Hide and Seek at Amon Basin

I followed the rabbit trails into the hills above Amon Basin this morning

A bright, sunny morning, crisp with a reminder of winter's chill

I had my camera at the ready hoping for a shot of a Black-tailed Jackrabbit

I moved slowly, softly, in my white man's imitation of a Cayuse hunter

Avoiding the dry, broken sagebrush twigs littering the ground

Stepping over an abundance of scattered droppings

The rabbits were here, moving like ghosts through the underbrush

Every so often I would catch a fleeting glimpse of grey-brown

Disappearing behind a bush or the gnarled trunk of a Big Sage

The jackrabbits seemed to be playing hide and seek

But a shadow passed across the path in front of me

And looking up I saw a Marsh Hawk gliding high overhead

Descending in slow circles, following my progress

Using me to beat the bushes for its breakfast

Playtime was over

New shoots on the Hopsage

Trembled in the soft morning breeze

And I moved on towards Amon Creek

Where Red-winged Blackbirds perched on swaying reeds

Were displaying their plumage and screeching

Their alarm at the predator above

Balsam Root, Shrub-Steppe, Amon Basin, Richland, Washington

Hiking the Horse Heaven Hills

I climbed the Horse Heaven Hills today. The elevation gain is only 1000 ft., and the climb was gradual. I’d spotted some antennas on top and wanted to investigate. I carried my camera, 2 jugs of water, some trail mix, and my cell phone (I was expecting a call from my banker reassuring me that despite the market collapse my money was safe – the call never came). It took me only 20 minutes to reach the top. I found some odd stuff up there, like the erratic in this photo that someone felt it necessary to protect from graffiti artists by erecting a triangular wire cage around the rock. Not to be denied their canvas, the artists tore the front of the wire fence out and had their way with the rock.

But really, what looks worse, the cage or the graffiti?

I’m not a geologist, but the rock is probably a glacial erratic. I know that some 15,000 years ago glacial ice blocked what is now the Clark Fork River and water level rose to some 2000 ft. When the ice dam broke, the resultant flood was catastrophic and literally moved mountains and shaped what you can see in this photo of the Columbia Basin. That’s Rabbitbrush in the foreground. Botanists call it Chrysothamnus Nauseous and it is apparently a member of the Aster or Sunflower family. I’ve read that the nauseous adjunct comes from the plant’s aroma, which smells like cloying room freshener, cooked broccoli, and formaldehyde. The hills are part of the area’s shrub-steppe, and are covered in sagebrush, bitterbrush, wheatgrass, Indian Rice Grass, and Idaho fescue, among other things. I was careful to stay on the trail (a road, really), but stepped to the side to see the crust of algae, lichens, liverworts, and mosses that cover the soil and is a critical component of native grasslands and shrub-steppe communities.

I stumbled across this small grave up there on that windswept hill. I stood there looking down at the handcrafted cross wondering...