The Long Road Home

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I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort.

~Clarice Lispector

This is the final post about our trip in May. After leaving South Dakota, we headed for another favorite – the Sandhills of Nebraska and the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest (still seems surprising to find a national forest in the sandhills!). We had camped in this area before and decided to take a couple of side “roads” (sandy two-rutted trails through the grasslands) to check them out for a possible new camping spot. After driving a bit, we decided we preferred the scenery at our previous campsite and headed that way.

-A type of beardtongue (Penstemon sp.) growing in the grasslands of the Sandhills (click photos to enlarge)

-One of the prairie wildflowers known as puccoon (Lithospermum sp.). The common name comes from the Powhatan word, poughkone, which refers to the dye produced from the roots. The genus names translates to “rock seed” and refers to the very hard seeds of this plant.

As always, we heard and saw a lot of birds as we traversed the open grasslands, especially Grasshopper Sparrows. They were seemingly everywhere, singing their buzzy songs.

-A Grasshopper Sparrow putting what seems like a lot of effort into its song which is more like an insect-like buzz than a bird sound

-A new bird for us was the Upland Sandpiper. When we looked it up in our online field guide it said… “A distinctive sandpiper found in areas with short grass, frequently seen perched on fence posts”. Yup, that’s it. Melissa wrote in her journal that these birds “have the best song, like Prairie Warblers, but more musical and with a scream at the end!”. Listen here…one reference says the song ends in a “wolf whistle” (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-A panorama from our campsite in the Sandhills. A highlight was the next morning, I looked out and saw three Pronghorn staring at us from several hundred yards away. It was great to see such an iconic open grasslands animal in this habitat. Now, if only Bison could return…

-Not your typical national forest dispersed campsite

-Looking back at camp from our hike into the grasslands that surrounded us

-A windmill and stock tank for providing water for cattle grazing on the public lands. We walked over to take a look and found a surprise…

-This beautiful Ornate Box Turtle had somehow climbed into the stock tank (from the overhanging shrub?), but had no chance of getting out and was floating in the water. I gently placed it on the ground and it scurried away through the grass. Populations are declining in its range due to habitat loss and fragmentation. We helped another as it was crossing a road the next day.

From McKelvie, we traveled a short distance to re-visit another wildlife refuge, Valentine NWR. The wind was gusting so many of the birds were sheltering in the many roadside thickets. Yellow Warblers and Orchard Orioles were abundant, but tough to photograph in the shrubs. I was standing near some willow trees trying to get a photograph of an oriole when I saw a Common Nighthawk swirling in the wind and dropping into the tree next to me.

-A Common Nighthawk with its distinctive white patches on the wings. This is probably an adult male due to the white tail band and white throat patch, both of which are usually lacking or indistinct on adult females

The name is a bit misleading, as it seems, due to population declines, this species is no longer that common over much of its range (although we did see and hear them feeding on aerial insects at sunset at a couple of our campsites). And it is most active at dawn and dusk (not at night) and is not related to hawks, but rather is a type of nightjar related to birds such as Whip-poor-wills and Chucks-will’s-widows.

-The Common Nighthawk landed on a tree branch, aligning itself with the length of the branch (most birds sit perpendicular to a branch). Its cryptic coloration really helps it blend in.

On our last visit to this refuge we had seen some Sharp-tailed Grouse scooting across one of the dirt roads. They had quickly vanished into the grasses and brush as we had approached. On this trip, refuge staff had recently conducted prescribed burns, and as we drove along we spotted a grouse hiding at the base of some burned shrubs right next to the road. These birds are a bit larger than our Ruffed Grouse that we have here in the East.

-A Sharp-tailed Grouse trying to hide in habitat recently burned

After Nebraska, we pointed the truck to familiar sites on our long drive home – Brickyard Hill Conservation Area in Missouri and Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. These areas have been reliable spots for us on each trip out west, so no need to change now.

-Our campsite at Brickyard Hill Conservation Area. One big plus is that it is near Loess Bluffs NWR, which we visited the next morning on our way south.

Loess Bluffs NWR is a favorite stop on our westward trips as it is conveniently located along I-29 in Missouri, a route we often take coming or going on these truck adventures. The refuge has an excellent auto tour road that passes through numerous habitat types. Unfortunately, on this visit about half of the road was closed for repairs, so we had a shortened stay. Still, birds were numerous (but most were not very cooperative for images).

-An Eastern Wood-peewee was one of the few birds that posed for us (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-A male Dickcissel singing. Males do not assist with the care of young but rather spend the breeding season vigorously defending their territories. Dickcissels are somewhat solitary on the breeding grounds but gather in huge flocks (sometimes numbering in the millions) on their wintering grounds in Venezuela.

Our final night was spent dispersed camping near Jackson Falls in Shawnee NF. Lots of bird activity at sunrise with the sounds of Great-crested Flycatchers, Wood Thrushes, Kentucky Warblers, and Ovenbirds floating through the trees. We made a stop in Asheville for dinner at 7 Clans Brewing and had dinner from the best food truck I have ever sampled – The Garden. We highly recommend both venues.

That last day is always a long one – about 11 hours plus the dinner stop. We got home well after dark but still could see the adequate rains in our absence had transformed our yard into a jungle. It was another glorious adventure, covering 5656 miles in 18 days. The bird life was incredible as was the scenery. And Melissa worked her navigating magic again finding us wonderful remote dispersed sites and snagging some excellent campground locations. Until next time, I’ll leave you with a map of our travels…(ignore the letter codes).

-Our route from May 9 – May 26, 2023 (the lower leg was on the way out) – 5656 miles

South Dakota, a New Favorite

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It looks a bit like the inside of a cave that has been turned inside out and warmed by the sun.

~Stefanie Payne

After our quiet stay in Medicine Bow NF, we were going to drive to the Badlands of South Dakota, but a new brown sign made us do a slight detour. Melissa charted a course for Wind Cave National Park (a new one for us) and the adjacent Custer State Park. She found us a campsite in the NPS campground and we were set. One thing to mention here – the smoke from the Canadian wildfires you have seen and read about was intense for this portion of our trip and finally started lifting a bit as we got to the Badlands a couple of days later.

