When I first arrived in the Sandpoint area I noticed they did not have snow in the mountains to worry about. That is no longer the case. A cold front came through adding quite a bit of snow to the surrounding mountains. The rivers and lakes in Idaho, and I guess in Montana as well, are all overflowing. The governor of Montana said there will probably be another month of problems from flooding. Wish there was some way to pipe water to the southwestern states who are in a drought.

Above, the Kootenai River with a submerged bulletin board at a boat launch site. The lower picture is from a forest service campground above Bonners Ferry that I had planned to stay at. Ended up at a hookup site in Sandpoint where I didn’t have to worry about flooding or the cold temps.

On visiting the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in Bonners Ferry, the movement of some coyote pups caught my attention. I was driving on the refuge tour route and the pups and their mom were on the other side of the Kootenai River. The 3 pups were exploring, while their mom rested in the sun.

When I returned to the refuge late the next day, after a night of rain, saw the wet female coyote in the second picture. It was walking on the same road I was on and looked like she was trying to find a place to cross the river (seen in the third picture). On looking at the coyote’s picture, I’m sure it’s the mother coyote I saw the previous day.

A bald eagle above a nest. It called out and was answered by another eagle that I didn’t see. Have had three eagle sightings, but they were either too far for a good picture, like above, or I was too slow on the draw with my camera.

A western tanager and a yellow warbler seen at the refuge.

Below, a quarter horse colt seen above Bonners Ferry. Talk about being all legs!

Above, at a ranch run by Antelope island State Park, a ranger in the white truck was herding the bison away from a group of visiting school children when one bison turned on a dime and faced the truck. The ranger backed up and turned around and the bison shortly continued walking with the other two bison. He looked like he was ready to fight the truck if it had continued.

Pronghorn elk. They were concerned about some bicyclists. They take cars more for granted, but were uncertain about people on bikes. There are some very good dirt bike paths here. Many cyclists ride over the causeway to the island. I wonder about riding a bike here on bad bug days. Every day it got warmer, the bugs got worse. Along the causeway especially, there were lots of midges like I saw in the Klamath Falls, Oregon area.

A burrowing owl. It would not cooperate to let me get a better picture. (It’s in the center of the picture).

A loggerhead shrike. Often saw it hunting in the same area as the owl.

Thought the coyote (fox?) below was a domestic dog at first, it was so fluffy and was wagging it’s tail while  pouncing on prey on the ground. Think he finally captured and ate it.

Got to stay at Antelope Island State Park in Utah. When I passed through the area last September it was full.

The second picture above is Bridger Campground where Bison sometimes roam. Opened the door of my trailer one morning to find a bison 10-15 feet away.  You just ignore them and they move along.

The bottom picture is the causeway from the suburb town of Syracuse out to Antelope Island.

There are lots of chukars on the island, but they don’t come out in the open a lot. I heard lots of them in the bushes near my campsite, but never saw any. It was just by luck when driving around, that I came upon the one above sunning itself.

A woman went walking up the hill next to my site early one morning. When she got to a ridge where she was somewhat hidden, I saw a bunch of heads bobbing up and down. Later found that it was a group of jackrabbits that had been surprised.

Meadowlarks are all over. You hear them all the time, but they, like the jackrabbits, don’t tend to stay still for pictures.

Have seen a number of coyotes. One evening was sad to see one go into the bushes where the chukars were.

Started seeing magpies as I got close to Utah. The one above is a young one.

Above, a horned lark. The first one I’ve ever seen.

Barn swallow at the Visitor Center.

The way here: Stopped a  night at a Manti-la Sal Forest campground near Blanding, Utah. Next day drove through Moab for the first time. It has to be the “Yellowstone” of Utah. It was so crowded. I had hoped to stay at a BLM campground along the Colorado River near Moab, but no such luck. All the campgrounds were full. I had been watching the weather in Salt Lake City and when I saw that good weather was forecast and there were campsites available on Antelope Island, I changed course to Salt Lake City.

Below, sunset on Antelope Island. Least I should paint the island as idyllic, it can be very buggy. Depending on the weather, time of day, location, and other factors there are varying number of nat like bugs.

