Then it was time to go home and rest up as we had a big tree topping project ahead of us for the rest of the weekend.

And speaking of going home, I will leave it to Mom to share some of the pictures of our yardbirds if she wants, but it is time for me to be homeward bound tonight.

What marvelous pictures of a whole different ecosystem. I'll have to go through these several times to be sure I can id plants when I'm over there the next time.

Thank you.

What lovely photos! Thanks for sharing.

Oooooooh beautiful!! Thank you for the wildflower and wildlife walk. Definitely a rejuvenating place to go and absorb the peace of nature.

I can smell the bitterbrush I so often inhaled deeply while looking across the expanse of sage lands. Thank you for the remembrance.

Beautiful. Thanks for the tour.

Yes, that was wonderful!!! Thank you for sharing.... :)

Oh man that owl baby kills me - the fuzzy ears!

Thanks so much for the walk through the desert. Beautiful. That baby owl is so cute and yes cuddly too.

Gorgeous. I was in the Calif dessert one spring and the wildflowers were amazing. It looks like these are a different type but equally beautiful. And the owl - too cute.

So, Julie has passed the ball to me to finish up showing you our peaceful world in EWA. I will start with the lilacs in bloom around the house.

We put birdseed out in a frying pan on the deck and ended up with a panful!

A red-winged blackbird joined the goldfinches.

A pair of housefinches showed up also.

We spread feed on the ground also and got a bunch of takers.

Yellow-headed, red-winged, and Brewer's blackbirds.

This message was edited May 11, 2010 2:05 PM

Julie was so excited to see yelloow-headed blackbirds up close as they came for food too.

The second day, we got at least four yellow-heads at a time.

Our tree swallow couple are back at their house this spring, too.

And we were really excited to see a house wren looking over the other "bluebird" house we have up. It is the first time we have seen a house wren there.

This message was edited May 11, 2010 2:08 PM