Wyoming & Montana - the birds

Late last month my girlfriend accompanied me to Big Sky, MT where I would be attending a medical conference for a few days. Rather than fly into nearby Bozeman, MT or Jackson, WY we chose Salt Lake City thanks to significantly cheaper airfare and car rental. From SLC we road-tripped north through Jackson, the Grand Tetons, and Yellowstone NP on our way to Big Sky. The driving allowed us to see some interesting landscapes and wildlife that we may not have seen otherwise. Birds were not the highlight (the mammals and geothermal features took top billing), but I'll start a series of posts with them anyway.

Our coolest bird of the trip was a GREAT GRAY OWL observed hunting one evening at the south end of Grand Teton National Park along the Moose-Wilson Road. We were lucky enough to catch this owl hunting roadside as the sun set, once even pouncing on a small rodent just a few yards in front of us!

stalking

success!

back to hunting as the light quickly faded

Here are a few other avian photo highlights:

"Pink-sided" Junco

Williamson's Sapsuckers

Rock Wren

Ferruginous Hawk

Green-tailed Towhee

 - NB