Stayed at Rio Grande Village Campground in Big Bend National Park for a few days. Had the first hot, dry weather I’ve had this year (in the 90′s). Had decided to just stay in the campground this visit, before the price of gas went up ($4 a gallon in the park). I drove all over the park on my first visit here and there was enough to do around the campground.

On driving from the town of Marathon to the campground, I was struck by the complete lack of roadside trash (not one plastic bag blowing in the wind)! Trash in the Rio Grande Valley area is omnipresent.

There are spring fed ponds (in the foreground in the picture above) along a nature trail in the campground. Water from the Rio Grande River enters the one seen above when the river floods.

Saw a number of roadrunners. Was surprised to see one “wag it’s tail”, hold it’s tail up and wag it right and left. Also intermittently heard roadrunners in trees making deep cooing sounds.

Cardinals and pyrrhuloxia were present in the campground area. Near the pond there were two young herons, along with common yellowthroats, a bittern, and a pied-billed grebe.

Coyotes were often seen walking through the campground.

There are mosquitofish in the pond. An endangered species, Big Bend Gambusia, or Big Bend Mosquitofish, are in a protected isolated pond.

Have been staying close to Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge for close to a week. It’s been cold, as I guess it has been over a lot of the US, in the teens at night and the 40′s and 50′s during the day. Still just need the furnace at night.

Saw the coyote in the top picture wondering around the refuge on Saturday. Just a little earlier in the day had seen a coyote, possibly the same one, in a field with some sandhill cranes. It always surprises me that the cranes don’t fly away on seeing a coyote. They do have a weapon in their bill. They can stab a coyote with it, as long as the coyote doesn’t come from behind.

The last two pictures are from Monday morning. The coyote in the third picture has just nabbed a duck in the same area as seen in the picture with the cranes. On leaving the refuge, saw three young, healthy looking coyotes (one seen in the bottom picture).

Adult sandhill crane (top picture) and two juvenile cranes (bottom picture).

Northern shovelers

Below, photographers bundled up to see the cranes fly in to roost.

Visited the Tri-Cities area of south-central Washington (Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco) in order to visit some wildlife refuges in the area. Stayed a few days at an Army Corps of Engineers campground along the Snake River. Part of the McNary Wildlife Refuge is right next to the campground. Saw the Kingfisher above in a marsh area there.

It is the season to start seeing osprey nests.

Below, a coyote in the refuge.

Next drove through Hanford Reach National Monument. The Hanford Site is where Plutonium reactors were built in 1943 to make the atom bomb dropped on Japan in 1945. The reactors are now inactive and being dismantled. The Site is on the Columbia River and a wide area of land around it that served as a security buffer is now the Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge.

There was a severe wind alert throughout Washington and parts of Oregon and Idaho. I drove on to Toppenish to stay till they passed. The winds really shook my trailer and blew open the heavy cover on the bed of my truck. Luckily, the farmland I was parked next to had a crop growing on it, so I didn’t get a lot of topsoil blown my way.

Above, a California quail at the Toppenish Wildlife Refuge.

Below, northeast Oregon farmland along I-84. It snowed a little past where this picture was taken. Enjoyed the drive along the I-84, with all it’s rest stops.

I have returned to the Socorro, New Mexico area to see the sandhill cranes. A little dismayed that I arrived a little early. The Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area that I visit prior to moving on to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge has some cranes, but nothing like I saw last year. They flood some fields with water around November 15th and that brings in a lot of cranes and geese. I am moving on to Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge in a few days. I’ll have one week, then the Festival of the Cranes starts with the attendant crowds. So being early getting to the area has complicated things. Oh well.

When I left Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Arizona, had planned on stopping at Homolovi Ruins State Park near Winslow, Arizona. Found that they have closed the camping area there and just have it as a day use park certain days of the week. At my next planned stop, Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico, found it closed for the season. While many rest areas in Arizona have been closed due to budget cuts, the ones in New Mexico are open. Ended up staying one night at the New Mexico Visitor Center in Gallup.

Have stayed close to a week at the Kiva RV Park and Horse Motel that I have stayed at in the past. They rescue horses, donkeys and other animals. Last year when I fed carrots and apples to some of the donkeys, the brown horse in the top picture bit me on the shoulder. The two horses looked so robust and healthy I hadn’t given them any of the treats. Didn’t make that mistake this time. Both horses followed me around the corral wanting more.

