A short post from up north

From July 31st-August 2nd my family and I took our second trip this year up to the Happy Jack Lodge Camp Ground. I must apologize, this will be a short post because I only had one full day.  As I was looking for reptiles just as much as birds, although I still had my camera with me. When we first arrived I set out to try to get at least one decent shot of the common but hard to approach Steller's Jay. This is one of the many birds that sparked my birding career. It took me quite a while to finally photograph one of these jays, but after trying hard I came back with a couple of decent shots.
                                                                 Steller's Jay

  

I know they aren't the best photos but considering the behavior of the Steller's Jay these are my best so far.  I also encountered one of the weirdest things, as I was trying to photograph a flock of Pygmy Nuthatches I pointed my camera to take a photo of one of the birds at fairly close range and the bird must have seen its reflection in my lense because the young nuthatch flew very close to me and after a second of hovering it flew to a tree, and I got some pretty good photos of that bird.
                                                               Pygmy Nuthatch

This bird looks like it is a juvenile because if you look at the beak it has a bit of yellow which shows that it was just a fledgeling not too long ago. After my first day, I spent the other two days looking for reptiles like gartersnakes, many-lined skinks, and alligator lizards. I found the gartersnakes and alligator lizards but no skinks surprisingly. Here is a photo of one of about eight of the gartersnakes I found.

While I was looking for the reptiles I decided to take one more birding hike through the forest before heading back down to the Valley. I did not see much except for what I first thought was just another tree-top living Grace's Warbler, until I put my binocs on the bird and found it was a Hermit Warbler. It was a pretty nice find for the day, and after watching the bird for a while it even came down from the canopy of pines and allowed me a couple of photos.
                                                                    Hermit Warbler

The last time I thought I photographed a Hermit Warbler was down in Southeast, AZ when I found a Hermit Warbler looking bird, but after I looked at the photos it ended up being a Hermit X Townsend's Warbler.
This is still only the beginning of my summer camping trips and this is also only the beginning of the awesome birds I will find! I hope you enjoyed my post and thanks for reading!                          

Camping at "Happy Jack Lodge" (Part 1)

From July 16th-21st my family and I brought our camping trailer up to the Happy Jack Lodge. However, this post will only be about my first day there. It's a huge relief (heat and all) getting out of the valley and into the pines. After arriving at the lodge and setting up I started my birding adventure. My brother and a camping friend also joined me. But they only came for the hiking and taking some pictures. Man they thought that they were being so quiet that the birds weren't flying away from them but coming towards them! Oh gosh, this is going to be a LONG hike (I thought), and to add onto that they nicknamed me Bird Boy, which I guess does fit me pretty well.

 The Pygmy Nuthatch was the most abundant bird I observed. The Pygmy Nuthatch is officially my favorite of the three nuthatches. It used to be the red-breasted but the pygmy is like those little gremlins before they turn evil. They are small, fuzzy, and cute, a word I almost never say, but it is true!
                                                                 Pygmy Nuthatch

 The Pygmy Nuthatches larger cousin the White-breasted Nuthatch was also very abundant.
                                                               White-breasted Nuthatch

As we were walking along a draw I saw a medium sized yellowish songbird perched on the top of a very tall pine tree, and after walking a bit closer I noticed it was my FOY (first of year) Red Crossbill, a female. 
                                                                  Red Crossbill      

Yes, the photo may be super cropped but hey this was the first Red Crossbill I have had perched in the last two years! The slow trilling song of the Dark-eyed Junco was also filling the mountain slopes and rolling hills of Happy Jack and one bird was fearless, and let me get a reasonable photo.
                                                        "Red Backed" Dark-eyed Junco

One of the most entertaining birds I observed was this Mountain Chickadee, someone needs to tell this guy that he is a bird not a monkey, but I was a bit impressed with his one legged pull-ups!
                                                                 Mountain Chickadee

 Here is another Mountain Chickadee, in a less impressive pose.
                                                                 Mountain Chickadee

I then sat down to listen and watch for any birds, I found a couple of male Northern Flickers trying to kill each other, what a way to brake the silence!!! Can't you see the bird on the top has an evil look in his eye!
                                                    "Red Shafted" Northern Flickers

Okay, now all violence set aside, here is a more peaceful woodpecker, the not so Hairy Woodpecker giving his unmistakable "pwick" call.
                                                               Hairy Woodpecker

After hiking through the thick forest there was one more spot I wanted to check out. An area that has had all of its trees taken out so it is just a couple of bare hills. This cleared out area is where I had my lifer Purple Martins last year and they are pretty common around the lodge, at this bare area they land every once in a while to pick up nesting materials and bugs off the ground. If I am at the right place at the right time I might crush these monstrous swallows. However, I was not able to get proper crushes (photos), a FOY female landed pretty close and a male flew over me.
                                                                  Purple Martin

The habitat around Happy Jack is nearly all Pondorosa Pine with scattered Gambel's Oaks. A favored habitat for the Flamulated Owl, but I will just brake the news now, I totally missed that species, in fact I didn't have any owls on this trip at all! But I was able to get a few FOY Common Nighthawks to fly over me, and I got at least one decent shot.
                                                              Common Nighthawk

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next post "Grand Birding At The Grand Canyon".