Jean Bjerke's Photo Blog

One Winter Day in Yellowstone

2012-01-26T21:48:00.000-08:00

Long ago, my hero John Muir, was asked by a prominent individual visiting Yosemite, for suggestions about how to spend a single day in that park. I suspect it was with scorn, when Muir later shared in writing his advice to someone so “time-poor” as to only have one day to see Yosemite.

Old Faithful Geyser in winter

It is the same with Yellowstone. We were excited to have arranged for a snow coach tour on one winter day in our nation’s first national park. But we knew that one day was completely inadequate to experience Yellowstone in winter - we were keenly aware of being what Muir would have called “time-poor.”

Yellowstone is a vast and magnificent area, a true wonderland in winter, and it would take at least a few days to reach all of the areas accessible via snow coach, even just to glimpse them briefly. To experience the back country would require significant time and travel on skis or snowshoes. Yellowstone encompasses mountains, canyons, valleys, rivers, waterfalls, geysers, and unique thermal features. It offers awe-inspiring scenery and some of the most fascinating wildlife viewing opportunities anywhere.

Gibbon River at dawn

Weather conditions vary greatly, can be unpredictable, and can determine and shape a winter experience in Yellowstone. Winter temperatures can be 30 below zero or 30 above. Conditions can range from blizzard, with a couple of feet of snowfall in a matter of hours, to fog and mist, to a crisp and sparkly white landscape with steam from geysers and thermal features rising against a brilliant blue sky.

A visitor might see a lovely sunrise or sunset, a crystal clear winter vista, or be enveloped in a white-out under gloomy grey skies. Accumulated snowfall might be a few inches or a few feet. All these conditions affect views of the landscape and of the wildlife. Each day in Yellowstone is unique, and a visitor can be surprised by unexpected sights and experiences.

In winter, only the north entrance to Yellowstone is open to regular vehicles. Most of the park can be reached only by snow coach or snowmobile, and then only with a guide. This year, snowfall had been low so far, and the park had only opened to snow coaches and snowmobiles a week prior to our scheduled trip out of the west entrance at West Yellowstone.

The temperature read zero degrees when the six of us in our group met our snow coach at 7:00 AM. on January 4th in West Yellowstone, Montana. Winter days are short this far north, with the official time of sunrise about 8:00 am and sunset about 4:45 pm. We had been warned to be prepared for the possibility of temperatures of 20 below zero, so we were glad it was not colder.

Our group with the snow coach at the end of the day

In the foggy, misty, morning cold, the vegetation and the woods along the road near the warmer river, as well as the animals we saw, were all covered in frost. A herd of more than a hundred bison, together with a handful of elk, grazed along the Madison River as we drove into the park, but it was so dark and foggy that photos weren’t possible.

We turned south on the route that would take us through geyser basins and towards Old Faithful, and the light of dawn could be seen in the sky, as we crossed the Gibbon River.

Elk in Firehole River in Yellowstone

Then the fog and mist returned for at least another hour. The most interesting sighting of the morning was a group of female elk, with one calf, huddled together in the middle of the Firehole River. Immediately our guide said “there must be wolves around.” While another possibility is that they were seeking to feed on aquatic vegetation, we sensed that their behavior more likely reflected the presence of a predator.

Cow elk and one calf in Firehole River

Apparently wolves generally don’t go in the water, so the elk retreat to mid-river as a defensive move when they sense the presence of their primary predator. These elk were tightly huddled together when we first saw them, and they were exceedingly alert, carefully peering in every direction as if to identify danger.

Frosty elk on winter morning

Elk in snow near Firehole River

One of the elk, who appeared to be the mother of the one calf in the group, was noticeably gaunt, with her ribs showing, and did not look strong. Her calf wanted to nurse but she kept turning away. We wondered if she would last through the long and harsh winter.

Near the group of elk was a group of five trumpeter swans. About 500 of this majestic and elegant bird live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, and they are joined by about 4,000 additional trumpeter swans from Canada over winter. However, less than ten swans actually live year-round in Yellowstone Park, and the National Park Service considers this bird the most imperiled in Yellowstone.

Trumpeter Swans on Firehole River on misty winter morning

Coyotes are much more commonly seen than wolves, and we spotted our first coyote soon after leaving the elk and the swans.

Coyote in Yellowstone

When we reached the Old Faithful geyser basin, the frost on the trees around the thermal features, still present in the crisp cold of late morning, was spectacular. Before long, the weather gave way to a sparkling afternoon during which the temperature climbed to the 30s, an especially moderate temperature for Yellowstone in winter.

Old Faithful on early January afternoon

On our return drive to West Yellowstone, we saw a couple of bald eagles and two coyotes along the way, as well as the same herd of bison along the Madison River between Madison Junction and the Seven-Mile Bridge.

Coyote watching us

Coyote in Yellowstone

The sun went down over the ridge as we watched the bison.

We did not see the bobcat that had been sighted a few times recently near Seven Mile Bridge, nor the wolf that was reported a couple of weeks earlier in Biscuit Basin. We were not even near the magical Lamar Valley in the northeast corner of the park, which is the best place to observe packs of wolves. The animals we saw were the more commonly seen species. But it had been a wonderful day for Randy’s and my 15th anniversary. Along with our friends sharing the snow coach, we all wished for more time in Yellowstone and resolved to come back again in winter.

Wintering Trumpeter Swans in Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

2012-01-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

Trumpeter swan in summer on Madison River in Yellowstone

The majestic, elegant, pure white Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) can be seen year-round in Yellowstone Park, often swimming in the Madison River. It is also a “species of concern” here, and the National Park Service considers it the most imperiled bird in Yellowstone. It is thought that last season, Yellowstone’s year-round population had declined to less than ten birds, though a few thousand additional swans winter in the general area.

By the time they are a year old, swans acquire their pure white plumage

Many more swans winter in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, than spend the summer here, and except for the first image above, the remainder of the images in this blog post were made in winter.

The trumpeter swan is known to be sensitive to human activity, and to abandon nesting and wintering areas if there is nearby human development. Nevertheless, this year, a sizable number of swans have been wintering at Last Chance, in our adopted home town of Island Park, Idaho. To our great joy, a small number of swans are also attracted to a small spring-fed pond near our cabin, just below Raynolds Pass and the Montana border. This is where we photographed these birds.

Four adult trumpeter swans

Apparently the group of swans on the nearby pond is able to tolerate a few snowmobiles, and a few people on foot or skis, going by each day. There is no other motorized traffic in winter. The pond is half a mile from the highway and a mile and a half from the nearest year-round residence. These birds allowed us to stand at the edge of the pond to photograph them, and seemed to pay no attention to our telephoto lenses.

Trumpeter swans have very long necks

The trumpeter swan is a very large pure white bird, with a long graceful neck, and black bill and face. It weighs 20-30 pounds and measures up to four feet in length. It is the largest North American waterfowl, and in flight, its impressive wingspan extends eight feet. Immature birds, called cygnets, are a sooty grey color until their first spring.

The adult swan is pure white, the cygnet a sooty grey

Because their diet is primarily aquatic vegetation - a mature adult can eat 20 pounds in a day (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) - trumpeter swans need access year-round to open water where that vegetation grows. In shallow water they tip up to reach submerged vegetation, shaking water droplets off their face and neck as they raise their head.

Swans tip up to feed on submerged vegetation

Raising its head after feeding, the swan shakes water droplets from its head

Dabbling ducks such as mallards and ducks that dive, such as the common goldeneye, which have similar feeding habits to the trumpeter swans, may be found along with the swans where feeding conditions encourage it.

This male common goldeneye was feeding with the swans

In addition to development and habitat destruction over the years, the Trumpeter Swan was hunted to the brink of extinction by the early 1900s, favored for its gorgeous white plumes. The species has recovered to about 20,000 in North America (NPS), of which about 500 live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but less then ten individuals live permanently in the park itself (NPS) - down from 27 reported for the year 2000. Another 4,000 Trumpeter Swans from Canada also winter in the same area. (USFWS) Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in the nearby Centennial Mountains, provided key breeding habitat for the recovery of the swans.

A few days after photographing the birds pictured above, on an early January winter snow coach trip into Yellowstone Park, we observed group of five swans on the Firehole River in Yellowstone, enveloped in the fog and mist of early morning.

Trumpeter Swans in winter on Firehole River in Yellowstone

Bighorn Sheep on Christmas Eve

2011-12-30T18:38:00.000-08:00

Photo by Randy

Christmas Eve brought a special opportunity to photograph this herd of wintering Bighorn Sheep, on a mountain hillside near Quake Lake, in Montana, not far from Yellowstone National Park.

These are amazing and beautiful animals, extraordinarily sure-footed when navigating high cliffs and rocky mountain terrain, and they are able to survive the harshest Rocky Mountain winters. They can be seen on the rocky crags and ledges near the Quake Lake Visitor Center in summer, and come down lower in winter.

