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:

Elk Surprise

We hiked in the Whiterocks River drainage of the southern Uintas yesterday. At noon, the skies were clear blue. Dark clouds gathered in the early afternoon, though.  We waited out a short rain/sleet/snow storm, then walked out of the woods (elevation about 10,700 feet) and found a herd of elk lounging at the edge of the meadow. 

They were just as surprised as we were.  The calves, who had been napping, hastily got to their feet,

ran to their mommas,

and the whole group bunched up and stared at us for a moment before bustling off into the trees. The elk at the far left of the above photo appears to be a bull. Do you agree?  He seems to have short spikes for antlers.  He would have shed his antlers in late winter.  Don't know why he hasn't grown more of a rack by now.

The wind was blowing into our faces, so they didn't smell us ahead of time.  Daisy smelled them, but she was so busy running around sniffing the abundant scent that she didn't seem to realize where the elk actually were.
We were glad she didn't chase them and spoil our excellent photo op!