White-Winged Dove

The white-winged dove has a distinctive white wing patch which is visible on the fore-part of the wing when it is not in flight. It has a patch of blue featherless skin around the eye, bright crimson eyes, and a long dark mark on the lower part of the head. It is brown/gray above, gray below and its feet and legs are pink or red. 

White-winged dove in Palm Desert.

The white-winged dove was originally found in the southwestern U.S., Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, but it has expanded its range through Texas, Louisiana, coastal Mississippi, Kansas, Arkansas,Oklahoma and northern New Mexico. It has also been introduced in Florida. 

This particular male was photographed a number of years ago in Palm Desert. 

House Finch

The house finch has a square-tipped brown tail, is brown or dull-brown on the back with some shading into gray on the wing feathers. The breast and belly may be streaked and the flanks usually are. Adult males have heads, necks and shoulders that are reddish which sometimes extends to the belly and down the back. The coloration of the male varies by the season and comes from the berries and fruits in its diet. Adult females have brown upperparts and streaked underparts. 

Adult male house finch showing red on head, breast, belly and back and streaking.

Front view of male.

View less impacted by sun in background. 

They were originally found in Mexico and the southwestern U.S. In the 1940s they were introduced in New York City illegally and the vendors let them go to avoid prosecution. They spread out from there and are now found across the U.S. displacing the native purple finch. 

We had a house finch nest on our front door a number of years ago and got some pictures of the babies as they developed and eventually left the nest. My pictures of the adult male are poor.

Young house finches in the nest sport what look like bushy eye-brows and wild looking corners of their mouths.

As they mature, the bright yellow beak and corner pieces disappear and the "eye-brows" become less unruly.

Only three remain - one has flown away.

Only one remains. This last one actually flew away shortly after I took the picture.

Mirror Lake Diner - Kamas, Utah

As a boy, my family had a ranch in Oakley, Utah which was co-owned with my uncle's family. I have many fond memories of the ranch, including going to the Hi-Mountain Drug in nearby Kamas and having a hamburger and then going to a movie at the next-door theater, with tennis shoes sticking to the floor sticky with soda and who-knows-what-else. 

I was in Utah recently for a quick visit and read an article in the Deseret News that named Hi-Mountain Drug in Kamas as having the best affordable burger on the Wasatch Front. That was shocking to me - could not be the same burger I ate as a boy. It gave me a yearning to try it. 

So I called Sam, living in Provo, and arranged to pick him up for a Sunday drive. We drove up through Provo Canyon, Heber and finally into Kamas. Sam was patient with me as I blathered about memories of my youth and experiences in the area, including eating at Hi-Mountain Drug and going to the theater. However, my plans were quashed when we found Hi-Mountain Drug closed for business on Sunday. 

On the drive in to Kamas I noticed a Mirror Lake Diner which was not there when I was a boy and we decided to go back several blocks and try it. It had quite a few cars in the parking lot and I was surprised to walk in and find it full of people, many of them youngish and athletic looking.  When I was a boy Park City was kind of a back-water. Snowbird was the hip place. Now Park City and Deer Valley, not all that far away, are awash with Hollywood glitter and there has been spillover into the surrounding areas. 

Mirror Lake Diner in Kamas.

Mirror Lake Diner was opened in May 2013 by Gabe and Betty Morin. Gabe, a chef from Maine, came to Utah in the early 1990s and worked as a chef's assistant at Alta's Rustler Lodge for 14 years and at Easy Street Brassiere in Park City. He discovered Kamas and decided to open his own shop. It is a far cry from the hamburger and fries in a plastic basket, and milkshake, from the Hi-Mountain Drug of my youth. Menu names include dishes with place names like Slate Creek Corned Beef Hash, Kings Peak Chicken Fried Steak, Mirror Lake Cakes, The Samak, Ledgefork Smothered Burrito, Moffitt Mountain Oatmeal, Trial Lake Biscuits and Gravy, Bald Mountain Bagel Sandwich, Cobblerest Monte Cristo, Crystal Lake Fish and Chips, Wolf Creek Rueben, Ruth Lake Tuna Melt, Left Fork Chicken Sandwich, Pine Valley Veggie Sandwich, Gold Hill Garden Salad, Iron Mine Mountain Quinoa Salad (I'd never even heard of Quinoa when I was a youth) and Duschesne Tunnel B.L.A.S.T. I'm aware of some of these places, but not many of them. Somehow, "Mirror Lake Cakes" sound better than pancakes although I'm not sure how appetizing "Duschesne Tunnel" sounds. 

