Just a warning, this post may be classified as Not Safe For Kids (NSFK) and squeamish people. We are staying in a huge wilderness space, everyone has to eat, and not everyone is a vegetarian.

Except for a few of the marmots, John took pictures holding the camera instead of using the tripod. The tripod takes crisper pictures, but we missed a few amazing pictures because the tripod is too slow. Video is especially difficult to keep steady with a 100mm-400mm lens.

There was no plan today, which was good, because John remembered that he forgot to order something for his camera. It took a while to find and arrange the order. Due to shipping issues, he ordered the minimum he needed as General Delivery to Mammoth. It will be a 1.5 hour drive Monday or Tuesday, but we wanted to see the Pikas up there. We will just merge the trips.

After all that and a call about the property he is selling, we decided to head to Specimen Ridge to hike the Yellowstone River Overlook Trail. At Tower Falls and Calcite Springs Overlook, we had seen people walking this trail on the opposite side of the canyon. There were never many people on it, so it should have animals. This is a 2.5 mile spur that runs across the north rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone before joining with the Specimen Ridge Trail. It starts near Roosevelt Lodge a few miles into the Northeast Entrance Road, and it runs along the canyon rim to look down on the Tower Falls viewing point.

We stopped at LeHardy Rapids on the way to the river overlook trail. The Yellowstone Cutthroat trout should swim upriver at some point for spawning. One sign says spawning should occur May and another says mid-June. Kate has been hoping to see the trout jump the rapids. We have been stopping at the rapids at least every other day for more than a week in hopes of seeing the trout. Today, we saw 3 trout in the shallower water near the shore, and we actually saw one of the trout jump a small rapid. Kate was sooo excited.

At the trailhead, we saw something that we had never seen before. An Uinta Ground Squirrel was running around the parking area and grass. While we were watching, a Raven jumped on him, clamped him in his beak, repeatedly crushed, dropped, and pecked him to death. We were shocked; we did not know Ravens were predators. Maybe it should be a Murder of Ravens instead of a Murder of Crows.

Uinta Ground Squirrels are so cute.

What are you doing? Oh, the humanity!

And displaying his kill on a rock before flying away.

And on a happier note, oh look, a butterfly! We think it might be an Edith’s Checkerspot Butterfly, but there are a few other Checkerspot species that it could be. It also looks a little like a Marsh Fritillary Butterfly, but those are not in Yellowstone. We saw this one working our way up to the canyon rim.

We hiked along the rim and started seeing marmots along with the ground squirrels. There were more ground squirrels than you can shake a stick at, and the marmots were not far behind in numbers. The ground squirrels warble a warning, and the marmots call out with a shrill chirp. One of the marmots was laying in the path. When we approached it, it ran five feet away and collapsed dramatically on a rock like it was too tired to go further. There are marmot divas, too.

Around that time, we saw a strangely patterned bird. We have come to the conclusion that it is just an immature American Robin.

We saw this plateau from the Calcite Springs Overlook on the other side. Kate thought it should have a Bald Eagle nest on it. If the map is accurate, it is called Bumpus Butte. Someone thought they were funny.

Around this point, John saw what he thinks might have been a Peregrine Falcon, but it flew by too fast. Its wings were in the “W” shape of a shallow dive instead of flapping. A short distance down the trail, we saw a Red-tailed Hawk. We think it might be the same hawk we saw from the Calcite Springs Overlook a few days ago.

Not long after this, we watched the Red Hawk fight with Two Ravens. It looked like the Ravens forced the Red-Tailed Hawk to leave the area. At this point, the 400mm lens was on the camera on the tripod. John could not get the tripod deployed fast enough to get a picture. This was a bummer, so the rest of the pictures are taken hand held. (He started hand held with a smaller lens.)

As we were approaching Tower Falls, we could see the cliffs beside the road on the other side of the canyon. A few days ago, we stopped at a many of these turn-offs looking for Bald Eagles.

Around here was where we got yelled at by marmots. We think it might have been two marmot parents protecting their young. When we passed them, we saw a smaller marmot and a hole in the side of the cliff that might have been their den. If you watch the video, you can hear their shrill warning chirp.

And we ran across another Clarke’s Nutcracker.

And finally, we made it to the end of our hike. This is the bluff that is visible from the Tower Falls Overlook. The valley stretching out into the distance is where John saw the Bald Eagle a few days ago.

At this bluff, we saw a Mountain Blue Bird land on top of a dead tree. On zooming into the picture, it appears to be carrying a spider or an ant.

At this point, we turned around to head back. John was exhausted from carrying twenty pounds of camera gear. We think he might not be cut out for the Army.

On the hike back to the car, we saw quite a few birds. With a little luck and persistence, we finally took a half-way decent picture of a Western Tanager.

Another immature Robin posed for us.

A Clarke’s Nutcracker posed for about 5 minutes. We think he was disappointed that we did not take more pictures earlier. John took some good pictures as he approached the bird.

When John was a close as the trail allowed, he took some zoomed in, high resolution pictures of the bird’s butt. We think the bird might not have appreciated the photo session as much as we thought.

And what is, probably, an immature Yellow-rumped Warbler landed on a dead tree in front of us.

We even had a few insects posing. We think the butterfly is a Large Heath (a.k.a., Common Ringlet). From searching for the species, it sounds like the more northern Common Ringlet Butterflies have less spots.

This dragonfly sat on his stick for at least a few minutes getting his picture taken. We have not figured out what type of dragonfly it is. It does not quite match the Flame Skimmer or Eastern Amberwing.

Near the trailhead, a chipmunk and bird were climbing the Arrowleaf Balsamroot to get at the flower heads. The bird appears to be an immature Yellow-rumped Warbler. The chipmunk might be a Yellow-pine Chipmunk.

The chipmunk was not as graceful as the warbler. The flower could not hold his weight, so he did some aerial acrobatics.

On the drive back, we got caught in nearly 30 minutes of Bison jam in Hayden Valley. In one of the locations that the water restricts the road, three bison walked slowly along the road. When they were not blocking traffic, tourists were blocking traffic taking pictures. A herd of about 50 to 75 members with many babies were just past the Bison jam, which just made the jam worse. John took a few pictures while we were trapped behind other people. Two of the Bison were butting heads in what looked like a practice fight between immature Bison.

In the jam, we thought we saw a Sandhill Crane fishing in the river, but it turned out to be a Great Blue Heron. It might be one of the herons nesting near Nez Perce Ford.

While crossing Fishing Bridge, John saw another Great Blue Heron fishing in the reeds along the bank. We stopped to take some pictures, but it wandered under the edge of the bridge. Fortunately, there was just enough dry land on the other side of the bridge to get pictures.

When it flew to the other side of the bridge, we followed it to get a few more pictures.

While we were watching, it caught several fish. You can see one flapping in its beak.

Shortly after this, a truck scared it away. The bridge is in need of replacement, and when vehicles go over it, it can be very loud.

When we got back to the trailer, there was a sign on the door that said there are packages to pick up in the office. Two packages had arrived. Our mail that Mom mailed to us and my new spotting scope.

There are spotting scopes of all price ranges from $50 to $5,000. Kate decided to buy one at the lower price range to test, and she also purchased an inexpensive tripod. The spotting scope can zoom in from 25x to 75x with an 80mm front lens. The spotting scope came with the capability to attach a phone for taking pictures. We put the scope and tripod together, and Kate took a picture of the wall. As you can see the wall was white 🙂