My days off this week have been just a bit different than the norm. Following the encounter with the Grace's Warbler and the Brown-headed Cowbird chick on Tuesday morning, I spent a good portionof the rest of the day looking into a possible rodent problem (and dealing with the mess they'd made). I had discovered that something had gotten into some boxes in my forward storage area and, though I had guessed it would be mice, it turned out to be chipmunks. While I may like chipmunks, I don't particularly want to share my home with them or want them chewing up my things. The only place I found that they might make it through was a hole that some wiring passed through and, hopefully, that is now plugged up enough so that they will stay outside where they belong. But, just in case, I now have a trap in place for them (not to worry, it is a "live" trap provided by the park so they'll be captured and released).

One thing I had been slacking on was getting in some hiking, so that is what I did with my morning photography time on the other two days. Yesterday (Wednesday) I hiked a couple of sections of the Rim Trail that I hadn't hiked before, trekking from Bryce Point to Sunrise Point. I did come upon one new species of bird along the way, an Olive-sided Flycatcher, though the only wildlife I photographed was this Common Sagebrush Lizard. I only encountered 2 other hikers on the first leg (Bryce Pt. to Inspiration Pt.) and it happened to be right at this particular time: Down on my knees and elbows shooting this lizard at close range with a 100mm macro lens (which means, for the non-photographers, that I was pretty close to the lizard). They gave me kind of an odd look as they passed by . . .

I decided to do some more hiking today and went on the Queen's/Navajo Combination Trail. I had been on this one shortly after I arrived at Bryce and it really is a spectacular hike. The combination is made up from 2 of the park's most popular trails, the Queen's Garden Trail and the Navajo Loop; the hoodoo's in this photo are seen along the Queen's Garden portion of this loop trail. The only "new" birds i found on the hike today were some begging youngster's in these Violet-Green Swallow nests (click to view) attached to the side of one of the fins (rock formations that will eventually become hoodoos) adjacent to the Navajo Loop segment of the trail.