So yesterday I was cruising along, about 5 minutes into the morning Geology Talk out at Sunset Point, and just beginning to talk about the White Cliffs in the Grand Staircase when something caught my eye. I was pretty sure I knew what it was because the way this species soars is unlike any other. I stuttered through a sentence when it finally turned to the light in such a way that my first suspicion was confirmed, the gleaming white head and tail giving it all away: Bald Eagle! That's when I told my small audience what was up there and we took a couple minutes break from the topic of geology. It was quite a treat for them, to be sure.

I think that gives me 104 species (maybe 105, I'll have to check) since, after a long dry spell, I have added 3 new species to my Bryce list in the last week (the others were American Crow and those nasty European Starlings). If 105, then I will have reached a total of 50% of all species on the park's checklist in less than 7 months.

In other news, I spent most of my evenings this week revamping my main website with an all new look (and I replaced the opening Flash slideshow that was getting a bit long in the tooth - it had been up there since March 2006). Not being a wizard at coding web pages I had some ideas that I was struggling with a bit too much (getting frustrated in the process), so it didn't end up exactly how I wanted it to be, but I'll keep educating myself until I get there. I expect there will be some long winter evenings to work on things over the next few months. The old layout was from early 2005 so this was a much needed change, I think.