Field Trip Report, Day 6.

We had another great day in Yellowstone, but the plan is to get up early for tomorrow, and I’m beat tonight, so here are a few more pictures from Craters of the Moon to tide you over.

First is that non-descript looking little Brewer’s sparrow (Spizella breweri) at Craters of the Moon who regaled us with an amazing song that went on a lot longer than this sample.

These Anderson’s larkspurs (Delphinium andersonii) were plentiful and growing right out of the volcanic cinders.

Antelope bitterbrush (Purshia tridentata), in the rose family, was everywhere, very aromatic, and reminded me of lilacs. The wind would carry their scent just as with lilacs at home.

Here’s a variable checkerspot (Euphydryas chalcedona) on the hill north of Arco, the little town in which we stayed.

And finally, here’s a one-eyed sphinx moth (Smerinthus cerisyi), in downtown Arco, whom I couldn’t convince to show its one eye when I had my phone out, and here’s what it would have looked like if it did.

More to come soon.

PS. I did spot an honest-to-goodness American three-toed woodpecker (Picoides dorsalis) with a barred black-and-white patch on his back in Yellowstone, as opposed to the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus) with no white patch on his back whom we saw in Glacier a few days before.

Also, the killdeer in Yellowstone really seem to like the water and/or are much less shy than the killdeer in Estabrook. Here’s one in one of the pools at Mammoth hot springs.

And another on the shore of Jackson Lake near West Thumb.

Curious.