Moose and calf…

Sep3

In Many Glacier we are often blessed to be able to watch moose do their own thing. We get to watch them graze the bottoms of lake beds and watch them bring their baby calves down to explore…

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Rain!

Sep3

Saturday night we received a bit of rain and awoke to smoke-free skies. Sunday afternoon we took a drive to through Glacier Park.

Watching the storm clouds roll-in on Avalanche Creek…

Clouds rolling across the valley on Going-to-the-Sun Road…

Soot from the Reynolds Creek Fire, running off in the rain onto some red rocks..

A quick rainbow over St. Mary’s Lake…

A black bear crossing the road in Many Glacier in the rain…

We ended up enjoying our day in the rain. Normally, we would have been a bit bummed to spend the day in the rain but with the wildland fires and evacuations going on, smokey suffocating skies and how badly we need the rain this year, it really was a great day. Kind of funny how a different perspective on things can change an attitude. Skies have been without smoke all week, even though we still have the majority of the fires burning and we are suppose to be getting more rain, maybe even some snow in higher elevations throughout the weekend. 🙂

Going for a Dip…

Aug31

Wood Ducks are one my favorites! I was so excited when we spotted this guy…

Cool Facts

Natural cavities for nesting are scarce, and the Wood Duck readily uses nest boxes provided for it. If nest boxes are placed too close together, many females lay eggs in the nests of other females.
The Wood Duck nests in trees near water, sometimes directly over water, but other times over a mile away. After hatching, the ducklings jump down from the nest tree and make their way to water. The mother calls them to her, but does not help them in any way. The ducklings may jump from heights of over 50 feet without injury.
Wood Ducks pair up in January, and most birds arriving at the breeding grounds in the spring are already paired. The Wood Duck is the only North American duck that regularly produces two broods in one year.
For more information please visit here…

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Turquoise…

Aug27

Anyone who has been around me for very long could probably figure out that one of my favorite all time colors is turquoise! It just makes feel happy. 🙂 Maybe it quite coincidental or perhaps it’s from natural influences…

At Grinnell Glacier…

Glacial rivers…

St. Mary’s Falls in Glacier National Park…

Looking down on Grinnell Lake…

Another view with the sun hitting it…

The view of Josephine Lake, Swiftcurrent Lake, and Lake Sherburne…

Our wedding bands in Cancun…

Glorious beaches and turquoise water…

Mayian Ruins and the turquoise ocean…

An old dock going out to the ocean…

Sunrise on a Californian beach…

Canadian Rockies and a glacial river…

Moraine Lake…

Glacial Ice

Lake Louise…

Hmmm…I’m awfully glad that world is filled with such vibrant color!

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Water World Wednesday

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Aug26

WE had the pleasure of being by Fishercap Lake waiting for moose to come out when this handsome guy starting flying around. I wasn’t sure what he was up to until I took the following pictures of him feeding a spider to… I am not sure if it’s a fledgling or a female or ?? But he was pretty entertaining watching him flutter about and pick spiders out of their webs in the trees…

Cool Facts

The Yellow-rumped Warbler is the only warbler able to digest the waxes found in bayberries and wax myrtles. Its ability to use these fruits allows it to winter farther north than other warblers, sometimes as far north as Newfoundland.

Male Yellow-rumped Warblers tend to forage higher in trees than females do.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are perhaps the most versatile foragers of all warblers. They’re the warbler you’re most likely to see fluttering out from a tree to catch a flying insect, and they’re also quick to switch over to eating berries in fall. Other places Yellow-rumped Warblers have been spotted foraging include picking at insects on washed-up seaweed at the beach, skimming insects from the surface of rivers and the ocean, picking them out of spiderwebs, and grabbing them off piles of manure.

When Yellow-rumped Warblers find themselves foraging with other warbler species, they typically let Palm, Magnolia and Black-throated Green warblers do as they wish, but they assert themselves over Pine and Blackburnian warblers.

The oldest known Yellow-rumped Warbler of the myrtle race was 8 years 9 months old. The oldest known individual of the “Audubon’s” race was 10 years old.

For more information please visit HERE

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American Robin…

Jun4

Cool Facts

An American Robin can produce three successful broods in one year. On average, though, only 40 percent of nests successfully produce young. Only 25 percent of those fledged young survive to November. From that point on, about half of the robins alive in any year will make it to the next. Despite the fact that a lucky robin can live to be 14 years old, the entire population turns over on average every six years.

