Road Trip 5 - Yellowstone

I've been home for a while, but I'm still going through photos from our road trip (in between taking and posting new ones). From Five Springs we went to Cody, spent the night, and then the next day drove across Yellowstone Park. National parks, especially popular ones like this, are way too crowded these days but they still have scenery and animals so it's worth a bit of a visit. We don't even attempt to stay overnight. I didn't take a lot of photos this time since we didn't see anything too exciting. (last time we saw a mother grizzly and cubs) We did see a couple of bears but they were so far in the distance they were just brown dots.

Of course, there's always water to photograph.

We were walking beside some rapids in the river and I was surprised to see a group of Harlequin ducks quite close to the trail.

At one point we were driving near a river and I thought I saw a Bald Eagle. It turned out to be a stick with a white patch on it. But this Savannah Sparrow posed briefly for us.

Our last stop in the park was at Artists Point to see Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

See all the photos in this batch

Cooper's Hawk

As I went out the door to go running a bird flew up and into a nearby tree. It was larger than the usual sparrows. I thought it might be flicker. Looking up into the tree I finally spotted a Cooper's Hawk. I rushed back into the house and got my camera and telephoto lens. Unsurprisingly, it was gone by the time I got back outside. I took my camera back in the house and again went out to run. Scanning the trees one last time I spotted it in a different nearby tree. Back in the house, get my camera, and this time it was still there. It stands out in the photos but in reality it was hard to spot in the shady tree.

After lots of photos I took my camera back in the house and yet again left to go running. But as I walked away I saw that there was a clearer view from the other side of the tree. So back to get the camera once more. If the neighbors were watching they probably wondered what the heck I was doing. But I think this last photo is my favorite.

And yes, I finally did get out for my run!

See all the photos in this batch

<

Kayaking

There was lots to see on a recent kayak outing. There were harbor seals around but they weren't out sunning on the rocks today. Instead they kept popping up beside me, having a look, and then disappearing again. Too quick to photograph but nice to see them close up.

Four or five deer were standing on the shore and I stopped to watch them. To my surprise, one by one they jumped in the water and swam over to the island. I knew they could swim, but this island seemed an odd choice - it's mostly bare rock with meager grass on the top.

It took some climbing ability for them to get up the steep rocky side of the island.

Just after seeing the deer the big group of otters appeared. It's always hard to count a group in the water when they're constantly diving and popping back up. It's only when they emerge on land that you can see them all at once.

And then to top it off, as I paddled away from the otters I noticed something on the shore. It was a really low tide and that's when the raccoons seem to come out to search for food, presumably crabs?

Even at a fair distance, not moving, in my kayak, it was still a little suspicious of me and it soon left. But just after it left, another one arrived.

It's always a bit of a challenge using a long telephoto from a bobbing kayak and trying to track a moving subject. But if you take enough shots with any luck some of them turn out.

All in all it was a fun outing. I'll close with an abstract shot of backlit kelp.

See all the photos in this batch

Road Trip 5

One of the things I like about Five Springs (apart from the lack of people!) is the variety of landscapes in the area, from the Big Horn mountains (rising to over 13,000 ft) to the desert and canyons below.

We stopped for lunch one day beside the Big Horn river. After lunch I wandered around with my camera. The first thing I found was that there was a lot of prickly pear cactus, and it was all blooming. I'm used to seeing occasional prickly pear cactus flowers but I don't think I've seen a whole area blooming at once like this.

The flowers are quite pretty up close.

There were a few other flowers around. I think this is Locoweed.

The bank beside the river showed interesting layers of sedimentary rock.

At the bottom of the bank I came across this lizard which took off at an amazingly high speed. I froze and watched where it stopped. I then approached very slowly and it stayed where it was. I think it's a Common Sagebrush Lizard.

A bit later Shelley spotted another lizard. It also made an initial run for it and then froze in place. It turned out to be a Short-horned Lizard (aka a horned or horny toad, even though it's not a toad at all). They are also found in southern Saskatchewan (endangered) although I don't think I ever spotted one there.

Driving by, I noticed a trail head sign on an unmarked gravel side road. We went to investigate and found it was a new trail to Rainbow Canyon. From the Five Springs campground you can see there are some badlands down below but we didn't know how to get to them. The first thing I spotted along the trail were Sego Lilies. (the state flower of Utah) I love the details of the flowers.

The colors and patterns of Rainbow Canyon itself were quite impressive.

See all the photos in this batch

Snails

I still have more road trip photos to post but I'll take a break for something different. It rained Friday night and Saturday morning and when I went for my long run there were lots of snails out on the sidewalk. On the way back I picked up a few and zipped them into the pocket of my rain jacket. It was funny because I could feel them crawling around inside the pocket. iNaturalist says these are Brown-lipped Snails - yet another import.

First I took some staged shots indoors with black and white backgrounds. Which do you like best? The snails vary quite a lot in coloring so I used a lighter one for the black background and a darker one for the white background.

For a more natural look I put them on one of our garden plants. They don't move very fast, but they don't stop and if I spent too much time fiddling with my camera they'd be on their way to escape.

After I released them near where I found them, I took a few more photos in a more realistic (but more cluttered) setting.

This one decided to climb a stalk of grass. I'm not sure where it thought that would get them.

See all the photos in this batch.

Road Trip 4 - Sheridan

After three nights of camping and with a forecast of bad weather we took a break from Five Springs and drove over to Sheridan on the other side of the Bighorn mountains. It's a nice drive. Along the way we saw some moose near the road that let us photograph them.

Moose shed their antlers every year and you can see the stubs of the new ones.

We also saw a Red-tailed Hawk but it was too far away to get very good photos. Their red tail isn't always obvious, but you can see it in this photo.

In Sheridan we like to visit Sam Mavrakis Pond where there are frogs and turtles and birds. Unfortunately, the frogs are non-native bullfrogs but they're still fun to watch.

At least the turtles are native Painted Turtles. (Unlike the ponds in Victoria which are full of previous pet non-native Yellow-eared Sliders.)

There was a family of Mallards with cute ducklings.

Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds hung out around the pond.

And a few Cedar Waxwings.

There weren't very many damselflies and dragonflies. It's hard to judge, but it seems like there are fewer insects around these days, sadly.

See all the photos in this batch