Meeting Elaina and Brian in Apgar at 5:45am, we started our half-day tour down the
seldom-traveled Inside North Fork road. We targeted the classic western Rockies birds, and at our first stop for the morning we got a good selection! Olive-sided Flycatcher, Red-naped Sapsucker, American Three-toed Woodpecker, Cassin's Vireo and MacGillivray's Warbler all showed well.
The wildlflowers are in full bloom in June, and we took a few minutes to enjoy the variety of colors and shapes on display along the trail.
Our second stop was the always-wonderful Camas Creek trail.
Walking out into the meadow, we were greeted by a pair of Sandhill Cranes in the beautiful setting of distant mountains and flowery foreground. Lincoln's Sparrow, Townsend's Warbler, Canada Jay, and a White-winged Crossbill rounded out the list for the morning. On the drive back to Apgar, they asked me about spotting bears, and I replied with "well, at least on the west side of the park, they are a bit hard to find. You can visit a dozen times and not see one, but you can also get lucky and find a bear right along the road!" In fact, I had a young Grizzly Bear along the "inside road" just a few days before!
Elaina reached out to me the following day to tell me that they enjoyed the spots I showed them so much that they returned that next morning. Much to their surprise, they ended up seeing multiple Black Bears and a Grizzly! Luck was on their side!
Comments