Mammals and More

These pictures are KF's. It is still June 28, we are still in heaven on top of Hurricane Hill.

There were black-tailed deer all over up on Hurricane Hill, tame as could be. The marmots weren't timid either, one was sitting on a burrow entrance by the trail, and only went down when a couple of hikers walked two steps right out onto the meadow (bad people!) and he had to go down the hole or be stepped on. As we were coming down the hill, a small deer was out on the hillside, and a marmot sitting on his burrow was whistling and whistling at or about him. Considerin' that they didn't mind people at all, what possible alarm could a small, delicate-legged deer cause? But it did. The marmot yelled and yelled.

Chipmunks up on the top of the ridge, working hard to clean up the scraps of everybody's snacks and lunches, in between shopping for flowers and grasses and seeds. Grabbed but rejected a violet flower. The Olympic chipmunk and the Olympic marmot are both endemics.

   Partial and somewhat uncertain flower list:
avalanche lily Erythronium montanum
glacier lily Erythronium grandiflorum
Columbia lily, small tiger lily Lilium columbianum
broadleaf lupine Lupinus latifolius
cinquefoil Potentilla sp.
violet Viola sp.
silky phacelia Phacelia sericea
western wallflower Erysimum capitatum
lomatium, biscuit-root Lomatium martindalei
american bistort Polygonum bistortoides
carpet link, spreading phlox Phlox diffusa
wild rose, wood rose Rosa gymnocarpa
old man's whiskers Geum triflorum
scarlet paintbrush Castillja miniata
magenta paintbrush Castilleja parviflora
sitka columbine Aquilegia formosa
mountain primrose, cliff douglasia Douglasia lauvigata
littleflower penstemon Penstemon procerus
delphinium Delphinium glarosum
blue-leaf huckleberry Vacinnium deliciosum
jacob's ladder, showy polemonium Polemonium pulcherrimum