Life List Additions!

I finally have a tally on the birds I added to my life list on my trip! I'm not a huge list keeper exactly...but I keep a life list and it's not a big number either...but as you get more and more tics on the page you really have to travel afar to add something new...or be ready to "scramble the jet" if you want to chase after rare sightings! If I was a free bird and didn't have 4 others depending on me, (Mom, Floss, Annie, & Casey) I'd be up and running :o)It is a competitive thing but its like you're competing with mother nature.

I was NOT able to photograph ever new bird I saw but I tried in almost every case a few times it was while I was out walking Casey without a camera and all I could do was watch helplessly as the bird was well seen and not photographed...or driving the car and it just flew right in front of me, even if you have your camera and the bird IS right in front of you is no guarantee you will get a photo of it.  I nearly gave up photography period due to birds! BUT TG the digital age came along and saved me from exile!

And thanks go out to my blog friend Jen of i used to hate birds for doing a bird outing with me and helping me with I'ds on some of the tougher ones. Not being familiar with Western birds makes it hard to I'd them and I'm awful with water birds of any kind since I live in a forest I'm used to forest dwelling birds! 

So here are my new additions...this is in the order I saw them and general location! 

1. Pinyon Jay - Garfield Co, CO 
2. Red Shafted Flicker - Garfield Co, CO
3. Sandhill Crane - Dinosaur N.M. Jensen, Utah
4. American Avocet - GSL, Utah
5. Wilson's Phalarope -GSL, Utah
6. Red-Necked Phalarope - GSL, Utah
7. Eared Grebe - GSL, Utah
8. Sage Thrasher - GSL, Utah
9. Sage Sparrow - GSL, Utah
10. Chukar - GSL, Utah
11. Bushtit - Craters of the Moon, Carey, ID
12. Long Billed Dowitcher - Ridgefield NWR, WA
13. Barrow's Goldeneye- Mt. St. Helens, WA
14. Varied Thrush - Mt Rainier, WA
15. Heermann's Gull - Port Townsend, WA
16. Thayer's Gull Port Townsend, WA
17. Chestnut Backed Chickadee - Olympic NP, WA
18. Red Breasted Sapsucker - Olympic NP, WA
19. Cinnamon Backed Chickadee - Oylmpic NP, WA
20. Surf Scoter - Coast Highway, Kalaloch, WA
21. Black Scoter - Coast Highway, Kalaloch, WA
22. Canvas Back - Astoria, OR
23. Northern Pintail - Astoria OR
24. Winter Wren - Cape Meares, OR
25. Brandt's Cormorant - Yaquina Head, OR
26. Black Oyster Catcher - Heceta Head Beach, OR
27. Common Merganser - Umpqua Rv Umpqua NF, OR
28. Northern Goshawk - Lower Klamath WLR- Doris, CA
29. Sage Grouse - Lower Klamath WLR- Doris, CA
30. Townsend's Solitaire - Lava Beds N.M., Indian Well, CA
31. Snow Goose - Tule Lake NWR, Tulelake, CA
32. Cackling Goose - Tule Lake NWR, Tulelake, CA
33. Lesser Goldfinch - Tule Lake NWR, Tulelake, CA
34. White Faced Ibis - Tule Lake NWR, Tulelake, CA
35. Green Winged Teal - Tule Lake NWR, Tulelake, CA

Final Tally New Lifers = 35 and there were some Unidentifiable's even with photos...so can't always get a perfect count...That brings my life list tally to 311 not huge But its a work in progress!   The tally of all birds's ID'd for this trip from start to finish was 122 Not bad! 

I found out that there is a 600 club, out there somewhere...if your life list includes 600 birds that means you get top Honors...so I'm half of that I am now however a member of the 300 club...if there is such a thing. I think some patches are in order like we used to get for bowling! 

I wanted to send y'all over to McQ;s Travels  for some super bird photos and an impressive birding spot to add to your birding wanna go list! Some other spots I really want to visit are the Bosque Del'Apache NWR down in NM, Aransas NWR in Texas (possible Whooping Cranes there)

Here is a great resource to bookmark, a list of 

hot birding spots by state!

PEACE and happy birding!

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

A date with John Day!

