John and Kate spent the morning and early afternoon sleeping in and getting things done around the trailer.

John opened his mail and then started putting his new camera gear together, testing and reading the manual. There are a lot of changes with the new gear.

We left around 4:30 pm to look for animals and practice with our new gear.

The first stopping point, which is one of Kate’s favorites, was LeHardy Rapids. The male harlequin ducks have left the area. According to internet, the males leave for coastal areas to molt in June. The females nest along fast moving streams and raise the young. The Harlequin Duck males leave while the ladies raise the young, so as John said, they are dead beat dads 🙂

In the water, we saw at least 7 Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout trying to work their way up the rapids. We didn’t see any jump a huge rapid, but Kate did see one travel about 30 feet up the water through minor rapids.

It is hard to see them in the pictures, but they are pretty clear in the videos. We think that the first one we saw has a damaged jaw.

We then left for the Cascade picnic area where the Blue Herons are nesting. John tested his camera. Unfortunately, John does not have a tripod connector (it is on order). So, he took picture bracing himself against the car door. It is hard to keep the camera on target, but the image stabilization kept the images very crisp.

Compare that to the picture below from the 400mm lens. You need a microscope to see the heron chicks in that picture.

Kate practiced using the spotting scope. Kate also brought a 2-pound weight for the tripod hoping it would stabilize the scope some.

The camera attaches with a small adjustable plastic contraction that lines the camera up, but leaves the screen accessible.

Kate feels like today’s picture with the spotting scope were clearer than yesterday. The clearer picture could have been due to better lighting, having the phone positioned better, or practice :-).

John showed Kate how to adjust the picture on the computer. Here’s today’s picture with a few modifications. Which picture do you like better?

Afterwards we went back to the trailer. We were thinking about going out again after supper, but John’s realtor was going back and forth with documents for selling his rental property. Since we have no cell service away from the trailer, we decided to hang around the trailer until the realtor called.