Enjoyed visiting Farragut State Park in Idaho. In 2009 when I passed through the area it was full. It’s located along the southwest border of Lake Pend Oreille, 20 miles north of Coeur D’Alene. There is a beautiful mixed conifer forrest with trails all over the place. Many intersect, so you can design your own hike. Most are fairly level, which I appreciated. The park also has a number of campgrounds, so you can choose hookups or no hookups. Now is a good time, at least mid-week, for people like me to visit. Would not want to come when it’s full (of kids…ok, I admit it).

The weather has continued to alternate between the 60′s & 70′s and cold spells with rain and snow in the mountains. There is some flooding in flood plain areas in Idaho.

Birds and squirrels are the main wildlife here. They say “Don’t feed the bears” on their handout map, but they are rarely seen. They don’t have bear proof trash cans. Mountain goats are on the opposite side of the lake. If you go out on a boat, they are supposed to be tame around people.

Above pictures: a pine grosbeak, like I saw in New Mexico. It was near the visitor center where there are trees and bird feeders. The picture below it is a gray jay near my campsite. Only the second time I’ve seen one.

Above, western bluebirds, the female with an insect in it’s beak. Below, a red-breasted nuthatch.

A Columbian ground squirrel. They were all over the campground I was in. They don’t seem to have many predators here. (update) Talked with camp host who said eagles, red-tailed hawks, kestrals, and coyotes do hunt these guys.

Just saw a few deer. Think road kill and hunters probably keep their numbers down.

Below, a trail near my campsite and Lake Pend Oreille.

Stopped at El Vado State Park near Chama, New Mexico to let some spring weather systems pass. Had snow, hail, and rain. The snow melted as soon as it hit the ground. On the distant mountains, it just lasted a few hours. I have been in drought areas so long, I enjoyed the rain. Left my trailer cleaner than it’s been for a while.

Bluebird with a worm.

Have started seeing osprey nests. The osprey below looks to be a young one.

Have been at Rancho Jurupa Regional Park in Riverside for about a week. Have been surprised at the wide variety of birds I have been seeing. There are the regulars that I have seen in the past, as well as some new ones.

Do not recall seeing a kestral (above) before.

Have seen a number of black-crowned night herons, as I have in the past.

Blue herons and egrets are here as well. Saw a blue heron hunting for gophers this morning. The park has finally hired a gopher control professional who is putting some type of gas into the gopher tunnels.

It’s funny how a blue heron, a night heron, and a great egret will stand side by side next to the water, but will usually get territorial and chase away their own species.

Black phoebe (top) and a Say’s phoebe (lower).

Not sure what kind of woodpecker this is. Doesn’t look like any of the pictures in my bird book.

A lot of birds are here as part of a flock. These include Western kingbirds (top), Western bluebirds (middle), and Cedar Waxwings (botton). I have never seen cedar waxwings here before. Also have had first time sightings of Western meadowlarks, but haven’t gotten a good picture yet.

A few more photos from the San Diego Zoo. Above is a Turkmenistan Caracal, an endangered cat found in the Middle East and Africa. At the zoo it is located next to the polar bears. I was watching the polar bear cam the other day and saw the outline of the cat’s ears in the background. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it was an antelope or deer.

Below, Frank the one-year-old male gorilla, is watching an adult female gorilla eat a green pepper. Parts of it is in her right hand and her left foot. Frank had tried to get some of it, but she wanted it for herself.

I have been in the Riverside area for two weeks getting routine maintenance done on my truck, trailer, and myself. Spent one day at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach while my trailer was being serviced and was really impressed. There was a twenty year court battle with a land developer to create this refuge along the coast where almost every square inch is developed. My hats off to the people who fought this battle.

Above: An adult breeding snowy egret wrangles a fish.

On walking along the trail at Bolsa Chica, an adult killdeer got my attention by running to the side of the trail and looking like she was nesting (top picture). When I started to move on, the killdeer ran back to the trail and seemed to try and get my attention. Then I saw two young killdeers exploring the side of the trail. The mother seemed to have been trying to divert my attention from them.

Greater scaups.

Yellowlegs (greater or lesser).

I spent most of my time at Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside. There are two pairs of herons nesting in tall trees there. Also saw a lot of western bluebirds (below).

Stayed at Prado Regional Park a few days, where I saw the peacock below. There are around 25 of them that stay around the park office area.

I have been in Big Bend National Park for more than a week. Have really missed not having internet access. This is one place your can’t even get Rush Limbaugh on the radio (yeh)! There is only one am station from Mexico and one NPR station on fm.

The Chihuahuan Desert you pass to get to the Rio Grande Village Campground has to be one of the prettiest deserts there is. Of course, February through April is the prime season. There is so much green cactus that appears to be new growth.

The second picture is of the Sierra del Carmen mountains in Mexico that you can see from the campground.

The last place for “river runners” on the Rio Grande River to come ashore in Big Bend is in Rio Grande Village (third picture).

Boquillas Canyon near the campground. There is a small Mexican village here that used to boat Americans over to eat at their restaurants and buy crafts. This stopped after 9/11. Now there is a problem with theft of items from tourist’s cars near the border. There is also a problem with drug smugglers going through the park.

Candelilla plant (foreground). People used to extract the wax that coats the plant to make candles and other items. This is still done in Mexico.

Roadrunners in the campground area. They are not tame, but they don’t usually run from people like they do elsewhere.

Eastern bluebird. There is a grove of trees planted by early settlers near the campground that are kept watered for the shade they provide.

White winged dove. There was a flock on them in the same grove of trees as the bluebird.

There was a hot springs spa near the campground that was in business until 1952. The flowers have reseeded and grown for 50 years without attention! What a great legacy. Stones like you see in the cliff above were used as flooring in some of the early adobe homes.

Rock nettle is shown growing in the picture above.

This daisy plant may give a clue as to some of the flowers. There was flooding along the Rio Grande in the fall. A number of campsites were damaged from it. You can see the dried mud around the above daisy. Maybe the flood gave a lot of seeds a chance to germinate.

Getting here: From Falcon State Park I went to Lake Casa Blanca International State Park, then Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site. The highway from Del Rio to Marathon is a nice two-lane one. At almost every hill there is a passing lane on the uphill side. There were also frequent picnic areas. Really a great road for rv’s.

In David Sibley’s bird book he says the great-tailed grackle is common and increasing. While staying at Lake Casa Blanca in Laredo I noticed that between 5-6 p.m. there was a continuous stream of grackles (and some black birds) flying over my rv to roost near the lake. It was like all the grackles in Laredo, Texas were coming in for the night.

Entered the Grand Canyon through the south rim entrance two days ago. Planned to leave today, but there is a wind warning for winds up to 50 mph in the area along the I-40 from Flagstaff to New Mexico, where I am heading next. This is the same area where the wind blew open my truck cover before, so I decided to stay another day at the Grand Canyon. It has gotten windy here today too, but at least here I can be in my trailer, rather than towing it. I’ll check for weather advisories later today, before deciding if I will leave tomorrow.

The Grand Canyon is really beautiful (duh!). Glad I came. There is a paved walkway for 13 miles along the rim with free shuttle rides you can get on and off of along the route. Taking a hike along the rim sounds a lot better to me than undertaking the narrow trails down to the canyon bottom.

Western bluebirds getting water from a leaky faucet in the trailer village.

Cannot understand people walking out onto a narrow ledge, just to get a picture.