Today’s plan was simple. John had to do a few quick things in the morning, go on a hike longer than a mile, and visit the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center. We opted for the Howard Eaton trail that was right beside Fishing Bridge, less than a mile from our campsite. Being so close, we should be able to get in a hike that started in the morning. As normal, nothing went quite as planned.

First, John had to call the Mammoth, WY post office to verify that they could receive packages addressed to General Delivery. (No, he is not the military dictator of a country named Delivery. This is a way to receive packages at the post office when you have no mailing address or P.O. Box.) As documented on the USPS website, Mammoth, WY post office does support General Delivery.

Second, John had to order a used camera body with more features. (Okay, “had” to order. His current one does not support video and has slow auto-focus.) The store website just hung up on shipping options, when trying to order. After calling the store. he found that they would only ship FedEx to Wyoming, not USPS. Not only that, they would not ship to a P.O. Box. They would only ship to a residential or commercial address. This is where the plan went awry.

Last, we had to find a shipping solution and order the camera body. This took over an hour, and it was boring and tedious web searching, calling, and talking to people. In a week, we will let you know if John (or some stranger) is the proud owner of a new-ish DSLR camera.

Around noon, we finally started our hiking plans. (Notice, that it is no longer a morning hike.) We saw what looked like some loons at Fishing Bridge the night before, but we did not have a good camera. John wanted to walk to the bridge to check for loons because it was right beside the trailhead. John saw some loons (or ducks) on the river, so he walked across the bridge while Kate investigate some frog sounds. This turned out to be fortuitous for John because an Osprey hit the water and caught a trout near where he was photographing. He did not catch the dive, but he did catch the Osprey flying by with the trout.

After the Osprey excitement, John helped Kate search for frogs.

After Fishing Bridge, we hiked 2.5 miles up the Howard Eaton trail. The total hike was about 5.3 miles over 3 hours because we kept stopping to take picture or ford streams of snow melt water. Mostly, we saw birds.

The Clark’s Nutcrackers were badly back-lit. The birds turned out okay; the sky, not so much.

Next, we saw a Mountain Chickadee. Trying to photograph him was insanity inducing. We think he was hyped up on candy or maybe sap.

The moss in the forests of Yellowstone is a brilliant green. We ran across a decaying tree that was neat looking.

Next, we ran across a Yellow-rumped Warbler. The person than named this bird should be fired. He had yellow everywhere, except his rump. (They are not the same picture, but were taken close together.)

In the first high prairie area covered in grass and sage brush, Kate found an odd little plant. We have not identified it.

And a lady bug … probably not an Asian Lady Beetle.

If you ever think you lunch tastes like crap, you should have a word with the Scathophaga Stercoraria – the Yellow Dung Fly. If the “yellow poop fly” fascinates you, you can read more here.

At 2.5 miles, we hit a large number of trees fallen across the trail. While we debated whether to go on or not, we heard what appeared to be a large animal grunting. That decided it for us. We never saw the animal, so it could have been a sparrow with a really deep voice.

On the way back, we saw a Green Comma Butterfly.

And, a Dark-eyed Junco (pink-sided)

We eventually saw the loon-like birds from the other evening. They were a pair of Common Merganser. The Common Merganser looks a little like a loon, but it is in the animal family with ducks, geese, and swans. If you look at the swimming ones in the photo on the left, you will notice that the male (white body) has a green sheen to his head.

While photographing the Common Merganser, we accidentally photographed an American Wigeon. That name almost sounds like an insult by a foreigner. You “American Wigeon”; go back to your own country! The picture were taken from pretty far away, but you can see a faint green stripe at the eye of the Wigeon standing on the shore.

* We could not find the frogs either.