Birds

We didn't see a lot of birds on our recent road trip. There seemed to be more swallows around, but maybe I was just noticing them more.

Female Wood Ducks aren't as flashy as the males, but they're still interesting looking.

I wouldn't have recognized this as a Brown-headed Cowbird without iNaturalist's help.

The male is a little more recognizable. It's on the back of a bison in Yellowstone. The name "Cowbird" comes from following cattle to eat insects they stir up. Before European settlement they followed bison. They are "obligate brood parasites" meaning they lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. This way they can lay up to 40 eggs per season.

One of our regular stops is Upper Coffeepot campground just outside Yellowstone. A large group of American White Pelicans hangs out there. This year they were further up the river from the campground. It's always a challenge to photograph white against a dark background. They were mostly just in a big group on the far shore.

The rest of these birds were all at a campsite near Boise, Idaho. This bird was flitting around in the bushes and I was lucky to get one decent shot. It was a new one for me - a Yellow-breasted Chat (a large warbler).

Our campsite was visited by Wild Turkeys and their young.

The young are well camouflaged.

California Quail also like the same log as a perch.

See all the photos in this batch

Raccoon

When I came home from my run, someone was cleaning their car in the parking lot. But what caught my eye was a raccoon walking unnoticed past the car and climbing up into the tree beside it. I ran inside and got my camera. I was skeptical if it would still be there when I got back, but nothing ventured nothing gained. It turned out the raccoon was busy eating cherries and in no hurry to leave.

Looking at the photos afterwards, I noticed that the raccoon had one bad eye - an individual I've seen before. It's good to see she's still doing ok. In some of the photos it looks like she is nursing (which is why I'm using "she"). So not only is she still around, but she's managing to raise young. No wonder she's hungry!

See all the photos in this batch

More Bugs

A few more bugs from our trip.

A very shiny greeen (cuckoo?) wasp.

We saw a number of hairstreak (and elfin) butterflies.

I was taking a picture of a flower when I noticed this Mormon Cricket at the base. They're actually not crickets, they're a kind of katydid. The "Mormon" name comes from the "miracle of the gulls". The long ovipositer makes this one a female.

The orange color caught my eye on this Bumblebee-like Digger Bee. (It's on Showy Milkweed which attracts lots of bees and wasps.) It mimics more dangerous bumblebees.

I think this is a Cactus Chimney bee. It's on a Prickly Pear cactus flower.

I'm not sure what type of wasp this is. The interesting part was that it was robbing nectar from the flower. The implicit trade between flowers and pollinators is that pollinators get nectar and pollen, and the flowers in turn get pollinated. But in this case the wasp is biting into the base of the larkspur flower to get the nectar, without any chance of pollinating the flower.

I love the shiny metallic color of these Cobalt Milkweed Beetles (also on Showy Milkweed).

This Spotted Tree Borer flew over and landed on our picnic table. It stayed long enough for me to run to the car and get my camera and take a few shots, then it flew away. (It may have been disappointed to find the picnic table was made of plastic, not wood!

There are about 10,000 species of mammals and 350,000 species of beetles. As J.B.S. Haldane is known as saying, God seems to have an inordinate fondness for beetles.

See all the photos in this batch

Flowers

I decided to gather the flower photos from the trip. I tend to focus on bugs and birds before plants, but I still took a lot of flower photos. I apologize in advance for the overdose.

I always check out milkweed plants looking for Monarch butterfly caterpillars, although spring is probably the wrong time to see them here. Milkweed plants are toxic, so often the leaves are untouched. Monarch caterpillars eat them because they are toxic - to become toxic themselves and therefore less attractive to predators. The milkweed I know to recognize and see most often is Showy Milkweed.

Yellow iris are pretty but they are an introduced plant that has escaped into the wild and become invasive.

One of the campgrounds we stayed at had lots of Beargrass.

Tamarisk is another non-native plant that is a problem in some areas. Around Five Springs there were only scattered plants. I might not have noticed it if it hadn't been flowering.

Sego Lilies (native) are always a pleasant surprise in the high desert.

Scarlet Globemallow

In Saskatchewan, the Prairie Pasqua Flowers ("crocuses") come out while there is still frost and even snow. These ones are later due to the altitude.

Prairie Smoke or Three-flowered Aven are another one I used to see in Saskatchewan:

and Shooting Stars

and Paintbrush

There were tons of lupines around, probably multiple kinds.

Higher up in the Bighorn mountains one of the view points was surrounded by these little blue flowers. I think they're Pale Alpine Forget-me-nots.

We have Stonecrops around Victoria so it was interesting to see this mountain variety.

Beardtongue seems like a suitable name for these flowers. They are related to snapdragons and foxgloves.

I think this is Linearleaf Phacelia. It doesn't seem to have a less technical name.

Last year it seemed like almost all the prickly pear cactus was blooming. This year I only found a few flowers.

I think this is Alpine Golden Buckwheat. (spot the Mormon cricket) It was at Five Springs, but it makes a good transition to our later stop at Craters of the Moon, where there are a variety of wild buckwheats (unrelated to cultivated buckwheat).

Cushion Buckwheat is common at Craters of the Moon. It varies in color from yellow to pink.

I think this is Parsnipflower Buckwheat.

And Sulfur Buckwheat

Dwarf Purple Monkeyflower has tiny flowers but they're quite pretty up close.

I think this is Hoary Pincushion - a suitable name for the appearance of the flowers.

I think this is Silverleaf Phacelia, another scorpionweed like Linearleaf Phacelia above.

Larkspurs are common and also have interesting flowers up close.

Away from the desert, foxgloves were blooming all over.

See all the photos in this batch