Driving into Custer State Park, we were reminded of our favorite brown sign destination, Yellowstone. We took one of the dirt side roads and were rewarded with a Bison herd blocking the road, just like old times in Yellowstone!

-Bison jam, South Dakota style. Note the very hazy sun. (click photos to enlarge)

Though Melissa would be going to Yellowstone on her Museum trip in June and have plenty of chances to see the cute “red dogs”, as baby Bison are often called, I would not, so this was a treat. And there were no crowds. A big difference is that these Bison (and most of the other large critters) are confined to these areas by fences and roadway cattle guards surrounding both parks. And, sadly, there are no bears (Grizzly or Black) or wolves.

-A baby bison nosing some seed heads in a meadow

That first afternoon, we drove several roads trying to get the lay of the land. The state park and the national park are adjacent to one another and it’s easy to go fro one to the other with connecting roads. Along our drive, we spotted numerous small herds of Bison, some Mule Deer, an Elk, and lots of birds, including my photo-nemesis-bird, the Western Meadowlark. Though they were a common species seen and heard on our trip, I had never managed to get close enough for a decent shot. That changed as we were driving slowly on a park road, hearing their loud songs in several spots along the route. Suddenly, I saw one on a fence post on the other side of the road. I pulled off the road across from the bird and fired a few shots as it sang away. Finally!

-A Western Meadowlark finally is close enough for a photo (they usually manage to fly off before we can get close)

We spent the night at the Wind Cave NP campground, nothing fancy, but quite pleasant and very quiet. Next morning we had a Mule Deer and a Wild Turkey walk through camp and then we were off to the visitor center to get in line for tickets for a cave tour. We had heard you need to be there before they open to make sure you get tickets. Indeed, I was about 15th in line about 20 minutes before they opened. Another visitor told us people line up hours before the door opens in the busy summer season. Our tour wasn’t until 11 a.m. so we decided to drive around and find a hiking trail for a morning walk. We picked the Cold Brook Canyon Trail as the brochure mentioned you hike through a prairie dog town…what’s not to like!

-We quickly came across a large bull Bison near the trail. We gave him a wide berth and noticed he had a couple of hitchhikers, a pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds.

Shorty after our encounter with the Bison, we started walking through a prairie dog town inhabited by lots of curious Black-tailed Prairie Dogs.

-The prairie dogs didn’t seem to mind us walking through their town, although I am sure they are used to these tall two-legged critters passing by.

Below is a short clip of a Black-tailed Prairie Dog going about its business as we pass through town

–A Black-tailed Prairie Dog having breakfast pauses to check out the strangers in town

-We paused for a rest at one of the cliffs along our hike and as I scanned the rock face I found yet another Great Horned Owl nest, this one with an adult and a chick just barely visible.

After the hike we headed over to the Visitor Center for our cave tour. There were about 40 people on the tour and we had an excellent young park ranger as our guide. She did a great job of engaging people and managing the herd, which gets a bit more complicated when you enter a cave. Our first stop was at the original entrance to the cave, a small hole barely big enough to crawl through. She explained the significance of the cave to the indigenous peoples, especially the Lakota, who believe this is the place whee their nation was born.

-The small hole on the lower left was the original entrance to Wind Cave. Now, you enter through a nice doorway and start a long climb down into the massive cave complex. It is believed to be the sixth longest cave in the world, with over 150 miles now surveyed. Its known depth is 643 feet. Studies of air flow through the entrances indicate that potentially only about 10% of the cave has been discovered. One other oddity about this cave is that there are six underground lakes where unique microbes have been discovered.

-Wind Cave is best known for this unusual formation called boxwork (found in few other places on Earth).. This honeycomb pattern is caused by thin blades of calcite projecting from the walls and ceilings of Wind Cave. The calcite fins intersect one another at various angles creating these box-like shapes. The fins were formed when dissolved calcium carbonate crystallized in cracks in the surrounding rock. The surrounding rock then eroded away leaving the boxlike calcite crystals.

After the cave tour, we decided to drive through both Wind Cave NP and Custer SP one more time in the hopes of seeing some Burrowing Owls and other wildlife (we did see 2 Burrowing Owls but they were too far off for pics).

-It was very windy and this Bison was having a good hair day nevertheless

-We stopped to watch a Bison calf and its mom interact

-Melissa caught some great shots of the calf with mom’s tail blowing in the wind (photos by Melissa Dowland)

-While scouring the landscape for Burrowing Owls, we came across several huge prairie dog towns. These cute little guys are baby Black-tailed Prairie Dogs. An extended family unit of prairie dogs is called a coterie and usually consists of 1 to 6 genetically related females, their yearling and juvenile offspring, and one adult male that sires all the offspring while he is in charge of that group (males move around it seems).

-We really enjoyed watching these cute little rodents and listening to their many vocalizations. Research on prairie dogs has shown they have the most advanced vocabulary of any animal yet studied. Prairie dogs can alert one another, for example, that there is not just a human approaching their burrows, but a tall human wearing the color blue. Here is an article on this amazing research.

We headed for the Black Hills NF via the Needles Highway in Custer SP. The Needles Highway is about a 14-mile drive (with a speed limit of about 25 mph due to the curves and steepness) through forests and meadows highlighted by needle-like granite spires.

-The spectacular granite towers along the Needles Highway look like a miniature Patagonia skyline

-To get to these spectacular viewpoints you must drive through the Needles Eye Tunnel – not for everyone (or every vehicle) as it is only 8’0″ wide and 9’9″ high)

-Our campsite in the Black Hills NF had its own version of the Needles – a jagged rock wall spanning a ridge line

On our way into Badlands NP the next day we stopped at an overlook and saw a few Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. They were a fairly common sight on our first visit in 2020. We later learned (from a friend of Melissa’s who had worked at the museum, but is now a seasonal ranger at Badlands NP) that there had been a precipitous drop in the sheep population due to a disease. Things are just beginning to finally turn around and some surviving ewes are giving birth.

-We didn’t realize when we saw this young lamb that this was a very important birth in the park

Our last extended stay in Badlands NP was in late summer 2020. A major difference was that the landscape was then mainly brown, whereas this time, the prairie grasses were bright green providing a nice contrast to the rugged eroded landscape.

-The green of spring adds a nice contrast to the earth tones of the rugged hills and ravines of the park

-The name, Badlands , came from the Lakota people who called this region “mako sica” or “land bad.” Extreme temperatures, lack of water, and the exposed rugged terrain led to this name.

