When I first arrived in the Sandpoint area I noticed they did not have snow in the mountains to worry about. That is no longer the case. A cold front came through adding quite a bit of snow to the surrounding mountains. The rivers and lakes in Idaho, and I guess in Montana as well, are all overflowing. The governor of Montana said there will probably be another month of problems from flooding. Wish there was some way to pipe water to the southwestern states who are in a drought.

Above, the Kootenai River with a submerged bulletin board at a boat launch site. The lower picture is from a forest service campground above Bonners Ferry that I had planned to stay at. Ended up at a hookup site in Sandpoint where I didn’t have to worry about flooding or the cold temps.

On visiting the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in Bonners Ferry, the movement of some coyote pups caught my attention. I was driving on the refuge tour route and the pups and their mom were on the other side of the Kootenai River. The 3 pups were exploring, while their mom rested in the sun.

When I returned to the refuge late the next day, after a night of rain, saw the wet female coyote in the second picture. It was walking on the same road I was on and looked like she was trying to find a place to cross the river (seen in the third picture). On looking at the coyote’s picture, I’m sure it’s the mother coyote I saw the previous day.

A bald eagle above a nest. It called out and was answered by another eagle that I didn’t see. Have had three eagle sightings, but they were either too far for a good picture, like above, or I was too slow on the draw with my camera.

A western tanager and a yellow warbler seen at the refuge.

Below, a quarter horse colt seen above Bonners Ferry. Talk about being all legs!

I am visiting Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, around 20 miles from the Canadian Border. The cedar waxwing, above, has some fledglings in the berry bush. The leaves were so dense, I couldn’t get a good picture of them.

On reading about Bonners Ferry on Wikipedia, found that it is near where the Ruby Ridge incident occurred. The write up on Wikipedia about this is like a novel. There are lots of places in the woods around here to try and escape society.

It is really crowded here with rv’s and motorcycles. I stopped by Glacier National Park on the way, but it was also jammed. Hope to get back there. A Canadian radio station made the comment that they just have two seasons: winter and July. This may have something to do with the crowds. It’s the best weather of the year.

Have seen this moose and calf three times. The adult always detects when people stop to watch her with the calf and she heads back into the tall grass.

Osprey. An adult was two posts down from it eating a fish.

On leaving the refuge one day, I noticed the silhouette of the back of an owl on a utility pole. I slowing walked towards it, not wanting it to fly away. Came to find it was a fake owl! Read where they were put on utility poles to keep osprey from nesting, but the osprey ended up using the fake owls in their nests.

Young deer going out into a wheat field where an adult was grazing.