Wildflowers And Osprey/Arabia Mountain

Ready for another walk up Arabia Mountain?  Remember the stone cairns mark the way!

It was already getting hot but we had some rain two nights ago, so we were happy to see the pools full of water once again.  Will there be water draining off the mountain into the lake?  Wait and see...

The yellow flowers looked beautiful against the gray rock.

Yes!  We were happy to see the water cascading down the side of the mountain into the lake. Lovely sound, lovely sight.  I never tire of gazing into these crystal clear pools of water.

We don't know what this flower is... it has small, white flower bunches together at the very top.  This is new to us and we need to identify it! 

This is another one we have never seen, it had yellow and orange flowers on the same plant!  We took a more close-up view later.

The National Audubon Society calls this bird "a magnificent fish hawk" and I agree,  it is an osprey, and this is the first one that Richard and I have ever seen or heard.  Richard heard it before he saw it and knew it was making a noise like a hawk but unlike one we had ever heard before.  When it flew over the lake later, it was completely silent.   When the osprey sees a fish, it swoops down and grabs the fish with its powerful talons.  Then, it turns the fish facing headfirst, so as to make it more aerodynamic and flies with it in its talons and lands on a branch and eats it.

 

This was the view in front of us while we had our coffee.  The osprey is perched in one of those trees.

And this is the view behind us as we had our coffee!  Beauty all around.

Most of the flowers on this yucca were over six feet tall. The blooms are so massive and the creamy, white color is gorgeous.  The tall blue  flowers are called tradescantia.  And we were happily surprised to see them, we thought they had bloomed out.  (And they were very plentiful, all over the mountain.)  Richard thinks this might be a second blooming for them.   When you are in your fifties, it is nice to think of these flowers being so lovely, in their second bloom!

This is the plant that had a yellow bloom and an orange bloom on the same plant.  The orange hasn't bloomed out here yet, but it was on the same stalk as the yellow! 

There, we have climbed back up to the very top of Arabia Mountain, and we have to pause here, even though we are melting from the heat.  Just look at the view! Ready for some ice-cold water?  You bet!