Author: Loren

Long, Long Ago in a Magical Place

Ideally, I would like In a Dark Time to be a journal; I would like to write about what I’ve done that day or the day before.  Unfortunately, life is seldom ideal, and that seems to get truer as I age.  Last year I fell so far behind in blog entries that I had to admit, “I’ve fallen behind, and I can’t catch up.”  As a result I ended up not posting for several months. I’ve resolved not to fall into thats trap again, though I’m not sure how I will manage not to fall behind because I’m already behind in posting pictures I’ve taken a month ago.

After going to Ocean Shores too early to see the Shorebird Spring Migration, I went back on May 8th and got a lot of pictures that I really liked.  Unfortunately, I was still publishing shots I liked that I had taken on our Arizona/California trip.  I was on a roll with publishing entries until I had to spend over a week trying to fix my blog before finally switching hosts to resolve the problems.  By the time I finally fixed that, I had to work in the yard and get ready for our trip to Colorado.  

To make a long story short, I’m always going to publish the pictures I really like even if they’re not from the day, or even the week, before. Beauty is beauty and transcends the moment.  I loved seeing this little Semi-palmated Plover when we started walking the beach.


We didn’t have to walk much further to spot this little Western Sandpiper in breeding plumage  running along the surf.


I was even more excited to sight this Ruddy Turnstone a little further down the beach.  


We ended up seeing more Ruddy Turnstones flying up and down the beach in the next mile than I have ever seen before. I must have gotten at least forty shots of them, making it difficult to decide which of them to post here.


I’m not sure what they eat, but, unlike the Western Sandpipers who seemed content to probe the sand as the tide came in, 

the Ruddy Turnstones seemed attracted to the piles of kelp scattered on the beach. Google tells me they are omnivores but feed mainly on insects during breeding season, so perhaps they were attracted to the bugs feeding on the kelp.

It was disappointing not to see any of the larger shorebirds that migrate in Spring,  but I was glad  to see all the shorebirds we did. The beach is a magical place during Spring and Fall Migration season. 

Aerobic Exercise & Scenic Beauty: Mt. Rainier’s Rampart Trail Adventure

Although I have hundreds of photos I need to process from our trip to Montana, we spent yesterday hiking on Mt. Rainier.  Though our original intent was to hike around Reflection Lake, we changed our mind when we saw how much snow was still on the ground.  Instead, we drove back down the mountain and hiked the Rampart Trail out of Longmire, a hike we have done several times in the last few years.   

All Trails calls it a Moderate hike, but it was a challenging hike for us this early in the year, covering a little over 5 miles and 1,400 feet of elevation gain. We traveled the loop counter clockwise, which spreads the altitude gain over three miles, instead of just two miles if you go clockwise. Luckily, the beauty of the old-growth forest distracted from how breathless I felt despite spending a week at higher altitudes in Colorado last week.  We crisscrossed this little stream most of the way up.


Although most of the climb is spent in heavy forests, because this is an Old-Growth Forest there are small meadows where ancient trees have fallen and cleared space for flowers like this Bear Grass


and views of even more rugged peaks across the valley.  


The highlight of the hike, though, is the view of Mt. Rainier —


unless you are a birder and are pleased by the company of Canadian Jays (aka, Robber Jays) during your break before the long trek down the trail.   


Descending the mountain went much quicker than the ascent, but this early in the hiking season my knees seemed to actually tolerate the ascent better than the descent.  I was certainly glad that I had my hiking poles to take some of the pressure off my knees.


I managed to get nearly three hours of aerobic exercise on the hike, whereas I’m lucky to get a half hour of aerobic exercise while at the YMCA. No wonder I’m always in much better shape at the end of summer than I am at any other time during the year.

Exploring Montana State College with Logan and Enjoying Nature in Triple Tree Ranch

We just returned from a ten-day, mostly delightful  trip to visit the Colorado/Montana Websters. It turns out that driving 1,500 miles in two days is more challenging than it used to be.  My lower back definitely thought that I had overdone it. It probably didn’t help that I had tweaked it working in the garden just days before our trip. Despite that, we managed to get in several walks/hikes with all the Websters on our stay.  

We started by visiting Logan at Montana State College, spending the day eating, hiking, touring the campus, and meeting his girlfriend for the first time.  All in all, we couldn’t have asked for a better day. Thankfully, Logan chose a hike in the Triple Tree Ranch that wasn’t too demanding, while still offering some beautiful views and beautiful flowers, like this Poison Camas,


  this Yellow Salsify, 


and this Columbine.

Turns out you see more flowers when you pause to catch you breath regularly.

I caught up most of the time, but  I definitely could have used a little more oxygen on our walk, not unexpected since we were hiking at 5,000 feet elevation. Hard to believe twenty years ago I was carrying Logan or Zoe in a backpack at this altitude. 

A Sunny Spring Day on the Coast

We hadn’t been home from Arizona very long before an unexpected sunny forecast at the coast inspired us to head out to Ocean Shores to see if the Spring Shorebird Migration had started and to see if there were any Loons still overwintering.  

Unfortunately, when we got to the spit we were greeted by heavy winds that made it difficult to open the car door.  In my heart I knew that we wouldn’t see any shorebirds on the beach with those kind of headwinds, but I didn’t drive two hours to sit in the car and watch waves break on the rocks.

We only walked about half as far as usual, and I can’t say we really enjoyed the walk, but I did like this shot of a large fishing boat appearing and disappearing behind the surf.


The only birds we ended up seeing were Gulls, and most of them were flying so fast that I couldn’t possibly get a shot of them.  So, I settled for this shot of one preening.


Though we were disappointed at not seeing any shorebirds, I was glad to see a Common Loon in breeding colors at the Westport Marina 


and it wasn’t shy about posing for us.


While taking pictures of the Loon, this bird popped up next to me.  I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t recognize it at first and got distracted to taking shots of it instead of the Loon. 

I should have known from the bill that it was a female Surf Scoter, but the male Surf Scoter is so distinctive with its brightly-colored beak that I never really pay much attention to nearby females.

We finally got to see some large shorebirds at Tokeland.  A small flock of Marbled Godwits was feeding along with a couple of Willet.


Despite the high winds and too few shorebirds, it was a Good Day.  Having lived in Aberdeen for most of a year, I know that any sunny day one the Washington coast is a good day, one to be thankful for.