Following a trip to town the other day for provisions I came home with an even dirtier truck than it had been. Having snowed the day before, a lot of yuck was all over the side of it since the roads were wet and there was a lot of spray. I don't know what all goes into the mix that the Utah D.O.T. throws down behind the plows, but included in the mix is a healthy dose of sodium chloride. The following morning I noticed that the road grime had taken on a rather strange appearance, but thought nothing more about it at the time. Later in the day it was pointed out to me that, apparently, certain members of the local population of Even-toed Ungulates had gotten to my truck. This ranger had previously witnessed the behavior and it seems the Mule Deer know where there are good sources of salt they can add to their diet - road grime on vehicles. Still waiting for them to come back and finish the job, though - they missed some spots!

"Care for a free car wash, sir?"

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week's flock of birds in flight were Cedar Waxwings; still looking for them around here along with their Bohemian cousin's. Since it has been a long time since we had a member of this family in the weekly quiz, it just felt right to pick one for this week. Good luck and great birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The raptor getting all fluffed up in last week's quiz was a Red-shouldered Hawk. If you're out (or have been out already) on a Christmas Bird Count, you rarely - if ever - the this week's species alone. They are almost always in large flocks going from tree to tree, stripping them of berries or other fruits. Have fun and good birding counting!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was the day for the Bryce Canyon Christmas Bird Count and it was a tough day for bird counting up on the high altitude Paunsaugunt Plateau. In about 6 hours my team managed roughly 80 individuals with a (disappointing) total of 11 species; Pygmy Nuthatches - who generally move about in groups - accounted for 33 of the total number of birds we saw (that's a PYNU pictured). The other ten species we saw were: Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, American Robin, Townsend's Solitaire, Mountain Chickadee, Common Raven, Steller's Jay, Clark's Nutcracker, White-breasted Nuthatch, and (the bird of the day for us) Brown Creeper.

Obviously it would have been nice to get more but can take consolation in the fact that we tallied more species (and total birds) than the other groups working up in the park. If I'm here next year, however, I want to work down in the valley just east of the park and it seems that the count area to have is on the north side of the town of Tropic. The team that counted in that area amassed an impressive total of 32 species - including a Merlin that was apparently fattening up on House Sparrows frequenting a backyard feeder! At 1,700 feet lower elevation and a milder climate (with unfrozen ponds for ducks and geese) , it doesn't surprise me that there would be a lot more diversity. All in all, though, it sounded like the species total for the count was up 3 or 4 species from last time and any day out birding is a great day.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

. . . those days off. Didn't even pick up my camera this week. Blew most of yesterday on a shopping excursion to Cedar City, then the rest of the day plus most of today installing foam insulation board completely around the base of my trailer. Hopefully it will help keep some of the cold air from getting inside and maybe save a little money on heating expenses.

One nice aspect of the trip to Cedar was seeing 6 Bald Eagles and 3 Golden Eagle along the way. Seems like every time I drive on U.S. 89 these days I see lots of eagles - last week I saw 12 Balds in two days on a couple of short shopping trips. I have been told that the Bald Eagles that winter here are from British Columbia and feed mostly on carrion, though lakes with open water (none are close to here) can be a source for a meal of fresh waterfowl.

Tomorrow is the Bryce Canyon Christmas Bird Count and I guess it goes without saying that I will be participating in that endeavor. This will be my first ever CBC outside of the Daytona area, first in the snow, and the first where it is unlikely that I'll be counting hoards of gulls. It won't be the first where I'll have to dress in layers to keep warm - seems like every previous CBC I've done has been cold and windy or cold and rainy. The snow will be the big change. Hopefully we'll find some good stuff - maybe Rough-legged Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks, or maybe even Bohemian Waxwings. I'll let you know if I see something really good.

The photo is of the Tiptoe Tree at Sunrise Point taken from the backlit side. It's one of the shots I have from the morning last week when everything was covered in hoarfrost.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As it turns out, last week's quiz bird was a repeat from way back at Quiz #5 and was a Mountain Chickadee. One of the review methods I use is a search of all the quizzes for family name (like "Chickadee") to see if I had used it before. Except, for some reason, I never gave the answer to Quiz #5 so "Chickadee" didn't come up in the search. Oops.

