The Deskbound Birder: Golden Eagle

Showing posts with label Golden Eagle. Show all posts

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.

Friday, 12 May 2017

Mongolia - 12th May (Day 5) - Dalanzadgad and Gurvan Saikhan National Park

After some early morning birding around the guest house at Dalanzadgad which produced much the same as yesterday including Isabelline Shrike, Pallas’s Bunting, Red-throated Thrush and Long-toed Stint we packed our bags and headed into the Yolo Valley in the Gurvan Saikhan National Park around 45 minutes away.

Isabelline Shrike - Delanzadgad

Naumann's Thrush - Dalanzadgad

Crested Lark - Dalanzadgad

Crested Lark preening and showing the tail pattern nicely- Dalanzadgad

Long-toed Stint - Dalanzadgad

The habitat outside our guest house at Dalanzadgad, the bushes to the

right supported many passerines while the stream links to a reservoir to the

left and out of few and was excellent for waders and wildfowl

Heading towards the Yol Valley in the Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Heading into the Yol Valley in the Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Gurvan Saikhan National Park is a spectacular mountainous park dominated by barren peaks and lightly vegetated valleys. The park was established in 1993 and extends to nearly 27,000 square kilometres. It is the largest national park in Mongolia, stretching 380 km from east to west and 80 km from north to south. The park is named for the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains in which it is located.

A short way into the park a quick stop and a walk produced our first Mongolian Accentor, Brown Accentor and a White’s Thrush. We headed to the parking spot at Yolyn Am and walked the valley to an area known as “Vulture’s Bedroom’. This produced Taiga Flycatcher, Little Bunting, Brown Accentor, Lammergeier, Koslov’s Accentor, Tree Pipit, Northern Wheatear, Isabelline Wheatear, White’s Thrush, Guldenstadt’s Redstart, Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch and a stunning Wallcreeper. It was evident that the valley supported good numbers of migrants and we were amazed at how these species must migrant from south-east Asia, perhaps over the Himalayas, then across the vast and hostile Gobi Desert to find themselves in a remote mountain valley with an onward journey into Russia yet to face. We headed to our campsite for lunch set within a beautiful mountain valley and ate a rather large lunch of a dish known as Mimosa which basically consisted of egg and salad followed by rice and meat.

Isabelline Wheatear was common with many birds on territory and performing a

rather spectacular and noisy display flight - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Isabelline Wheatear - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Mongolian Accentor, like a drab Dunnock but confined to Mongolia as a

breeding species - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

White-winged Snowfinch - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Tree Pipit- Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Red-cheeked Ground Squirrel - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Lammergeier - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Brown Accentor - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Mongolian Accentor - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Spot the Wallcreeper - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Chinese Beautiful Rosefinch - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Golden Eagle- Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Mongolian Pit Viper Gloydius halys - Yolyn Am Valley,

Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Photographing Mongolian Accentor on the mountain side Mongolian

Accentor - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Little Bunting - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Grey Wagtail - Yolyn Am Valley, Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Back out into the park we headed down a valley to an area known as the Ice Cave seeing Upland Buzzard and Saker Falcon at the nest, White’s Thrush and Mongolian Finch. Dinner at our campsite was followed by a night drive where we saw little but for Red Fox and a rather spectacular Mongolian Five-toed Gerboa. Bed was at 12:00 and I slept okay in the fairly warm conditions.

Barry eating his Mimosa

Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Isabelline Wheatear - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Pallas's Pica - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Tobias insisted that I took this tractor with me to Mongolia and he wanted me to take

pictures of it with the birds I saw, we has some fun with this Pica!

Upland Buzzard, its nest seemingly stuck to the cliff face - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Upland Buzzard - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Black Vulture - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Citrine Wagtail- Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Driving through the Gurvan Saikhan National Park, the road narrowing

Driving through the Gurvan Saikhan National Park, the end of the road

Frozen River Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Golden Eagle - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Little Bunting - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

Saker on nest - Gurvan Saikhan National Park

White's Thrush, seeing this species on barren slopes makes one realise that they are not so out of place in a Geo on Fair Isle - Gurvan Saikhan National Park