Mothers Day, 2026

We usually go to Grand Teton National Park for a day of wildlife viewing followed by a picnic in the park. However, this year we were invited to go to our daughter's, Jen and Eric's house, to celebrate the day at their place in Montana! It’s a three-hundred-mile drive. On the trip we first drive through the Idaho National Laboratory, It’s about one hundred miles from Idaho Falls to Salmon, Idaho before the scenic drive over Lost Trail Pass. The pass was the pass that Lewis and Clark used to cross the Continemtal divide and head for the Pacific Ocean , (its named Lost Pass because it’s one of the few parts of the trail that no one is sure about)). The weather was extremely warm for this time of year in Northern Montana.

The Bitterroot River was high with the early snowmelt, so we decided not to go fishing, (Renita is a good fly fisherwoman and has earned an award for her catching the four types of cutthroat trout), native to Wyoming.

Other options, before Mother’s Day, were to go to the Farmers Market in Hamilton, Montana, take hikes along the river, and go birding, (we did all three). For Mother’s Day, Renita wanted to go to the Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge for a day of birding and wildlife viewing.

The trails at Lee Metcalf are easy, level hiking, are well maintained, and so well-traveled that we didn’t have to worry about it being the spring wood tick season. California Quail are everywhere. It was a short drive to the Refuge and as we drove to the parking lot we passed wild turkeys, and sandhill cranes.

Under one tree, a wild turkey thought it was hiding so we stopped and took its picture. I also tried to vocalize a turkey gobbling, and the bird answered me. The few times I went turkey hunting I had bought a turkey call, but the turkeys didn’t like its tone.

Walking down the trail we spotted a tree full of holes left by a Pileated Woodpecker. Notice the large triangular hole indicating a hole drilled by a Pileated.

Nearby a Hairy Woodpecker drilled holes looking for larva, and a little bit later a Lewis’s Woodpecker landed near the top of a tree, (the woodpecker was named for Meriweather Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

As we walked further a Bald Eagle Soared overhead and a possible Golden Eagle flew by.

Sheepherders are having problems with the Golden Eagles as they hunt and kill lambs. In one area of Wyoming, they are killing Golden Eagles because of the predation, (allowed by the Federal Government).

Arriving back at their house we watched as Jen planted rows of plants in ter huge Garden! Eric worked on mowing their one-acre lot. Renita and I got tired from watching them work, so we rested in their lawn chairs.

An osprey sat on a man-made nesting platform, unconcerned whe we stopped to take a picture.

Driving to a small marshy lake a Pied Billed Grebe paddled away, and a Ruddy Duck posed for a picture. Mallards were everywhere including this close up of a female.

As we left, we did see more turkeys, but I don’t know what subspecies these turkeys are, (in Wyoming the turkeys are from the Rio Grande. It was a fine day in Northern Montana. Arriving back at their hose we watched as Jen planted rows of plants in her huge garden as Eric worked on mowing their one-acre lot. Renita and I got tired from watching them work, so we rested in their lawn chairs. The evening ended after a great meal at a local restaurant. Clear skies ps Hope yall had a great Mothers Day!

A Day filled with Moose

We had heard that the grizzly bear Miracle, (not an official name), had appeared and so we headed back to Grand Teton National Park. We weren’t sure of the right spot to sit and wait but as an Ecotour bus showed up and waited, we figured we were probably in the area. After having lunch, we waited for several more hours with no luck. We needed to return home as we were driving to Montana for Mother’s Day. It is always a great day when we are in a National Park and this day turned out to be exceptional one as we saw and photographed four moose in three different spots, (often it is difficult to see any moose as they are hiding from bears and wolves).

The first Moose was a bull that was feeding of willows near Willow Flats, (Imagine that). It was a Mature Bull, and you can see in the photos that its antlers were beginning to grow. The willow trees produce a chemical from which aspirin was discovered, so besides being a food source, the trees also act as a pharmacy especially for cow moose that have given birth to their new calves, (not sure if you should call them foals).

We also had spotted a smaller moose in the same general area, and a little further down the road a very pregnant moose was sitting on a snowbank, along with a two-year-old calf.

Our day’s total was five moose, which is really great! It was a moosey day! In case you are wondering the park service recommends you stay at least twenty five yards from Moose, Elk, and Buffalo. This is the minimum distance for safety and two often we see people getting to close. Later that day we saw people trying to get close for pictures of a bull elk growing a nice set of antlers. Thwy pushed the bull into the willows and lucky for them did not enter the thick growth.

