Three years ago we enjoyed a very active June, starting out at our home in south Florida followed by flights to Illinois and then Colorado, and a motor trip across the northwestern US through Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and back to Illinois before flying home.
During the following weeks I processed more than 700 photos out of over 2000 which accumulated during the trips, and am now selecting some which reflect favorite memes: critters (especially birds), skies and landscapes, reflections, fences, and scenes which speak for themselves.
During our first week in Illinois we visited the prairies of Nelson Lake/Dick Young preserve and saw a good variety of recently arrived breeding birds, including...
Bobolinks:
Dickcissels:
Red-winged Blackbird:
Common Yellowthroat:
American Goldfinches:
MaryLou and I celebrated our 56th Wedding Anniversary at YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado, hosting all of our descendants-- three children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, spouses and MaryLou's brother:
Because of a mix-up with the reservations we were assigned a cozy cabin, but it was a long walk away from the rest of our party who were clustered together. This actually suited us just fine, as our sleeping and waking patterns did not match those of the young crowd.
Our nearest neighbors were Green-tailed Towhees...
...Broad-tailed Hummingbirds, and...
...Violet-green Swallows:
Along Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountains National Park we saw a Hoary Marmot:
Following our 5 nights in the Colorado Rockies, we joined our daughter's family for a long drive in a rented SUV. We winded our way along the Needles Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota, passing through numerous tunnels:
The Needles, a magnificent rock formation:
MaryLou and I posed at The Needle's Eye:
As we emerged from the last tunnel, a distant view of Mount Rushmore opened up in front of us:
At Mount Rushmore National Monument, we were awed by the spectacular carvings of four former Presidents, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln:
We stayed in Blue Bell, South Dakota, in Custer State Park, where we occupied adjacent cabins on the Wildlife Loop road:
View from Wildlife Loop just after sunset:
Highlights of the drive along Wildlife Loop included American Bison..
...a Whitetail Deer fawn...
...and a Pronghorn Antelope:
From there we traveled into southwestern South Dakota and spent two nights at Circle View Family Ranch in Badlands National Park. Our accommodations were primitive, but the scenery, wildlife and great breakfasts were totally enjoyable. Our lodging was a refurbished ranch-hand shack, the Tree House Cabin:
Our daughter's family stayed next door in the more luxurious Cowboy Cabin, which even had utensils and a kitchen sink:
From the porch of our cabin we saw (among many species) Lark Sparrows...
...Lark Buntings...
...Blue Grosbeaks...
...and Western Meadowlarks:
Driving through the Park, the views were fantastic.
A Bighorn ram grazed next to the road:
I must stop writing somewhere as it is impossible for me to do justice to the beauty we saw this month. In Florida it began, appropriately, with a "Mirrored" (anti-crepuscular or false) sunrise on the western horizon opposite the sun, on June 1...
... and ended with us back in northeastern Illinois, with a robin on a fence...
...and a walk in the short-grass prairie path at Nelson Lake (oil rendering, click to enlarge):
Our two night stay at Circle View guest ranch in the Badlands of South Dakota was a true wildlife watching adventure. I provided a taste of the experience in my PREVIOUS POST with descriptions of my observations on our first morning as I sipped coffee on the porch of our tiny "Treehouse" cabin.
From our cabin, this is a view of the Badlands to the north:
Later that morning, in full sun, a Bullocks Oriole appeared in the wet meadow just to the west of the cabin:
A Blue Grosbeak stood out against the vegetation:
A female Yellow-headed Blackbird landed on a nearby fence. She was gathering grasshoppers for her young. Her more brightly-colored mate showed up later but was too far away for a photo:
An Eastern Bluebird perched on a nearby tree. I had rather expected to see Western Bluebirds as we had in Colorado, but the latter species has a blue throat and lower belly and their ranges do not overlap this far north:
We set out on a tour of the main portion of Badlands National Park. The color of the rock formations varies considerably, from red...
...to yellow...
...to purple (accented by a Bighorn Sheep)...
...but were mostly multicolored:
A Say's Phoebe is visible in this distant shot:
Western Meadowlarks comprised the most common bird species we encountered on the open prairie:
We watched for birds roosting on fences and utility wires in the National Grasslands which surround the rugged hills. Here is another Western Meadowlark, in flight:
Western Kingbird:
An Eastern Kingbird provided a comparison. Its more extensive range overlaps with its Western relative:
Lark Buntings were a welcome sight, I had not seen any since we moved away from New Mexico. They were very shy and I had trouble getting a good photo:
Dickcissels perched and sang from the wires:
I logged a new "Life Bird" when Roly, our son-in-law, spotted this Upland Sandpiper roosting along the gravel road. Unlike many other sandpipers, it nests on short-grass prairie away from water:
Remarkably, two Upland Sandpiper chicks were walking along right in front of our auto. One quickly disappeared into the roadside vegetation. Note its cryptic coloration:
A second chick afforded a better view:
Later we saw another Upland Sandpiper:
We encountered a closely related dry-land member of the sandpiper family as we exited the grasslands. It was a Long-billed Curlew:
Probably the most unusual bird photo I have ever obtained is that of an almost unimaginable combination-- a Western Meadowlark with a Red-headed Woodpecker in close contact. Since there were no trees in sight we joked that maybe the woodpecker was asking for directions!
There were several large Black-tailed Prairie Dog towns in the grasslands. This one stood guard and yipped its squeaky warning "bark"...
...while another prairie dog seemed to be curious about our presence. Note that flowers tend to grow in the cleared areas around their mounds, probably because of years of fertilization by the rodents' wastes:
Thistles predominated on the prairie:
Bighorn Sheep were common on the rugged hills. These three ewes were standing in the road and suddenly were startled and all fled at once:
A large Bighorn ram grazed along the road and seemed oblivious to our presence. I could hardly fit him into my camera's frame:
Finally, we witnessed a bit of drama as a very young Bighorn lamb seemed to be reflecting on whether to jump from a very high cliff to a pinnacle which was about 10 feet away. Note its mother watching-- her head is barely visible in the background:
The lamb decided not to jump across the chasm...
...and returned to its mother:
Once again, I could not find any good reflections among the many photos I took in the arid Badlands. I don't think the picture of the car mirror meets the standard, so I must reach back into the archives. This is a storm which was developing over the Everglades, taken in our local Florida wetlands the week before we departed:
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Linking to Misty's CAMERA CRITTERS,
Linking to Eileen's SATURDAY'S CRITTERS,
Linking to GOOD FENCES by Tex (Theresa).
Linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY by Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy
Linking to WEEKEND REFLECTIONS by James
Linking to BirdD'Pot by Anni
Linking to Wild Bird Wednesday by Stewart
Linking to Today's Flowers Friday by Denise
Linking to Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday) by NC Sue
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Please visit the links to all these memes to see some excellent photos on display
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