Archive for the ‘Idaho’ Category

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Bruneau Dunes State Park

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Stayed at Bruneau Dunes State Park for a few days.

Part of the C.J. Strike Wildlife Management Area is just a mile down the road from the park. While walking down a path towards the Snake River and duck ponds, I heard a bird I could not identify or see. Finally, I looked above me to see a northern harrier who seemed upset by my presence. It started to dive bomb me. Most of my pictures did not turn out, because it was flying so fast the camera didn’t have time to focus (while I was simultaneously ducking). Luckily I got a few. Harriers often nest on the ground, so I assume it was protecting a nest. I retreated so as not to disturb it any more.

A bird so often heard, but not often seen, a meadowlark.

Below, lark sparrows near the campground.

Posted in meadowlark, Mountain Home, Northern harrier, sparrow | Comments Off

Snake River Birds of Prey NCA

Sunday, May 9th, 2010

Visited the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area near Boise, Idaho. In the picture above it was sunny where I was, but there was snow and rain in half the sky, towards the mountains.

A Say’s phoebe (top) and a Brewer’s sparrow (bottom) near Dedication Point.

On the plateau above the Snake River there are “extraordinary numbers” of Townsend’s ground squirrels because of the unique soil and abundant food. Above you see a homeowner’s nightmare: all the light colored areas are squirrel burrows. There are miles and miles and miles of them. These are the small squirrels that run into the road in front of your car and then stop and maybe turn around.

The largest concentration of nesting prairie falcons in North America occurs in the NCA and feeds mainly on ground squirrels. When summer’s heat drives the ground squirrels into their burrows for summer hibernation, most prairie falcons leave the NCA in search of other prey. (Text from a sign at Dedication Point.)

I heard gunfire while I was at Dedication Point. On looking at the NCA’s web site found that target practice using squirrels is ok in certain areas. Urban sprawl from the Boise suburbs is inching very close to the NCA. Wonder if that will change the policy of allowing gun use.

Western kingbird seen along farmland on the way to the NCA.

Young male and female California quails near where I stayed along the Snake River. There are a lot of them in the area.

Below, a Western tanager. Not a great picture, but I see so few of them, wanted to post it.

Birds seen but not pictured: juvenile northern harriers, red-tailed hawks, swallows, kestrals, tundra swans, an osprey with a fish in it’s talons.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, kingbird, Marsing, quail, squirrel, tanager | No Comments »

Malheur Refuge & Steens Mountain

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

great_horned_owl

Have been at the BLM Page Springs Campground at the base of Steens Mountain in Oregon for about a week now. It is right next to the southern edge of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Have spent most of my time visiting the refuge, but have also driven Steens Mountain Loop. Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area was created rather recently, in the year 2000. The BLM is also doing a study on how to deal with the development of western juniper forests that have developed because of fire suppression. They have cut down a lot of juniper trees and will burn them after it snows.

Picture above: Surprised a great horned owl while driving through the refuge late in the afternoon. There is also an owl that perches near the visitor center. Wondered if they bribe it with mice to get it to stay there for visitors to see.

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Have had four coyote sightings. They really look healthy.

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Common merganser.

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young_quail

Top: male California quail. Below: a young quail.

Have surprised quail with a lot of young ones several times. Each time the male flew up to a bush to supervise while the female corralled the young ones into the brush.

Birds seen but not pictured: Three trumpeter swans, large flock of white pelicans, lots of great egrets, magpies, ring-necked pheasants, vultures roosting on an old fire lookout tower and a few sandhill cranes.

rattlesnake

A rattlesnake decided to sleep in the middle of the road by the campsite next to mine. Bad choice. The camp host came over with a shovel and decapitated it. Talk about nerves of steel!

sheep

There is a long history of Basque sheepherding on Steens Mountain. When I was driving past the ones above, they started to cross the road in front of me. A sheepherder and his dogs quickly came into play and returned them to the area they were supposed to be in.

Kiger_Gorge

There are four u-shaped gorges on Steens Mountain. Above is Kiger Gorge with a little patch of snow.

Getting here

Stopped at Lake Walcott State Park in Idaho on the way here. They water the lawn by the campsites one hour a day, 5 days a week. This, along with the naturally occurring water, makes it very buggy.

sunflowers

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, Burns, merganser, owl, quail, Rupert, sheep, State, wildlife refuge | Comments Off

Bear Lake

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

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Bear Lake is a 20-mile-long natural lake, half in Idaho and half in Utah. Both states have state parks along it. The first thing you notice about it is it’s color, a Caribbean blue, due to suspended limestone deposits. I stayed 5 days at the Idaho State Park Campground on the east side of the lake. When I arrived mid-day on a Sunday, it was jammed. Within two hours though, it was just me and three or four other campers. It is a popular weekend place for young families and young people. Boating and jet-sking are allowed and you can drive on the beach (4-wheel drive recommended). When I left on Friday, it was starting to rapidly fill up again.

Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located right across from the north end of the lake and was the reason for my visit. Saw a few sandhill cranes in farmland around the refuge, as well as a pair of swans in the marsh along with a fair amount of waterfowl.