We thought about camping in some of the BLM lands adjacent to the park, but the Lakota were right, this is a tough place and the temperatures were rising, so we headed for another favorite, the Sandhills of Nebraska. That will be part of the next post as we make it back home.

A Ribbon of Green in the Desert

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If the earth is a mother, then rivers are her veins.

~Amit Kalantri

After Bear River, we knew it was time to point the truck eastward and start the long trek home (but with plenty of stops still). We charted a course for Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming where we had camped on previous trips. We stopped at a great visitor center in the town of Green River to ask some questions about the area. In addition to some good tips on camping and a new (for us) wildlife refuge, we learned that this area is considered the “trona capital of the world”. I had to have it explained to me…trona is a mineral that is processed into soda ash or bicarbonate of soda (baking soda). It is also used to make baking powder and a whole range of other products from glass to detergents. It may also be important for the future of electric vehicle batteries and solar panels. Wyoming has the world’s largest deposit of trona, supplying about 90% of the nation’s soda ash. This mineral is Wyoming’s top export and is shipped to markets worldwide.

We learned about Seedskadee NWR, just a short drive from the town. The name is from the Crow tribe and means “river of the prairie hen” (which is another name for the Sage Grouse). We drove 20+ miles out to the refuge on a straight road passing through nothing but sagebrush steppe – a dry, flat landscape that dominates much of Wyoming. We finally came to the refuge and sptted a winding green ribbon – the corridor of the Green River (the same river we had camped next to in Dinosaur NM). The Green River courses 730 miles as it flows through Wyoming, Utah, and part of Colorado before joining the Colorado River (and it is that river’s major tributary).

-The view of a distant Green River from a rise in the sagebrush country of Seedskadee NWR (click photos to enlarge)

-A stop at the amazing visitor center and a productive chat with the helpful refuge manager set us up to expect some of our first western megafauna of the trip including this Pronghorn buck. Unusually deep snow and frigid temperatures this past winter and early spring had killed many animals, especially the Pronghorn. We also saw a dead Porcupine in a tree when we first drove into the refuge. A big surprise was the number of Moose that called this refuge home.

-Another big surprise was seeing this – a Canada Goose nest high in a tree along the river. The refuge manage said it was not uncommon to see geese nesting in trees out here – a first for both of us.

After a short drive on the auto tour road we decided to look for our campsite in one of a few Bureau of Land Management (BLM) campgrounds along the river upstream of the refuge. We could have camped anywhere on the BLM lands, but we thought a campsite at a campground along the river might be preferable to a dispersed site in the sagebrush flats…and we were right it turns out. We opted for the Weeping Rocks campground along the river opposite a long high bluff. The cliffs were alive with Cliff Swallows beginning to nest.

-A smattering of Cliff Swallow nests on the cliff across the river from our campsite

-The view of the cliff. I sat at our site watching the swallows and the occasional Common Merganser that swam or flew by, when suddenly, I noticed something in a shallow hollow on the cliff face. Do you see it, just to the left of center in this picture?

-A Great Horned Owl resting on the edge of a small overhang on the cliff! I quickly grabbed the big telephoto and walked out on the beach for a better view. Another camper with a telephoto lens came out and said his wife had somehow spotted the owl earlier in the day

-As the sun lowered in the west, the golden light flooded the area with the owl. Notice the Cliff Swallow nest just below. These images were shot with an equivalent 700mm lens and heavily cropped.

-The owl was pretty relaxed but did watch things down below. I assumed it was looking at the many swallows flying to their nests nearby.

-Then I noticed something with my binoculars down below the perched owl, right along the river. At first, I thought it was an owl chick, maybe a dead one. Click on the photo and see what you think…(my thoughts below)

-As I was studying the blob on the rock, a fledgling Great Horned Owl suddenly jumped up on the rock next to it, and by the time I got the camera up, it flew a short distance down to a flat area just above the river. I looked up at the adult, and it was looking down at its chick. Maybe it had been watching it all along. After studying the blob some more at high magnification, I think it might be the remains of a prey item or some mammal that washed ashore after drowning because it looks more like fur than feathers.

-The owl chick did what fledgling owls are supposed to do when they leave the nest – it found a “leaner” and climbed it, in this case some boulders. This behavior helps get them off the ground a bit and safer from potential predators.

-The young owl continued hopping and climbing until it got to the highest point along its route, where it sheltered in place for the rest of the evening, glaring at anything that dared to move in our campground. I must admit, we both spent a couple of hours watching every move the two owls made. It was an incredibly beautiful scene in this picturesque landscape. I had hoped to see the adult leave for its evening hunt, but it did it as I was at the truck getting dinner (naturally). We did hear it hoot a couple of times, but only the one owl, so we wondered what had happened to its mate.

-The next morning I scanned the cliff face and down by the river. Neither the adult nor the fledgling were in sight in the same area. I scanned all along the cliff and was delighted to find a pair of adult owls on another ledge about a hundred yards from the one the previous night. Though we never did see the young bird again, we hope its parents were able to care for it (and maybe any siblings that might still be alive). It looked like a very hazardous place to be an inexperienced owl chick though as the river was fairly wide and very swift at this cliff face.

-We drove back through the refuge after leaving the campground in hopes of seeing Moose. No luck on that, but we did see lots of birds, like this Swainson’s Hawk, one of many we saw on our trip.

-A nice Bald Eagle nest along the river

-And yet another Great Horned Owl nest, this one very far off with three chicks in it. The river corridor seems like a good place to raise a family here in the sage steppe country.

-A male Red-winged Blackbird proclaiming his ownership of this territory

-Another Yellow Warbler. After way too many pictures with twigs blocking part of my photo, the bird finally came out in the clear for a couple of shots and the early morning light was fantastic.

-A Horned Lark alongside the road showing off his tiny “horns”. The “horns” are actually small tufts of black feathers (more prominent on males). During the breeding season, he can raise and lower them to attract females…Melissa, did it work? (photo by Melissa Dowland).

After leaving the refuge, we headed to Medicine Bow NF, looking for the high mountain landscape that appeals to us a bit more (although the sagebrush country is beginning to grow on us, especially after listening to an excellent podcast series called Grouse about the Greater Sage-grouse and the people and the land that make it the most controversial bird in the west- check it out).

