Medical Lake

On Friday, July 30, we left early in the morning for the town of Medical Lake, Washington, just west of Spokane, to visit our handicapped son who is in a facility there.  We spent the day with him and in the course of the day were able to explore the area a bit and had the opportunity to see a few things that we will long remember.

Just south of town there was a nest pole on which a pair of Ospreys were raising their young.  There were two adults, one bringing a fish to the nest and the other in flight most of the time, and two young who appeared to be fully fledged and ready to leave the nest.

We spent quite a bit of time watching them, taking photos, and listening to their cries (I wish now I had done a video with sound).  We even went back for another look later in the day.  In our friendly (but fierce) competition I got the better photos of the ospreys, but later in the day my wife got far better pictures of the sunset than I did (the second, fourth and fifth pictures below are hers).

Just before dusk we saw a Great Horned Owl west of town and managed to get a few photos before he flew away and at a small wetland area my wife managed to get pictures of a waterbird I believe to be an immature American Coot.

Down the road a ways we watched the sunset, first from a narrow dirt road that wound through the grain-fields and a little later from a picnic and boat launch area on Medical Lake.  That ended our day in Medical Lake and we left early the next morning for hiking at Lake Elizabeth and home.