It’s starting to feel like fall and we’re definetly in the later part of the fall migration. I didn’t take many pictures this weekend, but rather enjoyed the new arrivals that were in the park.
I did take a few snapshots. Pale Male and Lola, an immature Great Blue Heron, a pair of Pied-billed Grebes, a 1st Winter female Magnolia Warber (note the unique white-banded tail pattern and pale gray neckband) and a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are migrating through Central Park. They love Jewelweed flowers or other flowers with nectar. Great places to see them are the Jewelweed patch on the south edge of the Strawberry Fields lawn, “The Oven” — the cove on the Lake, the North Lobe of the Lake or the Conservatory Garden.
I got to see three different pairs of Sandhill Cranes in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons but photographing them wasn’t easy. Here are the best photographs I had. They had a wonderfully prehistoric sounding call.
American White Pelicans were numerous along the Yellowstone and Snake Rivers. This was yet another species I was familiar with from visits to Florida, that I didn’t expect to see in Wyoming. I guess salt water or fresh water doesn’t matter as long as their are fish to eat.
A new bird for my life list, was a Harlequin Duck found on a rock in the rapids of the Yellowstone River. The sex of this bird was a female. There was no sign of the much more richly colored male unfortunately.
I had spent an afternoon looking for an American Dipper (also known as the Water Ouzel) in Yosemite National Park, without success earlier this year. In Yellowstone, I saw one on my first hike, without even trying!
The bird, which fishes in mountain streams, was the subject of a chapter in John Meir’s The Mountains of California. John Heir’s writings helped create Yosemite National Park.
