Yellowstone, June 2011 - Black Bear

Another stroke of good fortune brought us close to this beautiful beast, which we spotted swinging around precariously in the top of a tree as we were exiting on our last day...








(and by popular demand, more Bison...)

Yellowstone, June 2011 - Elk

We were lucky enough to see many hundreds of Elk, which - like the Bison - were often in large 'calfing' herds, with plenty of youngsters on show.







A ground-squirrel / gopher type sp. - positive ID tips welcome

Yellowstone, June 2011 - avian highlights

Cassin's Finch - a brief stop allowed time for a final mosey into an area of open pine forest, and by sheer luck, a small group of these hard-to-find finches dropped in almost at my feet, fed for several minutes, and were on their way into the wilderness




Dark-eyed Junco - as mentioned previously, local birds are of the Pink-sided subspecies, which occupy a limited breeding range pretty much restricted to eastern Montana and north-west Wyoming


male Lazuli Bunting - unmissable


Vesper Sparrow - somewhat more missable


a mixed flock of Barrow's Goldeneyes and Lesser Scaup on Yellowstone Lake. The former were new for me, and I'd imagined I'd struggle to find them on remote mountain lakes - as it happened, they were far and away the commonest duck species, with many hundreds present



Barrow's Goldeneyes


Osprey getting a kicking from a local Raven




Gray Jays (of the pale-headed, Rocky mountains subspecies); another species I'd expected problems locating, and so it was, until basically hand-feeding a small party at a picnic site

Yellowstone, June 2011 - Bison & Moose

Yellowstone provided innumerable wildlife highlights, perhaps none more breathtaking and awe-inspiring than Bison. We were lucky enough to see thousands of these formidable, truly wild mammals, from those within a couple of metres of the car, to vast herds populating open savannnah.










No better reason for a traffic jam - especially when road-rage has been known to result in human kebabs



Permanently warming geysers often attract large numbers in the winter months, but even in the summertime individuals stop by for a mud-bath




Despite the presence of thousands of Elk, we were warned that coming across a Moose is very much a shot in the dark; hence, we felt very lucky to find this beautiful beast grazing on the woodland edge behind a coffee-stop....

The Cockney Sparrow Project

A short documentary about the project I ran on behalf of London Wildlife Trust (from spring 2009 to spring 2011) has just been released, and can be watched here - enjoy.

The Cockney Sparrow Project from PeabodyLDN on Vimeo.

Yellowstone, June 2011 - Bluebirds & Swallows

Mountain Bluebirds




Violet-green Swallows



Tree Swallows

And so to Yellowstone..... we were blessed with two days within the national park, and had our minds blown pretty much on a minute-by-minute basis. Knowing quite where to start is almost an impossibility, hence, multiple vaguely-themed posts are to follow.