The most distinctive feature of these animals is the males’ massive curved horns that can weigh up to 30 pounds. Their horns are used both as weapons and in defense during fierce battles between males during the mating season in the fall.

Male Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep can weigh over 300 pounds. They stand up to four feet tall. The females also have horns, but much shorter and straighter.

Bighorn sheep eat grasses in summer and more woody plants in winter.

Rams compete for ewes during the mating season, charging at each other with a repeated, violent crashing of their huge horns. People say the sound of the clashing horns can sometimes be heard for up to a mile. These fierce battles can go on for 24 hours between two individuals, until one animal gives up and walks away. Amazingly, the special bone structure of their skulls prevents serious injuries most of the time.

As with elk, only the biggest, strongest, most dominant males will mate. The lambs are born the following spring, and can walk soon after birth and climb as well as their mothers within a day.

The herd we photographed consisted of about 30 animals. There were several mature rams, and there appeared to be numerous ewes, yearlings, and two-year-olds, as well as a few lambs who looked like they had been born last spring. Bighorn sheep, which may be gray, light brown, or dark brown, have a white rump and white on the backs of all four legs. Maybe to help camouflage them if they are fleeing a predator?

The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is one of three subspecies of bighorn sheep found in North America, and its range extends throughout the Rocky Mountains from Canada to the southern U.S. Two other groups of bighorns are listed as endangered: the Sierra Nevada Bighorn of California and the Peninsular Bighorn population of the southwestern desert.

Photo by Randy

It is thought that at one time, bighorn sheep probably numbered up to 2 million animals in western North America. Due to habitat loss, hunting, competition for food from domestic livestock, and disease from livestock the bighorn sheep population plummeted to unsustainable levels by the middle of the 20th century. Significant efforts at re-introduction have brought them back to a total population estimated at about 70,000 animals.

Monarch Butterflies at Pismo Beach State Park

2011-11-27T20:23:00.000-08:00

One of the wonderful things about winter in southern California is the amazing monarch butterfly migration that brings these beautiful insects from Canada to southern California for the winter.

Photo by Randy

The monarch is the only insect that makes a two-way migration in the same way that many birds do. The butterflies look delicate and fragile, but they travel an astonishing 2,500 to 3,000 miles from their summer range in Canada to southern California or Mexico for the winter. They use three major flyways - along the western coast of North America, down the center of the continent to Texas, and down the east coast.

Monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains overwinter in southern California and Baja California. Monarchs in the eastern part of the continent fly all the way to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico to overwinter, roosting in oyamel fir forests and clustering together for warmth. Mexico established a Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve in the Sierra Madre in 1986, expanding it in 2000 to include a total of 217 square miles.

Monarchs live only two to five weeks during the mating season, laying eggs on milkweed plants which in turn provide a food source for the larvae. Several generations of butterflies live and die over the summer, but the last generation of the season does not reproduce and therefore lives longer. These are the butterflies that migrate, and this generation can live eight to nine months.

Along the California coast and down into Baja California, there are over 300 overwintering sites, among which the best known and most spectacular are in Pacific Grove and Pismo Beach. The largest population of overwintering insects is at Monarch Grove, at Pismo Beach State Park, where these monarchs were photographed.

From November through February, the insects can usually be easily observed in these locations where they roost in eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress trees, returning to the same trees year after year. The sight of these beautiful insects clustering in the branches, sometimes by the thousands, is awesome, their delicate beauty magical. There can be as many as ten thousand butterflies on a single tree.

Photo by Randy

The best conditions to observe the butterflies are on the warmer days, when the monarchs are more active. We were fortunate to visit Monarch Grove at Pismo State Beach the day after Thanksgiving, on a sunny day when the afternoon temperature was about 70 degrees. Most of the butterflies were roosting, some of them in huge clusters, but many were also flitting and fluttering about.

In February and March, the butterflies that overwintered begin to breed as they travel north, laying eggs on milkweeds along their way. However, the butterflies do not live long after breeding. The generation that migrated south the previous fall dies soon after reproducing, shortly after the spring migration begins. Their offspring continue the migration, with each generation traveling farther north, and it takes three to four generations to reach their summer range.

The monarchs’ migration patterns are a subject of both fascination and scientific research. It is one of the particularly astonishing mysteries of nature, that the individual butterflies that summer in Canada or winter in California are several generations removed from each other, and no individual butterfly migrates both ways.

Elk Rut in Yellowstone

2011-10-28T20:37:00.000-07:00

This year was the first time we observed the elk rut in Yellowstone - an amazing wildlife phenomenon. During the mating season, which begins in September and lasts into October, males bugle their superiority over a herd of females, and bulls can clash fiercely as they vie for the dominant position in a herd.

For years we had looked forward to hearing the sounds of the bugling elk and observing the animals during the rut. By Labor Day, people had begun to hear bugling elk at a distance in the fir forest on the ridge of the continental divide behind our cabin near Yellowstone. But no one had yet seen a mature bull. The males retreat to higher elevations and the cover of forest during the summer and are seldom seen until they come to lower elevations, seeking the females, or cows, during the rut, or mating season.

On Labor Day weekend, we spotted this “spike elk” (no branching of the antlers) near Mammoth in Yellowstone National Park. He appeared a beautiful, healthy, strong, proud animal. But likely he would not mate this year, as he would probably not win out in a fight with a mature bull. The rangers at Mammoth told us they had heard bugling in the distance but had not yet seen “the big guys.”

Spike Elk near Mammoth - Yellowstone National Park

The bugling of the males is a unique and unforgettable sound. Randy first heard this call aweek later in the Madison River valley east of West Yellowstone in the national park. Bulls normally bugle from a standing position, but this one was bugling while lying in the grass.

Elk in Grass Bugling - Madison Valley, Yellowstone - photo by Randy

Several females, or cows, were lying in the grass or standing on the bank, on the opposite side of the river. They were calling to him and he seemed to be bugling in reply.

Photo by Randy

In mid September, we spotted this magnificent 6x7 bull lying in the tall golden grass of autumn, again along the Madison west of Madison Junction, with four females nearby. Such a beauty.

6x7 Elk, Madison River Valley, Yellowstone National Park

As no other bulls seemed to be in the general vicinity, this small group of animals appeared pretty relaxed. The bull eventually got to his feet, leisurely walking over to each of the females in turn.

Photo by Randy

Elk Pair - Bull and Cow - Madison River Valley, Yellowstone

With one of them, he smelled her private parts, then let out a plaintive bugle. We don’t know what he was saying but it surely seemed like a sexual plea. The male is ready to mate, but the female is only ready one day out of twenty, based on her estrus cycle.

Elk, also called by the Native American name “wapiti,” are a large and impressive animal and a common sight in Yellowstone National Park, although females are seen much more frequently than males, and the bulls are not commonly seen in summer. These animals, especially the males during the rut, can be very dangerous. They have been known to charge people and even vehicles, and they can cause a lot of damage to a car! Rangers recommend staying at least 75 yards from an elk.

Once found across North America, elk are now found mostly in places like Yellowstone or the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming. A large bull elk may weigh between 700 and 1,100 pounds and stand up to 5 feet at the shoulder with antlers that can reach as much as four feet above above his head.

Photo by Randy

Calves are born in early summer. The bull loses his antlers in March, and grows new ones annually by the time of the breeding season in September and October. In winter, herds of elk migrate to lower elevations where feeding is easier. In the Greater Yellowstone area, many elk migrate out of the park in winter, to these lower elevations. One of their routes goes through the valley overlooked by our cabin and over Raynolds Pass at the Montana border, into the lower Madison Valley around Ennis.

Photo by Randy

Celebrating the Conservation Easement on the 2Lazy2 Ranch

2011-07-25T20:14:00.000-07:00

View of Henry's Lake across 2Lazy2 Ranch in July

For over a decade, we have walked in summer and snowshoed or skied in winter along part of the western perimeter of the 2Lazy2 Ranch (love that name!) north of Henry’s Lake in Island Park, Idaho. From our cabin bordering the 2Lazy2, we have watched bald eagles soar, and red tailed hawks and marsh hawks hunt over the sagebrush grassland of the valley. My favorite wild sound on the 2Lazy2 in summer is the wild and primitive call of the sandhill cranes that nest here; after the grazing cattle arrive each summer, their lowing is the dominant sound on the ranch.

