Animals

A few photos left over from our spring road trip.

I always enjoy seeing Pronghorns. It's cool that their closest living relatives are giraffes.

Driving over the Bighorns from Five Springs to Sheridan we often see moose.

Of course, we saw lots of squirrels and chipmunks.

We look forward to seeing the yellow-bellied marmots at Five Springs but this year they were scarce. And the few that were around were very skittish. There was a rock where one seemed to like to hang out, but it wouldn't let us get closer than a few hundred yards. I needed my longest telephoto lens for this shot.

There is a park in Sheridan with a pond where we go to see turtles, frogs, snakes, crayfish, birds, and other wildlife.

As with many places, the bullfrogs seem to be taking over. There were lots of giant tadpoles and adults.

There are Bighorn Sheep around, but we'd never seen any on previous trips. This time we saw them twice around Bighorn Canyon, first on the State Line Trail, and then beside the road driving out. They were all females so no big curly horns.

Also for the first time we saw the Pryor Mountain Mustangs, descended from the original Colonial Spanish horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish.

I didn't spot many lizards this trip. I think this is a Common Sagebrush Lizard.

On the way home we drove through Yellowstone park. We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but the bison are hard to miss.

We've visited Bend before, but this was the first time we'd been to the High Desert Museum. It's worth a stop if you're in the area. They have some rescued birds and animals.

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Claim to Fame

Two years ago I received a request to use one of my underwater photos from iNaturalist in a guidebook. I had forgotten about it but the book (Nudibranch & Sea Slug Identification, Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Les Wilk) is finally out and I received a copy. My photo is one of about 1800 but it's still cool to see it in print. I can only imagine the amount of work that goes into a guide like this.

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HCP Gardens

A few photos from a recent visit to the HCP Gardens

Bullfrogs (introduced) have even found their way into the small pool at the entrance.

I think this is a Cardinal Meadowhawk. It's not bright red so probably a female. The wings down and forward means it's ready to launch.

It was lily season.

The air was a little cool so the Common Wall Lizards were out basking in the sun.

Water lilies are a favorite.

I think this is a Blue Dasher (with a nice colorful background). It's also in its typical ready-to-launch posture.

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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.

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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!

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