USA

At the end of April, we travelled to the USA for a very interesting trip. We started in Denver with a special treat. There is a museum in Denver that has a ‘Big Boy’ steam locomotive, the biggest ever made. I was given a model of this loco by my father for my 12th birthday so have always had a soft spot. It was a real treat to see this amazing monster of a machine

After enjoying the weekend in Denver, we met our guide, Kim Risen, an amazing birder and guide who really came up with the goods! Our first destination was the small town of Wray in Eastern Colorado. Here we met a rancher, on whose land we were to find the greater prairie chickens that was the first target. In the late afternoon, we headed out onto his land to the traditional lek where every year, male birds come to display to attract a female. And what a display….

The males have these amazing throat pouches which they inflate while bending forward and stomping their feet! Bizarre. The males all try to outdo their rivals and occasionally, fisticuffs break out!

We returned before dawn on the second morning to enjoy more of the same. After thee session we left, but were treated to a great horned owl in flight.

We then had a long drive to our second base, Walden. The weather was pretty awful when we arrived at the second lek, this time for the greater sage grouse. There was no sign of any birds and the forecast wasnt great. Next morning we went up to the lek, and happily there were some birds there, albeit at a distance. Luckily however, they eventually displayed much closer. I thought the prairie chickens were unusual, but these guys were another level. They are bigger birds and the males have the most extraordinary pouches that they inflate in the display.

The childish schoolboy in me struggled not to snigger at this sight!! The view from the rear was also impressive, though not as outlandish.

We left the sage grouse and moved on to our third and final member of the grouse family, the dusky grouse. Unlike the other two, this one does not display at a traditional lek, but anywhere in the forest where it lives. We travelled to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison river NP to find this bird.Again, the weather was pretty bad and we had no luck. There were some other nice birds around including a new warbler for me, the Virginia warbler.

Also an orange crowned warbler.

The scenery was pretty spectacular too.

As we approached the end of our time, we suddenly heard a male. It wasnt long before we tracked him down and he began his impressive display. More bizarre throat pouches and a bird clearly loaded with testosterone.

He performed for quite a while, even up in the trees.

We finally left and had one more lovely bird on the way out. A pinyon jay, stunning blue.

We headed back to Denver via the beautiful Colorado State Monument

Kim then dropped us back in Denver after a fantastic and totally successful first part of the trip. We we then flying to Jackson Hole to enjoy the second half in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National park.

We arrived on a slightly overcast but reasonable day. By next morning however, this was the scene, in May!

It snowed quite heavily turning the whole place back into winter, gorgeous.

The bison are always so impressive, but everything just looks great in the snow. These young lads were enjoying a little sparring

The birds also looked good in the snowy scenery. Here are a couple of Sandhill cranes coming into land.

By next morning the snow had stopped. We toured around enjoying some of the extraordinary geothermal features in this gigantic volcano.

The spectacular lower falls of the Yellowstone river is so impressive.

For wildlife the epicentre is probably Lamar valley in the NE of the park. It was quite a drive up there as we were based near Old Faithful. It was worth it though. I saw 6 grizzly bears, all at quite distance, fresh out of hibernation, black bears, elk, pronghorn antelope and coyotes.

Bison were very plentiful, many with their very cute youngsters.

I really wanted to see the wolves in the valley. I heard that they were denning, and had pups, but unfortunately they were a LONG way from the road. This picture shows the wolves at the den a little over a mile away! Taken with an 840mm lens and cropped. Still a huge thrill to see these fantastic animals.

Weather continued to be variable with another morning finding the park shrouded in fog.

Yellowstone is the most amazing place to visit, especially for photographers. If you like wildlife or landscapes, you just cant go wrong. Sadly, we had to move to our final destination, the Grand Tetons just south of Yellowstone. We were based in the slightly ridiculous but very fancy town of Jackson Hole, full of galleries and expensive restaurants, though very pleasant !

This part of the trip was perhaps more landscape focussed as there was definitely less wildlife around. We did see nice moose.

And some cute ground squirrels

The landscape was stunning with the beautiful mountains rising out of the western edge of the park.

This is a scene photographed SO many times by everyone of a Mormon barn, but you just have to do it!

There were some lovely birds such as this cinnamon teal, a very handsome duck.

And another pretty warbler, the yellow rumped warbler.

There is a refuge near town for the elk, but I actually got great views of the bighorn sheep there.

Impressive headgear!

The landscape was spectacular everywhere though

It included some famous photographic sites such as the Snake river bend, made famous by Ansel Adams. It has changed a bit since his famous image with trees now obscuring part of the river.

All to soon, it was time to go. An amazing trip, seeing and photographing stunning landscapes and wildlife. God Bless America!!