I am pretty certain that we've never quizzed this raptor giving itself a good shake after a round of preening. It's primarily an Eastern bird that you might also find in parts of the West. Good luck and good birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The most recent "storm" didn't leave behind as much snow as predicted but it did leave some bitter cold in its wake. This morning the "official" park low was 0°F (-18°C) and, with a lot of moisture in the air, left behind some pretty scenery in the form of hoarfrost on everything. The day started out foggy and fog is, of course, water vapor. The frost forms when the vapor "sublimates" into ice, essentially bypassing the 'liquid" state and changing directly from vapor into solid in the form of ice crystals.

The frost stuck to a lot of things including pine trees like this Ponderosa. As things began to warm up the ice crystals would separate and, with a little wind, fall from the trees like snow was falling from clear blue skies. When I left Inspiration Point there was an area just out of the parking lot that was white as if there had just been a light snow. While I'm not looking forward to the bitter cold, it would be okay to able to shoot it again - never saw it much in Florida . . .

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I suppose I will have to come up with some more creative titles since there's certain to be many more days of snow over the next few months. It has been a few years since I've lived in a place where snow was common and we got another 3 inches or so yesterday. The view in this photo is looking toward Sunrise Point (far left) and Queen's Garden from the Rim Trail. Even though the temps today were barely above freezing, a lot of the snow on the slope (which faces south and gets a lot of sun) was gone by mid-afternoon.

This Limber Pine is one of the most photographed trees in the park. Located at Sunrise Point, erosion from the plateau's edge has exposed the roots and it is known as the "Tip-Toe Tree". In a sort of twisted sense it almost looks like it is too cold and is trying to get up out of the snow. Actually, I think it would be interesting to know the extent of the root system; it looks pretty healthy so it obviously it gets the moisture it needs though it isn't a particularly tall and robust tree as Limber Pines go . . .

Finally, for all you lagomorph fans, I saw lots of these tracks (click to view) in the snow this morning. The "wabbits" in question are probably Mountain Cottontails having fun in the freshly fallen snow after all the "two-leggeds" leave for the evening. I also saw some tracks that appeared to be canid but not very distinct - probably too small for Coyote; might have been the elusive Gray Fox. Out rabbit hunting maybe?

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week's puzzler was a closeup image of a Golden-fronted Woodpecker from down in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. For this week our bird is from closer to "home" here at Bryce and, arguably, the bird I see most frequently in my wanderings around the park this time of year. Good luck and good birding!

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 08:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Of my 2 days off this week I spent a good part of the first playing with my website's code and it looks like it actually works the say I intended. At least on "Windows: machines as I've tested it on 3 different browsers and everything appears as it was intended.

Tuesday I got out to Inspiration Point in the morning and shot several different images from there, including this photo looking toward the Aquarius Plateau (also known as the Table Cliffs or Escalante Mountain around here). It was amazing how much snow melted off in a couple of days but then it was quite warm - with a high of 61 - on Tuesday. It'll be back though because they're forecasting more over the next couple of days and there is a "Heavy Snow Warning" in effect for the area.

I took this one Tuesday afternoon at Swamp Canyon after the park road was reopened toward the southern end of the park - it had been closed for about 3-1/2 days. The crews here work on getting the major viewpoints open for visitors first, then work on the southern portion.

And just in case you haven't heard about it yet, check out The Daily Coyote. It is great fun with lots of too cute photos. Start at the beginning by going to the archives (left side of the page), beginning with August and work your way up to the current stuff.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

We had only had a dusting of the white stuff prior to yesterday and it all started about mid-afternoon on Friday. By mid-day today (Saturday) 10 inches had fallen and it has started up again tonight. I was fortunate enough to be out near Sunset Point on one of the rare occasions that there was a break in the clouds to get this shot looking northeast toward Sunrise Point and Queen's Garden (with Boat Mesa in the background). As you can probably tell, this place is "awful purdy" with some fresh snow on the ground.

Posted by Kevin, F.C.D. at 09:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)