Oh, Iris!

I'm a fan of Iris flowers and I've taken lots of photos of them. When I see them, I still want to take more photos, but I feel like I should try to find a new angle.











Not that it matters, but these happen to be from Saltspring Island in the spring.

Jackrabbit

One of my jackrabbit friends at Innovation Place. He/she was a little suspicious of me, but didn't run away when I approached or as people walked by.

Paragliding at Five Springs

A few short clips from my best flight at Five Springs back in August. The flight was an hour and twenty minutes so it was a lot of footage to go through. I'm afraid after you've seen a few of these videos, they all look much the same!

The thermals weren't going very high - launch is about 2100m (6900ft) and my high point was about 2550m (8400ft). But it was fairly smooth conditions and I had a good time cruising around. Last time I was here I made the mistake of venturing too far north and ended up sinking out, so this time I stayed closer to launch where the best thermals seemed to be.  I headed down because it was getting to the middle of the day and I was afraid it would get rowdy in the landing area (like it did last time) since this is more or less desert. It turned out that wasn't a problem, but I did have some trouble getting down since there were some big thermals around the landing. How come I never find those thermals when I need them!

I was flying by myself so I had to hike back up after each flight, but it only took about 40 min to regain the 400m (1300ft) so it wasn't a big deal. I actually like to hike up since otherwise paragliding doesn't involve much exercise. Other people flying might be able to tell me where to look for thermals and how they've made longer flights, but it's a fun challenge to figure out a site for myself.

See also my previous blog post about Five Springs

Columbia Valley

A few more photos from around Invermere. The clouds were too low for paragliding so we went for another walk at the Dry Gulch end of the Old Coach Road.



It was a calm morning which made for good reflections in the wetlands.





It would have been nice on the river, although a little cold.



Nice backlight on the grasses.



We didn't see many birds. I expected more migrating through the wetlands but maybe it's still early here. This raven observed us for a while before soaring away.



See also Shelley's blog post

See all 13 photos

Fall in the Mountains

As in Saskatoon, autumn has arrived in the mountains. There is snow on the peaks, and not just the peaks. Although there was no snow in Banff there was plenty on top of Tunnel Mountain.



Fall wasn't quite as far along in the Columbia Valley but the cool rainy weather in the valley was also leaving snow on the peaks. We're hoping to squeeze in a few last paragliding flights but that will depend whether the weather gods favor us. We hiked up Mt. Swansea to check out the launch. You can drive almost to the top but the road is borderline with our zero clearance Prius. And besides, we needed the exercise. However, we could have lived without the rain. We didn't linger on top!



The next day, waiting for the weather to improve, we went for a walk on the Old Coach Road near Dry Gulch.





I noticed a dragonfly on the ground. It looked intact but wasn't moving so I wasn't sure if it was dead or not. But it struggled when I picked it up, so I guess it was just cold and wet. (Thanks to Shelley for holding it while I took photos.)



It had an interesting purple pattern on its abdomen.



For something to do in the rain, we drove up to Panarama. In a brief spell of sunshine I took a bunch of photos of the fast flowing water in the creek, alternating between a fast shutter speed to freeze the motion:





and a slow shutter speed to smooth it out:





See all 15 photos

Five Springs

After Helena, I had a couple of days of rainy weather so I took my time making my way over to Billings, stopping at our regular favorite of the Sacajawea Inn in Three Forks near Bozeman. My next destination was a paragliding site we'd found on our last road trip, about 2 hours drive south of Billings on the north western edge of the Bighorn Mountains.  One of the nice things about it is that there are campsites close to the launch. And it was only about an hour to hike back up from the landing to the launch. I camped here a couple of nights while I was flying.



There was quite a big waterfall in the canyon behind the lower camp sites. It was probably running more after the recent rain.





I love the bright colors of this fly mimicking a bumble bee.



I think this cute little fellow is a Green Bergundy Stink Bug (quite the name!)



I spotted this Fall Field Cricket from a distance, but when I approached it zipped away and I lost it. After some searching, I found it right at my feet.



And more of these Common Branded Skippers



Lots of new observations to post on iNaturalist :-)

It was very peaceful at the lower camp site. Because it was mid-week and the sites were all walk-in (no room for trailers or campers) I was the only one there.





See all 21 photos