Maco Malheur

I decided to take my macro lens along with me and search out any small landscapes. This is the result of a couple of days of hunting. Malheur is so huge and has such a limited number of plants, that most of us tend to only see the big plants and the birds.

First the golden willows in bloom - beautiful and most enticing to lots of pollinators.

 I started finding dandelions blooming and had to lie down along the side of the road and work on getting a picture of this bee. Fortunately, no other cars came along while I was laying there. 

This butterfly was the first one to appear this spring.  I haven't had time to figure it out but it is one of the cabbage butterflies.

Coyote willows are just starting to leaf out and have no signs of blooms.

This is golden current in bloom.  It is a large shrub that grows along the Central Patrol Road and in along many of our waterways. It really brings in the pollinators and I have one of my bee collecting transects under a row of them. (More on my bee project later.)  It also has a wonderful scent.

This is another lovely little wildflower I found while running my bee transects by Krumbo Reservoir. This would make a lovely ground cover.

My newest project it to collect bees from 12 sites, process them, and finally pin them. I have to sort them out from the flies I also catch. I'll write more on it later.

And yesterday I spent most of the day helping  deploy a buoy,  pull in nets to catch native fish for a study, and set out the nets in new spots. A lot of hauling and heavy paddling.  But we caught a huge carp that I carried straight up to the ice chest and then filleted.  Had my first carp meal last night.  Really delicious. Have 5 more meals in the freezer.