WTD#5 Kootenay Canal etc.

Dawg and I have been wandering around the Kootenay River near South Slocan and the Kootenay Canal.  There are lots of birds, bees, butterflies and flowers out this time of year - beauty at every turn!  I've been a bit obsessed with getting a decent photo of some of the more exotic little birds I've spotted, notably an American Redstart and a Lazuli Bunting, but so far all I have are a couple of blurry images of each of them.  I'll keep trying - maybe I'll get lucky soon.

In the meantime I did manage to get close enough to these Blue-winged Teal that were swimming

and feeding in a little wetland by the Kootenay Canal.  There are also a few Red-winged

Blackbirds in the wetland, like this male perched on an alder bush.

I also noticed several Yellow Warblers - we used to call them "wild canaries" when I was a kid - in the area, flitting about and warbling from tree to tree, with me and my camera skulking about behind them.

This is a water strider and it's reflection in a little pond in the forest.  Lots of Skunk Cabbage

in the neighborhood too.  I love the lines and the spectrum of greens in this backlit leaf. 

In the nearby meadow, the Larkspur are in bloom,

as are the Starflowers.

There were a couple of these Butler's Alpine butterflies fluttering by, as well as these little blue

guys, which might be Alpine Blues, but I'm really not sure.

An Oregon Junco posed for the camera in a Lodgepole Pine sapling.

And the ubiquitous Red Squirrel is always up for a photo-op.  This one gave Dawg a thrill by letting itself get chased up tree.  Keep trying old buddy, maybe one day...

"I am Simba - mighty hunter of the savannah!"