Zion was the most crowded park we visited on this trip, based on the ratio of cars to parking spaces, but we had the luck we needed where it counted, thankfully. The weather was nice, the scenery was beautiful, and the critters were bountiful.
The first little cutie who would pose for me was this tiny black phoebe on a branch over the Virgin River. I haven’t seen one since Anne took me to Big Bend National Park back in 2023.
On the other side of the path, I was thrilled when a Anna’s hummingbird kept coming back to the same perch to give me more chances of a decent picture. We have seen one before in Sedona, but that was a female or immature male, and this handsome devil is an adult male in all his breeding finery.
There were yellow butterflies around, and they appeared to be tiger swallowtails, but I never saw one land. Fortunately, this yucca giant skipper (Megathymus yuccae) was happy to sun on a rock in the Virgin river at the north end of the valley.
Back on shore, this is one of several very bold rock squirrels (Otospermophilus variegatus) scurrying around looking for snacks that tourists accidentally dropped.
The star of the show, however, at least for my sister and me, was this American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus), “North America’s only truly aquatic songbird,” in the Virgin River at the far end of the Riverside Walk. I know it may not look like all that much, but dippers hunt for their food like no other bird I know, and check out this video I took of it repeatedly jumping into the rushing water to snatch insect larvae from the rocks.
We had heard one earlier in the morning as we looked for birds along the stream that ran behind our motel, but we had failed to lay eyes on it. So I was checking nearly every rock in the Virgin River, in hopes of getting my first glance, but it was my sister who found this amazing creature first. What a treat!
In case you are video averse, here’s a still image of it diving in headfirst.
Finally, your blossom of the day is this single desert columbine (Aquilegia desertorum) growing beside the trail. With any luck, we’ll see a similar sight in Estabrook Park soon enough.
Tomorrow we drive to Las Vegas to catch flights home. Wish us luck.
Signs of Life in Estabrook Park 
Dear Andrew, your whirlwind tour of many national parks is so much fun to read about – all of these I visited long ago. I bet you’re finding you wish you could spend a lot more time in each one of them. And your photos are beautiful, of course. Wishing you safe travels, Jean G.
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Love that you caught the Dipper – how fun was that??!! The little black Phoebe was a cutie for sure. And that hummer – WOW! All super shots. Safe travels home!!
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