Black Mountain & 2Lazy2 in winter

Nestled between Black Mountain, Henry’s Lake, and the Continental Divide, with views of Mt. Sawtelle, the Centennial Range, and Two Top Mountain, the 2Lazy2 is a working ranch in a spectacular mountain setting. Its 700 acres spread over much of the area between the north shore of Henry’s Lake and Raynolds Pass at the Montana border. Fox and coyotes pursue their prey; wolves occasionally prowl and run; sandhill cranes mate; trumpeter swans and Canada geese fly overhead, and white pelicans soar over this beautiful land, all of them seemingly paying no attention to the cattle that graze here in summer. Trout from Henry’s Lake come up the stream that flows through the ranch to spawn.

Cattle grazing on 2Lazy2 ~ Centennial Range in distance

View of Two Top Mountain across 2Lazy2

The ranch is used by elk, moose, pronghorn, deer, and other wildlife. It has a key position on two major wildlife migration routes. The 2Lazy2 is located on the north-south migration route for about 300 pronghorn of the Madison Valley herd who migrate annually over Raynolds Pass. It is also on the east-west migration corridor for grizzly and black bears, mountain lions, wolves and wolverines who move between the Greater Yellowstone and the Centennial Mountains.

2Lazy2 and Black Mountain in spring

In spring, wildflowers spread exuberant colors between the ranch land and the fir forest and aspen groves that lie near the ranch on the west and the sage-covered slopes on the east. Following summer afternoon thunder showers, beautiful rainbows often appear over the 2Lazy2. In late summer the lush green of the valley turns to gold as the grasses dry. In fall, the aspen along the slopes of the ridges overlooking the 2Lazy2 turn glorious shades of orange and yellow. In winter, the land is covered with the pristine serenity of snow, and without the cattle it is very quiet.

White Wyethia (Mules-Ears) on 2Lazy2 in early July

Larkspur

White Wyethia

Wildflowers on 2Lazy2 Ranch

Until last fall, we had only hoped and dreamed that this magnificent valley would ultimately be preserved from development. Randy and I had known for several years that The Nature Conservancy in Idaho had a long-term plan, the Henry’s Fork Legacy Project, in collaboration with other organizations and agencies, to acquire conservation easements to protect wildlife throughout the Upper Henry’s Fork. But it seemed too much to hope that this would include the 2Lazy2 Ranch.

Fence crew on 2Lazy2 before cattle arrive in summer

Fence crew ~ Mt Sawtelle & Centennial Range in distance

The cutest ranch worker

What a joy it was when we learned in September 2010 that the Bureau of Land Management, together with The Nature Conservancy in Idaho and the Teton Regional Land Trust, had arranged to purchase a conservation easement on the 2Lazy2 property from the Steinke family that has owned the ranch for several generations over four decades. The Teton Regional Land Trust did extensive work to document the conservation values of the 2Lazy2 property. What a wonderful decision by the land owners to agree to this arrangement! This means the preservation of ranching activity as well as permanent protection for wildlife habitat.

Trout come up Timber Creek (downstream from this site)
from Henry's Lake to spawn
Black Mountain is in distance

According to The Nature Conservancy, “Conservation easements are permanent legal agreements that protect important habitat from development, while ensuring that traditional ownership and land uses like ranching continue.” So the Steinkes will be able to continue to use the land as a working ranch, while it will always be preserved from housing and commercial development. TNC announced that “the conservation easement acquisition was funded by the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act, allocated by the Bureau of Land Management.”

Cattle grazing in summer on 2Lazy2

The conservation easement on the 2Lazy2 Ranch is an excellent example of preservation of valuable ranch land and wildlife habitat through the collaboration of private organizations and willing land owners, funded by wise programs of federal support in the public interest.

View of Mt. Sawtelle & Henrys Lake across 2Lazy2 Ranch

The conservation easement will preserve both wildlife and conservation values that most Americans cherish. The wildlife habitat on the 2Lazy2 is part of one of the most beautiful landscapes in North America and an important component of the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem. The migration routes of numerous animals, and the trout spawning stream that flows into Henry’s Lake, a premier fishing destination, will be preserved forever from human interference. At the same time, historic ranching activities will continue on this beautiful land.

White Wyethia on 2Lazy2 Ranch ~ Black Mountain in distance

Dubois Grouse Days

2011-05-05T22:01:00.000-07:00

The sky was midnight black as we stepped carefully over barbed wire that we could barely see in the dark, and squeezed through a fence a few paces beyond. Randy and I entered our bird observation blind through the zippered door of the nylon tent-like structure. There were zippers everywhere, for poking our cameras out in any direction. The temperature was about 35 degrees as we sat down on two plastic chairs to get our camera equipment organized by flashlight in the darkness.

Even before we could see the birds, we could hear the soft plopping of the grouse inflating the air sacs on their chest. As the first hint of dawn crept into the sky, and then began to illuminate the area around us, we realized there were many grouse strutting, displaying, running and fighting.

Note white ruff around the neck and distinctive white markings on the tail feathers

At first we could only make out the movement of the birds from the patches of white feathers on the males’ chest that we could see in the dim light. Gradually as the light increased, we began to see more and more birds, and I believe more birds also continued to gather on the breeding ground, until there were around a hundred birds, mostly males in various stages of display.

We were watching the mating dance, or display, of the Greater Sage Grouse, on ranch land about nine miles out of Dubois, Idaho, as part of the annual Dubois Grouse Days festival. For years, ever since seeing a photograph of this flamboyant display, I had wanted to see this bird in its mating dance. It was exhilerating to see so many of them, and fascinating to watch.

This three-and-a-half minute video captures the birds strutting, displaying, fighting, and copulating.

Once widespread across most of western North America, the population of this large grouse may be only half of its historic levels due to destruction of its native shrub-steppe habitat through agriculture, urban development, and over grazing. It is a large bird, up to 30 inches long and standing two feet tall, weighing from two to eight pounds.

The dominant male with several females

The Greater Sage Grouse is mainly found at elevations of 4,000 to 9,000 feet in the broad sagebrush plains of the central Rocky Mountain states, Nevada, and northeastern California, with a small population in central Washington. Adults depend primarily on different species of sagebrush for their food as well as for cover. The bird has been considered for protection under the Endangered Species Act, and various government and private agencies are working to conserve remaining habitat in order to reduce the continued decline of this species.

The male retracts his head as he fully inflates the air sacs

In the spring, the Greater Sage Grouse males gather on historic breeding grounds known as “leks” to strut and try to attract females. They fan their beautiful pointed tails; strut in one direction and then another as if to show off both their fancy tails and the dramatic white ruff of feathers around their neck and chest; they inflate yellow air sacs underneath the white feathers that cover their chest, and seem to almost pump the air sacs several times in a row with a plopping sound each time. If you get a good look, you can also see that they erect special head plumes at the height of this display. The females are mostly attracted to the main or dominant male(s) on a particular lek, and a female will signal by a distinctive holding open of her wings when she is ready for mating.

Here the head is visible just before the air sacs are fully inflated

The male is in the process of inflating the air sacs

A fraction of a second later, the air sacs are fully inflated

We watched the birds for about two-and-a-half hours, fascinated by their behavior, on this lek outside Dubois, which actually was in a corral. We felt gratitude to the rancher for allowing the birds their natural mating ritual, and giving permission for the use of his land by visitors for the Dubois Grouse Days.

Observation blind in field near Dubois, Idaho

The next day, we had arranged to use a blind at the Crooked Creek Preserve of The Nature Conservancy, about 25 miles west of Dubois. This is a lovely unspoiled 82,000-acre preserve, mostly sagebrush steppe, with gently rolling hills rising to snow-capped peaks in mid-April. Another two-and-a-half hours in a similar blind, starting well before dawn, was a wonderful experience.

Look carefully for the white chests of the displaying
sage grouse in the sage meadows below snow-covered
foothills at Crooked Creek Nature Preserve

For anyone interested in watching or photographing the Greater Sage Grouse display, we would highly recommend the two-day Dubois Grouse Days either for their guided tours to the leks, or to arrange for the use of a blind.

Santiago (James) and Bartolome (Bartholomew), Galapagos Islands - Day 7 And a panga ride in Black Turtle Cove - Day 8

2010-12-28T20:25:00.000-08:00

Puerto Egas on Santiago Island

Another very photogenic spot for our last full day in Galapagos, on the island where Darwin spent half of the time he spent on land in these islands.

Puerto Egas on Santiago

For a detailed account of Darwin's experiences here, read the book by Thalia Grant and Greg Estes, Darwin in Galapagos: Footsteps to a New World (Princeton University Press 2009). Grant and Estes have been called the world experts on Darwin in Galapagos. We couldn't believe our good fortune in having Greg as our guide on this trip!

Greg Estes

After a wet landing on sand we walked on volcanic ash and pahoehoe lava, observing the wildlife in the intertidal area, part of which Greg called a "Fur Seal grotto."

Galapagos Fur Seal

Galapagos Fur Seal with pup

Again we saw many Marine Iguanas and Sally Lightfoot Crabs on the lava rocks.

