Life Along Elk Creek (Part 1)

Yesterday morning I gassed up the car and headed for Bethlehem Road, a gravel county road that heads into the NE Hills along Elk Creek. After a few miles it connects to Rankle Rd., which exits in Vanocker Canyon. I visit this area a couple times a year, and this was my first drive out there in over ten months...it's a beautiful area that starts out with oak groves at the base of the foothills...

The only bird I could get a shot of amid the oaks was a busy little red-breasted nuthatch...do you see what's wrong with this picture?? It isn't upside down!  :o)

A battered red admiral on a chokecherry blossom...the bugs and insects love the chokecherry, that grows abundantly in the Hills...

A black and white hornet? How pretty...for a hornet...I Googled 'em, this is called a bald-faced hornet...also enjoying the chokecherry blossoms...

The oak grove owners so kindly placed bird houses among the orchards...this country home appears to be well used...this one even has comp shingles on the roof...

An euber-shroom on a moist, mulchy hillside...there were many of the smaller fungi spreading downhill from the granddaddy...

The orangey sulphur butterflies (clouded?) refuse to sit still for impatient photographers...busy, busy, busy...

A dotted blue butterfly on dame's rocket...

Lilac shrubs are growing near the creek bridge where the oak groves end...escapees from someones garden...a magical scent, a magical moment...my first good photos of a tiger swallowtail, first photos of one with the wings fully open...it was too busy drinking the nectar to mind me much...

Lilacs, can you smell them? After a cleansing rain the night before, too...

Elk Creek at the bridge crossing...the yellow is yellow rocket (mustard family), which grows abundantly along creeks in the Hills...I like to stop here and have a look around, the sound of the rushing water is a lovely background music...

This day, I find a marble butterfly on dame's rocket...

...Not so marbled on the top of its wings...

...A checkered white butterfly fooled me at the time, I thought it was the marble...

An exciting discovery...red (or wild) columbine! The one other place I've ever found this pretty wildflower is in Stagebarn Canyon, no longer accessable to outsiders...it's been two years since I last saw it, and I was beyond thrilled to see a scattering of the columbine by the bridge, even if the petals had white blotches.

Tomorrow I'll post Part 2 of my Elk Creek drive...