The “largest donkey in the world” is still there and doing well (second picture).

A Eurasian collared-dove on a fountain at the rv park.

A coyote watching for movement in some brush at Bernardo Waterfowl Management Area. There are sandhill cranes in the background at the top of the picture.

Stayed at the Mammoth Hot Springs Campground in Yellowstone for 5 days. Got there around 11:30 a.m. and got a good spot. It filled up shortly thereafter. Yellowstone was really crowded. Read where attendance was breaking records. Saw license plates from all over the U.S., as well as lots of foreign tourists. Right after I got settled I drove towards the Canyon Village area. Driving anywhere in the middle of the afternoon is a mistake. The road from Mammoth through the Tower-Roosevelt area and Canyon Village is narrow and uneven and to drive it when it is really congested is bad. People are sightseeing and cross over the double yellow lines a lot. After this experience, just went out early in the morning.

Top picture: The upper Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. The clouds provided good lighting.

Second picture: There are lots of waterfalls in Yellowstone. I just visited the Lower Falls in the Canyon Village area. First took a trail down to the right side of the falls in the picture. From there I could see stairs going down the side of a mountain on the other side of the falls.

Third picture: Stairs on Uncle Tom’s Trail that you go down to view the Lower Falls at a good angle. They are really steep stairs. Someone has posted a video of the stairs on YouTube.

The Canyon Village area would be a good place to stay. There are paved trails along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. You are also close to Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley that are supposed to have lots of wildlife.

Top picture: What you are warned not to do, get close to wildlife…especially a grizzly bear! Park authorities had not arrived here yet. They use a lot of manpower to keep people at a certain distance from animals. In Mammoth Hot Springs the elk know they are protected and go where they want. At least one park employee follows them and puts out yellow cones that people are not supposed to cross. Passed one young black bear eating grass by the road. Across from him a park ranger in full dress uniform (hat and gloves) was waving to keep traffic going. Would love to have gotten a picture of him and the bear, but there was no place to stop.

The bull on the left appeared to be the head bull. He went around checking on a small herd by a pond and grunted the whole time. You could not really see the details of his face because of the fur, just heard continuous grunting.

The tail end of a coyote near Canyon Village.

Birds seen near my campsite. A red-breasted nuthatch (top) and a Clark’s nutcracker. There was a small flock of the Clark’s nutcrackers. They are the first ones I’ve ever seen.

Getting here: From Glacier National Park went back to Fort Benton, near Great Falls, to wait out a rain storm. From there, drove through Helena, and stayed one night at a free campground in the Canyon Ferry area. Then stayed two days at the Missouri Headwaters State Park where three rivers join to form the Missouri River. It is a good birding spot. Both at Fort Benton and the State Park, saw lots of cedar waxwings, gray catbirds, and osprey. One time I thought a cat was in a marsh, only to find it was a catbird. That’s the only time one has fooled me.

Cedar waxwing fledgling in Fort Benton. Note the orange tail feathers instead of the yellow that an adult has.

A chickadee on a bulrush at Missouri Headwaters State Park.

Heard sandhill cranes both at Missouri Headwaters State Park and Yellowstone, but never saw them.

Below: Campsite at Mammoth Hot Springs. Rain threatened several times, but only got a few sprinkles. Was sad to leave Yellowstone, but I’ll be back.

I’m here in Tulelake, California, with hunters and coyotes, at the Tule Lake Wildlife Refuge, where migrating birds are arriving.

Seeing a few sandhill cranes.

An eared grebe with a small fish.

Northern shoveler

Canvasback

Next to the refuge, there is a ranch house with a fenced garden with pumpkins and other squash. Don’t know if the owners wanted the mule deer inside their garden!

A parent western grebe giving its’ young one a small fish. The young one swallows it whole.

The owl was there again. Because it’s small and on the ground to the side of a road, bet most people do not see it.

The coyotes at the wildlife refuges look way to healthy.

American Kestrel

A vermilion flycatcher. The picture was taken near the RV park I have stayed at for the past week.