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| Moose! |
Today we found a cooperative moose that led us to other wildlife in the area.
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| Mountain Bluebird (female) trying to get a long stick in a small hole. |
First we found a pair of Mountain Bluebirds building a nest in a real tree cavity, not a nesting box!
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| Mountain Bluebird (male) |
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| Mountain Bluebird (male) |
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| House Wren |
A pair of House Wrens we building a nest in a broken, hollow branch about 5 feet above the bluebirds.
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| Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker |
A little further down the road was a Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker nest that was very active!
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| Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker |
Here is the female removing the fecal sack from one of at least three chicks. Three was the top number of little beaks I counted at any one time.
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| Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker |
As we were enjoying the flicker activity, someone noticed “two brown spots” on the hillside. I the tall vegetation it took us a moment to realize it was a pair of Grizzly cubs! Jared quickly realized that it was Grizzly #399’s cubs that had been separated from mom and each other a month earlier when a large boar tried to mate with 399. Mom shooed them off in different directions so the boar would not kill them. This was the first confirmed sighting of the two cubs together again!
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| One of Grizzly #399’s cubs. |
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| One of Grizzly #399’s cubs. |
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| One of Grizzly #399’s cubs. |
We hung around for a while, with the vehicles for protection, and got a few images as they came down to the road. Soon, however, there were so many cars parked along the roadside, and so many people disrespecting the animals, that the rangers had to take over to protect people from themselves.
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| Red-naped Sapsucker |
We moved on and found a few more nesting birds. This Red-naped Sapsucker I knew was nesting nearby, but it took a couple days to finally see the cavity… and it was impossible to photograph.
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch feeding chick. |
However, while photographing the sapsucker I noticed a Red-breasted Nuthatch fly into a tree overhead. I watched for a while then saw it disappear between two trees. The nest was well camouflaged, but photographable.
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch feeding chick. |
Although the light wasn’t that great, I am glad we took the opportunity. The next time we visited the cavity the young birds had fledged!
photos and text © Kevin Loughlin
Wow, your photos of wildlife are amazing…the wildlife itself is amazing!
Thanks Kirsten! I hope to get more up soon… so keep checking back!
-Kevin
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks!