Mammally Goodness

Red Crossbill. You can see the pried-open cone he's been working on.

I left Billings, MT before dawn, hoping to make it to Yellowstone at a reasonable time. I failed to do this. Why? The incredible scenery you pass through en route boggles the mind. You must stop. You must bird. And after a few stops you keep telling yourself that you have to keep going, that you'll never make it to Yellowstone at this rate....but that doesn't work either.

The Gallatin National Forest's proximity to Yellowstone is both a blessing and a curse....it doesn't get the attention it deserves, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. As we all know, there is something to be said about roaming around on your own.

Not every day you get to see crossbill tongue.

The drive to Yellowstone took much longer than expected. A flock of Red Crossbills were fun to spend time with...to borrow a birder cliche, they were quite confiding. Of course, an old Midwestern tourist scared them all away, and I wished God's wrath upon him. Further down the road were American Pipits (not something most people are accustomed to seeing in summer), a hunting Red Fox, a Yellow-bellied Marmot and PIKAS. I couldn't believe it....I was getting stoked on mammals, of all things. How embarrassing.

If you plan on making a Yellowstone trip, be sure to check out the area between Cooke City and Red Lodge (this is the northeast access to the park), you will not regret it.

Golden-mantled Ground-Squirrels. Why do they have chipmunk stripes? Tell me.

Red Fox.

Foxy.

Marmot. Is nice, you like?

Pika pika pika pika pika pika.

Yeah, look at this thing. It doesn't even make sense. It's highly evolved to be cute though.

Botanists! Help me out! Cool flower at any rate.

So Long North Dakota...enshrouded in Lark Buntings....The Road to Yellowstone

This Tiger Salamander was crossing the road as I was leaving Lostwood for the last time. Nice smile.

Sleepy Lark Bunting.

The moment you have been waiting for has arrived. Not only am I unemployed, I am back in San Francisco where I have nothing but time. The halcyon days of five blog posts a week (is that overkill?) are once again within reach....as is almost anything the heart desires...this is San Francisco, after all.

Right. In the spirit of catching up, I left North Dakota a couple weeks ago as my seasonal job monitoring Piping Plover productivity (i.e. numbers of nests that hatch and chicks that fledge, for you nonbirders) was finished. Since I was going back to California, I decided it was best to make my way to Yellowstone National Park...alternately known as "The American Serengheti" (according to the National Park Service) and "A Fucking Zoo" (according to a friend, referring to the tourists).

Another Lark Bunting. Not something a Californian sees much of.

Juvenile Grasshopper Sparrows are pretty striking...for a sparrow.

After living in rural North Dakota for months, I was totally ready for large mammals and not afraid of tourists...I hadn't stood in a crowd all summer. Intrepidly, I set out westward, back through Montana...

And there was not much to tell about that. I took one random road in the hope of finding some McCown's Longspurs, which I haven't seen in a few years...I think I may have flushed some with a flock of Horned Larks, but identifying birds flying directly away from you is not a terribly accurate strategy. I did run into a bunch of Lark Buntings though, which are not very common in North Dakota, and a good number of Grasshopper Sparrows to boot.

Horned Lark. They don't usually appear so shrunken-headed.

The next day I was en route to Yellowstone, heading towards the northeast entrance, going through the facemelting Gallatin National Forest en route. The scenery was phenoms. And so began my constant wishing that I had more time to bird/explore the area...

More on all that next time. Until then, perhaps you should brush up on whats happening over at 10,000 Birds or at my friend Dan Maxwell's blog right here. He is living just a few miles from me on the Farallon Islands, but will probably see, how do you say, "hella" more rare birds than me this fall because that happens to be one of the best places to bird on the West Coast. Don't let his blatant misidentification of a Blackburnian Warbler put you off, he is typically not a sketchy birder.

Day breaks above treeline. Crushing scenery northeast of Yellowstone, easily comparable with whats in the park. Gallatin National Forest, MT.

A strange creature from another kingdom. Gallatin National Forest, MT.

Golden-mantled Ground-Squirrels. Squirreling. Gallatin National Forest, MT.