Winter clematis

The leaves and vine are brown and soon the bright green of new life will begin to show. For now though I still enjoy the delicate beauty of the old seed head.

It’s that time of year…

at least these guys think so.

Merriam’s Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo merriami

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More on the Flathead

This area along the Flathead River is fast becoming one of my favorite hiking places. There are scenes like this along the river for miles.

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To see a larger size, click here.

Flathead River

The swans seemed to be enjoying this last of a short stretch of rare sunny days. The forecast for the next week is for snow and/or rain.

(To see a larger size of the photo, click here.)

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Buttercup Ridge

On a beautiful sunny day like today it seemed good to pay another visit to my little yellow friend (a Sagebrush Buttercup, Ranunculus glaberrimus) who grows up on Buttercup Ridge. I have been documenting this first blossom of spring since it first appeared as a bud on January 30th, when it began to open on February 4th, opened most of the way on February 7th and was completely open on February 12th.

It is still doing well, and today it looked like this:

and was joined by about a dozen new friends like these:

Aren’t the slight variations interesting?

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Sunrise

What will the day be like?

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