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Author Archives: Teri J Pieper

Spring Bird Song

As the days grow warmer, new birds migrate to the nesting areas and begin setting up their territories, declaring them from tree tops, fence posts and signs. During yesterday’s early morning walk, I heard bluebirds, sparrows, finches and meadowlarks. Owls wake us up at night with their hooting. There is so much to see and hear!

Here is the song of the Western Meadowlark from the Cornell website.

Morning light on yonder hills
Western Meadowlark
Mountain Bluebird
Red-tailed Hawk
Great Horned Owl

A Walk by the River

This time of year it is difficult to find good walking places. They are either covered in soft, unpredictable snow, or slush and mud, or just plain mud. The girls really like a little variety in their lives so I do try to get them out and about to various places. This morning we visited a small piece of public land on the river. It was a mix of soft and hard packed snow, very wet slush and occasionally wet ground. They were ecstatic. And Sky found sticks. Lots of sticks. What more could she want? Luna found smells. Lots of good stinky smells. It was a perfect dog walk.

Happy!
Throw it! Please!
Lichens are in full color
Who will be the lucky birds for #6?
Busy beaver work
Please!

Spring Birds

My birthday is the first day of Spring – the Equinox – and I like to celebrate it out in nature. This year the snow lingers most everywhere in our region making hikes or even long walks pretty challenging. So we went down to the big river – the Columbia – where the temperature is more moderate and the snow melts more quickly. Still, there was snow on the ground. Not everywhere so we all were happy to walk or in the dogs’ case, run on ground for a change. And Sky got to jump in the river so all of her wishes came true.

Ken and I watched birds and enjoyed the diversity of species we got to see. Sometimes in winter there are just not many birds around. Spring and migration change all that. We saw over fifty species in a few hours of birding. That includes the birds at home. One of those was a Great Horned Owl that woke me up before dawn, hooting from a snag in our yard. I had hoped to maybe see Sandhill Cranes but it seems that they are put off by all the remaining snow. I imagine when they do head north, they won’t stop here very long since they need to get to their nesting grounds. We did see lots of ducks and geese and swans too.

I think these are all Tundra Swans
Mixed flock of Mallards, Northern Pintails and maybe some American Wigeons too.
A lone Snow Goose with a group of Canada Geese
First Killdeer of the spring
Horned Grebe
This beaver kept a close eye on us as we ate our lunch from the tailgate
Common Loon
I never did get a clear view of this not quite grown up Bald Eagle

Wolves in Yellowstone

Of all the wildlife in Yellowstone, the wolves attract the most attention. There are people that live near the park who go out every single day to watch for wolves with spotting scopes, binoculars and cameras in hand. Most of the those people are incredibly friendly and ready to help tourists like us to find wolves and see them through the spotting scopes. They know wolves by name or number and they know the packs and which ones we might expect to see. Additionally, the National Park Service and Yellowstone Forever have a Wolf Project that started the week we were there and will continue through the month of March. These researchers were also happy to share any info they had about the wolves and other wildlife. We learned a lot while we were there. We also got a healthy dose of patience waiting to see the famous Lamar pack. These animals’ ancestry can be traced back to the original re-introduction in 1995 and 1996.

We were thrilled to see wolves hunting, eating, resting, playing and moving across the landscape. Overall we saw four different packs and three wolves from a not yet identified pack. Most of the sightings were through a spotting scope on distant hillsides. The Lamar pack had a carcass across a meadow, estimated at 300-400 yards away from the roadside where we waited to see them for hours. At last, near dusk when many of the wolf-watchers had left, they emerged to eat for a while before melting back into the woods.

The carcass was down in a draw, out of sight in front of the evergreen trees
This is a digiscoped image – the photo was made with a cell phone looking through a scope.

Yellowstone Coyotes

There were lots of opportunities to watch coyotes in Yellowstone. I’ve read that their population decreased after the wolves returned so maybe we were just in the right spots to see them. They often scavenge on remains of wolf kills. There was a dead, probably winter-killed bison near the road and each time we drove by it, there were two or maybe three coyotes nearby.

I like coyotes and admire their tenacity and adaptability. And I enjoy hearing them howl. They live here but since it always seems to be open season on coyotes, they are very furtive and don’t let themselves be seen very often. Who can blame them?

This coyote had been chewing on a bison skull out in the open.
The snow was packed down by bison.
These two were very near the road, watching over a bison carcass.
These two were watching over the carcass too.