June 1-7, 2025

Moving into the fullness of summer with the first really hot days looming in the upcoming forecast.

As I mentioned in the Facebook group, and in last week's newsletter, I won't be out taking photos over the next couple weeks, so I'll be relying on photos shared with me directly or shared on the Facebook group. I apologize in advance for the shorter format but we'll return to our regular format soon enough.

In celebration of Larry's incredible hawk photo, let's begin this week with red-tailed hawks. Larry has been following the progress of this bird's chicks, and like the eagles and other birds of prey in the valley, they are pretty far along. In just a few weeks these young birds will be off the nest and flying around, giving us opportunities to study, and be confused by, the different color patterns of adults and juveniles.

Adults are easy to recognize because they have a prominent reddish tail, while juvenile birds won't have any red but will instead have dark brown bars on their tails. This mark makes it easier for adults to distinguish youngsters so they don't waste energy checking them out and deciding whether they are a territorial threat.

A far more subtle field mark is the pale chest patch. On adult birds this patch is buffy and generally mottled in some way, almost like it's dirty, while on juvenile birds the patch is gleaming white and stands out like a beacon from a distance.

Other fun birds that are hanging out and nesting right now are cedar waxwings, though you can easily miss these quiet birds. They communicate with thin, high-pitched whistles rather than loud songs and calls, and it's possible that they don't have need loud vocalizations because they are one of the most social birds in North America. Waxwings live year round in friendly flocks, with birds courteously taking turns sharing resources rather than fighting and being aggressive.

However, you may be seeing a lot more waxwings if you have fruit trees in your yard because they are one of the few birds in North America that subsists almost entirely on fruit. Around the valley they eat lots of wild serviceberries and chokecherries, but they eat all types of fruits and berries. They convert carotenoid pigments in these fruits and berries into special wax-like dots that are located on the tips of their wing feathers that they then use for social signaling in place of loud vocalizations.

Many of the valley's flowering plants are now being found in shaded forests and at higher elevations, including ubiquitous yellow arnica flowers. What makes arnica so special is that this plant contains over 150 bioactive compounds, including numerous compounds associated with alleviating inflammation and pain. This level of chemical diversity is rare in plants and it makes arnica one of the most important and widely used medicinal plants in the world.

Another special flower, but for a very different reason, is the mountain lady's slipper that is now blooming in a few pockets around the valley. This odd flower has a unique appearance, with a white pouch (the "slipper") formed from the fusion of several petals. The pouch is designed to attract and trap pollinators, especially small bees, who are lured into the flower with a false promise of nectar.

Discovering there is no nectar, the insect can only exit the flower by following a one-way path past the flower's reproductive parts to reach a "back door," thus efficiently pollinating the flower. This is an uncommon flower so please don't pick or transplant them, just appreciate them where you find them because they'll be back next year if you don't disturb them.