-Melissa worked her magic again and found a forest service road with multiple options for scenic camping. We finally picked a site just off the road with a great view of distant mountains and some wonderful rock outcrops nearby (and a Black Bear track and lots of Elk scat right in our site).

-The sunset was amazing, and after dark we heard an unusual call,. It turned out to be a Common Poorwill, the western cousin of the Eastern Whip-poor-will and Chuck-will’s-widow. It was accompanied by the constant tooting of a nearby Northern Saw-whet Owl.

It had been a spectacular evening high in the mountains with patches of snow and beautiful wildflowers beginning to bloom. Next stop – South Dakota – we were headed for the Badlands (coming in the next post).

Dinosaurs and Birds

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Birds are the last of the dinosaurs. Tiny velociraptors with wings. Devouring defenseless wiggly things and, and nuts, and fish, and, and other birds.

~Neil Gaiman

Picking up again on our May road trip…after Denver, we headed to Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah, a huge national monument at over 210,000 acres (and a new brown sign destination for us). I have never been much of a dinosaur guy, but the natural history descriptions were attractive and they had some camping available, so we headed there. To say I was impressed is a bit of an understatement. Not only was there plenty to see in terms of present-day flora and fauna (and geologic formations), but the recent and distant history of the place is fascinating.

-Melissa’s research as we drove snagged us the best site in this campground at Dinosaur NM (she’s really good at that). We were at a site (on the left side of this high view of the campground) screened by a shrub and tree border right next to the Green River. The huge patch of green on the right is a private in-holding in the monument (click photos to enlarge)

-One of the highlights is the unique building at what is called the Quarry Exhibit Hall. It sounds like it is primarily due to the incredible vision of the paleontologist who first discovered dinosaur bones at the site back in 1909. Many important fossils have been removed and placed in museums around the country, but he envisioned an exhibit of some of the bones in place in the rock formations in which they were found. To that end, NPS constructed a building adjacent to a slope of rock with 1500 dinosaur bones in it so visitors can view them (and even touch some). It really is one of the most unique exhibit halls I have ever seen. There is also a great visitor center not far from the quarry.

You can also immerse yourself into more recent history at the monument. There are several outstanding examples of petroglyphs that can be easily seen along some trails. These are believed to be handiwork of the Fremont people that lived in the area from about 200 AD to 1300 AD. Human figures in stone typically have trapezoidal bodies decorated with head dresses, earrings, and other adornments. Animal figures we saw included bighorn sheep, lizards, and birds.

-Petroglyphs of the Fremont people. Some of these figures are quite large and a few were high on the rock wall making me admire the artists even more

-Even more recent history is represented by the preserved cabin of Josie Bassett Morris who moved to the area alone in 1914 at the age of 40. She stayed here without electricity, plumbing, or neighbors for 50 years, living off the land, growing crops, and herding a few farm animals. I can see someone I know doing this…

-We hiked a short way up Box Canyon adjacent to Josie’s cabin. There were so many Yellow Warblers and White-throated Swifts here.

-Wildflowers like this Desert Paintbrush added splashes of color to the dry landscape

After leaving the monument and camping one night in a Forest Service Campground (what’s with all these campgrounds this trip?, but we were the only ones in it) Melissa charted a path into the Uinta Mountains where we had dispersed camped on a previous trip. But the heavy snows this winter altered our plans. As we drove along this nice 4-lane road I noticed a rather non-descript road sign saying “Road Closed 5 miles Ahead”. We thought, surely not this road…but, it turns out, they do not do winter road maintenance on this mountain pass. At about 8000 feet in elevation we ran into a snow-covered road, and we still had another 1000 feet in elevation to go to get across the pass. Change of plans…

-Several inches of snow greeted us on the road and, as we had another 1000 feet in elevation to go to get over the mountain, we figured the snow might get a bit deep, so we turned around.

Melissa soon found another option not far down the road and we drove up a beautiful Forest Service road for two nights of camping surrounded by mountains, a roaring stream, and grassy meadows full of Spring Beauties, Uinta Ground Squirrels, and Pocket Gophers.

-Our dispersed campsite the second night in this location (we moved about a hundred yards uphill to be in the aspens) turned out to have more mosquitoes than we needed (weird that short a distance was so different). But a highlight was actually laying eyes on a Pocket Gopher, a critter we had never seen before (have seen plenty of their sign, but not the actual animal). Melissa said she would want to be a Pocket Gopher if she lived here (she really doesn’t like mosquitoes). There were also a lot of great birds up in this aspen grove including Mountain Chickadees, a Green-tailed Towhee, a Golden Eagle, a Black-headed Grosbeak, and a Broad-tailed Hummingbird that came face-to-face with both of us one morning.

-We followed this Black-headed Grosbeak for a bit as it went for one clump of trees to another before finally getting a decent look and photo.

Our next stop was a gift to me for our anniversary – two nights in an Airbnb near a fabulous national wildlife refuge we had visited on a previous trip – Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, north of Salt Lake City (SLC). On the way, we made a stop at the Uinta Brewery in SLC (we also try to hit breweries on our route when it fits our schedule).

-Taking a break from the truck at the Uinta Brewery

Our Airbnb was a short drive from the refuge so we headed out early the next morning with the intention of spending the day observing and photographing birds. Recent rains and snow melt had water flowing across the main entrance road, but it didn’t seem to bother the birds.

-As we entered the refuge, we spotted a few Long-billed Curlews, Numenius americanus. This is America’s largest shorebird and with an incredibly long curved bill. The genus name comes from a Greek word meaning “of the new moon”, since the bills were thought to resemble a new moon crescent. It is adapted for probing sand and soft mud for worms, crabs, and other invertebrates, especially on their wintering grounds.

-In their summer breeding grounds of western grasslands, they feed more on insects, spiders, and the occasional nestling bird or other small vertebrate. Here, Melissa caught one grabbing a large sphinx moth. (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-A quick gulp and it was gone (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-There was one interesting addition to the refuge’s fauna – incredible clouds of midges in places (along with way fewer mosquitoes in a few spots) seen here swarming on our windshield. You could actually see columns of midges doing their aerial mating displays far down the road – they looked like smoke columns rising up from the marsh edges. Melissa was not a fan, but several species of birds were snagging them while in the air (Barn and Cliff Swallows) or perched (the blackbirds) or when on the ground (a bunch of gulls snatching at them while standing along the road).

