Vacation Journal
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Tuesday, June 7, 2005
It started out looking like it was going to be a dull day. It was cloudy and cold with a chance of rain all day. We decided to go to the Lewis and Clark movie playing at the Imax theater which started at 11:00. We walked the six blocks to the theater. The movie was fantastic. It was made by National Geographic and narrated by Jeff Bridges. It was a re-enactment. It depicted the Corps of Discovery doing such things as pulling their boats through shallow water, pulling their boats around waterfalls, running from Grizzly Bears, sleeping in the snow, etc. It helped me appreciate the hardships they had to endure.
After the movie we walked on downtown to eat lunch and then on to the grocery store for some supplies. We got home and were trying to decide whether we should do anything else when I noticed a very unique bird in the tree with the feeder the Cowbirds use. It was a Black-headed Grosbeak male. He stayed around for several minutes and did manage to get something to eat in spite of all the Cowbirds. At one point today I counted 52 Cowbirds in view out one window of our trailer. We typically had 12 or so Pine Siskins eating on our thistle feeders at the same time.
Just after 4:00 I walked to the post office to mail some Yellowstone and Grand Teton information to our next door neighbors who are coming out here later this summer. When I got back to the trailer, we decided to drive into the Madison Valley to see what was going on. The temperature was 43 degrees and it was misting.
We stopped near Seven Mile Bridge and saw four swans which we watched for ten minutes. We finally decided that the five swans we have been seeing in the area are a mated pair with three almost fully grown cygnets. The young are as big as their parents but they have more gray coloring. They will get whiter.
We went to another turnout and saw two adult Sandhill Cranes. We watched them for a while and discovered that they had a young crane with them that barely stood taller than the grass they were in. The parents are about 4 feet tall. The one young was probably less than one foot tall. It was very cute.
While we were watching the cranes, we discovered that we were in the middle of a flock of Mountain Bluebirds. They were all over the place eating off the ground and rocks. I got out to get a better view and ending up finding a pair of Common Redpolls, a new bird for use.
We drove to the next turnout and discovered seven Canada Goose families along the Madison River. Each family had an adult pair with anywhere from one to seven goslings. The young ones were fun to watch. As we were leaving this turnout, we again encountered a flock of bluebirds and more redpolls. We also saw a gray bird momentarily but we couldn't identify it.
We drove a couple miles further up the valley then turned ahead and started back to West Yellowstone. We stopped at a turnout to see if anything was there. We saw the gray bird again and got a better look at it. It was a Townsend's Solitaire, another new bird for us.
As we continued down the valley we saw an Osprey but he flew off out of sight. We also saw the fifth swan. As we passed the Eagle's nest, Charolette saw one eaglet looking out of the nest. Further down, we noticed an adult Bald Eagle perched above the river on the other side. We stopped to watch. The Eagle took off and flew right in front of us and went further down the river. It passed another big bird flying up the river which flew about 50 feet in front of us - a Great Blue Heron. The birds were observing the rules of the road as both were on the right side of the river based on their direction of travel. All the animals in Yellowstone seem to be well educated. The Rangers are doing a good job.
Just two hours after we left the trailer we were back. It was a fun two hours. The temperature was down to 38 degrees and it was misting harder, but who cares. Our feeders were full of birds, life is good, and our trailer is warm.
After the movie we walked on downtown to eat lunch and then on to the grocery store for some supplies. We got home and were trying to decide whether we should do anything else when I noticed a very unique bird in the tree with the feeder the Cowbirds use. It was a Black-headed Grosbeak male. He stayed around for several minutes and did manage to get something to eat in spite of all the Cowbirds. At one point today I counted 52 Cowbirds in view out one window of our trailer. We typically had 12 or so Pine Siskins eating on our thistle feeders at the same time.
Just after 4:00 I walked to the post office to mail some Yellowstone and Grand Teton information to our next door neighbors who are coming out here later this summer. When I got back to the trailer, we decided to drive into the Madison Valley to see what was going on. The temperature was 43 degrees and it was misting.
We stopped near Seven Mile Bridge and saw four swans which we watched for ten minutes. We finally decided that the five swans we have been seeing in the area are a mated pair with three almost fully grown cygnets. The young are as big as their parents but they have more gray coloring. They will get whiter.
We went to another turnout and saw two adult Sandhill Cranes. We watched them for a while and discovered that they had a young crane with them that barely stood taller than the grass they were in. The parents are about 4 feet tall. The one young was probably less than one foot tall. It was very cute.
While we were watching the cranes, we discovered that we were in the middle of a flock of Mountain Bluebirds. They were all over the place eating off the ground and rocks. I got out to get a better view and ending up finding a pair of Common Redpolls, a new bird for use.
We drove to the next turnout and discovered seven Canada Goose families along the Madison River. Each family had an adult pair with anywhere from one to seven goslings. The young ones were fun to watch. As we were leaving this turnout, we again encountered a flock of bluebirds and more redpolls. We also saw a gray bird momentarily but we couldn't identify it.
We drove a couple miles further up the valley then turned ahead and started back to West Yellowstone. We stopped at a turnout to see if anything was there. We saw the gray bird again and got a better look at it. It was a Townsend's Solitaire, another new bird for us.
As we continued down the valley we saw an Osprey but he flew off out of sight. We also saw the fifth swan. As we passed the Eagle's nest, Charolette saw one eaglet looking out of the nest. Further down, we noticed an adult Bald Eagle perched above the river on the other side. We stopped to watch. The Eagle took off and flew right in front of us and went further down the river. It passed another big bird flying up the river which flew about 50 feet in front of us - a Great Blue Heron. The birds were observing the rules of the road as both were on the right side of the river based on their direction of travel. All the animals in Yellowstone seem to be well educated. The Rangers are doing a good job.
Just two hours after we left the trailer we were back. It was a fun two hours. The temperature was down to 38 degrees and it was misting harder, but who cares. Our feeders were full of birds, life is good, and our trailer is warm.
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