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Two different red-tailed hawks seen in the area. There are also osprey.

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Kestral

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Sora

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church_ovid

What looks to be an old church in the small village of Ovid.

sunset_bear_lake

Posted in American kestrel, hawk, Paris, sora, State, sunset, wildlife refuge | Comments Off

Revisiting Grays Lake Wildlife Refuge

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Noted a number of changes in Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge from my visit in June. Snow was gone from the mountain tops, the lake/marsh seemed to have more water, most of the wildflowers were gone, and the marsh had a copper color. There are a lot more sandhill cranes visible, often with juvenile cranes. Most nesting birds have moved on. Did not see any Franklin gulls. They are most likely on their way to South America.

Stayed at Blackfoot Reservoir Campground this time. It is a beautiful BLM campground about halfway between the refuge and Soda Springs. The first night discovered there were lots of flying bugs there. The same “midgies” that I saw in Klamath Falls in August of 2007 that were brought from France because they eat mosquito larva. To their credit, there were not many mosquitos! Also, there were a huge number of swallows nearby that seemed to appreciate having the bugs to eat.

Saw lots of hawks and fledgling hawks in the farmland around the refuge.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, hawk, horse, National, sandhill crane, Soda Springs, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Stayed a few days at Henry’s Lake State Park, a little south of West Yellowstone, just so I could visit the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. I had put off visiting it before because you have to drive more than 25 miles over a dirt road. Was glad I did not try and drive my trailer over the road. Found it to be a mix of washboard, rock, and potholes…really bad. Making it hard to get to probably is a good thing. It is one of the most beautiful and remote wildlife refuges I’ve been to and being hard to get to probably helps keep it that way.

Picture above: Upper Red Rock Lake. The Centennial Mountains are seen when you look in the other direction.

Passed over Red Rock Pass and into Montana on the way to the refuge from Island Park, Idaho.

Taylor Mountain, around 9,500 feet, near the refuge. There is still some snow on it.

Part of the Upper Lake Campground. I would love to get my trailer here for a few days. You are really in the wilderness without having to backpack into it. Next year I’m going to try going through the west entrance to the refuge to see if that road is any better than the east entrance that I traveled.

Had a staredown with this marmot. Kept thinking it would run away. Finally said, ok, you win, and left. It may have been protecting a nest.

Below: Think these are prairie falcon fledglings, though I’m not good at identifying falcons and hawks. Swainson’s hawks (thanks to John Dahlke)

Posted in falcon, Island Park, marmot, wildlife refuge | 1 Comment »

Heyburn State Park, Idaho

Saturday, July 25th, 2009

Have been in Heyburn State Park in Idaho for close to a week. Had a hard time finding an rv spot. They are doing a lot of construction work here and visitor’s are kind of on their own. After about an hour, I did find a nice spot. It has been warm, but being surrounded by trees cools things off. Have not had to use my air conditioner.

One thing the park has going for it is the 73-mile Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes paved trail that passes through it. Above you see the path crossing Chalcolet Lake. There are three osprey nesting near this crossing. The one in the top picture is right over the path. It was not happy with my walking under it’s nest.

An osprey doing some redecorating with a long branch.

Cedar waxwing with a berry it subsequently swallows whole.

Western tanager with fledgling.

Pretty dragonfly and a beaver in a marsh area.

Parent, on right, the same osprey as in the top picture, with a soon-to-be fledgling on the left.

Below, campsite at Heyburn.

Posted in Airstream, beaver, cedar waxwing, osprey, Plummer, State, tanager | 1 Comment »

Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge

Tuesday, July 21st, 2009

I am visiting Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, around 20 miles from the Canadian Border. The cedar waxwing, above, has some fledglings in the berry bush. The leaves were so dense, I couldn’t get a good picture of them.

On reading about Bonners Ferry on Wikipedia, found that it is near where the Ruby Ridge incident occurred. The write up on Wikipedia about this is like a novel. There are lots of places in the woods around here to try and escape society.

It is really crowded here with rv’s and motorcycles. I stopped by Glacier National Park on the way, but it was also jammed. Hope to get back there. A Canadian radio station made the comment that they just have two seasons: winter and July. This may have something to do with the crowds. It’s the best weather of the year.

Have seen this moose and calf three times. The adult always detects when people stop to watch her with the calf and she heads back into the tall grass.

Osprey. An adult was two posts down from it eating a fish.

On leaving the refuge one day, I noticed the silhouette of the back of an owl on a utility pole. I slowing walked towards it, not wanting it to fly away. Came to find it was a fake owl! Read where they were put on utility poles to keep osprey from nesting, but the osprey ended up using the fake owls in their nests.

Young deer going out into a wheat field where an adult was grazing.

Posted in Bonners Ferry, cedar waxwing, deer, geese, moose, osprey, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Camas National Wildlife Refuge

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

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.

Posted in antelope, coot, grebe, porcupine, Rexburg, robin, wildlife refuge, Wilson's warbler | No Comments »

More from Southeast Idaho

Monday, June 29th, 2009

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.

Posted in Bureau of Land Management, coot, grebe, National, owl, Rexburg, ruddy, State, swan, tern, wildlife refuge | Comments Off

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