-Once on the Auto Tour Road, we saw countless Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds vying for territory in the marsh grasses. Here, a male Red-winged Blackbird proclaims this section of marsh as his own.

-Always a delight to see Yellow-headed Blackbirds (even it is on that darned Phragmites grass)

-The real stars of the refuge are two of my favorites (as I mentioned in the last post) – American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts…elegance in avian form.

-In avocets, you can distinguish males from females by looking at their incredible bills – the male bill (on the left) is less curved than that of a female (right photo)

-One of the great things about this refuge is that we saw both species on nests. I only wish we could be there when the young hatch, as they are amazingly cute

-In many places along the Auto Tour Road, there were several individuals quite close, allowing us great views to watch their behavior and get some nice photos

-Occasional squabbles erupted over feeding or nest territory. Melissa caught this pair of stilts having a bit of a disagreement (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-American White Pelicans were also a highlight. The strange protrusion on the bill (some call it a caruncle, we call it the potato chip) occurs on both sexes during the breeding season. It may serve as an attractant to find a suitable mate. It drops off after mating and the eggs are laid.

-These are really big birds – they stand about 4 feet tall, weigh up to 30 pounds, and their 10-foot wingspan is second only to one other North American bird, the California Condor. Melissa got this shot of a pelican in flight with the distant mountains in the background (photo by Melissa Dowland)

-The most common duck we saw on the refuge was the Cinnamon Teal (as you can see, the males are absolutely gorgeous)

-Western Grebes are also abundant on the refuge and gave us good shows all along the roadway as they dove for fish and occasionally squabbled over a good spot. These two looked like they may have had something else in mind.

-Clark’s Grebes also occur here and are similar in appearance to Westerns, although they seem to have a bit more of an air of gracefulness than the Westerns in my opinion. You can separate them by looking at the placement of the eye – the red eye is below the black on top of the head in a Clark’s Grebe (left) and inside the larger black area on the head of a Western Grebe (right)

-Here is the eye trait I felt at the end of the day…after a long, amazing day at Bear River, we headed back to our Airbnb for a good night’s rest.

Next time, some more new brown signs and, you guessed it, more birds (and maybe some charismatic megafauna as well).

Brown Signs and Birds

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Wherever you meet this sign, respect it. It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people to preserving, for themselves and their children, as much of our native wildlife as can be retained along with our modern civilization.

~Rachel Carson on our national wildlife refuges (referring to their logo and welcome sign)

As Melissa mentioned in her introductory post about our May road trip, we do try to visit as many brown signs (national and state parks, national wildlife refuges, etc.) as possible along our route. Her post got us to Kansas on day 3 of our trip so I’ll pick it up from there. Leaving our Chase Lake campsite on day 4, we headed to Quivira National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), a spot in south central Kansas we had visited on a road trip in 2020. As is typical of many of the refuges that were established primarily for waterfowl, a visit during non-migration periods often does not have the hordes of birds (Quivira is host to around 800,000 waterfowl during migration) that the refuge may be famous for. But, any place that has water, wild lands, and is protected offers glimpses into the wildlife of a region. What makes Quivira unique is its combination of inland salt marshes and prairie habitat. The salty surface water and salt marshes are fed by groundwater moving to the surface through halite-containing subsurface layers. The water is 20-40 times saltier than drinking water but only about a quarter to a half as salty as sea water. And the birds along the Central Flyway appear to love it.

Our first stop was a small pond that had several wading birds working the shallows including two of my favorites – Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets.

-The comical-looking long legs of a Black-necked Stilt when seen on land remind you that this bird has the second longest legs in proportion to body size of any other bird (only flamingos beat them out in legginess) (click photos to enlarge)

-One of our most graceful and elegant-looking birds, the American Avocet, in its glorious breeding plumage

Away from the water, we spotted a Grasshopper Sparrow singing into the wind.

-A Grasshopper Sparrow singing its insect-sounding buzzy song (one I can finally hear now with my hearing aids!)

-We came across this Garter Snake feasting (or at least trying to) on a reptilian version of a pancake – a roadkill-flattened toad

-An abundant shorebird in the major salt pond was the Wilson’s Phalarope. These birds have some interesting traits – they spin in tight circles to feed when in deeper water; the females are slightly more colorful than the males (I think this is a female); and the female abandons her nest once the eggs are laid and the male takes over for care and feeding of the young, while she goes out and looks for other males!

-Every time I see a small shorebird, I am reminded of the definition of the term peep – small shorebirds that are notoriously hard to tell apart. I think this one is a Baird’s Sandpiper.

-The primary waterfowl we saw were Mallards and Blue-winged Teal, like this beautiful male

After driving much of the Auto Tour at Quivira, we hit the road across the seemingly never-ending flat lands of the plains and made a stop at another brown sign along the way – Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park.

-Looking out the windshield across Kansas

-And then a brown sign leads you to this surprise

-Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park is a gem of a state park and, indeed, resembles the better known badlands of South Dakota (we stop there later on this trip). The Nature Conservancy (TNC) acquired this tract and turned it over to the state for management. The interpretive signs were among the best I have seen (thank you, TNC). The name, Little Jerusalem, may have come form people that said, from a distance, the geologic formations look like the ancient walled city of Jerusalem.

-The bird stars of this park were a few Horned Larks. You gotta love those facial masks. The ‘horns” are laid flat in this individual while it scopes us out along the trail.

I had suggested a trip to Denver see another wildlife refuge ( a new one for us) – Rocky Mountain Arsenal NWR. Since it can be tough to find good camping spots on Friday and Saturday nights, we opted for a Denver hotel to give as an early start on the refuge the next morning. This refuge sits only 10 minutes from downtown Denver. During WWII, the Army bought thousands of acres of farmland outside Denver and opened a chemical weapons plant. Years later, Shell acquired the site and manufactured agricultural chemicals up until the mid-1980’s. All those years of industrial use, many during times when we had little environmental regulations, resulted in toxins in the soil and groundwater. But, a large tract of undeveloped land and water had attracted wildlife over the years. The discovery of large numbers of Bald Eagles using the area created an effort by locals to clean up the site and turn it into the wildlife refuge it is today, one of the premier urban national wildlife refuges n the country. It now includes re-introduced Bison, Elk, and many other species of wildlife, including the federally endangered Black-footed Ferret.

