Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

much better in the lower, protected areas.
May 16, 1997. Drive to Estes Park, with Jane, to speak to National Council of Churches workshop
for environmental enablers. Lovely drive. Coyote ran across road in front of car, a couple miles
south of town on return. Nicely seen.
May 18, 1997. Crow Valley area, again. Still windy, but much warmer. Flicker, Canada goose,
magpie, redwings, coyote in field, seen on way out. At the campground: Doves, meadowlarks,
Western kingbirds, lots of them and noisy. Eastern kingbird. Brown thrasher. Orioles, maybe five
seen, these were not here last week. Empidonax flycatcher. Wren. Robin, goldfinch. Hairy
woodpecker. Killdeer. Horned lark. Yellow-rumpbed warbler. Blue jay. No thrushes, though
others said they had seen them. 2 rabbits, small jackrabbits as nearly as I could make out.
Definitely did not have cotton tails.
Drove around part-way on the bird loop. Great numbers of lark buntings and horned larks.
Mountain plover, about 1/2 mile south of the stock tank at intersection of roads 96 (east-west) amd
69 (north-south). Best view of one that I recall. Watched it half an hour. It eventually came quite
close to the car. Runs in starts and stops, often with a head bob back and forth before it starts to
run a bit. Three burrowing owls at the prairie dog town coming back, though no prairie dogs seen
there.
Yellowstone
May 25, 1997. Sunday. Left 6.00 a.m., drove up I-25. 25 antelope before the Wyoming line. 255
antelope in Wyoming through the day, mostly in two's and three's. They were easy to spot against
the green. One wild turkey hen seen off roadside. Delightful day, lots of clouds, some blue in the
West. Nice and green. Rain-drizzle mist at lunch at Sheridan.
Continued into Montana. 5 antelope. Total of 285 for the day.
Few raptors seen.
Spent the night at Billings at Sleep Inn. Jogged around motel.
May 26, Monday. Drove to Bozeman to pick up Jennings. The Beartooth Mountains were
spectacular, with snow, over green landscape. Driving up Paradise Valley there were 24 pelicans
on the river.
Entered the Park. Only five bison, and 12 elk until just before Lamar Valley, then perhaps 200 elk
and 60 bison in Lamar Valley. In later days, below, elk and bison are not tallied, but they were
frequent. (This, despite the controversial kill of bison last winter for fear of brucellosis.) Antelope
were frequently seen, but never in large numbers.
One trumpeter swan seen nicely near the road. There was a muskrat swimming near it, and the
swan pecked at it twice.
Checked in at the Ranch. Then back out for the evening.
At a high overlook, one mile back west, one wolf seen nicely. It had crossed the road and was
loping up the sagebrush hill behind. Watched it in the scope about five minutes.