Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Trip Bird Report: Day 3, 4 and 5

After the awesome birding photo extravaganza at Bowdoin NWR, we slowed down our shutters for a while. Monday morning as we drove toward the east entrance of Glacier the weather turned from sunny to overcast and rainy. I'm not sure how much Christine will post on these couple of days, so I am including a few of her scenic pictures along with the birds.

We started at Many Glacier, stopping at the lodge to scope the Bighorn Sheep. On the drive out I heard a loud bird sound that I did not recognize, so of course we stopped and were rewarded with wonderful views of a MacGillivray's Warbler. The only road through Glacier NP, Going to the Sun road, was closed but we decided to drive in from the east entrance as far as possible anyways. I'm glad we did as we found both a Ferruginous Hawk and a Rufous Hummingbird, both life birds for me. The rain intensified as we drove around to the west entrance and we ditched the plan to camp in the park. Instead we kept on down the road, heading toward Rainier NP with the extra day.

Monday night we stopped at Kootenai Falls in Idaho along Highway 2, as the rain had stopped at it was time for a small hike. Chestnut-backed Chickadee's greeted us on our walk in as well! We safely braved a suspension bridge which tested both of our bellies. We drove until 10 pacific time, which ended 19 hours of driving that day, when we arrived at a hotel in Spokane WA for the night. We were generously upgraded to a hot tub suite and slept in before heading out Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning we stopped at Turnbill NWR finding life Pygmy Nuthatches, American Bittern, and Red-napped Sapsucker. We continued on to Rainier NP and arrived around 7pm. We quickly set up camp and headed to Paradise for sunset. Along the way we found Steller's Jays, Gray Jays, Sooty Grouse, and 'silver phase' Red Foxes. The sunset was nice and we took a few scenic pictures as well.

On Wednesday we drove from Rainier to the Silver Lake Mt St Helens Visitor Center. Walking around the mile trail I saw Vaux's Swifts, Red-breasted Sapsucker, and Bewick Wrens for the first time. We also did the auto loop at Ridgefield NWR before heading to Portland. We did not see any new life birds at Ridgefield, but a Cinnamon Teal posed for Christine.

As we pulled into Aubrey and Steve's Oregon City residence we saw a western scrub jay hopping around. Life birds everywhere!!! After sleeping in Thursday morning we packed up and headed to Olympic NP, which was awesome.

1 comment:

Linda said...

Love all your pictures- birds and scenery- it makes me feel like I am there with you enjoying God's beauty!!