Marine Iguana on Santiago

An American Oystercatcher pair walked along the beach with their chick.

American Oystercatcher with chick

Galapagos Sea Lion

This Sea Lion posed in a beautiful setting surrounded by Sally Lightfoot Crabs.

Our best views of Pacific Green Sea Turtles, which we saw several times on our snorkels, was today.

Pacific Green Sea Turtle

After our visit to Santiago Island we navigated Buccaneer Cove on our way to Bartolome Island, a small islet just of the east coast of Santiago.

Lava cliffs at Buccaneer Cove

Bartolome Island

The views from Bartolome are probably the best known scenes of Galapagos - and most visited by tourists - because of the proximity of this island to resorts, as well as the spectacular views from the top of the island 360 feet above sea level, accessed by a boardwalk and 380 wooden stairs.

View from Bartolome towards "Pinnacle" (photo by Chris Pulling)

Stairs to summit on Bartolome

Sunset view from summit of Bartolome

Black Turtle Cove on Santa Cruz - Day 8

This trip was packed with activities, even on the morning before we prepared to go to the Baltra Airport for our return flight to Quito. Back off the coast of Santa Cruz, near Baltra, on the morning of Day 8 of our Galapagos cruise, we enjoyed a morning panga ride at dawn in Black Turtle Cove. With our image of Galapagos as so dry and arid - which the islands are - it was always surprising to see the lush green mangroves along some of the coasts. Here we saw Pacific Green Turtles, Great Blue Heron, and several sharks including a group of five lurking together as if they were sleeping below the surface of the water.

Urvina Bay, Isabela; Punta Espinoza, Fernandina (Narborough) - Day 6

2010-12-27T19:25:00.000-08:00

Urvina Bay on Isabela Island

One more experience on Isabela, the largest island, with a wet landing at Urvina Bay. We were met by an immature Galapagos Hawk, who seemed unfazed by our approaching within a few feet of him as he sat on the sign indicating the direction of the trail. In decades of birdwatching I had never seen birds that would allow us so easily to get so close as we had to Magnificent Frigatebirds, Blue Footed and Nazca Boobies, and this hawk.

Galapagos Hawk (immature)

Galapagos Hawk greets us at Urvina Bay

Walking on a trail of volcanic ash, pumice, and lava, we saw a Giant Tortoise moving slowly through the brush. Before long we saw another Galapagos Land Iguana next the hole it had excavated, and later another who stayed right on the trail as we carefully stepped around him.

Giant Tortoise

Galapagos Land Iguana

Greg told us these animals have a preference for yellow, as they feed on the yellow flowers of more than one species of plant. He says he has even seen Land Iguanas follow a person down the trail who was wearing yellow socks or had yellow shoelaces!

One of the flowers that attracts the Land Iguana

Walking through an area that had experienced a dramatic uplift from being under the sea in the late 1990s, Greg had vivid stories of the impact of this sudden uplift on the wildlife. Next to the trail we walked by large pieces of coral that not many years before had been living and underwater.

Coral from uplift in late 1990s

Dead coral exposed on land from dramatic uplift of sea floor

As we examined some of this coral, Greg identified a Medium Ground Finch on a nearby bush. We admit we never did completely grasp the identification of the many different finches in Galapagos. Upon a little closer study, however, the beaks are the main key to identification, and each species really is quite distinctive. Our pocket guide identified thirteen different species.

Medium Ground Finch

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Beak of the Finch (1994), Jonathan Weiner wrote a compelling account of the life work of Peter and Rosemary Grant, who documented their observations of evolution actually taking place among the finches of Daphne Major, one of the Galapagos Islands. A week after we completed our trip we learned they had just arrived again on Daphne Major to pursue their continuing research on the finches there.

As we came back out towards the bay to meet the panga, there was a beautiful lagoon surrounded by lava rocks, where we saw Brown Pelicans and Great Blue Herons.

Lagoon with Brown Pelicans (photo by Chris Pulling)

Great Blue Heron

After this walk at Urvina Bay, we snorkeled along the lovely rocky coast. As Blue Footed Boobies and Flightless Cormorants watched from perches on the rocks, we swam with several Sea Turtles and saw more and more colorful fish, as we swam along a steep drop-off not far from shore and tried to avoid being washed up on the rocks by the gentle surf.

Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island

The afternoon of this day, after traveling to Fernandina, we made a dry landing from the panga onto black pahoehoe lava at Punta Espinoza, one of the most photogenic places we visited. On the panga ride to our landing, Brown Pelicans filled the sky and water in a feeding frenzy - flying above, diving into the water for fish, swimming as they scooped up more fish, taking off to watch for fish from above and dive again. When we landed, several of these birds with their great feeding pouches posed for photographs.

Brown Pelican

As Greg promised, we saw "hordes of Sea Iguanas" nearly everywhere we walked over pahoehoe lava and sand. The iguanas are coming into the mating season in December, so there was some male display - mostly we observed them opening the mouth, bobbing the head, swelling up the body a bit, apparently in order to look more fearsome. While we saw them swimming, we saw many more of them on land. They lay on each other for warmth, as well as seeming to try to position for superiority. They also have the ability to spit quite a distance. We thought the Marine Iguanas in Galapagos were the most prehistoric-looking of the animals we saw. They are all the same species, but vary in color - see the previous images of the iguanas with deep red and green patches on Espanola.

Marine Iguana swimming above sea lettuce - a main food source

Marine Iguanas at Punta Espinoza

Occasionally a lava lizard will run up on the back of an iguana and perch there.

Galapagos Lava Lizard (male) on Marine Iguana

The beach where the iguanas lay their eggs was off-limits for walking so as not to step on their eggs, but it took care, even walking on the established marked trail, not to step on these prehistoric-looking animals. The trail marker is the black and white stick behind the hiker on the trail; the protected nesting area is the sandy/gravel beach to the left of the marker.

Trail along edge of Sea Iguana nesting area

Sea lions lounged on the rocks and beach, paying little attention to tourists.

We observed the Flightless Cormorant up close.

Flightless Cormorant

The American Oystercatcher is a striking bird.

American Oystercatcher

The bright orange Sally Lightfoot Crabs, which are six inches across and abundant on all the rocky coasts, always caught our eye.

Sally Lightfoot Crab

Isabela (Albemarle), Galapagos Islands - Day 5

2010-12-26T20:31:00.000-08:00

Punta Moreno

Starting out on a lava walk from Punta Moreno - still near the coast

Our fifth day in Galapagos and again many new experiences. We started with a dry landing from the panga at Punta Moreno and a lava walk over pahoehoe lava. Fascinating terrain, so forbidding and lifeless at first glance, and yet various plants, including cactus and even a fern, had managed to take root on this rough lava.

View back towards coast across pahoehoe lava

Plant gaining a foothold

Note the green fern in crevice in foreground

Cactus on lava

There was also insect life on the lava. A Galapagos Painted Locust, quite impressive at about four inches long, was the most colorful insect I have ever seen other than butterflies.

Galapagos Painted Locust

In the distance we could see two major volcanoes as we walked across the lava.

Freshwater lagoons had formed in several places and were surrounded by green vegetation - a surprise when walking across such a hostile-looking and forbidding part of the landscape.

Lagoon in depression in pahoehoe lava

We spotted Black Necked Stilts, Common Gallinules, and even Greater Flamingoes in one lagoon. Every time Greg had told us we "might" see something like the vermilion flycatcher in the highlands of Santa Cruz, or flamingos here on Isabela in a lagoon surrounded by lava, but he cautioned us there was no guarantee, we had seen it, so he was getting a good reputation for these predictions.

Flamingos in lagoon on extensive lava flow on Isabela

Returning to the bay to get back in the panga, mangroves and other vegetation was thick along the shore of the bay.

Returning towards the bay

The bay was surrounded by mangroves

After our hike we snorkeled again from the panga, this time in water that was 61 degrees F.

Elizabeth Bay

Following the snorkel, we traveled to Elizabeth Bay, also surrounded by mangroves, where we enjoyed a delightful late afternoon panga ride around the bay and observed more wildlife. Here we had great views of several Flightless Cormorants. Their wings are pathetic compared to flying birds, but it doesn't seem to matter as this bird is adapted to swimming rather than flying and feeds underwater. We also saw the Galapagos Penguin, the most northern species of penguin in the world, and the only one that can be observed around and in mangrove trees!

Panga in Elizabeth Bay

Flightless Cormorants

Flightless Cormorant

Galapagos Penguin

Galapagos Penguin in Mangroves

We laughed at the "tree" lion, having been told that Sea Lions like to climb up onto the branches of the mangroves to rest. This behavior makes sense, as this is a convenient resting place out of the water. Nevertheless seeing a Sea Lion in a mangrove was an incongruous idea when we started.

Sea Lion resting on Mangrove branch: "Tree Lion"

Brown Pelicans, Blue Footed Boobies, and Marine Iguanas were either in the trees or on the rocks around the bay. We saw several Pacific Green Sea Turtles from the panga. After one false alarm, Greg spotted and pointed out a a pair of Sea Turtles copulating, which they do at the surface of the water. Very interesting sight.

Pacific Green Sea Turtles copulating: Elizabeth Bay

NEXT POST: Urvina Bay (Isabela) and Fernandina - Day 6

Floreana (Charles) - Galapagos Islands Day 4

2010-12-25T09:46:00.000-08:00

Punta Cormorant

Every island we visited was so different! Today we were up early with a 5:30 AM wake-up call and disembarked from the Sagitta at dawn about 6 AM - without breakfast! The objective was to get to a beach where we might arrive early enough to see the Pacific Sea Turtles, that come to the beach at night to lay their eggs, returning to the water.

We landed at Punta Cormorant on Floreana. It was a wet landing on an olivine or "green" beach. There are other olivine beaches, for example in Hawaii, and they are very distinctive. Olivine is a silicate mineral containing iron and magnesium, that is found in certain lavas. Here at Punta Cormorant, we had to sift the sand only a little to find many lovely small green olivine crystals.

Walking past this beach up a trail of sand and volcanic cinder we passed a lovely lagoon just as the first rays of the sun began to hit the trees at its edge. In the distance we saw a small group of Whimbrels, a wading bird with a long down-curved bill, at the far side of the lagoon, and closer to us a couple of Lava Herons.

Lava Heron

Crossing a short distance to another beach, this one a lovely white "flour" beach, the sun was just coming up. Greg warned us to be careful of Stingrays that could be in the water, and we did spot a few Sea Turtles in the edge of the waves.

Flour beach on Floreana

Watching for Sea Turtles

Pacific Green Sea Turtle

Moving over the black rocks were more of the bright orange Sally Lightfoot Crabs we had seen on the other islands, and hopping around on the beach was another Yellow Warbler, a common bird we had also already seen numerous times.

Yellow Warbler

Back on the Sagitta, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast, then had a briefing for our snorkel at Devil's Crown. This is a beautiful spot where there are dramatic outcroppings of rock above the surface of the water, and the rock formations cause a rather strong current that carries snorkelers who start at the right spot, around the outside of the rock formation and then into the center of an area ringed by these rocks. The marine life was fascinating, and it was fun to be carried in the current without much effort. The temperature of the water was a comfortable (in wetsuits) 71 degrees F.

Approaching Devil's Crown

On the approach to Devil's Crown in the panga, Greg identified a small group of White Vented Storm Petrels, flying low over the water in the distance. This is a small seabird that seems to patter over the water as it feeds. In the water at Devil's Crown we observed schools of Yellow Tailed Surgeonfish, beautiful King Angelfish, various sea stars including a beautiful blue one and the orange Bradley Sea Star, Creole Fish, and many other colorful fish. We had all wanted to see a shark, and indeed we spotted a White Tipped Reef Shark.

School of Yellow Tailed Surgeon Fish

King Angelfish

Greg specializes in videos of Galapagos marine life, and features many videos on his Web site. During our trip, which included snorkeling on about five of the seven days, he made at least 85 more short videos, each one showing a different species of marine life, which he shared with us each evening.

Greg Estes shooting underwater video

All if this was before lunch!

Post Office Bay

After lunch we visited one of the few purely tourist attractions on our itinerary - Post Office Bay. Back in the very early days of human visitors to Galapagos, when there was no mail service, a barrel was put here, in which the few inhabitants, or infrequent travelers, could leave messages to be picked up by people from a ship on a later visit, and hopefully delivered.

Now, of course, there is government mail service to Galapagos. But tourists have taken over the tradition of using the post office barrel, which gave the name to Post Office Bay. There is no other sign of human habitation here, other than the foundation of a long-abandoned building nearby. Tourists from cruise ships leave postcards in the barrel, to be picked up by other tourists after them and delivered - days, months, or years later, or maybe never . . . We opened the barrel and found postcards to countries on many continents, and most of us kept a few with the intent to deliver them to people near where we live. According to tradition, they are supposed to be hand-delivered.

Post Office Barrel on Floreana

Beyond the Post Office barrel, a short way up a trail, is a large lava tube, with wooden stairs allowing people to go down and explore.

Stairs to lava tube on Floreana

That afternoon, the crew put up the sails on the Sagitta for the only time during our trip. There is not much wind here at this time of year, and we had been told in advance that at most they might put up the sails once. The boat was beautiful under sail.

Putting up the sails on Sagitta

NEXT POST: Isabela - Day 5

Espanola (Hood), Galapagos Islands - Day 3

2010-12-24T20:34:00.000-08:00

Gardner Bay

December 24th is the day Ecuadoreans celebrate Christmas. What a day of extraordinary experiences in wild and beautiful places. In the early morning, we kayaked along the rocky lava coast near Gardner Bay, where a yellow warbler hopped by and posed briefly with a sea lion lounging on the rocks.

Yellow Warbler with Sea Lion

Next came a wet landing from the panga on the beautiful white sand beach at Gardner Bay.

Landing at Gardner Bay

Large numbers of sea lions lay about, many of the females lying in the sun in groups for warmth, some moving around languidly, and all of them barely noticing the human visitors. The young were more active in moving around the beach and playing in the edge of the surf.

Sea Lions at Gardner Bay

Young Sea Lions playing in surf

Sea Lion joins girls playing on beach

Greg warned us to be wary of the big mature males, called "beach masters." Much darker than the females, these big animals can become very protective of their space during the mating season. They did seem fearsome, and we kept our distance from the beach master. On the beach we also saw the Hood Island Mockingbird and Hood Island Lava Lizard.

Beach Master

There are four different species of Mockingbird in Galapagos, where speciation has taken place on different islands. Our pocket guide noted that they are best identified by the island on which they are observed. The Hood Island Mockingbird has the longest and most down-curved bill.

Espanola (Hood Island) Mockingbird

Our first snorkel of the trip, here in Gardner Bay, was a delightful experience. We saw large schools of Yellow Tailed Surgeonfish, a few King Angelfish and many other colorful fish. The water temperature was 73 degrees F.

Punta Espinoza

In the afternoon, we went ashore via a dry landing at Punta Suarez, an especially photogenic place, for some amazing sights. Greg had told us that this was an excellent time for observing marine iguanas. Food is plentiful, and they are coming into the mating season when the males exhibit more color. On Espanola they take on more red and green, and to me these were the most striking of the Marine Iguanas we saw.

Marine Iguana at Punta Suarez

We saw a beautiful pair of adult Galapagos Hawks shortly after landing, as well as striking and graceful Red Billed Tropicbirds.

Galapagos Hawk

Along the shore, we observed more Sea Lions and Iguanas.

As we walked inland over uneven lava, we were delighted to see more Blue Footed Boobies, with younger chicks than we had seen on N. Seymour, right by the trail. Typically a pair of boobies will have two chicks, but only one will survive. We felt lucky to see this bird when it still had both chicks.

Blue Footed Booby with two chicks

Blue Footed Booby

Farther along on our walk we saw a number of the striking Nazca Boobies, including this one incubating an egg.

Nazca Booby

Nazca Boobies

The the high black lava cliffs of the shoreline of Espanola with surf breaking below is a beautiful sight.

Nazca Booby and coastline near Punta Suarez

We saw quite a few lava lizards on this trip, and our guide to "Terrestrial Life of Galapagos" lists three species of these lizards, as well as two geckos, some found only on a single island. The female Espanola Lava Lizard has a distinctive red face and throat.

Espanola Lava Lizard (female)

On the bluffs above the ocean, we had wonderful views of several Waved Albatross, both adults and chicks. We had been told a year before by our tour operator that we would not see Waved Albatross, as they would not be in the islands in December. However, Greg explained that because this is a La Nina year, and one of the strongest he remembers, there has been an upwelling of cooler water than normal around the Galapagos, producing especially nutrient rich waters and more plentiful food for all the animals that depend on the sea for food. So the Waved Albatross was still here.

The large heavy Albatross has difficulty launching into flight from the ground, so they waddle over to the cliff edge and jump off in order to become airborne. We stayed around the albatross about 20 minutes, and just as Greg had described, we watched one of the adults take off into the air in this way.

Waved Albatross (photo by Sumit Roy)

We watched an adult feeding a chick, another funny-looking downy chick sitting right by the trail, and even watched a mating display between two adults. This is quite a dance, with head bobbing and beak-clacking in unison while they face each other, all the while flapping their wings and calling out to each other.

