Winter Tour Part 1: And So It Begins...

Black Oystercatchers hang out in tidepools and destroy molluscs all day...sounds nice. Crescent City, CA.

Winter Tour is OVER. I am now the master of Washington and Oregon birding. I rolled deep with three (3) lifers, swarms of rarities, and a lot of other birds I don't get to see a whole lot down here. Since I took hundreds of horrible bird photos over the past few weeks, I will have to spoon feed you them in small amounts...the BB&B staff is not interested in overdoses.

I am back in San Francisco now, where I will remain for an indeterminate amount of time. The West Coast is finally getting slammed by winter weather, so I foresee a lot of not birding the next few days...which is good for blogging, I suppose. On a weirder front, something called a "job" might be looming on the horizon...we'll see where that goes. Could this be the end of funemployment?

I have always been drawn to the feet of Black Oystercatchers, for reasons I can't entirely explain. Crescent City, CA.

Greater Yellowlegs. I'm glad the days of not being able to tell Greaters and Lessers apart are behind me....how embarrassing. Arcata, CA.

You know life is good when you don't even have to bother to wipe puke off your face. California Sea Lions must have it rough. Crescent City, CA.

American Kestrel. Someday, I will get a picture of one that is not on a power line. Arcata, CA.

Spotted Towhee. While this bird looks pretty much our California birds, some individuals I saw in Washington were very dark in comparison, lacking much of the white spotting on the back. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR.

Hairy Woodpecker. This dude was going to town at the base of a big, moss-covered oak...too bad the lighting was rubbish. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR.

Cackling Geese are everywhere up there. Finley National Wildlife Refuge, OR.

This is the proper way to enjoy delicious jug wine.

Grand Teton National Park

The oxbow of the Snake River, with Tetons looming.

Waking up early in the morning, I left the campground in Yellowstone's Grant Village (not great, but I've seen worse) and headed south for Grand Teton National Park, just a short drive south from Yellowstone's southern boundary. Still high on geyser fumes and megafauna sightings, I really had no idea what to expect in Grand Teton, aside from the amazing scenery the Tetons themselves provide. I was hoping for some more birding opportunities...everything in Yellowstone is so frakking distracting that its hard to get down to business and actually find some birds.

Like Yellowstone, you may traverse the park in a big loop of sorts, which is what I ended up doing my first day...but not before finding my lifer Three-toed Woodpecker at Signal Mountain, mixed in with a massive mixed flock. The experience caused me to vomited violently for a substantial amount of time, particularly when it landed about 12 feet away at the base of a tree. Observing your first Three-toed Woodpecker is a very intense experience, you see. Of course, I didn't have any kind of convenient photography machine with me at the time, so I was free to fantasize about having a camera in hand (and to continue vomiting in ecstasy). I did get a couple record shots eventually, but I only saw one other on my trip.

A juvenile Hairy Woodpecker woodpecking.

A female-type Northern Flicker pauses. Why are they called flickers anyway? I think kinglets should be called flickers. These should be called Anteaters...thats not taken, is it?

Composing myself, I continued up Signal Mountain, where the internets had informed me Dusky Grouse could be found. After aimlessly walking around a lookout/vistaish area with a few tourists, a woman walked up and proudly announced that there had been a grouse sitting only a few feet off the trail, but that her dog had stressed it out and said grouse had wandered off into the underbrush. A nearby know-it-all who had the definite air of a used car salesman proudly announced that it had been a Sage Grouse, but I knew otherwise...

Since I had already set up camp and dicked around Signal Mountain, by the time I got back to the main park road it was bloody hot, ruling out any kind of fun/productive hiking, so I decided to attempt to see as much of the park as I could. Mainly, I spent time taking Teton pictures and cursing the heat and the wind, and wondering if the giant, fuck-off wildfire (pictured below) was going to crest the mountain and burn us all alive. Much-touted Mormon Row was....well, a bit underwhelming, but pretty cool nonetheless, and I did run into some more bison, Pronghorn, and a Black Bear that day, among other things. The birding was solid in the morning, I just wish I had more time to bird! The main eyesore of the area is the hideous Jackson Hole Airport, which is pretty much inside the park for some reason...aside from that, humbling views and wildlife were easy to come by. 

Enough rambling for now...life is Weird...be prepared.

Three-toed Woodpecker. What a crippler.

Turns out I did see a Dusky Grouse that day. A motor vehicle had murdered it. 

Moose moose moose moose.

Fire. Glad I wasn't stuck on the other side of that hill.

POLLINATION.

Tetons. Grandiose.

This year has largely been dominated by Swainson's Hawks for me, so I'm not going to stop posting pictures of them. This one is blinking its nictating membrane.