Subalpine Riparian Zone

When we hiked up Reader Creek last week, Steve and Daisy stopped to check out this pond.

 Steve saw no fish in the pond, but he did see lots of bugs.  This is a caddis larva in a pebble casing:

Most of the caddis in the pond had made homes in bits of grass, something we hadn't seen before:

Steve removed one from its home to identify it.

Later, when he put the larva back in the water, it immediately attacked another larva, trying to steal its grass home by crawling in and forcing the other guy to vacate:

Unless they decided to share, one of them had to build himself another grass casing.

On the walk back downstream, we saw this bird flying up off the ground, from almost under out feet:

She had apparently been sitting on a nest, which you can see hidden in the tall grass on the left in the photo above.  The eggs are shown below:

Any guesses on the bird's identity?  This bird resembled the mother, but I'm not sure it's the same species:

Reader Creek is a pretty little stream:

Looking down into its clear water, I spotted this trout.  From its markings (black spots and faint pars marks), it appears to be a native cutthroat, although I can't see the red line on its throat.

We didn't fish, but someone has been here before us.  Unfortunately, they left their garbage behind: