I’ve been told several times that Mima Mounds near Chehalis is a spectacular area, good for bees, butterflies, and birds. I visited last fall and didn’t find that to be true but was told that the best time to visit is late Spring, or early Summer.
So I decided that today was a good day to drive down there. The most impressive sight was whole fields of Camas Lily, a plant I’ve rarely seen despite all the hiking I’ve done here in the Pacific Northwest.
In fact, there were so many that it was difficult to isolate a single flower.
Unfortunately, there were few other flowers and even those were quite small and hard to find like this purple flower, shown larger than life size.
I thought I must have missed some birds but another couple told me that all they’d seen were Savannah Sparrows, like this one who kept his distance no matter how patient I was.
I did see a considerable number of butterflies, but they were all a small, rather undistinguished one that made up for it’s lack of size with its flittiness, which probably explains why I never managed to get a single decent shot of one.
Perhaps I’m just mistiming my visits, but it’s unlikely I’ll return next year. It’s just too long of a drive for such unpredictable results.