Birding in Fort Snelling State Park

Today we begin the trip home. I always get sad to leave here and go back to the real world, but we have a lot of great pictures. This is probably our most productive trip to Yellowstone. We saw almost everything that there was to see. We had 3 wolf sightings this year, which was great because we have never seen wolves in the park before. We got some pics of a prairie falcon, which was a life bird for me. We also got some good badger shots and golden eagle shots. We had seen both in the park on past trips but we were able to get better pics this time. Yesterdays weather actually cleared up quite a bit, despite what the weather people forecasted, and we were fortunate to see an elk calf that had been born only 30 minutes before we photographed it. We also got a lot of great bird pics including mountain bluebird, raven, white-crowned sparrow, common merganser, buffelhead, Barrow's goldeneye, eared grebe, kestrel, grouse and a few more.

We did not get back until late yesterday and we are trying to leave soon so I did not have time to get any more Yellowstone pics ready, but I do have some more passerines that I photographed at Fort Snelling State Park on May 12th.

song sparrow
white-throated sparrow
gray catbird
yellow-rumped warbler Myrtle variety

blackburnian warbler

I will have a lot of pics to share when I get home but I may not be able to post for the next couple of days while we are driving. If I am not able to post I hope that everyone has a happy Memorial Day.

Yellowstone

Well today is our last full day in Yellowstone. Tomorrow we pack up and then make one last swing through the north end of the park on our way home. When we arrived Sunday the weather was beautiful, with plenty of sunshine and temps in the 70s.
This has been a great trip, much better then last year, and possibly our best outing in Yellowstone. We have seen all of the major mammals, that inhabit the park, except moose.
Michelle took the pic of the pronghorn antelope above and the black bear below. On Tuesday the weather began to turn. It started out sunny on Tuesday then began to cloud up as the day went on. By the time we were on the way back to our hotel it was raining. Wednesday the rain turned to snow and Thursday when we entered the park we were informed that a large portion of the park was closed due to the snow. It was so bad that even the geese went looking for high ground.
Despite the weather we still had a great day on Thursday. Today the weather still looks pretty poor but it seems that the bad weather brings out some of the more elusive animals so hopefully we will have another great day. I will have a lot to post when I get home so stay tuned.

Warblers and Friends from Fort Snelling

Before we left on vacation I was almost sad to be leaving. With the spring migration coming late this year, due to the extended winter weather, the warblers were all over at home. They seemed to be holding up waiting for the weather up north to get better, but I figure by the time that we get back they will have moved on. I can't complain though because we have had a great time shooting out in Yellowstone. Here are some more of the warblers, and orioles, that I was seeing before we left.

Baltimore oriole
Tennessee warbler

yellow warbler
orange-crowned warbler

blackburnian warbler

black-throated green warbler

Maybe I will get lucky and some of the stragglers will still be around when I get back but for now I am going to go out and enjoy nature where I am, even with the couple of inches of snow that fell last night.

Birding from Montana

Well it has been a couple of really great but busy days. Yesterday we were out from 7am until about 10:30 pm, we got back and we were beat. I could not even stay up long enough to download the memory cards so that we could use them today. So this morning I had to do the download and back up before we could leave, which was a bummer because even though the day was supposed to be cloudy the morning was sunny and beautiful. The sun lasted until about noon then it got hazy and by the time that we were heading back at around 7pm it started raining. I can't complain too much because we have had some great opportunities to take some great pics. I think that I will be posting Yellowstone trip pics for quite a while, here are a couple of pics from Bowdoin NWR that I took on Saturday.

Wilson's phalarope
black-necked stilt

There will be a lot more pictures to come.

Warblers from Old Cedar Ave Bridge

Yesterday we left our hotel after breakfast, around 7am, and got into the park around 8:30am. We did not get back to our new hotel until after 8pm. It was a very full and productive day with great weather, black bear cubs, bison cubs, elk, grizzly, big horned sheep, American kestrel and a lot more. The weather is supposed to turn rainy later in the week so I am spending as much time as possible outside shooting as I can while the weather is nice. So hopefully I can put together a few more Yellowstone pics for you a bit later in the week but for now how about some swallows and warblers that I shot at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge on May 11th.

barn swallow
Nashville warbler
black and white warbler

black-throated green warbler

I promise that I will have plenty of pics and posts from Yellowstone later in the week and when I get back home.

A Little Appetizer from our Trip

So far we have only been gone 3 days but we have a lot of good pics, about 30gb worth. I did not have a lot of time, I would prefer to spend more time in the park shooting, but I did get up early to put together a couple of pics that we took on Friday, just to start giving you a preview of the posts that I will be making when I return.

western meadowlark
yellow-headed blackbird

I will try to post some more pics as we continue on the trip as well as a few more posts of warblers and other passerines that I took before we left.

Warblers from Wood Lake to Hold You Over

I have spent the past couple of days exploring some of the best birding spots in Montana. Friday I was at Medecine Lake NWR and today I made my first trip to Bowdion NWR. This part of Montana appears to going through some what of a drought and both parks appeared to be much dryer then normal, so birding was harder then it was last year. I have not had time to upload any pics, since we just got to the hotel after a full day of birding and driving, but I do have some nice shots that I took at Wood Lake Nature Center on May 9th.

grackle
yellow-rumped warbler
palm warbler
black and white warbler

orange-crowned warbler

Tomorrow we head into Yellowstone. Depending on how late that we shoot I will try and get a couple of sample pics of the trip uploaded.

Butterflies from Fort Snelling State Park

I will be out birding today and hopefully getting a lot of good pics to share. I have to keep John entertained after all, LOL. Hopefully I will start getting some pics up in a couple of days but right now I am stuck using a hotel PC today and tomorrow so no uploading. But I usually am prepared and I have a few posts of pics waiting. While birding around Fort Snelling I stopped to take a few butterfly pics.

mourning cloak
Cabbage white.

This was the first time that I have seen cabbage white butterflies so I am hopeful that soon there will be more butterflies and dragonflies to photograph. Unfortunately a lot of the best places that I found last year are currently under water, we had more snow last winter and a rainy spring so there is a lot of extra water around.

Some Dodge for you while I drive

I apologize for my lack of witty reporte on this post and the last. I am leaving shortly for a short trip and have been trying to get things taken care of so that I can leave. I will try and blog a bit while I am traveling. This will depend on the Internet connections at hotels and how much time that I have when I am not out shooting. Here are some more pics from Dodge Nature Center for you to enjoy while I drive.

eastern phoebe
cedar waxwing

house wren
sora
painted turtle

Birding Dodge Nature Center

Here are some more pictures from Dodge Nature Center that I took on May 5th

female redwinged blackbird
palm warbler


Tennessee warbler

yellow warbler

yellowthroat
broadwinged hawk