-View of the Denver skyline from the refuge.

-Recent heavy rains had closed most of the Auto Tour Road so we weren’t able to get close to some wildlife (like the small Bison herd that lives on the fenced refuge), but the birds were plentiful. Yellow warblers were far and away the most abundant warbler species we saw on our trip.

-This Spotted Sandpiper was doing shorebird yoga on a log by one of the ponds.

-The highlight of our wildlife sightings at the refuge happened as we were leaving the visitor center (which is beautiful, by the way). An American Kestrel carrying a prey item flew across the parking lot and landed on a roof edge. Another car drove past and it flew and landed on the ground at the edge of the parking area. We eased over and got a few pictures. It looks like it had captured a baby bird, perhaps a Killdeer.

From Denver, we hit the road again, trying to avoid the rain that seemed to be popping up all over this part of the world. Melissa worked her magic on the computer, planning alternative routes and seeking out brown signs and beautiful campsites. Next time – Dinosaur National Monument and the Uinta Mountains.

Trail Cam Tales

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I am the hawk and there’s blood in my feathers, but time is still turning they soon will be dry. And all those who see me and all who believe in me, share in the freedom I feel when I fly.

~John Denver

Melissa and I were gone on another truck camping adventure for a couple of weeks in May (more about that in the next few posts) and on our return I was anxious to see what the trail cameras captured in our absence. I was hoping to see several video clips on the antics of the young opossums (I posted about them last time, right before we left on vacation). Imagine my surprise when I looked at the footage from the two cameras near the opossum den – no footage at all of the young ones! There was plenty of two adult opossums around the hole and on the log and on nearby cameras, but nothing from the youngsters. Who knows what happened, or did they just move on? I’m not sure how long young opossums stay with their mother, but I would have thought longer than this.

–An adult Virginia Opossum near the den at the tree root ball. It grabs something small right at the end of this clip and eats it. Bonus points if you can tell what it eats (I can’t)

As I said, there are several clips of two different adult opossums around the den and the tree from the root ball. Another camera adjacent to the large tree from the root ball site caught this action of two opossums chasing each other. The place they pause is a spot that both opossums and raccoons showed a lot of interest in while we were away. Both species were caught digging at the spot and one opossum carried something away and ate it, but I can’t tell what it was in the video. I thought maybe a yellow-jacket’s nest was dug up, but I can’t find any evidence on the ground.

–Opossum chase and a standoff near the place that they and raccoons had been digging

The cameras caught some unusual behavior in our absence – coyotes out during the daylight. In fact, coyotes appeared 5 days in a row during the day on two different cameras (and have appeared again since we have returned – the second clip). I guess they may have young that need feeding and so they are abandoning their usual caution and venturing forth during the day to find food.

–A rare daytime appearance by a coyote

–Coyote pair out in daylight

In addition to some quick clips of the first fawn of the season, the big highlight from the trail cams involved a long series of clips of an immature Red-tailed Hawk that landed on the tree coming from the opossums root ball den site.

–An immature Red-tailed Hawk lands on the log, much to the dismay of local squirrels barking in the background

–The hawk seems content to sit and preen in spite of the concerned local residents

But one squirrel isn’t having it and seemingly decides to challenge the hawk. There are a few clips where the squirrel approaches the predator on the tree, but maybe it realizes a standing hawk is no threat compared to one in the air.

–A brave (or stupid) squirrel comes toward the hawk, who seems puzzled at the intrusion

Finally, after several minutes of footage, the hawk walks off. Check out the blood stain on its feathers. I am hoping that is from a prey item (perhaps a brave, or stupid, squirrel) and not an injury.

–The hawk strides by the camera, taking a nice selfie in the process

The next few posts will give some of the highlights of our recent road trip out west (and surprisingly, this time the road did not lead to Yellowstone!).

Across the Plains… Again!

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Caminente, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminente, no hoy camino
se hace camino el andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminent, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.

Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.

~Antonio Machado, translated by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney

It’s that time of year, where, in my job working with teachers, there’s a bit of a gap in the schedule. It’s getting close to the end of the school year, final exams, and grades; so professional development workshops aren’t the highest priority for teachers. That means it’s time for me to use some of the many hours of comp time I’ve banked. So, on May 9, after 22 days of work with only 1 day off, we hit the road in the good ole pickup truck to head west. That was the only plan. Head west. Since we’ve done this before, we felt confident that we could figure things out on the fly. Perhaps not the best idea, but that meant we could change plans at the drop of the hat. If it was going to rain or blow, we’d just head in another direction, right? Right…

Since I hadn’t had a day off in 8 days (and only one at that point), we were definitely not ready to leave early in the morning to make some progress out west. The morning of May 9 came, and we still had a lot of packing to do. But my truck camping and dehydrated food lists from previous trips camp in handy, and we were able to get everything together and hit the road by early afternoon. That meant our first stop would be in the North Carolina mountains (because, not sure if Mike’s mentioned this before, but we pretty much despise Tennessee – the only place we’ve found to camp is state parks, and… let’s just say that we much prefer North Carolina state parks).

Folks, if you want to camp without people around, the Forest Service is your friend. Their website is terrible… but once you figure out the maze, it’s pretty consistent from forest to forest; and Motor Vehicle Use Maps are your best friend (especially in the west… in the east, it’s much trickier to figure out where dispersed camping is allowed and where it’s not… I sometimes think they’re opaque on purpose to try to limit the amount of use some of these areas get… I might be ok with that!). I mean, they don’t show topography, and they hardly show roads outside of the national forest (like, roads that show up on other maps and might help you figure out where the heck you are), but hey, at least they show you the forest service roads!

So, after much consultation with the USFS website for Pisgah National Forest, we hit up a dispersed camping area off I-40 before the Tennessee border (on a whim, at the last minute, of course). It didn’t disappoint. We found a spot next to a stream, slightly off the road, with lots of wild geranium in bloom and spring peepers and American toads calling in a few ditches created by previous campers in a much muddier season (the ruts were so deep I was a bit surprised not to find a rusting vehicle at the end of the track). Not a bad way to start the trip.