Waved Albatross with chick

Waved Albatross chick

Back on our yacht, the crew had hung a small artificial Christmas wreath on each cabin door, and strung lights in the main areas of the boat including the dining room. The chef had prepared a wonderful roast turkey Christmas feast, including several delicious Ecuadorean side dishes. Another wonderful day during this perfect vacation in Galapagos.

Sagitta at sunset

NEXT POST: Floreana - Day 4

Santa Cruz (Indefatigable), Galapagos Islands - Day 2

2010-12-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

About twice a day throughout the trip we will go ashore from the Sagitta in one of their two pangas. The landings are either "dry," in which case we usually we step out onto lava, or "wet," meaning we climb out into ankle deep water or knee-deep surf.

Our second day in Galapagos began with a dry landing at a municipal dock in Puerto Ayora, where mangroves grew around the edge of the bay. A short walk took us to the Darwin Research Station, the location of research and captive breeding of Giant Tortoises, operated by the Charles Darwin Foundation. Here we saw Giant Tortoises, pens with hatchlings, and the sadly famous "Lonesome George," the last individual of his sub-species.

Lonesome George

There are about eleven sub species of Giant Tortoises remaining in the Galapagos. The carapace of the different sub species varies in shape and can be either dome shaped or saddle shaped.

Giant Tortoises at Darwin Research Station - note dome type carapace

This Giant Tortoise monopolized the trail at the Research Station

Giant Tortoise at Research Station - note saddleback type carapace

Giant Tortoise at Darwin Research Station

A Large Cactus Finch was drawn to the yellow flowers of a Giant Prickly Pear Cactus. A Galapagos Land Iguana had an enclosure all to himself.

Large Cactus Finch after feeding on yellow flower of Giant Prickly Pear Cactus

We also saw the very different and more delicate Warbler Finch at the Research Station

Warbler Finch

Galapagos Land Iguana

Puerto Ayora has the largest population of any town in Galapagos, at about 10,000. In this charming town, with numerous shops along the main street, Sea Iguanas are equally at home strolling the streets as humans.

Puerto Ayora

After some shopping and a panga ride across the harbor to Angermeyer Point, a restaurant also called "House of the Iguanas," we enjoyed a wonderful lunch on the outdoor terrace where an inquisitive young iguana explored under our table.

We set off by bus for the highlands of Santa Cruz Island to observe Giant Tortoises in the wild - much more satisfying than seeing them in captivity.

Giant Tortoise in the wild on Santa Cruz

Tortoise with tracking device

Walking on the property of a private hacienda, we saw several of these impressive animals, which can weigh up to several hundred pounds and live over 80 years. The largest tortoises on Galapagos are found here, and have the dome shaped carapace.

The tortoises here are easily approached. Some wear tracking devices.

The highlands were green and lush following the rainy season, the terrain and vegetation entirely different from most of the rest of the islands we saw.

In a collapsed lava tube, whose entrance was overgrown with underbrush, we found a barn owl.

Entrance to collapsed lava tube

The lava tube was quite large

Nearby, we were fortunate to see a bright red male Vermilion Flycatcher, the first one Greg had seen in a year, which encouraged him that this bird, once much more common here, has not yet vanished from Santa Cruz.

NEXT POST: Espanola - Day 3

North Seymour, Galapagos Islands - Day 1

2010-12-22T18:58:00.000-08:00

Not long after this first day in Galapagos we were already convinced that the way to get the most out of a visit here is to have Greg Estes as our guide. Later in the week we eventually learned there are 500 registered guides in Galapagos National Park, and Greg is the one who has been hired by photography crews from BBC and Discovery Channel, and groups like The Nature Conservancy and the best universities when they visit Galapagos. Greg and his wife Thalia Grant have been described as the world experts on Darwin in Galapagos and published a book by that name in 2009. He speaks knowledgeably about the latest research, the wildlife, plants and geology of the islands.

A scientist, naturalist, and photographer, holding a biology degree with honors from the U. of London, Greg has been doing research and guiding in Galapagos since 1982. Even more important for making the trip especially enjoyable as well as memorable, he is fun to be with - gregarious, good-natured, personable, patient, and an excellent story-teller with a warm sense of humor and a great laugh. He is awesome as a guide.

Sagitta

This was the first day of a seven day adventure cruise in the Galapagos Islands. Greg met us at the airport in Baltra, for a short bus ride to our boat where we ate lunch while our luggage was loaded onto the boat along with food for a week for 16 guests, guide and crew. The Sagitta is a lovely yacht and will take us 500 miles through the archipelago over the next seven days.

After a quick transfer to North Seymour Island aboard the Sagitta, we made a dry landing from our panga onto lava rocks.

The first bird we identified was a Swallow Tailed Gull in the water next to our boat, and another on the rocks near the trail.

Swallow Tailed Gull

Magnificent and Frigate Birds soared above, and within a few feet we had to step over one of what would be many Sea Iguanas we would encounter throughout the week. We hiked through endemic Palo Santo, a small tree found only in Galapagos, which had no leaves in late December.

We saw Blue Footed Boobies, both adults and chicks - several of them on or right next to the trail - as well as a Galapagos Dove, Yellow Warbler, and our first finch, a Small Ground Finch.

Blue Footed Booby on trail

The famous blue feet

Galapagos Dove

Male Magnificent Frigate Birds in mating display are very flamboyant with their inflated red throat pouches.

Magnificent Frigate Bird (male in mating display)

This Galapagos Land Iguana on North Seymour was a rich golden color. Later we noticed that these and most of the other animals vary in appearance from island to island.

Galapagos Land Iguana

Sea Lions lounged and posed on the sand as we completed our loop across the island towards the end of the afternoon.

NEXT POST: Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands - Day 2

Yanacocha Reserve

2010-12-21T10:28:00.000-08:00

Ecuador's Yanacocha Ecological Reserve is a vigorous, dense, exuberant forest of gnarled trees and twisted branches; strange and interesting plants in the lush understory; and unusual birds, high in the Andes. The reserve encompasses 3100 acres, at about 10,000 feet elevation, not far from Quito, Equador, on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano. This reserve is part of the World Land Trust and preserves a remnant of the seriously diminished polylepis forest of the Andes.

Polylepis is a genus of trees in the rose family. Fifteen different species of trees in this genus grow in south America, mainly in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Polylepis forests are critically endangered, mainly because of the impact of human activity - due to the harvesting of these trees for building and fuel going back to the time of the Incas, as well as burning of the forest to make way for grazing sheep and cattle starting starting during the time of the Spanish conquistadors. It is estimated that less than 10% of the original area of this rich habitat still remains.

Some exotic animals are found in Yanacocha, such as the puma and the spectacled bear, as well as many species of hummingbirds, including the dramatic sword-billed hummingbird, the only bird in the world whose bill is longer than its body. Almost the entire known world population of a critically endangered hummingbird called the black breasted puffleg is found in the reserve, and it was primarily to preserve this bird’s habitat that the reserve was created in 2001.

A trip here, with our guide Daniel King, was a fabulous experience. We recommend him to anyone and you can contact him at d_king_82@hotmail.com.

About a half hour's drive out of Quito we began to ascend the steep slopes of Pichincha, passing a beautiful hacienda and grazing land after the paved road gave way to stones and then a dirt road.

Arriving at the reserve, we headed off along a wide portion of the Inca Trail, which Daniel told us had been in use for thousands of years.

Poor Man's Umbrella

Along the trail we saw flowers like these.

Arica

Fuschia

The highlight of the early part of our walk was our first sight of a female Sword Billed Hummingbird with its outrageous bill, at the first feeder we approached. We had hardly dared hope to see this beautiful and dramatic bird which is not the most common at the feeders and is not always seen by visitors.

Sword Billed Hummingbird (female)

Here we also saw the beautiful blue Masked Flower Piercer and Buff Winged Starfront

Masked Flower Piercer

Buff Winged Starfront (male) - note blue star on forehead

Just beyond the first feeder, within about a kilometer, Daniel identified four species of orchid. Orchids are the second most diverse family of flowers in the world, with about 40,000 species worldwide, of which 4,000 are found in Ecuador.

Orchid Genus Odentoglossum

Orchid Genus Pleurothallys

We saw orchids of the genera Stellis and Epidendrum, as well as other flowers and wild blackberry, along the trail.

Calceolaria

Lupine

Wild Blackberry

There was another feeder further along the trail, but Daniel made sure we left time for the real highlight of our visit. It was thrilling when the trail opened up at a clearing in the dense forest, revealing an observation area with seating benches protected by a thatched cover. The air was filled with hummingbirds and the sound of their wings, as the birds whirred and hovered around at least six feeders that are kept filled throughout the day.

Here we saw another Sword Billed Hummingbird

Sword Billed Hummingbird (male)

The Tyrian Metal Tail was the smallest hummingbird we saw.