Although robins are considered harbingers of spring, many American Robins spend the whole winter in their breeding range. But because they spend more time roosting in trees and less time in your yard, you’re much less likely to see them. The number of robins present in the northern parts of the range varies each year with the local conditions.

Robins eat a lot of fruit in fall and winter. When they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively, they sometimes become intoxicated.

Robin roosts can be huge, sometimes including a quarter-million birds during winter. In summer, females sleep at their nests and males gather at roosts. As young robins become independent, they join the males. Female adults go to the roosts only after they have finished nesting.

Robins eat different types of food depending on the time of day: more earthworms in the morning and more fruit later in the day. Because the robin forages largely on lawns, it is vulnerable to pesticide poisoning and can be an important indicator of chemical pollution.

The oldest recorded American Robin was 13 years and 11 months old.

For more information please go here…

Going on outside our office window…

Wild Bird Wednesday

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Sunday Out…

Jun1

Our crew headed to Many Glaciers this past weekend. We ended up hitting a pointy rock, popping a tire and having a flat, then after changing the tire and making it the rest of the way to Many Glacier it started to pour buckets and didn’t see any wildlife and couldn’t even get out of the car without getting soaked, so no hikes. We decided we would head back home and then the kids ended up getting hungry, so we stopped a ways away in Two Medicine. It was just cloudy there and we were able to enjoy a nice little picnic and do a little hiking and spotted many wildflowers and even a black bear.

At Two Medicine Lake, Glacier National Park…

On our little walk we discovered these gems. A lot of these I’m not sure what they are… …

A big, fat Bumbler…

A Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa…

Western Virgin’s Bower… Clematis occidentalis

At the end of the hike was Running Eagle Falls, running at full bore. Normally it’s just pouring out the cave in the middle of the falls…

Crossing the bridge…

Holding daddy’s hand…

The kids showing off their heart-shaped rocks…

We also spotted a Black Bear…

Dancing Aspens…

Lots of Shooting Stars..

More Blue wildflowers…

Cheers to long spring days spent in beautiful places…

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Macro Monday

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Today’s Flowers

Snow Geese at Freezeout Lake, Choteau, MT

Apr8

On March 30, we were able to head over to Choteau, MT and watch the annual migration of the Snow geese. The weekends before it sounded like was their peak time but we were still able to watch some take off in the morning to go visit neighboring fields in search of grain. During it’s peak it sounds like they are well over 30,000 geese meeting at these ponds, on their way to breeding grounds.

There was an AMAZING sunrise that morning. The sky started to change color 45 minutes prior to the official sunrise time, the kids ohhed and ahhed the whole way to Freezeout Lake. At it’s peak it was splendid!!

Add some Snow geese to the sky…

My husband shot this of myself, a few of the littles and my oldest daughter, all of whom were taking pictures!

Cool Facts

Snow Goose hunting in the eastern United States was stopped in 1916 because of low population levels. Hunting was allowed again in 1975 after populations had recovered. Since then, their populations have continued to grow, to the point that some areas of tundra nesting habitat are starting to suffer.
The dark color of the blue morph Snow Goose is controlled by a single gene, with dark being partially dominant over white. If a pure dark goose mates with a white goose, the offspring will all be dark (possibly with white bellies). If two white geese mate, they have only white offspring. If two dark geese mate, they will have mostly dark offspring, but might have a few white ones too.
Snow Geese chicks are well developed when they hatch, with open eyes and down-covered bodies that already show whether the adult will have white or dark plumage. Within a few days they are able to maintain a constant body temperature on their own. They grow very quickly, with the males outpacing the females.
The creamy white eggs of Snow Geese stain easily. People can sometimes tell what order the eggs were laid in, just by the color of the shells (the dirtiest shells belong to the oldest eggs).
In wintering and migrating flocks that are feeding, lookouts keep an eye out for eagles and other predators. Upon sighting a threat they call out to the rest of the flock, which may take flight.
Snow Geese make epic journeys by air, but they are impressive on foot, too. Within the first three weeks of hatching, goslings may walk up to 50 miles with their parents from the nest to a more suitable brood-rearing area. Molting Snow Geese can outrun many predators.
Females forage up to 18 hours a day once they arrive at breeding grounds, but eat little once they begin incubating the eggs.
Food passes through the Snow Goose’s digestive tract in only an hour or two, generating 6 to 15 droppings per hour. The defecation rate is highest when a goose is grubbing for rhizomes, because such food is very high in fiber and the goose inevitably swallows mud.
The oldest Snow Goose on record, shot in Texas in 1999, was 27 and a half.