I spent another two weeks in the Beartooths East of Yellowstone with my daughter and her pipit project, this time with my wife as well. We went two weeks later in June, as last year I was there before Pipits had started nestingand there were no nests to be found. Well, this winter was a VERY big snowfall year, so most of the area (particularly subalpine meadows) were at least three weeks late. (And there is a LOT of meltwater headed for the Missouri!) At one spot on highway 212 over the pass, the snowbank was literally 25 feet high.
Birds naturally were much the same as last year. Highlights included:
- a displaying Dusky Grouse on the walk up to Clay Butte, which continued to display (and boom) while being circled by two of us with cameras.
- a Prairie Falcon rather high up (10000') on Clay Butte.
- numerous small groups of Black Rosy Finches at alpine areas.
We found about 20 pipit nests while there; in the higher areas the birds were pretty much on schedule despite the heavy winter snowfall - the wind does a good job of clearing things off. Most of the nests were little holes under rocks. When my daughter went back to re-check the very first nest we found, she flushed two birds from the nest and was astonished to find 11 eggs (normal clutch is 5-6). So apparently two females are using the same nest hole and have their eggs in more or less a single pile. It will be interesting to see how this works out; there is no way 11 babies can fit in this hole.
Birds naturally were much the same as last year. Highlights included:
- a displaying Dusky Grouse on the walk up to Clay Butte, which continued to display (and boom) while being circled by two of us with cameras.
- a Prairie Falcon rather high up (10000') on Clay Butte.
- numerous small groups of Black Rosy Finches at alpine areas.
We found about 20 pipit nests while there; in the higher areas the birds were pretty much on schedule despite the heavy winter snowfall - the wind does a good job of clearing things off. Most of the nests were little holes under rocks. When my daughter went back to re-check the very first nest we found, she flushed two birds from the nest and was astonished to find 11 eggs (normal clutch is 5-6). So apparently two females are using the same nest hole and have their eggs in more or less a single pile. It will be interesting to see how this works out; there is no way 11 babies can fit in this hole.
