Five Springs

On our recent road trip we headed back to Five Springs so I could do some paragliding. It's an obscure spot that we discovered years ago. There are signs that other people paraglide here, but I've never run into anyone else flying. These days I don't do enough flying to be very good at it so I try to stick to easy, relatively safe conditions, when the wind and thermals are mellow. That means I mostly get short, tame flights, but better safe than sorry. Thanks to Shelley for the videos. (If you're reading this by email and the videos don't work, try viewing them via the website or directly on YouTube.)

I also like Five Springs for the surrounding country, with desert below and mountains above, especially in the spring when there are so many wildflowers.

I think this is Fragrant Evening Primrose. It's normally night blooming so it was nice to see some flowers out during the day.

I think this is Northwestern (or Desert) Paintbrush, which I think of as normally red, but can be a range of colors.

I was on the lookout for insects on the flowers. I found a couple of these Ornate Checkered Beetles on Balsamroot flowers. (checkered beetles are pollinators)

I was photographing this flower when I noticed the ants all over it. Looking more closely I realized they were farming/herding aphids. (The aphids aren't visible in this photo.)

With lots of flowers, I expected more butterflies, but I didn't see many.

I spotted this bird in a distant bush and I could see it had markings on its head and yellow/green on it. I managed to get close enough to get an identifiable photo. It's a Green-tailed Towhee. There are Spotted Towhees in Victoria but they're quite different (more like an American Robin).

This Dusky Grouse played hide and seek with us but eventually it came out in the open where we could get some photos.

There were quite a few rabbits and chipmunks around.

We stayed at Five Springs for 5 nights and I managed to get in 10 short flights (the longest was 30 minutes). We've been coming here since 2017 and I always enjoy it. Hopefully we'll make it back a few more times.

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