Travels with Mildred (In search of Canis lupus) (5 Viewers)

[Farnboro John]

Round two of the great "let's see a Wolf" project just concluded.

We had a great debate throughout the trip about what the report should be called, with suggestions arising from our difficulties finding birds ('King bird Highway) running gags (Dead Horse Floggers of the Mid-West) flatulence (Lord of the Rings) and introduced animals: not to mention the amount of radio collars on view (2014 the Plastic Fantastic Tour).

However, like Zen in Blake's Seven, our rental car satnav who was originally called Mabel but morphed to Mildred during the trip - actually she was a bit of a split personality with one business-like voice and one that was a bit forward - became one of the team allowing the Great American Novel reference.

A few stats to kick off with:

3000 road miles

7 States including the two added during plane changes.

31 mammal spp

130 bird spp (approx, haven't got a final count yet)

4 snakes

1 toad.

The team was the same one as for the Spanish Lynx trip: me, Marion, Steve and Jeff.

I have about 5000 photos to go through after the first coarse edit so this is gonna take a while - do enjoy the ride!

John

 

[MarkHows]

Look forward to it

Mark

 

[Farnboro John]

Saturday - Day Zero

Arriving at Heathrow we spotted Jeff and Steve immediately, which was the good news. The bad news immediately following was that US Airways had transferred from Terminal 1 to Terminal 3 and we had a hasty scuttle across to the right place to catch our plane.

You can't make a seven hour flight in an airliner interesting: I watched all three Jason Bourne thrillers back to back while Marion managed to break her touch screen somehow and got stuck with candy crush saga or some such game. The seven hours was followed by a sojourn in Philadelphia's airport where House Sparrow and Feral Pigeon were the first birds on the trip list. Are we there yet.....? A Laughing Gull confirmed we had actually left the UK.

Late afternoon and onwards to Denver, landing after sunset and then taking some time to pick the car up and make it work. Specifically, how to let off the handbrake: we eventually had to consult the rental company operatives. The following day we found the handbook in the glove compartment.

After a spot of trouble getting the satnav to work, we were off into the darkness hoping for a lucky encounter with a Bobcat, owl or other nocturnal wildlife. However, we arrived at the Twin Owls Motor Lodge at Estes Park without seeing anything other than the road ahead, listened in vain for the calls of night-dwellers and crashed out after setting alarms.

BTW my intention will be to put first occurrence of everything in bold and not thereafter, but I may well miss one or two things. Sorry in advance!


Sunday - Day One.

I woke before the alarm and regardless of the body's physical condition my birding brain was off and running, so I got up. The loud repeated yelping of a bird close outside our room was an additional incentive.

It turned out to be a Red-shafted Flicker sitting on a treetop right next to the hotel, so my camera was immediately into action. Having nailed that in what light was available just before sunrise, the next passer-by was an Osprey already toting a large trout, which circled over the centre of Estes Park for several minutes yelling its head off. A chickadee called from across the car park and promptly flew to the bush directly below my room where it gave easy ID views but managed to move too quickly for pictures. It was a Mountain Chickadee with the very obvious supercilium of the species.

Violet-green Swallows were the next arrivals, zipping about between and over the trees feeding on insects, and perching on, among other things, the plastic Great Horned Owl nailed to the roof gable as a bird-perching deterrent. With the sun now warming the balcony from just over the far ridges I had good light to capture the swallow. American Crow, a skein of Canada Geese and a Black-billed Magpie pushed the numbers further up but wanting more I ambled down to the car park where I immediately came across a male Audubon's Warbler in almost full plumage feeding on the ground. Click, click!

The warbler was nice but the Colorado Chipmunk that bounced onto the rocky car park border was the first mammal of the trip and one that we probably wouldn't encounter after today, so once I had a couple of snaps it was time to fetch the team, whether or not they were up yet. Fortunately they were just emerging from their room and a call brought them and their optics into action quickly. It was a cracking little animal that we all enjoyed.

John

 

[Steve Babbs]

But see request for confirmation in mammals forum ......

 

[Farnboro John]

Yes, I saw that. But I don't buy the Least theory because the tail is too short and bushy, and all the other Leasts we saw were pale and grayish; and unless the field guide is wrong the dark line below the white flank stripe knocks out Uinta. Ergo, Colorado Chipmunk.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Day One continued.....

