Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Observations Off the Beaten Path in Yellowstone-- A Short Walk Along the Madison River, late July
I'm a volunteer in the park and work on identifying and helping to eradicate exotic plant species which enter the park on vehicles, visitor's shoes, and horses on the trails. I was looking for bull thistle on a trail close to the road. When I was ready for a break from my weed watch I followed a ridge above the Madison River. Along the way I saw an elk antler shed in March lying in the sage where rodents will gnaw on it for the calcium it contains. The feather of a raptor lay upside down on my path. Sparrows were flitting from shrub to shrub in the sagebrush--probably a Savannah sparrow I guessed from my binocular inspection. (The sparrows are very hard to distinguish from each other!)
From under a limber pine providing some shade, I watched a bald eagle on a snag which burned in the fires of 1988. The eagle was across the river from the nest it had occupied during the spring. Two chicks hatched there but sometime in June, a big wind tipped this old nest and the chicks fell to their death. The adult eagles have stayed in the area but don't have enough time before winter to attempt hatching more chicks.
The next observation I made from my shady perch was a hot bull bison crossing the river over to my side. He trotted up the slope and was coming my direction but veered away toward the new forest of lodgepole pine. An alert marmot sat on a rock near me, sensing my presence (marmots don't see well and use their other senses to recognize danger.)
Above the young trees, a great vista of mountains stretches to include the Gallatin Range and the southern end of the Madison Range. The snow is gone except for an occasional patch. The expanse of rock looked hot and dry and the sky a pale, dusty blue although it was only 10 in the morning. Forest fire was on my mind. We've had good rain since May but each hot, dry day reminds me that we could still have a bad fire season in the Northern Rockies. We're in our sixth year of drought now and it will take a long time to recover the water we need.
Below, in the river, I saw a common merganser land and not far downstream a Trumpeter Swan was feeding in the aquatic vegetation. Further downstream a family of Canada Geese was standing along the river's edge--feet in the water.
My break over, I returned to the trail and my task of removing bull thistle. I stopped for birdsong and found a yellow-rumped warbler moving quickly through a section of a Douglas Fir as it collected insects for its meal. Nearby a flycatcher sat on a dead branch and a little further down the trail I spotted a fledgling warbler practicing flight and resting on a branch. With my binoculars I had a good viewing of his still downy feathers wiggling in the breeze.
I heard the song of the ruby crowned kinglet but didn't see him. The trail is lined in places with wild raspberry bushes. They are loaded with berries now not yet ripe. I'll be back to watch their progress as I continue my work removing bull thistle from along this trail.
I'm a volunteer in the park and work on identifying and helping to eradicate exotic plant species which enter the park on vehicles, visitor's shoes, and horses on the trails. I was looking for bull thistle on a trail close to the road. When I was ready for a break from my weed watch I followed a ridge above the Madison River. Along the way I saw an elk antler shed in March lying in the sage where rodents will gnaw on it for the calcium it contains. The feather of a raptor lay upside down on my path. Sparrows were flitting from shrub to shrub in the sagebrush--probably a Savannah sparrow I guessed from my binocular inspection. (The sparrows are very hard to distinguish from each other!)
From under a limber pine providing some shade, I watched a bald eagle on a snag which burned in the fires of 1988. The eagle was across the river from the nest it had occupied during the spring. Two chicks hatched there but sometime in June, a big wind tipped this old nest and the chicks fell to their death. The adult eagles have stayed in the area but don't have enough time before winter to attempt hatching more chicks.
The next observation I made from my shady perch was a hot bull bison crossing the river over to my side. He trotted up the slope and was coming my direction but veered away toward the new forest of lodgepole pine. An alert marmot sat on a rock near me, sensing my presence (marmots don't see well and use their other senses to recognize danger.)
Above the young trees, a great vista of mountains stretches to include the Gallatin Range and the southern end of the Madison Range. The snow is gone except for an occasional patch. The expanse of rock looked hot and dry and the sky a pale, dusty blue although it was only 10 in the morning. Forest fire was on my mind. We've had good rain since May but each hot, dry day reminds me that we could still have a bad fire season in the Northern Rockies. We're in our sixth year of drought now and it will take a long time to recover the water we need.
Below, in the river, I saw a common merganser land and not far downstream a Trumpeter Swan was feeding in the aquatic vegetation. Further downstream a family of Canada Geese was standing along the river's edge--feet in the water.
My break over, I returned to the trail and my task of removing bull thistle. I stopped for birdsong and found a yellow-rumped warbler moving quickly through a section of a Douglas Fir as it collected insects for its meal. Nearby a flycatcher sat on a dead branch and a little further down the trail I spotted a fledgling warbler practicing flight and resting on a branch. With my binoculars I had a good viewing of his still downy feathers wiggling in the breeze.
I heard the song of the ruby crowned kinglet but didn't see him. The trail is lined in places with wild raspberry bushes. They are loaded with berries now not yet ripe. I'll be back to watch their progress as I continue my work removing bull thistle from along this trail.