Our first campsite in Pisgah NF
Cold Springs Creek just above our campsite – a perfect mountain stream

The next day was another story, however. We hit the road early trying to cover some middle-of-the-country miles. Or really, trying to get across Tennessee. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful state with more brown signs along the interstate than almost anywhere else. But every campground we’ve been to has been… mediocre… generously (which is only 3, so someone please tell me where the good ones are, if you know!). We’d thought to head towards the Ozarks in Arkansas or southern Missouri, home to our favorite river, the Current. But rain was forecast for that area (thank you, National Weather Service, for the nationwide graphical forecast tool), so we decided to steer a bit further north.

We knew that in Missouri we could camp at one of their many state-run Conservation Areas, which are often quite remote and lovely, so as Mike drove the interstate, I perused the Missouri Department of Conservation website and landed on a conservation area along the Mississippi River called Magnolia Hollow. Camping? Check. Scenery? Perhaps. Close to the highway? Relatively. So we headed down some single lane roads, past a bunch of farm fields, then up onto the bluffs above the river. A visit to the trailhead at the end of the road and a stroll out to the viewpoint showed the might Mississippi in the distance (after huge floodplain fields in cultivation). And the birds were great – we saw Kentucky warblers close-up! That’s not one we often see in North Carolina! (Sorry, no picture, but google them – they’re beautiful birds!). Plus, it was singing consistently, so we got to know the call a bit – it sounds like a tired ovenbird, a species we hear regularly in our woods at home.)

Mississippi River in the distance with a wide cultivated floodplain in the foreground

The camping area was fine – a few concrete picnic tables and fire rings in the trees. But a peaceful night’s sleep was not to be… because well after dark, a man drove into the camping area quickly, stopped his car, and got out with a large dog. They went for a walk down the road, and there was much yelling. Then, he came back to the campground, messed in his vehicle very briefly, and proceeded to lie down on the concrete picnic table next to our site and curse at his dog to be quiet and lay with him, perhaps to keep him warm. I couldn’t hear all of his words… but I heard enough to know that he wasn’t entirely in his right mind for one reason or another. To be quite honest, it was scary. He wasn’t threatening, but I worried that if he woke up and needed something and approached our truck with his dog… well, I didn’t know what that might look like. I woke Mike up and we remained awake for most of the night. At dawn, we quickly packed up and got out of there, thankfully with no interaction with the man, other than him yelling at his dog to stop barking at us. We were glad to get away safe and sound (and to find a wonderful local coffee shop for some caffeine and breakfast treats)!

After that fun evening, we were happy to cross and then depart from Missouri. Next stop: Kansas. We had decided to head towards Colorado by this point in the hopes that, it being slightly farther south than our favorite places in Wyoming (yes, Yellowstone, you knew that, didn’t you?), there might be a bit less snowpack after this incredibly snowy western winter. Given that Colorado is known for its very tall peaks, you may be questioning this rationale a bit. You would be right. More on that later. But head that way, we did. Kansas was not our favorite state when we had crossed it previously; though it has the Flint Hills, we’re bigger fans of the Loess Bluffs of western Iowa and northwestern Missouri and the Sandhills of Nebraska. But, we knew it has some nice National Wildlife Refuges, and Mike loves nothing better than to stop at a National Wildlife Refuge. Previously, we crossed Kansas in the fall, so we figured we might see some different species this time of year.

Plus, Kansas has some lovely State Fishing Lakes, many of which allow camping at somewhat dispersed sites. With the goal of visiting Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in the morning, we headed to Chase State Fishing Lake just south of the Tallgrass Prairie National Reserve. We’d camped here on a previous trip, and the open landscape and slightly more developed camping area were just the respite we needed after our Missouri fiasco. The area had been recently burned and the wild indigo (Baptisia sp.) was in beautiful bloom. A short walk along the road also introduced us to green antelopehorn milkweed, which is a new favorite plant name for me.

Wild indigo in bloom by Chase State Fishing Lake
Green antelopehorn milkweed flowers

After dinner, we took a short walk below the dam for the lake, as I’d seen something that made me think there might be a waterfall there. Yup, a Kansas waterfall. It was surprisingly impressive! There wasn’t much water as this part of the world has been in a drought. The main part of the falls was dry, but a bit downstream was a smaller falls with some water flowing over it. It’s all thinly bedded sedimentary rock, which makes for a picturesque waterfall; it would be quite impressive with more water. Flipping a couple rocks, I spotted numerous mayflies, which indicated to me that the water quality was at least pretty decent and, it being a warm night with no shower in the near future, I took the opportunity for a favorite activity, a head dunk!

Waterfall below Chase Lake

We ended the evening watching a lovely sunset over Chase Lake before retiring quite early to the truck for a well-deserved hard night’s sleep.

As this blog is getting a bit lengthy, I’ll leave you here. Mike will pick up the tale in future posts.

PS – Many thanks to my Mom for a beautiful little journal she picked up in Patagonia for me. It’s bound in leather (guanaco, perhaps) and features a line from the Antonio Machado poem quoted at the beginning of this post on its cover. It was a lovely companion to record details and sketches as we traveled. Thanks, Mom!

Springtime in the Woods

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The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.

~Edwin Way Teale

The trail cameras have been sort of slow lately, mainly capturing the usual suspects of deer, squirrels, and raccoons. They have also seen a few birds including an Ovenbird and a Wood Thrush gathering nesting material. There have been two Coyote captures including a rather rare daytime one (videos best viewed full screen).

-The cameras rarely capture Coyotes during the daytime on our property

But the stars of the trail cameras recently have been the Virginia Opossums. I put a couple of cameras at the base of a large tree that blew down in a storm a couple of years ago because it looked like something was using a hole under the root ball (a favorite type of burrow for an opossum). Indeed, I got some very quick clips of opossums coming and going (at least two different individuals), Raccoons also stopped by occasionally and sniffed around and there is a mouse and a chipmunk going in and out of some of the holes.

Another camera nearby on the now dry creek bed caught something I was hoping for – an opossum with a very large pouch, obviously carrying some babies.