After a thin day supplies-wise we were all ready for breakfast and after some indecision ended up in the local McDonalds. I'm not usually a fan of the golden arches but I'm more relaxed in their homeland and indeed the food provided was edible. It was already hot enough to eat outside and set fair to be a scorcher later in the day. Brewer's Blackbirds, Ravens, House Sparrows, Swallows and American Robins all made appearances during our moderately happy meal and then it was off to the nearby Safeway supermarket to stock up. We aimed then to set off into Rocky Mountain National Park, but were temporarily directionally challenged, quibbled with Mildred and finally set off up the mountains intending to follow the Trail Ridge Road. This also initially proved elusive but eventually we seemed to be going in the right direction, boggling at the magnificent scenery and peering keenly into the bright light for passing birds and mammals.

Maz and I were determined not to provide the boys with a repeat of our hysterical fear-of-heights performance in Spain, but the road was so engineered and protected as not to set us off and we were able to avoid begging for slower and more careful driving. It has to be said that both Steve and Jeff provided us with solid, safe driving performances throughout the holiday and gave suitable consideration to our irrational but unavoidable fears on the odd bits of road that were exposed in a mountaineering sense. Both of us are very grateful for that.

We stopped at about the treeline for a scan around and found White-crowned and Chipping Sparrows among the pines. Some distance away an Elk was grazing. It had a huge, obvious radio-collar round its neck which certainly detracted from the wilderness experience: "they're introduced you know," was the tongue in cheek comment from Jeff.

We carried on up into the Alpine zone where we hoped to connect with Brown-capped Rosy Finches (we didn't. Rosy Finches don't exist, so there.) Cruising along the ridge road on a broad plateau at about 10,000 feet we found a turnout with a large population of tourists enjoying a particularly breathtaking overlook, and stopped to take in the view. We learned quickly to move slowly so as to give our struggling bodies time to make best use of the reduced oxygen level, found our first Yellow-bellied Marmots of the trip and then, scanning the steep boulder screes below the viewpoint, our first American Pikas as well. These compact rabbity animals were sitting up on boulders regarding their surroundings, in between scuttling in and out of the rocks collecting their hay crop for winter.

American Pipits were also in evidence across the plateau, though of limited interest to a crew of British twitchers as these days they are one of the more regular passerines to turn up on our side of the pond. They also seemed quite flighty and pursuing them with any alacrity was definitely not an option in the thin air.

Back in the car we moved on only to be held up by a ranger masquerading as a xing (local vernacular for "crossing") guard for a herd of Elk. Half of them were collared (whispers of "plastic") and nearly all insisted on giving us their least attractive viewpoint. Nevertheless we did our best to make them into a photo-opportunity and then, spotting Pikas right by the road, we stopped at another turnoff to improve on our record shots from the last stop (and then also found a more accommodating Marmot.)

We knew we had a long way to go and the pine forests with what we anticipated would be masses of birds were calling, so we moved on with just one more stop at Lava Cliffs for a last vain hope of Rosy Finches: no luck, though we did get distant views of a couple of hugely antlered bull Elk.

Dinner's ready. Back later and some pix I expect....

John

 

[Jos Stratford]

Some distance away an Elk was grazing.

Elk as in Moose?

Rosy Finches don't exist, so there.

Inclined to agree!


PS. Cruddy thread title

 

[Farnboro John]

Elk as in Moose?



Inclined to agree!


PS. Cruddy thread title

Thanks a lot.

No, Elk as in Wapiti, concession to local terminology since its their species. In North America a Moose is a Moose, the more so as Mysticete reckons the North American one has been split.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Pix:

Violet-green Swallow
Colorado Chipmunk
Audubon's Warbler
Violet-green Swallow
The Twin Owls: wwe stayed at Twin Owls Motor Lodge which was named for the rock formation in the picture. Like the Camel at Porth Hellick it does actually bear some resemblance to the eponym.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

High altitude pix:

Rocky Mountain National Park
Elk
American Pika
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Rocky Mountain National Park

John

 

[Steve Babbs]

Day One continued.....

After a thin day supplies-wise we were all ready for breakfast and after some indecision ended up in the local McDonalds. I'm not usually a fan of the golden arches but I'm more relaxed in their homeland and indeed the food provided was edible. It was already hot enough to eat outside and set fair to be a scorcher later in the day. Brewer's Blackbirds, Ravens, House Sparrows, Swallows and American Robins all made appearances during our moderately happy meal

John

Mountain chickadee was also a McDonalds bird. Mind you 'edible' McDonalds food may be a first for the world; I'd add the modifier 'just about'.

 

[Farnboro John]

Mountain chickadee was also a McDonalds bird. Mind you 'edible' McDonalds food may be a first for the world; I'd add the modifier 'just about'.

