Tweets,

First off, this isn't any kind of organized trip report, and I didn't see
anything unusual, so if that's what you're after, skip on ahead.

Our itinerary took us out of Seattle on 21 July, through Spokane, Missoula,
and down from Livingston to Yellowstone -- oh, wait, our rooftop bag burst
at our mind-blowingly beautiful (but buggy) campsite at Snowbank, about 12
miles off the main highway down Paradise Valley. We backtracked to
Livingston, and then back to Bozeman, and bit the bullet, putting on a
Yakima hard box.

More misadventures ensued - burning camp stoves, flooded tents - but
eventually we spent five days at a truly gorgeous campsite in the USFS
"Hunter Peak" site off the Chief Joseph scenic highway -- and man, when they
say "scenic highway", this time, they weren't kidding. If you haven't driven
leisurely down it, you should. This was sandwiched with about a week at
various cabins in the area.

With the 10 and 7 year old kids, I knew we weren't going to have any time
for specific birding adventures, but instead, would have to settle for what
we saw.

We eyeballed the roadside of I-90 around Moses Lake for yellow-headed
blackbirds, where I'd first seen them back in 1991, but no joy (we did
eventually spot some in eastern Idaho in the upper Snake River valley). My
son (10) was bitten by the birding bug on this trip, however, and also has
the sharpest eyes in the family. He spotted a number of red-tails, ospreys,
bald eagles, and TVs, and after having them shown to him, lots of kestrels
as well. I was a little dismayed at how few kestrels we saw on this trip,
since we traversed a lot of what SHOULD be great kestrel habitat, only
seeing one every 10 or 20 miles.

He made his first difficult ID in Snowbank, when I pointed out a bird which
had flown into a shrub next to our campsite. With his binocs and trusty
Peterson's guide, after a couple of minutes he suggested, "MacGillivray's
Warbler?" Bang on! He also ID'ed a Calliope hummingbird near our cabin in
Silver Gate, MT.

We also had a small family group of spruce grouse nearby, who were absurdly
tame: supremely confident that we could not see them as long as they stepped
slowly, ten feet from our tents. I had forgotten how big grouse can be; for
some reason I had a mental image not much bigger than a quail.

Cool stuff in passing: white pelicans on several occasions, including a
gorgeous flock of about 50 wheeling majestically over Dead Indian Pass for
about five minutes; sandhill cranes nearly every day, always in odd-numbered
groups: once five, twice three, and otherwise individuals. A peregrine
zoomed through our campsite not ten feet from my daughter and me; she was
amazed (well, hell, so was I!).

Lifers: rough-legged hawks. I've seen lots of these but never got a really
solid ID on them before this trip. For me the best bird was a prairie
falcon; just gorgeous (in the fields of eastern Idaho between Jackson and
Idaho Falls).

But the best thing was, despite not dedicating time to birding, I spent
hours just watching birds. I watched the Willow Flycatchers at our campsite
working all day long, and a very busy Williamson's sapsucker feeding what
was probably the second batch of kids this year. Sometimes we forget, I
think, that birding is about the birds more than it is about us. And it's
nice to be able to just sit quietly and, simply, watch birds.

Thanks to all who gave us suggestions! We had a great trip.

-Josh Hayes, josh at blarg dot net