Tyrian Metal Tail

The male and female Buff Winged Star Front were the most common hummingbirds at the feeders.

Buff Winged Starfront (male)

Buff Winged Starfront (female) - note green on back, lighter breast, orange on throat

Buff Winged Starfront (female)

The Great Sapphire Winged Hummingbird was quite large and the color of the wings very distinctive.

Great Sapphire Winged Hummingbird

We saw both the Sapphire Vented and Golden Breasted Puffleg, but not the very rare Black Breasted Puffleg.

Sapphire Vented Puffleg (note white "puff" on leg)

A couple of Brazilian Rabbits hopped off into the underbrush as we approached. Other birds we identified but did not photograph included the Glossy Flower Piercer, Rufous Naped Brush Finch, and Great Thrush.

It took us about an hour and a half to reach the Yanacocha Reserve from our hotel in Quito. International visitors should hire a local guide, and a four-wheel-drive vehicle is required for the road that climbs steeply and diminishes quickly outside the city, from pavement to stones to deeply rutted dirt. Expect cool weather, probably 10 degrees cooler than in Quito because of the elevation. This is a cloud forest, often shrouded in mist and fog, so be prepared for rain. When the clouds clear, we are told the views are spectacular across neighboring ridges. But even if you don't see the views, this trip is well worth it. The forest is unique, the plants wonderful, and seeing the hummingbirds is a magical experience. On our return the clouds lifted enough for this beautiful view of Quito.

Joshua Tree National Park in November

2010-11-23T05:18:00.001-08:00

Joshua Tree National Park encompasses 800,000 acres of two major desert ecosystems. Below 3,000 feet elevation, within the Colorado Desert, one sees cholla cactus, creosote, and ocotillo.

Most of the western half of the park is above 3,000 feet elevation. This Sonoran "high desert" is part of the Mojave Desert. The dominant plant is the joshua tree.

A one mile trail through Hidden Valley, said to be a former cattle rustlers' hideout, is bordered by dramatic granite outcroppings, and affords beautiful views.

With our new macro lens we captured this image of a lady bug.

Extensive granite outcroppings exposed by erosion appear as if boulders had been piled in great heaps. These rocks draw campers to sites nestled among the boulders and climbers wanting to hone their skills.

Several oases throughout the park provide water and support different plant and animal communities. A morning walk at the Oasis of Mara is a great time to spot desert cottontails, roadrunners, phainopepla, mourning dove, and mockingbirds.

Pelicans

2010-08-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

Pelicans are such strange and unlikely looking birds, with their plump bodies, very long bills, and large pouches for scooping up fish. Years ago, as I was swimming in the Pacific off Santa Monica Beach, a brown pelican dove for fish within five feet of me. What an awesome sight. In flight the pelican has a wingspan of up to ten feet. When it sees fish beneath the surface of the water, the bird folds its wings and plummets head first into the water, where it scoops up as many fish as it can, into the large pouch below its bill.

Shown here are White Pelicans, photographed on the Madison River in Montana.There are two species in North America, the Brown Pelican, found along ocean coasts, and the White Pelican, found throughout inland North America. White Pelicans are often seen in Yellowstone National Park and the Greater Yellowstone area.

In the sequence below, a parent approached an immature bird to offer it food. The immature pelican is as large as the parent, and is distinguished by the brownish feathers on its crown, in contrast to the pure white of the adult.

Wildflowers of the Gravelly Range

2010-08-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

In summer, mountain meadows bursting with spectacular wildflower displays create carpets of color extending for miles atop the Gravelly Range in Montana's Madison County. The rangers of Madison Ranger District lead an annual wildflower tour, which this year took place on July 8th.

Meeting at the ranger station in Ennis, the car tour covered about 60 miles round trip, mostly on gravel roads, and moved through all the vegetation zones from the Madison River Valley to the alpine zone at the top of the mountain range. After driving through the foothills, the first stop was in the montane zone. Summer flowers abounded, and showy arrowleaf balsamroot covered large swaths of the hillside.

Arrowleaf balsamroot

Flax

Parry's Townsendia

Phlox

Ball Anemone

Fields of blossoming bistort reached their white blooms above the other flowers.

At the second stop the colors were different, and the fascinating pink prairie smoke and delicate forget-me-not dominated fields scattered with lambs-tongue groundsel.

Prairie smoke

Forget-me-not

Lambs-tongue groundsel

There was a lunch stop in a lush subalpine meadow ringed with firs and adorned with tiny wildflowers, of which the most showy was the shooting star.

Shooting star

The tour then proceeded another five miles, past meadows full of beautiful blue sky pilot and other flowers, surrounded by amazing views of snow-capped peaks and ridges in every direction.

Sky pilot

Finally reaching the alpine zone at an overlook above the Ruby Creek drainage, old man of the mountain smiled his sunny smile above plants like kitten tails and draba which hugged the ground, and sky pilot bloomed its beautiful blue. The adaptable paintbrush, found from lower elevations up to the alpine zone, is quite stunted at this elevation.

Old man of the mountain

Kitten tails

Draba

Paintbrush

Island Park, Idaho

2010-07-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

This is our second home, a place of natural beauty, where the lodgepole pine forests of most of Island Park give way to fir and aspen north of Henry’s Lake, around our cabin and near Raynolds Pass.

Magnificent wildflowers carpet the fields and hillsides each spring. Early in June, delicate glacier lilies cover the ground, and flowers like the shooting star, western virgin’s bower, and sugar bowls bloom.

Glacier Lily

Shooting Star

Western Virgin's Bower

Sugar Bowls

The rare Calypso Orchid below was photographed somewhere in Fremont County. I have promised not to reveal where, as it is rare and endangered in large part due to the impact of human development on its habitat and growing requirements. The plant has very precise requirements regarding the soil and other conditions in which it grows, including the particular fungi in the soil. Even walking close to it can disturb the soil enough to jeopardize the health and reproduction of the plant. What a lovely, delicate flower.

Calypso Orchid

In contrast to the delicate beauty of the orchid is the showy, splashy bright yellow of the mules ears that bloom around early July. These are actually my favorite flower around our cabin, because they cover acres of the surrounding hillsides, and meadows throughout Island Park, with bright swatches of color. The acre and a half of wildflower meadow below our home is dominated by these flowers for a few weeks every summer - amazing us with the saturation of color that is almost more than the eye can take in, and defining my mental image of this place that I love.

Yellow Mules Ears

Interspersed in this bright wildflower meadow are sticky geranium, lupine, and paintbrush, along with many, many other flowers that will come and go in their natural sequence throughout the summer.

Sticky Geranium

Lupine

Paintbrush

The birds are all in their brightest breeding plumage in June, and the annual robin’s nest appears again under our deck.

Breakfast for the babies!

We are cautioned by Forest Service flyers left at our door, and by the local newspaper, to keep bird feeders 10 feet off the ground and 4 feet from the nearest vertical support so as not to attract bears - or better yet, not to put out feeders at all!

This season there have been more bears around homes and cabins here than in the eleven years we have been in Island Park, and our neighbors all have stories of a large black bear that had been regularly circulating through our area up to a couple of weeks before we arrived, climbing up on porches and decks and peering through windows. Two years ago we found big bear paw prints in the dust on our garage door, five to six feet above ground level. However, we have still only once seen a bear in our area in eleven summers, which is fine with us.

Some of the birds here are so bright and exotic looking they might look appropriate in the tropics.

Lazuli Bunting

Western Tanager

The tree swallow and mountain bluebird are both cavity nesters that readily build their nests in nest boxes provided by humans. The tree swallow seems to be more aggressive, winning out most fights over a nest box. But this one chose the more natural route, nesting in an aspen that faces the morning sun.

Tree Swallow

Mountain Bluebird

Other frequently sighted birds:

Rufous Hummingbird

Red-Naped Sapsucker

Black-Headed Grosbeak

About the third week in July, a blue-winged teal appears on the pond with 11 ducklings. In this photo they are about a week old.

Nearby, a spotted sandpiper hops along the bank, with the characteristic bobbing of its rear end.

Yellowstone

2010-07-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Yellowstone is a sacred place to me, a place of immense natural beauty, awesome scenery, abundant and amazing wildlife, unique and wondrous geothermal features.

Lower Yellowstone Falls

Bison grazing in Lamar Valley

Pond near Swan Lake

Ledge Geyser (l) & Black Growler Steam Vent - Norris

Each season offers special opportunities to observe wildlife, and by early to mid June, visitors can spot black and grizzly bears with their cubs, wolves with their pups, bison and elk with their calves, and pronghorn with their fawns. In the Madison River Valley, we enjoyed watching a herd of bison cows with their calves, as they walked along the river, several of the animals swimming back and forth across the water.

