Spring Into Summer, 2012

On the last Monday of Spring 2012, I visited the National Bison Range.  It was a day for the birds.  I had never seen or heard so very many gray catbirds in one evening before.

Gray catbirds everywhere!

 

It seemed I was stopping for birds every 10-15 yards.  It’s a good thing I was going so slow and stopping so frequently, or I would have likely missed this well hidden great horned owl.

I also enjoyed the abundance and variety of wild flowers.

Among the deer I saw that evening was this mule deer buck with fibromas.  From what I read up on fibromas to caption this photo, those tumor / wart like growths on this young buck (he’s a spike) are called papillomas, fibromas, or papillofibroma, depending on the kind of tissue infected, but all three types of growth are caused by viruses.

On the day of Summer Solstice, I took an evening drive to check on the camas bloom at Packer Meadows.  I found only the early bloomers had yet opened, while most of the flowers were still buds.

Leaving Packer Meadows, I headed for Lily Lake, hoping snow drifts wouldn’t block my path.  Along the way, I enjoyed larkspur and bluebells in abundance.

I had to negotiate around/through some snow drifts to make it to the top of the pass and Lily Lake, but I was able to make it.  I don’t think that would have been the case a week earlier.  There, I found that glacier lilies and trillium, both of which are species I photographed at lower elevation in April, were just starting to bloom.

Last, but certainly not least, I enjoyed the first sunset of summer 2012 at Lily Lake.

More photos here:  http://www.bigskycountry.net/bisonrange_june18_2018 & here:  http://www.bigskycountry.net/summersolticeday_2012

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