Spring has sprung

Tuesday I went up to watch the Idaho Fish and Game tend their gill nets (another post) and spent the rest of the day enjoying the wildness of Idaho around Henrys Lake.  It was a beautiful day with the Mountain Bluebirds and the Tree swallows fighting over nest boxes around the lake.  Here is a female bluebird carrying plant material to build the nest in a nest box.

 

Here the male bluebird stands as a sentinel to protect the female as she builds the nest or is just plain lazy or full-of-himself for being so beautiful.

 

Even without a nest box, these two Tree swallow love-birds are busy getting to know each other.

 

By Timber Creek two immature and one mature Bald eagles are waiting for a good chance to pick off a spawning cutthroat trout in the stream.

 

This White-crowned sparrow got into a fight with a male bluebirds because it got too close to a nest box holding a female bluebird.

 

At the edge of the road I found what looked like a six-headed snake.  It was not a one snake but a female with five smaller male Garter snakes trying to breed her.

 

On the cut next to the road were three other males, larger than the five with the female.

 

Eventually the three joined in the mass of snakes as the wrestled in the mud.  I left before the wrestling was over.

 

Then I found two chipmunks chasing each other through the sagebrush.

 

I finished the day by climbing a mountain in search of some garnets and "fairy-cross" crystals.  I found both and got high enough to see some Bighorn sheep.

 

What a great day it was to enjoy the wilds of Idaho.

Roughin' It

The hunt was successful for the week we had in the mountains of Island Park.  We watched and stalked over 30 mule deer.  Here are two I got a picture of.

But most of the deer seen were hidden in the thick brush like this one hidded in the scrub aspen.

Even though the elk season was not open yet, we saw over 40 head of elk.  Here a bull elk clears one of the section fences that divide the BLM and Targhee National Forest grazing allotments.  Several times we almost got run over by elk trying to get away from us.

We also saw small animals and song birds like this chipmunk and White-crowned sparrow.

We still have some hunting to do.  Some whitetailed deer tags and elk tags will insure more wild days for us is Idaho.