Clear skies

A bear encounter day in Grand Teton Park, Always carry bear spray

We decided to go back to the park in hopes of seeing a bear. Our friend Vickie has taken great pictures of several Grizzly! Earlier, we encountered a Cinnamon Black Bear while birding. It was on trail that usually has posted signs, during berry season. They state that one should carry Bear Spray/However the Wildlife management team had removed the sign and so we decided to take a short walk, looking for birds. On the way out we heard crashing brush and a Cinnamon Black Bear, probably a four-year-old, ran out into the clearing and stopped to look at us. It was about thirty yards away! The bear had new ear tags and a radio collar, so we knew it was probably a bear that had recently caused trouble. As we were only thirty yards away, we knew not to run, never run as you become prey. Instead, I raised my camera and started to take pictures and the bear decided to leave us alone, not the first time this has worked. None of my three pictures turned out, I had just taken pictures of a bird and had my camera on manual focus. Returning to Jackson we drove to REI, and bought their largest canister of Bear Spray, (to go with the one our friends Dan and Barb had given us. Now we have four canisters. For anyone hiking, eveb a short hike, in Grand Teton National Park, ALWAYS CARRY BEAR SPRAY! We will. We were lucky. Ps Last weeks Grizzly Bear attack in Yellowstone National Park, was on a trail that had been closed and had just been reopened. It appears that the grizzly might have been protecting a kill. They will often cover a kill/carcass with brush, and lay on it. That’s one of our fears when hiking, surprising a bear on its kill or encountering a cub.

Spending an afternoon with Bison, Elk Ranch Flats, Grand Teton National Park

At one time there were an estimated 60 to 80 million, American Bison, in North America. The destruction of the great herds was caused by many hunters, but the massive kill happened when the hide market hunters found they could make lots of money by killing the bison for their hides. The hides were turned into belts used to run industrial machines in Europe.

The hides of cow bison were easier to make into belts due to the lack of scars and so it was estimated that in the first few years thirty million cow bison were slaughtered, (if you want to exterminate a species, kill the females). Later a technique was developed to make bull bison hides into machinery belts and by 1900 only about 500 to 1000 bison were left.

Today there are around 500,000 in the herd due to individuals that saved them from extinction. One Ranch Lady in Oklahoma instructed her ranch hands to round up all the red dogs they could find, (a red dog is a first-year calf and who were left behind by the hunters as their hides were useless). Yellowstone Park also had a small, protected herd and other herds were also gathered in other places.

If you travel to Grand Teton National Park a small herd grazes at Elk Ranch Flats. The herd moves back and forth across the highway blocking traffic. These bison were introduced in the park as Jackson Hole, (historically), did not have any bison. As the bears were playing hide and seek, from us anyway, wee decided to spend an afternoon watching the herd. Parking we spotted a red dog with its mother. As she grazed and moved, it kept up with her. The red dog kept close to her, and she nursed it often. At times the red dog calf would lay down in brush.

When the cow and calf crossed the road. It was protected by other bison cows and after crossing the cows surrounded it as it nursed. When there are more red dog calves the cows will have them gather them into a safe area and will form a protective ring.

When threatened the bison form in a circle, form a circle, threatening any predators with a ring of horns.

Meanwhile the bull bison were grazing, rolling in the dust to give them a break from insects, and butting heads, practicing for the rut. Some were scratching themselves on some sections of broken fence posts, (fences don’t really keep bison out they mainly keep dumb tourists from attempting to pet them, (don’t pet the fluffy cows). Clear skies Ps if you ever watch bison bulls one thing to watch out for. If the bull raises its tail, and stares at you. It is getting ready to charge. Do not approach and stay at least 25 yards away.

The Museum of Idaho, Life in the Permian

We needed to have routine maintenance work done on our Suburu. So we drove over and made an appointment with our dealer in Idaho Falls. Spending the night, we decided to have my hearing aids at Costco,(free), repaired and decided to use the waiting time to visit the Museum of Idaho, The Museum hosts traveling exhibits, and the current one is, The Life of the Permian. As it fit our interests perfectly we had to see it!, (I taught High School and College Astronomy, Earth Science and Geology Classes). Entering the first room we were greeted with a fossil reproduction of an amphibian, Sclercephalus. Next to it was a three-dimensional model of what it was like. It moved and roared and its head followed as you moved around the display. As it was an amphibian it laid its eggs in the water, (By the way paleontologists know that the amniotic egg came before the chicken).