-The large belly means there must be baby opossums in her pouch

I decided to move the camera at the root ball to a better location and after viewing the next two clips, I added one on the giant log on the other side of the root ball. The tree was on a slope and when it fell, it created an angled bridge about 5 feet off the ground at its highest point. These new camera positions paid off.

-This was what I was hoping for – a video clip of a mother opossum carrying a young one on her back

If you watched closely on that clip, you saw another young opossum make a brief appearance at the hole. The next day this happened…

-Two young opossums are trying to kill or are playing with a small animal – I think it is a toad

And a third young opossum makes an appearance above the two that are so engrossed with their find. I’m surprised there was not any additional footage of this encounter, but they may have wandered just out of the field of view of the camera.

After setting up a camera on the log on the other side of the steep root ball, I was rewarded with several clips of an adult opossum and some young opossums walking across. There was also a lot of footage of a very active mouse on the log. And one instance where a young opossum encountered the mouse.

-Great interaction between a mouse and a young opossum

Notice the mouse just comes up behind the opossum and moves on its way. Opossums remain in their mother’s pouch for about two months. They stay with her for another couple of months, often riding on her back. The number of babies (called joeys, by the way) an opossum has varies, but 8-10 in a litter is typical. I’m hoping the camera will capture more images of multiple young ones out and about before they disperse and are on their own.

May Days

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I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.

~Smokey Robinson

May is chasing April as my favorite month of the year…and it’s a close race. Though we have been really busy here, things are happening that keep bringing my attention back to the marvels of the natural world right here in our own backyard (we are very lucky to have such a nice “backyard”). Here is a smorgasbord of highlights from the past week.

The birds have been amazing…so many new arrivals as well as long-time residents making appearances or singing from the treetops. One of my favorites is the stunningly beautiful male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. They usually pass through for a couple of weeks every spring and fall during their migration. They were about a week late this spring, but now a few (the past couple of years we have had many more it seems) are at the sunflower feeders every day.

-Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak (click photos to enlarge)

My usual morning coffee chair looks out into the front yard and there always seems to be some activity that catches my eye. Friday morning the resident Red-shouldered Hawk landed in our Pinxter Azalea to watch over one of the water gardens, no doubt hoping for a frog breakfast. The hawk eyed the pond for about 40 minutes but never dove in to secure a meal, but at least I enjoyed watching it patiently survey the scene.

-Red-shouldered Hawk intently watching the area around one of the wildlife pools

Since our BugFest event last September, I have had a few moth pupae in a cage waiting for something to emerge months later. So far, there has been one small moth, several Tachinid flies (parasitoids of various butterflies and moths), and this jewel that emerged yesterday, a gorgeous Virginia Creeper Sphinx Moth.

-Virginia Creeper Sphinx Moth being released after it emerged yesterday

A human highlight has been the completion of a new seating arrangement for our fire ring. After going through two sets of huge tree trunk seats over the past several years, I decided to come up with another solution (when the Pileated Woodpecker starts hammering at your fire ring seats, you know its time to change them). Melissa spotted an interesting alternative online when a neighbor posted photos of their home for sale…they had used gabion cages (wire mesh cages filled with rocks) for the legs of their outdoor benches. Well, if there is one thing we have plenty of on our property, it’s rocks. A trip to the local farm store ended up with some goat fencing and hog rings and after a lot of work on some old boards found in my folks’ barn, we have some new seats (and after a lot of rock gathering of course). I must say, they are challenging my by-the-window chair as a favorite morning coffee spot. Wherever you are, be sure to get out and enjoy these beautiful days of May.

-The new fire ring benches with gabion cages for legs

Flashes of Red

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I want to create red in a world that often appears black and white.

~Terry Tempest Williams

Another gray day here in the woods, but the plants I put in the ground yesterday are appreciating it. Looking out the window, I can see spots of color in the yard – the blooms of Coreopsis, some scattered Phlox that had covered much of the front yard for weeks, the cheery Green and Gold, and a Blue Flag Iris in one of the wildlife pools. Popping up here and there around the yard are a few bright spots of red of the remnant Wild Columbines (most have already gone to seed). The color red is an interesting one in nature. It’s not all that common, but when it is, you notice it. Red is considered by many to be the most powerful color in the spectrum. It is a color associated with love, with fire, and aggression. It is also a color that may warn of danger (our Stop signs and red traffic stoplights for instance). Many species that are distasteful or poisonous are marked with bright red or orange to warn would-be predators to leave them alone (or else).

This week, I encountered two of the brightest red flashes in our part of the natural world. One was the return of one of my favorite birds – the Scarlet Tanager. Our waterfall pond worked its magic again by luring in a newly arrived male Scarlet Tanager. I saw it splashing on one of the wet rocks near the small waterfall as I walked by the window. I managed a couple of quick photos before it flew off. Ironically, shorty afterward, I saw a male Summer Tanager in the same spot (no photos as it saw me and flew). What an amazing difference on the brightness scale of color between those two related birds. And though our state bird, the Northern Cardinal, is bright red, it still somehow appears pale in comparison to the vibrant red of a Scarlet Tanager.

-A male Scarlet Tanager (the first of the season for me) takes a quick bath at the waterfall on one of our wildlife pools (click photos to enlarge)

The other flashy red this week has been that of the throat feathers of a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird that has decided it likes to perch on the wire rim of a tomato cage a few feet outside our kitchen door.. These specialized feathers are called a gorget (pronounced gor-jit). They are named after the protective metallic throat collar worn in days of yore by a knight-in-armor. Unlike the brilliant red feathers of the tanager which are colored by a pigment in the feathers, the male hummingbird’s red feathers are the result of iridescence. The platelet-like structure of the feathers causes light to reflect and refract off of them creating color like what you see on an oily film on water – the color changes depending on the angle you view it. In some angles, the throat looks dark, even black. But a slight turn of the head and you see a fiery red (or sometimes orange) flash. Male hummingbirds use this flashiness to attract females (love) and to warn off potential rival males (aggression).

-When viewed from one angle, the male’s gorget appears dark…

-A slightly different angle shows the brilliant red flash of color

Here’s a quick video clip showing how quickly the color changes. The focus is a bit soft as it was shot through the glass of the kitchen door.

— Even on a gray day, the male’s gorget produces a bright flash as he turns his head

So, if this gray day finds you feeling a little low, try looking at something red to brighten your spirits.