It failed to make me throw up which was an improvement on my previous experience with the chain (in England) so I felt quite kindly disposed towards it.

Sorry for missing the (non-bold for me) Mountain Chickadee at Ronald's place.

John

 

[Steve Babbs]

It failed to make me throw up which was an improvement on my previous experience with the chain (in England) so I felt quite kindly disposed towards it.

Sorry for missing the (non-bold for me) Mountain Chickadee at Ronald's place.

John

I've just realised that my last three North American trips started with a McDonalds breakfast. I must be going on the things can only get better theory! Good stuff John I look forward to future episodes.

 

[Farnboro John]

As we began to descend the far side of the mountains we dropped back to the tree-line and encountered a small group of young bachelor Elk with antlers in velvet, managing a few pictures in slightly difficult light. Further down we decided to pull into a picnic site in the hope of finding at least some rodents used to mugging tourists for hand-outs. A large pick-up was parked up with a man recumbent across the shelf at the cab end of the flatbed. A curious choice of bed, especially in bear country....

Anyway, the place appeared a bird and animal free zone, but as we returned to the car we spotted some more chipmunks. Only they weren't, I had made the classic mistake of not counting stripes and they were actually Golden-mantled Squirrels. The two juveniles were jumping on and off a rail of a fence and eventually posed on it together for photos. Nice.

We continued and as the road flattened out we found it blocked by cars, with a load parked up on each verge and the occupants gathered at the side of the road. Must be something good! We hurriedly pulled off and joined the throng, to be told that a bull Moose with a full set of antlers was lurking in a willow thicket below the road. Even the locals were admitting that it was a particularly big one - so why couldn't we see it? It took me longer than the others to spot where the bushes were waving as the Moose browsed the leaves, and then bits of it started to emerge from the bushes. We never did get a fully clear view, the animal was feeding actively and had no intention of deserting its willow thicket. It was also usually the case that only one line would suffice to give good views, and the crowd flowed about like an amoeba as everyone tried to be in the best position on the moving Moose.

Eventually we decided we had to move on, reluctantly as it still appeared that the Moose might move out into a clearer area if we gave it long enough. A little further on we found a large lake with quite a lot of birds on it and paused to scan through them. The most obvious were a number of American White Pelicans, but there were also Canada Geese, Mallards and American Herring Gulls. We couldn't afford much time as we still had a long way to go, and off we went again.

Initially the land was hilly with a mixture of sagebrush and blocks of pine forest and scrub. We saw little except a couple of Red-tailed Hawks and the odd Turkey Vulture: then we came round a corner and a deer was standing at the entrance to a track through the forest. We couldn't see its tail but it had enormous ears and my instincts said Mule Deer: we slowed, parked and got cautiously out of the car a bit beyond the track, and were able to see the confirmatory black-tipped tail. It wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere, which as it wasn't in a refuge of any kind seemed not exactly a survival trait, but we took the opportunity to click off a bunch of pictures. Then it was off again into a gradually flattening landscape of sagebrush semi-desert with increasing numbers of very small chipmunks hurtling across the road in front of us with their tails held vertically. We grew a bit frustrated at not being able to positively identify these, and when larger ground squirrels joined in the frustration grew. I spotted some prairie dogs around holes on the right and confidently claimed them as Black-tailed. I was wrong. We were out of range for Black-tailed. Oops. Blame the frustration and try harder to be objective.

Then there was a huge raptor perched on a telegraph pole and we halted for mega views of an adult Golden Eagle perched up only about fifty yards away. Excellent! We filled our boots.

Soon after that we found ourselves approaching the Arapaho Wildlife Refuge and it would have been just plain rude to pass it up - so we turned off the main road onto the gravel wildlife route and prepared for some serious action.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Pix:

Elk
Golden-mantled Squirrel
Moose
Mule Deer
Golden Eagle

John

 

[kittykat23uk]

Enjoyable read so far

 

[Steve Babbs]

Enjoyable read so far

I wonder which will happen first: John finishing the report or Jeff and I getting reunited with our luggage?

 

[kittykat23uk]

Oh dear! Hope you get it back!

 

[MKinHK]

Mind you 'edible' McDonalds food may be a first for the world; I'd add the modifier 'just about'.

Yesterday at work I was discussing biodegradable food packaging with my colleagues and the question was raised whether McDonalds food was more or less biodegradable than the wrappings it came in . . .

Nice report and pix, by the way - and further endorsement of the non-existence of Rosy Finches.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Mysticete]

Oddly enough, lived in Laramie for seven years, and found the Brown-capped to be the toughest of the Rosy-finches to get.