Idaho Falls and Hydroelectric Power

As many times as we have been to Idaho Falls, we had never been to the falls and the city park that surrounds the section of river. It’s near the Latter-Day Saints Temple that was completed in 1945.

The Falls are actually a series of rapids and small falls which was dammed as part of a hydroelectric project. After the Teton Dam Failure and resulting disaster in 1969, The City of Idaho Falls was able to procure funding to rebuild the three Hydro Plants.

The new dam and plants provide a third of the electricity needed by Idaho Falls. The project uses Bulb Technology, a European design which is quite different from how most hydroelectric dams operate in the United States.

The Falls and Rapids originally formed as the Snake River eroded through a vesicular basalt, (think lava with bubbles or holes in the flow). As many of the worlds falls, it eroded until the water found a softer layer underneath the cooled lava flow. It then formed a drop as the softer materials eroded faster leaving a cliff, (similar to Niagara Falls but different materials and much smaller).

We parked and then enjoyed a forty-five-minute walk along the northern side of the river. The park is a nice greenway contrasting with surrounding dry area . If you are ever in the area be sure stop and enjoy the scenic place. Clear skies

Disappointing Fall Colors

This year the fall colors have been extremely disappointing. While our trees here are not as colorful as the Midwest or Northeast, they still usually put on a nice show, just not this year. It has been exceptionally dry and extremely warm, (nothing like Arizona and Nevada). These factors along with the still raging forest fires have all added to the poor leaves display. Still there is some color, but not as much as usual with the red oaks that dot the evergreen forests. The bright spot has been the aspens that are now showing their yellows, each grove/stand all turn at the same time as they are really one organism.

The two pictures were both taken as we drove up the Snake River Canyon, from a visit to the doctor. We still haven’t started our snowbird migration and have been confined to our place as I am still recovering from surgery. It wont’ be long now before we head out and the last visit with the doctor was good so we are about ready. Safe travels to all and of course clear skies. (I hope to add to this post wit a few more pictures from Renita.)

Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge, June 2022

One of life’s birding joys is to observe the little dinosaurs, (birds are their descendants), during the spring breeding season. At that time the males and some of the females are adorned with brilliant colors. If you are really lucky you can even see the birds elaborate courtship rituals and dances. This year our friends Barb and Dan joined us. We made the short drive to Idaho and the Refuge armed with our cameras, cell phones, (for recording the birds calls) and the app Merlin which is great for identification using pictures, locations, and songs, After driving along Tin Cup Creek, we made the turn to the Refuge Head Quarters. We first went to the overlook where we took images of the landscape. Last year a male grouse was dancing there, but we did not see it, just the usual hawks, sandhill cranes, and in the distance ducks.

Stopping at the Main Building we picked up the literature and tried to take photos of the swallows. They were nesting underneath the building’s overhang and while they did not hit us, we did have to duck from near misses, (I did get one good photo of a barn swallow).

Driving on we passed a pond with northern shovelers and a cinnamon teal nesting on a small mound of dirt.

Driving on we passed a kestrel on a fence post, (notice that the kestrel has killed a large mouse in its talons), and several sandhill cranes.

A Western Kingbird posed on a wire

and a red-tailed hawk soared in ever widening circles as it hunted for its breakfast.

My favorite place on the refuge is when we reach the place where the road dissects a portion of the lake. Yellow headed blackbirds hunted for food. Due to the late spring, the cattails where behind in their growth and so we did not get the usual poses in our pictures. Instead, we had to settle for pictures of the birds along the ditch.

A willet waded while two Wilsons Phalaropes swam in quick circles.

The female is the bright colored member of the pair, which is unusual.

At one point a cinnamon teal swam and posed for a close-up image.

White faced and glaucus ibis waded and fed in the shallow water and a flock searched for gravel before exploding into the air.

The iridescent feathers of the ibis are a brilliant purple along with their purple bills.

A sandhill crane fed among the reedy area.

Leaving the water, we mentioned that the rest of the drive was where we saw hawks so of course we did not see any. Again, after telling Dan and Barb about the moose that inhabit the refuge, we never spotted a single one. Nothing like promising something and then nature does not cooperate. Leaving the refuge, we drove to our usual picnic spot where we enjoyed our lunch alongside Tin Cup Creek. It had been a fruitful day as our friends added to their life list. It is so much fun to share trips with friends and Renita and I always enjoy a day of birding. Clear skies

A busy Memorial Day Weekend

It has been crazy busy here and now I am behind on the blog, so this entry is actually two blogs in one. On Memorial Day, Fred and Becky joined us for a picnic trip to the Greys National Wildlife Refuge. The next day we made a quick trip to Grand Teton National Park with our friend George as he had not yet been there this year and wanted to see a grizzly bear. Both trips were successful!

It was the earliest we have been to the Greys Refuge and the timing was exactly right! The birds have all arrived and the Sandhills and Yellow headed blackbirds were exhibiting their courtship behavior.

Right away we spotted a sandhill crane pair and the male was dancing his dance going around and around the female crane.

She pretty much ignored him and continued to feed, finally responding with a little bill slapping before returning to feed.

A cow decided to photo bomb us and blocked the pair of sandhills.

Next, we drove to the lookout point, where we watched as a group of male sandhills getting into a ruckus of calls trying to outdo each other.

 As we left the hilltop, a spruce grouse popped up and posed for us, but the light was wrong and so we did not get to see him spread his tail feathers, however Becky did spot his behavior.

Fred was also unable to get a picture of the tail feather display but at least we were able to see the bird.

At another small pond a northern shoveler paddled while a horse appeared to watch.

