I recently (early June) spent 12 days as my daughter's unpaid field tech/camp cook in the Beartooth Range (Hiway 212) in northern Wyoming east of Yellowstone. She is researching pipits at higher elevations. (9000-10,500 feet) We camped at Lily Lake a little East of Cooke City as it was free, open (most NF campgrounds still shut) and had bear boxes for food storage. Lots of rain, some snow higher up, but a few choice days. Her study sights were:
- open area below treeline a little past Top of the World Motel. (snowshoes or skis required to get from one bare patch to the next, and snow was really rotten)
- the saddle area between West and East Beartooth Pass (road across here was closed a number of days due to snow/plowing and the site was inaccessible some other days due to high winds.
- the top of Clay Butte (road up to fire tower was still closed due to snow/mud, so a rather steep climb)
Nice birds included:
Campground:
Three toed Woodpecker (seen once but heard every morning)
Dusky Grouse (seen on two AMs driving out of campground in sagebrush area
Sandhill Crane (a pair heard every evening but only seen once)
W Screech-owl (heard every night)
Gray, Stellers Jay
Townsend's Solitaire
Dipper (river 1/4 mile up 212 from CG entrance)
Pass area
Black Rosyfinch (first day here we saw probably several hundred, sometimes flocks of 40 or more, other days maybe half a dozen at spots near the parking area)
American Pipits, Horned Larks
Lower area past Top of the World Motel
Pipits
Savannah, Lincolns, White-crowned Sparrows
Clark's Nutcracker
Almost Everywhere
Y-R (Audubons) Warbler
Mountain Bluebird
Raven, Robin, Junco
Bob
- open area below treeline a little past Top of the World Motel. (snowshoes or skis required to get from one bare patch to the next, and snow was really rotten)
- the saddle area between West and East Beartooth Pass (road across here was closed a number of days due to snow/plowing and the site was inaccessible some other days due to high winds.
- the top of Clay Butte (road up to fire tower was still closed due to snow/mud, so a rather steep climb)
Nice birds included:
Campground:
Three toed Woodpecker (seen once but heard every morning)
Dusky Grouse (seen on two AMs driving out of campground in sagebrush area
Sandhill Crane (a pair heard every evening but only seen once)
W Screech-owl (heard every night)
Gray, Stellers Jay
Townsend's Solitaire
Dipper (river 1/4 mile up 212 from CG entrance)
Pass area
Black Rosyfinch (first day here we saw probably several hundred, sometimes flocks of 40 or more, other days maybe half a dozen at spots near the parking area)
American Pipits, Horned Larks
Lower area past Top of the World Motel
Pipits
Savannah, Lincolns, White-crowned Sparrows
Clark's Nutcracker
Almost Everywhere
Y-R (Audubons) Warbler
Mountain Bluebird
Raven, Robin, Junco
Bob