Bird #601 – Chihuahuan Meadowlark

Posted on June 24, 2024 by Roger

sturnella (from sturnus, starling, with an added diminutive, so “little starling”) lilianae (after three women named Lilian who were associated in one way or another with ornithologists)

Dallam County, Texas – County Road 1879

Monday, June 24, 2024 – 2:05 pm

On the way home from our trip to visit our daughters and tour Yellowstone, we decided to take the southern route through New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. I didn’t plan the trip very well, and, while I saw some cool birds, I’m sure I  missed a lot too.

In the morning, we visited Capulin Volcano National Monument. I don’t remember why I suddenly thought about the Chihuahuan Meadolark — I suppose I heard a Western Meadowlark and wondered about this new species, just split from the Eastern Meadowlark a few years ago. I checked eBird and saw that they were seen fairly regularly near the tiny town of Texline, Texas, just east of the New Mexico border along the edge of the Rio Blanca National Grasslands.

I decided to make a side trip on county roads (16 miles vs. 11 miles if we stayed on the highway). It was a hot, windy afternoon, the worst time to see birds, but that was when I was there, so I gave it a shot.

We drove through the farmland/grassland, looking for meadowlarks. And we saw a lot of them. Those that stuck around long enough to give me good looks were Westerns, and so were the ones I heard singing. After about eight miles, we turned south on County Road 1879. By this time I had figured this wasn’t to be my day. I wasn’t driving as slowly as I had been, but I still had my window open to listen, and I was still slowing when I actually saw a meadowlark.

Just after we passed a dirt road called O Bar Lane, I heard a meadowlark song that sounded very like an Eastern Meadowlark. I said, “That’s it!” and stopped the car. I soon heard the song again. But because of the wind and the noise it was making, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I backed up the car to look at a meadowlark that was perched on a wire along the dirt road and waited for it to sing.

In the meantime, I played the song of both the Western and the Chihuahuan for Sally, and she also distinctly heard both species singing outside. But she thought the Chihuahuan sound was coming from her side of the car and up ahead. She couldn’t figure out why I’d backed up. She was proven right moments later when the bird I was looking at sang a Western song. I pulled forward slowly and saw the Chihuahuan sitting on the bottom strand of a wire fence about 25 yards away. I should have taking a photo through the windshield before I pulled closer to try for a better angle. But I didn’t. The bird flew off low over the field on the west side of the road and disappeared into the grass. When it flew, the tail looked very white, with just a narrow strip of brown down the center. I paid closer attention to the few Westerns we saw after that, and all of them had less white with some brown even on the white feathers.

I played the Chihuahuan song again, and both Sally and I agreed that that’s what we had heard — maybe four times. I was convinced I’d seen my bird.

Later, when we were close to the highway and our birding side trip was about over, I heard a meadowlark make a rattling call unlike the “churt” of the Western, so there may have been a second one.

I’d taken a long shot, and it had paid off. Especially fortunate since this area is in the very northeast corner of its range. But it’s the first lifer in a long time that I haven’t gotten any kind of photo of, and I was also unable to record it because of the wind noise.

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Capulin Volcano National Monumet

Posted on June 24, 2024 by Roger

On Friday, we drove from Rock Springs to Colorado Springs where we spent two days with our daughter and son-in-law. In the evening, we went out to eat at a German restaurant, then headed downtown where the cars from the Pikes Peak Race were on display. The entire area was packed, and we had to squeeze through the crowds at every step. In the middle of all this, a block was cordoned off so three motorcyclists could do trick jumps off a ramp.

On Saturday, I birded in the morning at some nearby places on the north side of town — Black Forest and Monument Branch. The latter is next to my old workplace, but I didn’t go anywhere near the building. I would have liked to visit some of my other spots, but I was tired of driving — we did over 4,000 miles of it in the 12 days we were gone. Instead, I met and local friend for a 2+ hour lunch, then went to the house and hung out.