Then there are dishes named after people. Uncle Dave's Spinach Salad,  Betty's Eggs Benedict, Jamie's Greek Omelet, and Mary Ellen's Omelet. At least the menu sounds like there is a little love and attention going into the dishes.

Sam got the Crystal Lake Fish & Chips with Pacific cod, a lager batter and house-made chips. The chips were definitely made in-house as each chip was a very large, relatively thick, section of deep-fried potato. He gave me a bit of fish and some chips and they were quite good, particularly the fish. 

I got the Bald Mountain Bagel Sandwich which had two eggs (normally hard, but I got them over-easy), bacon, avocado, tomato and cheese. I asked for and got cream cheese on the side with I added to the sandwich. The slices of bacon were long and thick and the egg yolk busted and slathered all over the bun, bacon and avocado. The bagel was fresh and soft. It was a very nice combination. I also mixed in some over-easy eggs with the hash browns and enjoyed that wonderful combination.

The restaurant had a pleasant, easy-going atmosphere, there was fun local art on the walls and we had a nice, pleasant lunch. I suspect it was much nicer than the Hi-Mountain Drug burger, but I may have to go back and try it again.

Sam was subjected to some more reminiscence as we drove by the ranch, then up to Smith-Morehouse Reservoir where I caught a small jack-rabbit as a boy at a fathers and son's outing. The scenery at Smith-Morehouse, on the edge of the Uinta Mountains, was spectacular. The aspen leaves had turned yellow and snow was covering the taller mountains. 

Beautiful yellow aspens mix in with pine several miles from Smith-Morehouse.

I'm not sure what causes the red colors, but it adds a beautiful contrast.

The snow-covered mountains beyond Smith-Morehouse.

Coming back and the snow-covered mountain beyond the other end of Smith-Morehouse.

I had a wonderful trip into the past and Sam survived the trip down memory lane.   

Eurasian Collared-Dove

The Eurasian collared-dove was introduced to the U.S. and is now found through extensive parts of the U.S., down into Mexico and in the Caribbean.

Eurasian collared-dove on senita cactus in Mexico.

It is pale gray-buff with a black collar. The tail is fairly long and blunt ended. The primaries are darker than the rest of the wing, appearing blackish. The ringed turtle-dove is smaller, has a shorter tail and is paler. It also has less contrast between the flight feathers and the rest of the wing. 

I saw the pictured doves in El Pinacate and Gran Desierto in Mexico below Organ Cactus National Monument in Arizona. One is standing on a senita cactus and another is nesting in a palm tree.

American Red Squirrel

The American red squirrel is found through much of Alaska and Canada, around the Great Lakes and extending down into parts of the eastern U.S., and extending down through parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. It is also known as a pine squirrel or chickaree. 

American red squirrel near Missouri Mountain. Much smaller than a gray squirrel. 

There are 25 subspecies and I can't find anything that delineates the distribution of the subspecies or what sets them apart from each other. 

White eye-ring, white belly and black stripe separating the underside from the side and back.

They are smaller than other North American tree squirrels and larger than chipmunks. One site indicates that they are only about 30% of the size of gray squirrels. The size and color varies geographically, but they generally have a reddish back and white underside, separated by dark lateral lines. They also have a white eye-ring and tufted ears during the winter. Variation in the color on the back can range from reddish to gray. The tail is smaller and flatter than other tree squirrels. 

This red squirrel was found east of Buena Vista, Colorado. 

