The Deskbound Birder

Tuesday, 17 December 2019

Texas and Yellowstone National Park - Yellowstone National Park Area 17th December (Day 8)

We were up at 07:00 and excited about our first day in Yellowstone National Park. As the sun rose the view from our accommodation at Sage Lodge to the snow covered grasslands and mountains was phenomenal. Tobias wanted to play in the snow before breakfast and so we stepped outside to a blasting cold wind and ground that was frozen hard. A few minutes play and we were back inside and enjoying breakfast beside a roaring fire. Our guide, Steve Hoffman of Merlin Birding and Nature Tours, collected us at 08:15 and we set off towards the Lamar Valley which has one of the few roads in the park open in the winter and one that provides excellent wildlife watching opportunities. Leaving the lodge, we headed south on Highway 89 and at Corwin Springs we crossed the Yellowstone River where there were three Bald Eagle, three Goosander two Common Goldeneye, 15 Canada Goose and 20 Mallard. Joining the Old Yellowstone Trail (or Cinnabar Road as it is signposted) we quickly encountered our first mammals with close range views of Mule Deer, Bighorn Sheep, Elk and the beautiful Pronghorn Antelope. At a stand of Juniper, a large flock of 250 American Robin and 150 Cedar Waxwing fed on the berries but were unfortunately too flighty for any decent photographs.

Bighorn Sheep - Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

Mule Deer - Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

Pronghorn Antelope - Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

American Robin - Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

Electric Peak from Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

Reaching Gardiner we faffed around getting supplies and visiting the Yellowstone Forever shop, I birded outside for a while but saw relatively little. As we got back to the car I spotted a Coyote close to the road and so we drove to it and soon after reaching it the animal sprung into the air and landed squarely on an unsuspecting Vole. The crunchy snack was soon consumed.

Coyote - Cinnabar Road, Gardiner

We then headed into the snowbound Yellowstone National Park through the Roosevelt Arch. As we climbed through the park the first bird of note that I spotted was a Townsend's Solitaire followed by a Golden Eagle. We then stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs where Steve went into the visitor centre to get some up to date gen on the location of Wolves. I birded outside but saw very little but for a couple of Mountain Chickadee and further Townsend's Solitaire. We continued on the Grand Loop Road and as the landscape opened out into extensive forests, snow covered plains and rugged mountain's we soon encountered our first American Bison adjacent to the road. We watched as these impressive beasts shovelled, bulldozer like, into the snow to reach tasty morsel's of dried grass buried beneath. While looking for Northern Pygmy-owl in a wooded valley we encountered more Mountain Chickadee and Townsend's Solitaire but at this time of year the forests were relatively devoid of birdlife.

American Bison - Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

Golden Eagle - Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

Mountain Chickadee - Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

As we approached Yancey's Creek just before the Tower Junction a large number of cars parked in lay-bys (or pull-outs as they are called in the US) alerted us to the presence of a Wolf pack lounging in the sun on a very distant hillside, scanning we could make out 13 animals at least seven of which were black phase animals, the remainder classic Grey Wolf, stunning animals but a little distant and lethargic. At the Tower Junction we turned eastwards into the Lamar Valley following the North-east Entrance Road. The Lamar Valley is a wide plain in which the Lamar River flows, at this time of year the valley was a sea of snow, but this is one of the hotspots in the park and spending a couple of hours here we had further views of Bison, Elk, numerous Coyote, an American Badger, American Dipper, Bald Eagle and Rough-legged Buzzard.

Wolf pack with a total of 13 animals in this image - Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

Coyote - Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

American Dipper - Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

Bald Eagle - Lamar Valley, Yellowstone National Park

At around 15:00 Steve suggested we should head back to the Wolf pack as they tended to become more active in the later afternoon. We pulled into the lay-by at Yancey's Creek and it was soon apparent that most of the pack were still on the same ridge as earlier. However, some of the animals had dispersed and were now in the nearby woodland. Several photographers had focused on an Elk which had apparently been chased and attacked by the pack but the animal stood firm and there was no sign of the Wolves any where near it. Near to the road, there was a carcass of an Elk that the pack had brought down yesterday and it was not long before three magnificent Grey Wolf showed on this fairly close to the road. We watched for an hour or so as these three animals came and went from the carcass giving good views. Happy with what we had seen we headed east back through the Lamar Valley to Silver Town/Cooke City where we had dinner Soda Butte Lodge before heading to our Super 8 hotel across the road.

My eBird checklists for the afternoon can be viewed here and here.

Wolf -Yancey's Creek, Grand Loop Road, Yellowstone National Park

Video of Wolf at Yancey's Creek, am still a bit shaky on the video! And there is no sound as there always seems to be constant inane chatter whenever I am recording, seems to be the way of humans watching wildlife

Sign at Soda Butte Lodge, Cooke City

Links to Other Days of the Trip (Click to View)

10th December (Day 1) – Fly London Heathrow to Dallas (15:45 - 20:10).

11th December (Day 2) – Trinity River Audobon Centre AM.

12th & 13th December (Day 3-4) - Work conference with no birding.

14th December (Day 5) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

15th December (Day 6) - Birding Corpus Christi area.

16th December (Day 7) - Fly Corpus Christi to Bozeman.