Bison with two calves

Bison mother and calf ford Madison River

Bull Bison calf

A pair of sandhill cranes were followed through the grass by their chick, who mimicked their every move.

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Crane with chick

Bighorn Ram

In the beautiful and wild Lamar Valley, in the undeveloped northeastern corner of the park, we saw hundreds of elk and bison, as well as a majestic bighorn ram, and two female pronghorns with their fawns.

Pronghorn females with fawns

Pronghorn nursing

Staying overnight in nearby Silver Gate, we were up well before dawn to join other wolf watchers with our rented high-power spotting scope, and were rewarded with the opportunity to watch the five adult wolves and four pups of the Silver Pack just as the sun rose.

The animals were much too far away for photographing the wolves, but from high on a sage-covered hillside on the north side of the valley, we watched the pups romp and play, and the adults lounge about, in the early morning sunlight.

Later in the day we watched two of the three adults and two of the three pups of the newly-named Lamar Canyon Pack, near the location known to experienced wolf-watchers as the den of the former Slough Creek Pack, which the new group used this season to have their pups.

Bald Eagle with "chick" a few days before fledging

A highlight of our first visit to Yellowstone this season was watching a bald eagle nest, with one young bird who was testing his wings and flight skills just days before he fledged.

The adult eagles in flight were magnificent - more than worthy of being identified as our national symbol.

Bald Eagle adult

Firehole River, Midway Geyser Basin

On another visit to the park, we stopped along the Firehole River where it meandered through the Midway Geyser Basin.

A great blue heron in full breeding plumage preened on the opposite bank, in a colorful wildflower meadow of purple larskpur and other flowers. The fancy plumes are only present in breeding adults, and although I have watched great blue herons all over North America for more than thirty years, this was the best opportunity I have had to watch and photograph such a beauty.

Great Blue Heron in breeding plumage

Old Faithful Geyser

Old Faithful is the most famous geyser in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually to observe its regular eruptions which occur about every hour to 90 minutes and last from one-and-a-half to five minutes.

Grand Prismatic Spring

Grand Prismatic Spring is not far from Old Faithful, and is one of the largest and most colorful of the hot springs in the park. The color of the hot springs comes from microbes living in the hot water - and varies from blue through orange depending on the temperature.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden

2010-07-09T19:06:00.000-07:00

Spring in southern California is magnificent for glorious weather and wildflowers. We are lucky to live near the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, 86 acres which are home to the largest collection of native California plants anywhere.

Naturally, the Garden attracts many birds. The image below captures the pert Bewick's Wren.

One year a pair of owls nested and raised their young in a tree a few feet from one of the trails. This year a pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks nested above another trail.

The Garden also attracts many butterflies, among them the Pipevine Swallowtail.

This June, one of the research associates, "BugBob" Allen, a biology professor, botanist, entomologist and photographer, who teaches digital photography classes at the Garden, organized the Garden's first butterfly exhibit, a wonderful presentation of native plants and the butterflies that pollinate them.

Monarch

Pipevine Swallowtail

Chalcedon Checkerspot

June brought bright pinks to Fay's Wildflower Garden, replacing the oranges, yellows and blues of poppies and lupine a month earlier.

April in Joshua Tree National Park

2010-04-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Childhood memories of scrambling among piles of boulders in Joshua Tree, return whenever I visit this park. I have always marveled at the weird and unique Joshua Tree plants and the random-looking piles of granite, making me think of some other planet. Designated a national monument in 1936, it became a national park in 1994.

This park protects 800,000 acres of Colorado and Sonoran desert. I love seeing on the park website that from time to time certain areas of the park are closed to public use "due to wildlife activity." Isn't this part of why we have parks? To protect the wildlife?

On the approach to the park from the heavily populated Los Angeles Area, one drives past Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs, from which there are gorgeous views of 10,834-foot Mt. San Jacinto.

During beautiful sunny days of a visit to Joshua Tree National Park in April, with temperatures in the 70s, snow-capped peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains were still visible from a corner of the park and from nearby Yucca Valley.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Visiting the park with a biology professor who specializes in reptiles, leads to identifying numerous lizards, including these:

Collared Lizard

Chuckwalla - note he's lost his tail!

We even spotted a mini desert tortoise - actually a baby - a miniature of the adult, but only about 3 inches in diameter.

The scenery is spectacular, and the rocks are popular among climbers.

Cactus bloom in the spring, the vibrant color of the blossoms a striking contrast to the forbidding spines of the cacuts.

An early morning walk at the Oasis of Mara - or anywhere else - is a great time for bird watching or photography.

This Gambel's Quail posed and sang for us.

The Phainopepla has a silhouette similar to the eastern Cardinal, but all black, with his striking crest.

Mourning Dove

Desert Cottontail

Wildflowers abound when conditions are right.

There are many hiking opportunities including a few that take the visitor to one of several oases in the park - such as the moderate 3-mile round-trip hike to the 49-Palms Oasis.

The hiker is rewarded by a lovely green oasis.

Spring Break in Santa Barbara

2010-04-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

Cachuma Lake Recreation Area, about 15 miles inland from Santa Barbara, California, is a lovely county park.

In spring, the hills around the lake are a lush green, deciduous oaks bursting with new growth. These coastal hills have abundant wildlife, including deer, wild turkey, and many bird species.

We camped among oaks filled with acorn woodpeckers.

European Collared Doves were common, as were wild turkey, Western Bluebird, California Quail, Scrub Jay, European Starling, and the little Yellow-Rumped Warbler - which I have always thought is a much less dignified name for this cute bird than the former name, "Audubon's Warbler."

Along the coast, Gaviota State Park "takes its name from the Spanish word for seagull, given to the area by soldiers of the Portola Expedition who supposedly killed a seagull while camping here in 1769." A dramatic railroad trestle dominates the way to the beach, and a long pier attracts fishermen and even has a boat launch hoist. The pier is a great vantage point for view of birds and the ocean.

Wildflowers grace every hillside, the most showy flowers being the California Poppy, Lupine, and Mustard.

We delighted in walking along the beach among the gulls, and especially in watching Long Billed Curlews feed in the receding waves, flaunting the unlikely proportions of their long bills, then flying gracefully over the surf.

Refugio State Beach and El Capitan State Beach, also operated by the California State Parks system, offer more miles of beach and hiking trails, and more shorebirds. All of these three parks and beaches are within 20 miles of Santa Barbara, itself a charming seaside town.

Chickadees

2010-02-11T21:02:00.000-08:00

Just before New Year's 2010, in beautifully clear weather, at the first rays of morning sun, these chickadees captivated me at a feeder at our cabin near Raynolds Pass in Island Park, Idaho, at about 6600 feet elevation. Here is the black-capped chickadee, found year-round throughout most of the northern U.S. and most of Canada. Note its solid black cap and bib.

Chickadees have always reminded me of Christmas ornaments when they flit among the snow-covered Douglas Fir boughs outside our window in winter. It is amazing that these tiny birds that look so delicate are actually so hardy. They can survive harsh winters at high elevations, and extended periods of sub-zero temperatures.

Below is the mountain chickadee, also found year-round throughout most of the western U.S. and Canada. Note the black eye stripe. This is the only one of five species of chickadees found in North America, that has the black eye stripe.

There is evidence that these two species have interbred or hybridized in Island Park, Idaho, a phenomenon covered by the Island Park News in its January 7, 2010 issue. (To read the whole article, you must subscribe to the on-line edition of the paper.) Elsewhere in the U.S., there is documented evidence, some of it based on DNA testing, of hybridization between other species of chickadees.

Wolves

2010-01-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

These photos and the video of gray wolves were taken at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, Montana. This wonderful not-for-profit organization, located at the western entrance to Yellowstone National Park, is dedicated to providing opportunities to watch and learn about these magnificent wild animals, which live in large enclosures of several acres, approximating the natural habitat of the high country or a river valley.

Click on the arrow to play a highlight video of the wolves we saw on a late December afternoon at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center (1 min. 50 sec.).

The gray wolf, canis lupus, was once found throughout much of North America. Individuals can actually range in color from almost pure white, to shades of brown or tan, to grizzled gray or black. The light colored wolf above appears almost ethereal against winter snow in the evening light.

This curious wolf was only about six feet from the camera when this shot was taken through the plexiglass window of the "naturalist hut." Was he contemplating us in our enclosure just as we were viewing him in his?

The two light colored wolves below were very active after being fed, running and checking out all corners of their enclosure, finding new scents and rolling in them on the snow, discovering morsels of food.

This impressive animal was viewed outside where he was walking the perimeter of his enclosure. A wild beauty in a calm moment . . . but look at those piercing predator eyes!

Wolves within their pack are as playful as dogs, romping and tussling with each other. The younger animals remind one of puppies in their mannerisms and behavior as they play with the older animals.