The red squirrels in this blog were found in Colorado. One was in the Missouri drainage while I was hiking Missouri Mountain and the other was about 15 miles east of Buena Vista. My initial thought was that this was a gray squirrel, but gray squirrels aren't found in Colorado. The only choices are Abert squirrels, fox squirrels and American red squirrels. However I did find a site stating that in the southern Rockies, and in particular in Colorado, there is a subspecies of red squirrel known as a spruce squirrel (I'm wondering if they meant "pine squirrel") which is not nearly as red as the squirrels found further north in the range. That would explain why these squirrels look so gray. 

Updated: August 2016

On our trip to Alaska we rented a car in Skagway and drove to the Yukon Animal Preserve about 30 minutes north of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada. There, inside a mule deer enclosure, I photographed this beautiful red squirrel. 

Resting on a pine tree and eating a nut.

Northern Red Bishop

While in Elmina, Ghana, driving a short distance from our hotel, we spotted a beautiful distinctive bird in the green foliage off the side of the road. My cousin, Russ, stopped the car so that we could take photos. 

Northern red bishop in Elmina, Ghana.

It was a breeding northern red bishop - beautiful scarlet except for its black head, waistcoat and brown wings and tail. It has a conical black bill. The plumage of a non-breeding male is a pale yellow. It is a member of the weaver family. It is found in Africa south of the Sahara and north of the equator. It has also been introduced to Puerto Rico, Martinique and Guadalupe in the West Indies. 

Black head and brown wings.

Black waistcoat.

Green Street Tavern - Pasadena

Last Saturday we went with one of my partners and his wife to the Rose Bowl to see the UCLA vs. Utah football game. We had dinner before-hand at Green Street Tavern, located on Green Street,  just a block or two away from Colorado Boulevard, which was rated as the 8th best restaurant in Pasadena on Yelp. 

Judy had a beet salad with watercress, goat cheese, candied walnuts and a tarragon-balsamic vinaigrette. She got it primarily for the beets, which she loves, but she found it difficult to eat because of the watercress which had multiple stems going out in various directions. She left a good portion of it uneaten.

I got a kale salad. I don't remember all of the ingredients and the menu has changed on-line, but it consisted of a generous helping of kale, in fairly big pieces, with feta cheese, I believe some sort of avocado dressing and a fried egg broken up by the waiter and stirred around in the salad so that the egg yoke and white infused a large portion of it. I really loved the bites that had a good portion of egg. Portions without were a little dry. Two eggs would have made it fantastic. 

Kale salad with egg.

We shared a shrimp cazuela which was shrimp in Spanish spiced garlic butter, white beans, tomatoes and a grilled baguette. It was the most disappointing of our dishes. There were only five shrimp. It was mostly warm cherry tomatoes and they were hardly spiced. I found it very bland and uninteresting. It was $15.00, very over-priced. I would not order it again, even at one-third of the price.   

Shrimp cazuela.

The other couple ordered the miniature baked brie that was almond-encrusted, with roast garlic and a roasted fig compote and toasted baguette. They shared a couple of bites with us and I thought it was quite good, the best baked brie I've had, and I've had it several other times. None of my bites contained fig, so I'm not sure how it impacted the dish. 

Miniature baked brie.

Judy got chevre gnocchi with forest mushrooms, pine nuts, kale, and browned sage butter. She shared several bites with me. I loved the potato dumplings, very soft and large. Even better were the mushrooms, fairly large pieces with a nice, distinctive taste. 

My partner got wild boar meatloaf wrapped in wild boar bacon on mashed potatoes, gravy and vegetables. He shared part of it with me. I thought it was very good, but not particularly distinctive. Without knowing otherwise, I would not have pegged it for anything other than normal meatloaf. 

Wild boar meatloaf with wild boar bacon on mashed potatoes.

I got a Moroccan style lamb shank (de-boned) in couscous, chickpeas, gravy and other ingredients with a spicy side sauce that I forgot to add until the very end. It was a decent portion of lamb and a little bland, but I think it would have been much better if I had added the side sauce earlier. 

Lamb

The food was a step-up from a chain restaurant, but I was not wowed by it. Several items were good, but nothing was outstanding, except perhaps the kale salad with portions of egg in it. So even though it was a decent meal I was a little disappointed because I was expecting more. I would not rate it as an "event" restaurant, one for a real special occasion.