On Sunday, we visited a church where my daughter and son-in-law have recently begun going. We at lunch at a crepe restaurant, then spent the rest of the day at the house.

On Monday, we headed south into New Mexico. We had just crossed Raton Pass when we were caught in a traffic stoppage that lasted at least 45 minutes. The most frustrating thing about it was that I could see in the distance cars that had gotten off at an exit a mile or two behind us, driven through town, and were getting back on the interstate a mile ahead. When we finally got moving, we saw that the delay had been caused by a bus that had caught fire.

We headed east almost immediately and headed into the plains. We stopped at Capulin Volcano National Monument. When I lived in Colorado Springs, I was aware of this place, but it never seemed to be worth the almost three hour drive. My visit on this day didn’t convince me otherwise. It consists of a cinder volcano cone, considered one of the most perfect in the world. There’s a visitor center, and a road that winds around the cone to the top. We drove up, but decided not to hike the trail around the rim or the one down into the cone. For one thing, it was very hot. For another, we’d lost 45 minutes due to the bus fire and had a long way to drive. And for yet another, we were still limping from our past adventures.

There wasn’t a great deal to see. Here’s the view from the top.

Here’s the crater.

And here’s what it looks like from the southeast as we were driving away.

To quote Samuel Johnson (in reference to a tourist spot in Scotland), “It’s worth seeing, but it’s not worth going to see.”

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Grant Teton National Park

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Roger

On Thursday, we drove back to the East Entrance of Yellowstone, our fourth trip on this road. We only stopped once in the park on this day, at LeHardys Rapids on the Yellowstone River. I saw on eBird that Harlequin Ducks are seen there regularly, but on this morning, I could only find a single female. Still … I also finally saw a Dipper.

We drove south out of the park on the John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Memorial Parkway and into Grand Teton National Park. We never planned on staying long. Our goal was to see the mountains. Here are some of the places (north to south) from where we did just that. They are beautiful, of course, but we still can’t see what the French dudes who names the place imagined they saw.

We stopped at Colter Bay Village, walked around a bit, bought some souvenirs, and, rather spontaneously, decided to eat lunch at the John Colter Ranch House restaurant. We split a burger, a order of nachos, and a piece of huckleberry cheesecake. It was ridiculously expensive, as all food in National Parks is. It was also very tasty, as all food (that I’ve had anyway) in National Parks generally is.

As we drove south through the park, we saw some Bison and a few of the famous Jackson Hole Elk. We also stopped at an overlook above the Snake River, where Ansel Adams took his famous photo. There was a sign board telling exactly where he stood.

Here’s his photo.

Here’s mine.

Naturally, I took it in color. The clouds added a dramatic element.

My wife wanted to see Jackson, so we drove through town without stopping. I know there’s more to Grand Teton than that, but we’d seen what we came to see. Our route south through Wyoming was amazing at first, and we figured we’d lucked on another drive as pretty as our destination, but things soon flattened out. Before we got to our hotel in Rock Springs, the world was flat and brown and dull. We bought McDonald’s and ate it in our room. I wandered around Rock Springs in search of birds, but saw nothing worth the walk.

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Animal #80 – Uinta Ground Squirrel

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Roger

spermophilus armatus

Lamar Valley – Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Wednesday, June 19, 2024 – 10:30 am

We drove through Lamar Valley at Yellowstone looking for animals (but especially for wolves). We saw several ground squirrels run across the road in front of the car. On one of the occasions when we pulled over, my wife said there was one in the grass just below her car window. I got out to try for a photo, but they (there were at least two in the immediate area) kept mostly hidden, with just a glimpse now and again as they dashed between clumps of vegetation. That is until one climbed up in a sage bush about 20 feet away and posed for me.

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Yellowstone National Park – Day Two

Posted on June 19, 2024 by Roger

We had two goals at Yellowstone today — to look for wolves and other wildlife in Lamar Valley and to see the falls of the Yellowstone River. To avoid retracing our path from the day before, we drove to the Northeast Entrance of the park via the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. This was 47 miles of paved, nearly empty road with beautiful scenery. And just before we got to the park, the road popped up into Montana, a state my wife hadn’t been in before.