Next was a dimetrodon, which has a sail-like structure, that may have been used as a way of heating and cooling its body temperature, (moving in and out or sideways, the direct sun would have caused its huge top fin to act like a radiator).

The room also contained an Edaphosaurus, pavement lizard, and a Cotylorhynchus, which was called a cup lizard. Both of these survived the Extinction event but did not last long as the dinosaurs, reptiles, became the dominant life form.

There were also ammonites and lots of other life forms that survived this mass extinction but not the one at the end of the Cretaceous. One interesting fish was this shark with a row of teeth that looked like a rip saw, nightmares anyone?

The exhibit continued upstairs, and had several small mammals that developed, the creatures that we evolved from, (but not the one in this picture. Another of my favorites was the Crowned Alligator.

Probably most of my readers have already fallen asleep, but the Museum continued with other great Permian Exhibits. It then continued with exhibits of people, their accomplishment and tools used during Idaho’s settlement.

The last exhibit was a life size reconstruction of a Columbian Mammoth. This was of special interest to me as I collect fossils and have a partial skull section and scapula from one of these Giants. If you find yourself in Idaho Falls there are many other things to do but I really urge you to make a stop and visit The Museum Of Idaho! Clear skies Ps the dealership in Corpus Christie said we needed over three thousand dollars of maintenance work, our bill at our dealership was eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars……

Big Horn Sheep on the Elk Refuge, The Whiskey Mountain Herd

Grand Teton National Park April 2026

Last year was an exceptional year for photographing bears. We arrived on April 9th and on our first day in the park spotted bear 610 and her three two-year-old sub adults. They were feeding on a carcass of an elk near the Moran Entrance station. Two days late we drove up to Flag Ranch and Bruno, the dominant male Grizzly bear, was walking alongside the road. As he passed our car, we could see his eye looking at us, but he really didn’t care as he was heading south to Grand Teton National Park. This year we were staying in Jackson, and so it was only a short drive back to Moran. Entering the park, we stopped at all the places we saw grizzly bears, but they were not wanting their photos taken. Day one turned into day two through day nine and we never spotted any bears, (we did see grizzly bear tracks in snow near Coulter Bay. Luckily, there were other things to see. The elk were migrating early, due to the warm weather, so we changed our target from bears to birds. It was a good choice as we added two new birds for our life list.

The first was a very common bird, a song sparrow. It sang and perched in a short tree giving us a great opportunity for a picture. The next was a Red Breasted Nuthatch, identified by merlin’s sound recording, (a bird heard is a bird counted. We spotted numerous Bald Eagles, Ospreys, and took our best picture ever of a male and female Barrows Goldeneye.

They were exhibiting courtship behavior and were oblivious to our presence, (we were walking on the trail at Schwabacher Landing).

On another day we took a picture of a Belted Kingfisher.

As usual Kingfishers are hard to photograph, and this one flew every time I tried to get him in focus. He made the mistake of landing on top of a pine tree about one hundred yards away. I had our 600 mm zoom lens on and I took his picture.

We also saw American White Pelicans, Cormorants, and Great Blue Herons.

I did get a pretty good shot of a Mountain Blue Bird! We also saw a Red-Tailed Hawk in flight, and a Northern Harrier.

One of the birds, common but rarely seen, was a Great Horned Owl,(I have misplaced the picture). We hoped it was a Great Grey but you can clearly see the feathery ears, diagnostic of a Great Horned Owl.

We had to leave the Park to get maintenance done on our car. Now that it has been taken care of we are going to visit a museum in Idaho Falls and then return to Grand Teton National Park. This time it will be for ten more days of bear watching. The migrating elk cows have moved onto their calving places, so the bears can’t be too far behind. Till they calve, the bears will turn into cows and munch on grass and clover. They have over two hundred items on their diet. If you ever see a bear do not feed it! A Fed Bear is a Dead Bear. Once they get a taste of human food they will be captured and relocated. A second offense will result in the bear being euthanized.

Finally, we had to pass through a herd of Buffalo as they crossed the highway. Thats never a pleasant event. Clear skies Ps our friends Gordon and Babs were in New Mexico and a Black bear smelled the M and M’s in their BMW. It then broke into the car and destroyed it.