Day Three - Tuesday
Not such a gruelling day in prospect, so a slight lie-in and a leisurely, filling breakfast at the Cowboy Cafe. Steve was mildly miffed by the waitress's description of his managing to order his breakfast as awesome. Our first new trip bird of the day was right outside the cafe as we came out feeling well fuelled: a Black-capped Chickadee whose call was to my ear totally indistinguishable from Mountain Chickadee. It was a tick for me at least so an opportunity to grill it at close range was very welcome - our bins had accompanied us to breakfast of course.
Soon enough we had cleared our kit into the car, with kit positions starting to take on a routine. The Super Caravan is not a small vehicle by UK standards, with six seats and a deep vertical luggage space behind the back ones, but somehow four birders seemed to fill it easily - all the more reason to stick to a system once developed. It was also not only one of those irritating vehicles that takes every opportunity to beep at you nannyishly about seatbelts and suchlike but also does inconvenient things like locking all the doors as soon as you pull off - but not unlocking them when you stop!
Away, and after following the river valley fro a while we started to climb into the hills of the Bridger-Teton Forest. Scenic, but at the couple of stops we made, practically birdless! We did pick up American Red Squirrel (not a patch on our cutie but a tick) and Uinta Ground Squirrel (you inta ground squirrels? - all right, I'll get my coat) for the mammal list, and blip views of Mountain Bluebirds as we shot past.
No sign of any bears at our stops. Plenty of warnings about them, armoured waste bins, solidly built rest-rooms: no prints, scat or animals.
We found a signpost to a recreation area and followed the gravel road until it became a bit squishy due to the previous rain, then parked up and investigated a suddenly busy area of meadow and nearby lodgepole pine forest. Song and White-crowned Sparrows, Oregon-type Dark-eyed Juncos, Cliff Swallows overhead and - Hallelujah! Clark's Nutcrackers (my non-birder brother has had these over me for 20 years) rasping out their calls and flying from tree to tree. Initially they were distant and against the light but the views gradually improved until they were reasonably tickable if not exactly zonking.
Crossbills of one (or several, for all I know) of the 40,000,000 different types in which I don't believe were also around, small groups flying over us and generating pretty much zero interest once they were on the trip list. Jeff spotted a Cooper's Hawk typically flashing across the terrain offering brief views before disappearing into the woods. We also got close views and pictures of Red Squirrel and American Robin.
On we went, down the far side of the hills and fast approaching the border of our first multi-day destination, Grand Teton National Park. We stopped at a turnout with a likely -looking pond below it, and asked the elderly gentleman sitting on a rock if he's seen anything. He told us this was a regular Moose spot but he'd seen nothing, then, having stood up to face us in conversation, exclaimed that there was a snake - no, snakes - at the foot of the rock he'd been sitting on. Fortunately these proved to be more Western Terrestrial Garter Snakes, but while we enjoyed more views as they slithered in and out of the vegetation around the rocks we also made mental notes that perhaps snakes are more common in America than our collective experience elsewhere allowed for. Caution might pay.
American Wigeon were breeding on the pond, Northern Rough-winged Swallows feeding over it, and Jeff's lynx-eyes picked up a Black-and-White Warbler briefly.
Onward, and we came down onto a grassy plain backed by dark pine woods and beyond those, the towering rock walls of the Grand Teton range vanishing upwards into thick cloud. We had no doubt the view would be massively impressive if those clouds lifted. There were a few Pronghorns out on the grassy plain, but not particularly close. We had to endure a long wait to get through single-alternate line working roadworks of considerable length, then had a quick look at an overlook of the river, where Maz demanded I found her a Bald Eagle and then joined the boys in dissing the one I turned up immediately for being very distant. It was, but I felt hard done to after fulfilling her demand within ten seconds.....
Back in the car and onwards, now crossing a wide grassy plain mostly on our left side. Distantly we saw lines of blackish lumps moving slowly, with cars on a road clearly grouping near them - American Bison!
We quickly worked out the lie of the roads that would get us out to Antelope Flats where the herd of Buffalo was grazing on the move, and headed in that direction. Soon we were close to the first few of the mighty beasts and more than slightly awed by their size and muscularity. Jeff, Steve and I were using Bison and Buffalo pretty much interchangeably, all understanding clearly that Bison is modern parlance but the Wild West term somehow fits better. We weren't aware of the confusion arising in Marion's mind until she inquired in all innocence: "What's the difference between a Buffalo and a Bison?" at which point three male voices chorused as one: "You can't wash your hands in a Buffalo!"
How we didn't crash I don't know because the fits of hysterics that ensued were uncontrollable and went on for some time, caused as much by the perfect set-up as the ancient joke. Then we went to get close-up views of a herd of American Bison crossing the road between the parked cars and moving slowly across the sagebrush and long grass. The sound - the constant undercurrent of grunts and lows - was as impressive as the sight of these behemoths in such numbers. Perhaps 250 were moving around us, pretty much point-blank. "That's awesome," quoth Steve. "Ordering breakfast - not awesome. Hundreds of Bison - awesome."
We carried on towards Jackson to book into our next motel, but as we approached the town there was a smallish reed-edged lake with wildfowl on it - including a family of Trumpeter Swans! The car was quickly parked at the side of the road and we were out with cameras and across the road to the turnout next to the lake. Fantastic! This was a bird I really wanted to see, but I had heard some people struggled with them. These were about thirty yards away, two adults and three cygnets. Wonderful. Right next to us Cedar Waxwings were flycatching from a wire fence between us and the lake shore. Swallows were also using this aas a perch. Many Mallard, a few American Wigeon, some Gadwall and half a dozen Ring-necked Ducks lazed on the water and a couple of Common Green Darners patrolled the shoreline fast enough to prevent photography.
After an initial burst of pictures we were scanning around, and while that was going on the Trumpeters slipped away into a complex of channels in the reedbeds, so we made the final approach into Jackson, found our motel and booked in. The heavens then opened, so we took time to go shopping for supplies at a small supermarket.
Maz now insists I cook tea. Back later!
John