I have my trip route roughly planned out In a sort of loose way.  I was camped in a COE park near Rufus Oregon...right alongside the Columbia River 

Flickr ate my photos

and started checking my map...I saw how close I was to John Day Fossil beds I jumped on it! Natural History is fascinating to me...after a little research I found out the National Monument is in 3 locations.  I headed south down hwy 97 then 218 then 19, then 26 West! 

It goes through some small and interesting towns...like Shaniko

..all small towns no chain stores and very few stores of any kind...

This guy was in the city limits of a town called Kent...only one block long..

And I stopped to meet this horse...

SO  first I went to the John Day Clarno Unit...

There's a neat self  guided trail with some interesting formations this area is called the Palisades...formed by volcanic action 44 million years ago!!

And there is the Clarno Arch! Really cool..

Leaf Fossils are in the rocks along the hiking trail...

Casey and I had lunch here then we headed for the second unit Called Sheep Rock... South on Hwy 19 to the Cant Ranch.  A lot of the land now in the National Mon. was owned by the weatlhy Cant family...this is the HQ of the Monument...

The rock formations in this area are so colorful!  

There is a museum across the road from the ranch house full of exhibits of the fossils taken from the 3 units...IT was very well done...and worth a visit.

The road follows the John Day River here it is with the Cathedral Rock 

Flickr Ate my Photos 

And here is the John Day River again, its meanders through some beautiful country!

Casey and I found a Forest Service CG for the night called Boardhouse on Baker Mt...boy it got cold!! Some turkeys came through before we left but my photos were so blurry I had my camera set wrong--

There is one more unit and I'll save that for my next post!!

My Morning Mirror!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

Im Not Lost!

I know y'all must think I fell off the edge of the world...Nope just fell off the grid!!  I've mostly been camping in Forest service campgrounds and primitive sights and no electric I did charge up my laptop via my one power outlet but the charge doesn't last long on this old laptop..So I've been out tomorrow will be a week..I'can't even begin to tell you all the awesome things I've enjoyed up to now..I've taken hundreds of photos but its hard to go thru them with no computer!! Last night I used what bit of battery power I had to empty my camera's.

A few scenes of my travels thus far..elk herd alongside the White River in CO as I left..

I entered Utah in the tip top north eastern corner and went to visit Dinosaur National Monument...all sorts of neat bones on dispaly there and an actual site where bones are visible right in the rock...they built this cool building right around it so we could view it and it would be protected.

Bones from t his quarry are on display in Museums all over the country!!  I camped in their campground called Green River campground...Pretty nice did fill up by nightfall tho..

We had a shady spot...next day we hit the road again spending the night in Aspen Grove CG along the Strawberry Reservoir in north eastern Utah....awesome country!!

Saw Huge flock of Sandhill Cranes in Jansen Utah on the way in...

and next day I ended up at Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake...A dear friend in CO suggested this spot to me and IM so happy I listened!!

An awesome amount of birds and mammals and some flies! But the flies left when the air cooled down..

Here is some of what I saw!

thousands of Northern Shovelers!

 

 

 

american avocets HUNDREDS ... and you can see the flies on my car window in this photo 

Once I left the causeway area the flies went away....pretty much

 

 

 

I was surprised by the amount of Buffalo here!! Quite a large number they roam freely on the island...

and Antelope too!! 

A new bird for me also is the Sage Thrasher they were very curious and let me get close I saw 3 lifers here the American Avocet, this thrasher, and Wilson's Phalarope!

If you have never been I say GO to Antelope Island!

there is so much to see---no way I can portray it all here...I camped in their CG for $5 its a $10 entry fee so for $15 I saw a lot of awesome sights!

 

 

 

Casey spots an Antelope--and barks

A rabbit, antelope, chukar and coyote camp right close to my camp site!

The next day we headed north into Idaho...and went to Craters of the Moon...If you've never been I would suggest it! The campground is small and you get the lava dust all over you but there is no place else nearby to stay so...

I'll end here since Im afraid my battery will die before I finish this post...And Ill start a new post to continue this so If my battery lasts there will be a follow up if not you know it died...I will visit your blogs when Im fully charged up!!

 

more antelope island  

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.