Yesterday I hiked a bit in the nearby Glen Canyon Regional Park.

Chokecherries are now in full bloom and honey bees were very busy collecting nectar and pollen. Some of the bees had loads of pollen on their hind legs.

 I found the noxious weed, Common Bugloss  blooming where I had found it last year. Common Bugloss has been found to invade range lands in Washington State and hay makers have found that it causes molding of baled hay because its thick stems do not dry properly.

Another weed, Yellow Salsify, also called Wild Oyster-plant, is also in bloom. I have read that the taproot of this plant is edible, with a flavour similar to that of an oyster.

Down near the creek, a mule deer lay watching me from her hidden bed in the bushes. As I approached, she bounded nimbly away out of sight.

The creek is running full with melt-water and I noted that the two small dams near the "beaver tree" have washed away. I found the stump of just one small cottonwood that had been recently cut by a beaver.

Three Mallards, all drakes, watched me from the far bank of the creek.

Probably their mates are incubating eggs on nests nearby.