Archive for the ‘chukar’ Category

Great Salt Lake, Utah

Thursday, May 5th, 2011

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.

Posted in Airstream, bison, Bureau of Land Management, chukar, coyote, lark, magpie, National, rabbit, Salt Lake City, State | Comments Off

Snake River Birds of Prey NCA

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

The Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Southwest Idaho is managed by the BLM. It is supposed to have “one of the world’s densest concentrations of nesting birds of prey”. The World Center of Birds of Prey is located nearby in Boise.

Above, the Snake River near Swan Falls Dam in the conservation area. There is a dirt/gravel road (shown in the picture) that goes 4 miles along the river with pullouts for camping. The dirt/gravel road is pretty good, but the pullouts in the sandy dirt have been damaged by rain. I didn’t see any rv’s, just tents. Also, the road down to the river has one mile of, at the minimum, an 8% grade.

A hawk (not sure which one) with chicks on a telephone pole in the prairie above the river valley. I could see and hear hawks in the cliffs on the right side of the river, but they were so far away and blended in so well with the cliffs, I couldn’t get any pictures.

There are the largest squirrels along the river. When I first saw one, thought it was a beaver. They are really large and lumbering in their movements.

Fellow travel blogger, Lloyd, with a wonderful site at wandrin.us, is probably right that the above rodent is a yellow-bellied marmot.

In the parking lot at the Birds of Prey Center saw the above bird. Came to find out it’s a chukar. When I was at the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge, their refuge map said chukar hunting was allowed at the base of the mountain. Chukar’s are not native to the U.S., they were brought in as a game bird for hunting. Don’t see how anyone could shoot one, they are so cute.

Below, a bald eagle on display at the Birds of Prey Center.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, chukar, eagle, squirrel, Swan Falls | 1 Comment »