Silver Creek

This week consisted of two days of airports, two days of meetings,

and some tromping around Boise,

where I saw mountains from my hotel window,

reminders that I was no longer in Ohio,

and Idaho's statehouse,

its dome aglow in the sunset.

Then colleagues and I headed out for a day of fun, seeing Coyotes and Pronghorns along the way.

We arrived at The Nature Conservancy's Silver Creek Preserve, where the preserve manager told us she'd seen a Moose at her cabin window that very morning. There was evidence to prove her claim:

I looked and looked for Moose the rest of the day but I'm sorry to report this was as close as I got. Still, this is as close as I've ever been so I was pretty happy.

The preserve is around 900 acres, with nearly 10,000 additional streamside acres protected by landowners with conservation easements.

We climbed into our canoes

and headed out.

The rare high desert stream is spring-fed and has an outrageously high density of stream-loving insects.

150 species of birds have been seen here. A pair of Cinnamon Teals showed us the way down a long stretch of the creek. We saw familiar geese, herons, and Mallards; and Long-billed Curlews, beautiful black and white, long-tailed Black-Billed Magpies, Northern Harriers,

a Willet,

and a pair of Sandhill Cranes.

Rainbow and Brown Trout, Longnose and Speckled Dace, darted through the cold, clear water.

A flock of American Coots (and a mystery duck) greeted us at the end of our journey.

The landscape was jawdroppingly lovely, but

I was happy to get home and smell the first Blue Dogwood blossom of the season,

and thin my first radish from the garden.