lma82's Favorites

Wide range of gull sizes from smallest to largest: little gull (small gull at center with white wing tips), Bonaparte's (most small gulls with black wing tips), ring billed (lower right), herring (center and top right) and great black back (top left).

Very fun encounter with a silly plover! When I started to get closer for better pictures, it was quite nervous, but it then picked up a fiddler crab and ran toward us, like a puppy that just caught a ball. The plover then dropped the crab, ran the other way, and started chasing a cloud of flies trying to catch them. Nervous eating? short attention span? either way it was hilarious and memorable! 😂

The entire herd came down to the area full of tourists! This was so awesome! Unfortunately, too many
people started to crowd the herd and not letting them pass through :-( Some bison were starting to vocalize, I think in displeasure. Thank goodness that a ranger showed up and yelled at the crowd to disperse.

Dozens of us were monitoring this bull from very far away as it grazed in the wetland below the ridge. At some point he decided to find out what the fuzz was all about and he walked up the hill toward us. He was totally chill, he let us take pictures and calmly walked away. This was an awesome experience during the first day of my first trip ever to Teton/Yellowstone region! :-D

While driving through the country side I saw the largest flock of birds I have ever seen. Pretty sure they are starlings. I know they gather in huge flocks in Europe but this is the first time I see them do this. Tough to get a decent picture of individuals especially with their fast movements and the sun in the wrong angle. They were being bombarded by raptors and I caught one of them on camera (photo #3). It may have been a Merlin but not confident at all on this. This was quite the spectacle!

First time seeing this species in this location, and after the mobbing it received, probably the last.
Owl was consistently mobbed by crows (and one raven) for over an hour. After finding them at 8:30am, I tailed them around the forest, the crows were pretty relentless until finally calming down a little at around 10am. Always a bummer to see such an intense mob.