17th December (Day 8)- Travel east through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

18th December (Day 9)- Travel west through Lamma Valley in Yellowstone National Park.

19th December (Day 10) - Non-birding day.

20th December (Day 11) - International Flight.

Sunday, 15 December 2019

Texas and Yellowstone National Park - Corpus Christi Area 15th December (Day 6)

Today we headed west from Corpus Christi and began the day birding Highways 103 and then 360 between Sandy Hollow-Escondidas and Sandia. This road passes through a mix of scrub, pools and cattle grazed grassland and we saw a large number of birds with species such as Great-tailed Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer’s Blackbird, Crested Caracara, Red-tailed Hawk and Savanna Sparrow being abundant. There were also high numbers of Pyrrhuloxia and we recorded around 30 in total, John our guide said that there had been a significant influx into the area this winter. Other birds we recorded included Wild Turkey, Sandhill Crane, Long-billed Curlew, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Vermillion Flycatcher, Say’s Phoebe, Green Jay, Clay-coloured Sparrow, Black-throated Sparrow (possibly a first for Jim Wells County), Vesper Sparrow and Western Meadowlark. We also recorded our first Coyote of the trip which was deftly spotted by Tobias. However, the highlight was a beautiful Ferruginous Hawk which showed well as it perched atop a roadside telegraph pole. My eBird checklist for the road can be viewed here.

Sandhill Crane - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Wild Turkey - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Ladder-backed Woodpecker - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Black-crested Titmouse - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Bewick's Wren - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

White-crowned Sparrow - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Pyrrahuloxia - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Pyrrahuloxisa - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Crested Caracara - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Coyote - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Brown-headed Cowbird - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Green Jay - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Ferruginous Hawk - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Say's Phoebe - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

Vermillion Flycatcher - Highway 360, Corpus Christi, Texas

We drove onto the Corpus Christi State Park located alongside the Corpus Christi Lake, an extensive lake formed by damming of the Gilden Creek surrounded by woodland and scrub. We first birded the drack that leads to the dam in the south of the park looking for Winter Wren but with no luck, we saw relatively little but for Pine Warbler, 15 Eastern Bluebird, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Yellow-rumped Warbler, White-eyed Vireo. We then drove around to the campsite on the south-east shore of the reservoir where the only birds of note were Blue-winged Teal, Western Meadowlark and White Ibis. We failed to see Greater Roadrunner which was our main target here. Bird lists for the two areas we birded can be viewed here and here.

Eastern Phoebe - Corpus Christi State Park

White-eyed Vireo - Corpus Christi State Park

Turkey Vulture - Corpus Christi State Park

Black Vulture - Corpus Christi State Park

Eastern Bluebird - Corpus Christi State Park

White Ibis - Corpus Christi State Park

On our way back to the coast we diverted through an extensive arable area at Chapman Ranch (eBird checklist here) to the south of Corpus Christi, here after driving extensive arable fields we eventually came across four Sprague's Pipit which showed better than the individual yesterday but still not very well. I had a brief view of one on the deck before it flew off way into the distance before plummeting into the arable fields.

We then headed back east towards the coast and to North Padre Island where we birded the John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway hoping for better views of Piping Plover but we failed. However, the sight of the flocks of thousands of Redhead and Lesser Scaup that winter in the bay here was amazing. We also recorded Forster’s Tern, Caspian Tern and many other wetland species. My eBird checklist for the site can be viewed here.

Driving out onto the beautiful North Padre Island, John telling us of the damage caused by Hurricane Bret which struck the island in August 2017. We spent an hour or so at the Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center just outside of Port Aransas in the north of the island. This site proved to be very birdy with large numbers of Blue-winged Teal, Green-winged Teal, Shoveler, American Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, White Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, and White Pelican we also had good views of Tricoloured Heron, Sora Rail, Common Yellowthroat and an odd hybrid heron which John suggested may be a Black-crowned Night-heron x Tricoloured Heron. My eBird checklist for this site can be viewed here.

We then headed off the island to the north via the Aransas Pass Ferry crossing seeing Double-crested Cormorant, Brown Pelican and White Pelican (eBird checklist), a short journey of only a few minutes and headed back to the hotel to relax for the latter part of the afternoon.

Lesser Scaup - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Redhead - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Ring-billed Gull - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Laughing Gull - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Forster's Tern - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Caspian Tern, Ring-billed Gull and American Herring Gull - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Semipalmated Plover - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway,

North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Snowy Plover - John F Kennedy Memorial Causeway, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Blue-winged Teal - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

American Avocet - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Roseate Spoonbill - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Pied-billed Grebe - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Mottled Duck with Green-winged Teal - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center,

North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Green-winged Teal - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Sora Rail - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

American White Pelican - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Double-crested Cormorant (left) with Neotropical Cormorant - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Hybrid Heron, possibly Black-crowned Night-heron x Tricoloured Heron - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Tricoloured Heron - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

American Alligator - Leonabelle Turnball Birding Center, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Laughing Gull - Aransas Pass Ferry, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

American White Pelican - Aransas Pass Ferry, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Brown Pelican - Aransas Pass Ferry, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi

Double-crested Cormorant - Aransas Pass Ferry, North Padre Island, Corpus Christi