Butterflies, Buddies and Bears, Oh %&#@!

Mount Baker, here today, gone tomorrow

view from living room downstairs 

Had a fun week my friends Robbie & Rhonda, who are in the NW this month, up from California. While they were here they participated in lots of hiking and sight seeing. The Olympic gods were with them as Mount Baker which can't be seen much of the time, was shiny and bright in the Northwestern Sky. It can even be spied from my house... downstairs, blocked a bit by a Corkscrew Oak and a powerpole... but present nevertheless. 

On their last day I drove them to many of my favorite spots to see Bald Eagles. On Holland Road we ran into a swarm of bees . None of us had ever seen a swarm outside of Ticktock. 

When we'd had our fill of the bees, we stopped at one of Sequim's 'Pick Your Own Berries and Lavender' Farms. Loads of Raspberries were picked, and wolfed down later in the day.

Robbie volunteered pick us some raspberries

Of course it is cruel to take someone to a lavender farm and not try out some lavender ice cream so that was next on the agenda. We got the Whitbey Island Ice Cream bars at a 2nd lavender farm, down the road from my house. 

Robbie tryed to convince the hen that ice cream was no good for her

Another day we drove up to Hurricane Ridge at the top of Olympic National Park. While while my

Comma Butterfly

friends hiked the high country, I roamed around closer to the Visitor Center. Spotted a nice 'new to me' butterfly and some Avalanche Lilies.

Avalanche Lilies

Then on our way down from Hurricane Ridge, barely a mile from the top, we spotted a Black Bear. You KNOW that made my month. This is the 3rd spotting of a Black Bear I've seen in the area so I'm thinking the bear population must be kind of HUMONGOUS.

Always a joy to see one of the park Black Bears

The bear had Cocker Spaniel eyes... so soulful,
as well as a mouthful of tasty grass

One of the days I drove them around to my favorite haunts, with the goal of showing them a baldie or three. We caught one in flight over the Holstein dairy farm. I took them around back of the Olympic Game Farm where after Bald Eagle chicks have fledged (left home, i.e., nest) can be seen sitting on fence posts, sometimes a half dozen at a time. But that day, no baldies at all. As a last resort I drove them to Marine Drive, about a mile from my house. Stopping at the roadside, I pointed to an empty branch up high in a coniferous tree that overhung a cliff. 

"Well, you guys are having crap luck today. Sometimes there are as many as a pair of eagles sitting on that horizontal branch..."

On cue, up from the cliffs below winged a massive Bald Eagle juvenile, obediently landing on the branch I'd indicated. 

"Ooops! Take that back, you two are having FANTASTIC luck today!"

Training that baby baldy really paid off big time.

Robbie & Rhonda ended up spending an extra day with me because they awaited a package at the post office. That made me sooo happy, because I so enjoyed having their company for the week. But finally the time came for them to leave. Robbie was to meet up with her hubby Bill up in Vancouver and Rhonda went to visit friends, in the Seattle area? Well somewhere up here. Fun and helpful house guests whom I hope return next summer. I might have a few more critters trained to show up on cue by then, you never know.