Before long, we were in Lamar Valley. We soon happened upon a couple who were watching Mountain Goats on the cliffs to the north. They said, and I later confirmed, that the goats are not native to the park but have wandered in from introduced populations in Montana.

We saw Mule Deer, Bison, Pronghorns (a few), and way off in the distance, a couple Elk. We did not see any wolves. I found a guy who was set up next to the road with a scope and camera. He didn’t have a lot to say, but he seemed to know what he was doing. He had a dachshund chained to a wire cage. The dog kept dragging the cage off into the sage in pursuit of Uinta Ground Squirrels. The guy told me he’d seen wolves earlier that day, but then he proceeded to tell me why it was unlikely that I’d see any, so he may have been talking through his hat.

It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly but much warmer than the day before. And Lamar Valley was beautiful, even without wolves.

Later in the day, when we’d looked for wolves in all the most likely places and had pretty much resigned ourselves to not seeing any, we were in a gift shop when I heard a woman in neon sweatpants say to a friend, “Did you see that black wolf that was standing in the middle of the road this morning?” I resented her then, and I still resent her now.

We came across a large crowd of people looking at a Black Bear. I pulled over and joined the throng and saw this. It was about 40 yards back in the woods.

The next two photos are the views from two overlooks where we stopped. I’m not sure exactly where we were. At the first site, a pair of Osprey were nesting right across the canyon.

Our drive took us up and over Dunraven Pass (8,859 feet) past Mount Washburn (10,243 feet). Nowhere on this trip did I have any issues with altitude, apart from being a little out of breath a few times when climbing stairs and such.

Just south of Canyon Village, a Black Bear was grazing in the grass right next to the road. People were stopping to look, and a ranger in a little golf cart was honking his horn to get people to keep moving. It was not exactly idyllic. To keep from adding to the problem, I just had my wife take some photos out the car window as we passed.

 A little further, we found another large crowd watching a herd of Elk in a clearing. I noticed, with a lot of these animal sightings, a ranger was right there controlling the people and answering questions. I’m guessing many of the animals are tagged so the park can keep track of them and get to the spot when they get close to people. I took one photo, again without stopping, to prove we saw them. It’s pretty obvious that at least one of them was tagged.

Our next stop was the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. This was indeed impressive. Except maybe for the woman standing next to us who pointed to the people just visible on a platform next to the brink. She said, “Those people, is that where we were? Make sure you get a photo of those people. I’m going to take a photo of those people, those people standing next to the falls. We need to get a photo of them because that’s where we were.” She kept on like this for an annoyingly long time — so long that my wife gave up on the view and wandered off. This falls is 308 feet high.

We drove around to the other side of the rive to see the 109-foot Upper Falls. It wasn’t as impressive, but still pretty.

We drove through Hayden Valley again (we’d been there the day before) without seeing any wildlife more exciting than Sandhill Cranes and Barrow’s Goldeneyes — which wasn’t bad. We stopped at Fishing Bridge to buy stuff at the gift shop and then headed back toward Cody.

We passed Yellowstone Lake and the spot where we’d seen the Grizzly the day before when we happened upon a herd of maybe eight Bighorn Sheep. They were crossing the road and taking their time about it.

A younger one walked out in front of our car, turned around and reared up. I caught it on video and later took a screenshot of that exact moment to make it look like it was walking on its hind legs. Everyone I showed the photo to thought it was photo-shopped.

Just outside the park, just after we’d seen two Grizzly Bears, we pulled over at a picnic area so I could look for a Dipper. I didn’t see one. My wife took over the driving and, a minute later, we saw another Grizzly. More about that here.

We got back to Cody much earlier than we had the night before. We decided on a sit-down meal and ended up at a little place on the backside of town called the Hungry Bear. It served Italian comfort food, and it was very good. It was also obviously a hangout for locals and not a big tourist hotspot, which was nice.

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