The smoke is finally gone - what a great view.

The view from Dilworth Mountain Park in Kelowna on Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026.

My last few trips to Dilworth Mountain Park have been nothing exceptional, as the smoke-filled skies have rendered an otherwise awesome view mundane.  Yesterday, however, the clear skies yielded the views that I have come to expect, with the added bonus of half a dozen pygmy nuthatches flitting about in the pine trees.  I didn't have my wildlife camera with me, so you can see a photo I took earlier of a pygmy nuthatch below.

Pygmy nuthatch I photographed two years ago.

The rain has been welcome on so many fronts.  Aside from the air being cleansed of so many suspended solids, the fires in the Okanagan have been contained, lake levels are on the rise, and the drought conditions have eased.  I turned off my garden sprinkler systems as there is plenty of moisture in the ground at the moment.

As I look up this morning, I see blue skies and the coming of warm weather, but not too warm.  It's fall in the Okanagan - good days are ahead.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com



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