Continuing down the road, a red-tail hawk hunted and we were able to get several good images as he flew and then posed on top of a power pole.

 Next we saw a Swainson's Hawk

and then a little further and two female yellow headed blackbirds fought a bit before flying away.

We saw several more red-tailed hawks before we reached the spot where both sides of the hill are flooded. This year we again saw the usual male yellow headed blackbirds as they displayed their colors and hoping to attract a female. One did hook up with a female but we missed a picture of the event.

Suffice it say it was quick, much quicker than the Great Blue Heron displays we saw down in Texas. A floc of white faced ibis landed near us.

Their spring color includes a glossy color and sometimes they mate with glossy ibis so their hybrid off spring can cause confusion. More birds that made an appearance included a long billed curlew, a willet, and a Wilsons Phalarope. 

Menawhile a pair of cinnamon teal waddled across the road.

Latter we stopped a on hillside to glass the refuge and Renita and Becky both spotted moose. They were far away but they were obviously moose, and it was the first time we have seem then there, (there were three).

We did not see any elk, but we did see several doe mule deer. Our last stop of the day was for a picnic lunch at a National Forest Campground along Tin Cup Creek. It had been another good day of birding and it was the first time we had seen sand hill crane dancing!

The next day we headed to Grand Teton National Park, this time looking for bears. Hitting all the usual spots we did not see any bears. Stopping for lunch at Sargent Picnic Area we drove back south and there was a grizzly bear near the parks dump.

A member of the bear team told us it was feeding on a carcass and that the park had moved the carcass further form the road. The reason for this was to protect the bear from all the people.

The bear finished on the carcass and decided it had posed enough for the day. Before leaving the field, it answered the old question of where a bear relieves itself, anywhere it wants to. I will leave the picture unpublished but suffice it to say it was a large scat!

We did not see any more bears, just the usual elk, but it had been another successful day of bear hunting. George got to see his first grizzly of the year! Clear skies

 

Driving to Glacier National Park, too Much Smoke!

 

The day had finally arrived! We were heading to Glacier National Park where we would meet Jen, Eric, and her their friends. Jen and Eric had rented a VRBO house above Flathead Lake and the places was so large that we all could social distance from one another.

The trip started out in a spectacular fashion as we were rewarded with a beautiful display of fall colors. The maples had turned red, some a very bright red, and added to the yellows and greens the blend was as good as it gets out here, (the aspens had not yet turned and so we are still waiting for their bright yellow swaths.

One we got out of the canyon we crossed the Yellowstone plain. Here the land is extremely flat as its the floor of the old Yellowstone caldera and with the smoke blocking any view of the mountains all we saw was just brown dried grassland. A signed warned us to be on the look out for game crossing and sure enough we saw a dead elk cow that had been hit by a truck vehicle?

The smoke so blanked the area that when we arrived at Flathead Lake, we could not see all the way across. The reddish sunset still reflected in the nearby lakeshore. Eric told us that there was fresh bear scat in the backyard, but the bear only passed through the yard at night and we never saw it.

However, we did see Jen, Eric, and their friends, waiting for us on the large deck, (we did social distance). All of them were planning on taking a hike along the Highline Trail. It is a fourteen-mile trail that Renita and I had decided to pass on, because we would still be on it.

Instead our hope was to take the short two-mile hike to the overlook above Hidden Lake. After unpacking and getting our gear ready for the next day we made it an early night. We were exhausted from the long drive and we quickly fell asleep.  Clear skies

Spending our Anniversary at the Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge

Every once in a while, you find moments where you forget all your worries and life is so beautiful that all that matters is the moment. Renita and I were both in that moment as we were surrounded by a calliope of sights and sounds that filled our senses.

We were standing on a gravel road in eastern Idaho, surrounded by water and reeds and yellow headed blackbirds were calling to each other and their mates.

White faced ibis flew and landed displaying their iridescent wings and sporting beaks and legs with purple flashes of color.

American avocets waded and one even posed near us, unconcerned about our nearness.

It looked at us as it wondered what we were doing there, this was its marsh, it’s home.

A Wilsons phalarope swam by, but we kept watching the white-faced ibis with their beautiful colors. Renita said that the colors reminded her of the ink pen shells we find on the Gulf Coast beaches and we wondered if the feathers were grown from similar colors and materials….

It was our forty ninth anniversary and we had both decided that we would go birding to the Grays Lake National Wildlife refuge. It’s a short fifty miles away and we reach it by driving to Freedom, Wyoming before crossing into Idaho and then following Tin Cup, a meandering stream, until we reach the refuge.

Spring is the best time to be here and this is the first time we spotted sandhill cranes sitting on their nests. The ever-present ravens flew by along with a Harris hawk, (one time in the fall, we had seen a family of Harris hawks hunt together).

First stopping at the overlook, we continued our drive north passing a small marsh where a mallard pair swam away concerned but not enough to fly away.

We passed so may cranes and they were so near the road, for the most part feeding.

Our favorite part of the drive is when we reach the flooded marshes on both sides of the road. There time seemed to stand still.  Driving on we turned left at the first intersection and the road continued on to the south.  The land rose and we were now above the marsh allowing us to see the flooded areas below us.

Just before reaching the highway we crossed an irrigation ditch where the refuges water flows to a reservoir. All the water out west is claimed, but luckily some water was reserved for the refuge.

From there we turned east on the highway and we headed home, but the trip wasn’t over, and we stopped for a picnic at a small National Forest campground. Perhaps next year we will travel to a place we have never been, but that’s next year. 

Today we were at one of our favorite places. Clear skies