Had the opportunity to visit Bolsa Chica Wetlands in Huntington Beach again.

Above, a clam has “clamped” down on one of the coot’s toes. The coot is looking around for some assistance from a fellow coot. There were areas where there were a lot of these clams in this protected preserve. The next day I looked for, but did not see a coot with a clam on one foot.

Saw three or four varieties of grebes.

Saw another heron’s nest here. The heron above is taking it’s one twig to it’s mate in the nest.

Think this is a snipe. A snipe is the only short, squat, sea bird that I know of. Corrected by reader: this is a green heron. First picture of a green heron I’ve gotten.

A common yellow-throat

A round stingray

Top picture, a young antelope. The only one I’ve seen. It stayed perfectly still as I drove by. Have also seen a lone moose, but it was too far away to get a picture.

Second picture, a porcupine was plodding along the road on one of my morning visits to the refuge.

Eared grebe with a baby on board, literally. I had heard grebe babies ride on a parent’s back. This is the first one I’ve seen.

Have seen quite a few ibis’. They are like ducks though, they tend to take off when they see you approaching.

Coot smackdown. Pre-fight posturing in top picture. They use their feet in fighting, holding onto the other bird with one foot and slapping with the other, along with pushing with the beak. The goal is to push the other bird onto his back. Think this fight was over a female coot. The bigger coot won.

Another picture of the owl, this time on the ground.

The pictures  below were taken by my rv site in Rexburg: baby robins in the first pictures and a Wilson’s warbler in the second. A parent robin was calling to the young ones today, trying to get them to fly to the ground.

The rv park I’m staying at is a family farm/rv park/bed and breakfast/cabin rental/and gift shop. There is a for sale sign out front, so the owners may have over extended themselves. They are really nice people and work really hard. There are lots of birds and, so far, no mosquitoes. Cotton, from all the cottonwood trees blows around in the air. I decided to stay here through the 4th of July.

I am around 50 miles from Grays Lake, but I took the long way around to get here, going through Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. Yellowstone was extremely crowded (what a surprise). They were also doing road work in two areas that made you sit in your car for a half hour or so before being allowed through. Had planned to camp in Yellowstone, but the campgrounds were full. Exited via the south entrance and headed to Harriman State Park, only to find they don’t allow camping. A mile or so south of Harriman, there was a sign for Riverside Campground in the Targhee forest. Was surprised to see nice paved campsites along Henry’s Fork River that could accommodate the largest rv’s.

Stayed 4 days at Riverside Campground. The first two days were beautiful, but the next two it became mosquitoland. Went hiking at Harriman Park after spraying myself with OFF! It worked pretty well.

Moved a little further south to Rexburg, Idaho to see Camas National Wildlife Refuge. Was pleased to see Camas has a stream and canals that create a lot of wetlands for birds. The land south of it is desert managed by BLM.

The waterfall above is Upper Mesa Falls seen on the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.

A beautiful night heron seen at Harriman State Park.

A male, breeding ruddy duck seen at Camas. All the photos below were taken at the Camas Refuge.

Eared grebe.

A baby coot being fed by a parent.

A black tern. First one I’ve ever seen. My bird book says they are uncommon. They remind me of nighthawks, the way they flitter around. A weasel ran down the refuge road and a black tern dive bombed it. Weasels eat birds, among other things.

A short eared owl. They are also uncommon and are less nocturnal than other owls. The picture was taken around 6 p.m. Not a great pic, but it’s all I got.

Saw a few sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans.

Top picture: Tricolored heron. Below it a heron catches something (a small crab?) through the muck and swallows it.

Some young coots did not know enough to fly away as I walked by.

After a few days of 40/30 degrees, it warmed up to 70/80 today. Saw a number of turtles and alligators. Met some people who were counting the number of alligators. They had sighted 23 in the two main lakes here.

A snake bird. It was always in the middle of the lake, making hard to get a good picture.

Turkey vultures always congregate by this lake. The black-bellied whistling ducks are heard in the background.

Black bellied whistling ducks. Nothing dramatic.

From San Diego I returned to Rancho Jurupa Park in Riverside for a few days. It turned into a week because of the fierce winds that kicked up and perpetuated the Southern California fires.

Above, an adult night heron on top and a group of egrets and herons seen at Rancho Jurupa.

I finally made my way to Blythe. It was unseasonably hot there, so after two days, I decided to press on to New Mexico. I took the I-10 to Phoenix and then the I-17 to Flagstaff. Northern Arizona was at least 10 degrees cooler than Southern Arizona was my reasoning. I’ve never taken the I-17 before. It was a nice drive, but there is a pretty steep grade.

Below: A falcon seen at Cibola Wildlife Refuge in the Blythe area. There were a hundred or so sandhill cranes there.

On the I-40 in Arizona, I stopped at Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, Arizona. Ended up staying two days because it was so nice. In the past, I’ve always hit severe winds coming through this area. It was calm and peaceful this time, with only a couple of other visitors in the park. It got down to freezing at night, but by mid-day, it warmed up.

My camp site is shown below. There are both pull-throughs and very wide back-ins.

Morrison Pond in Sweetwater Regional Park is a great bird watching spot. On the park’s system of trails, you can walk the half mile to the pond from the campground on a trail that goes over a freeway, next to a golf course, and under a city road to an open area that is being restored to attract wildlife. Driving through town there are always people jogging or walking their dogs on the park’s trails. It is great that open areas are being preserved in this densely populated area.

First night heron I have seen.