Thursday 17th August 2017

A day of taking things easy. Or so that was the plan. And with that in mind we slept in until half past five! And then lay in bed for another hour, as there was no geothermal stuff to snap today, and what we did want to do, or I wanted to do, required lovely warm sunshine to warm the tiny butterfly flight muscles. You see, yesterday when I purchased the book on Yellowstone wildlife, the teller asked if I had seen any blue butterflies. That sowed the seed, and in one of the books it said a nice one could be found up on Mount Washburn. Now, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that, the mountain is big, over 8,000 feet tall, and the butterfly, small. So the chance of being in the right place to see them was slim. But, lets take the chance.

We left at eight, it was another glorious morning with lots of sunshine forecast, so we stopped to fill up in the village and get coffee and burritos, then drive to Tower and onto the mountain. It was just a question of what we would see.

Lots as it happened, several lone bison, including one that walked beside the car, and six elk who were wandering along the Grand Loop Road at Phantom Lake, we snapped them good.

THe road from Tower I call the up and over, it starts from the river plain can climbs to the mountain top, or near to it, in a twenty minute drive. It is quiet this time of the day, so I can try to throw the Mustang round the corners.

The only drawback was that to get to the top of the mountain, or as near as you can driving, meant taking the rough track road, lumping and bumping for a mile and a half, round hairpin bends, and all the while the hard suspension of the car transferring every lump and bump to our spines.

We do make it to the top, where clouds had rolled in and a coo, stiff breeze was blowing. There were no butterflies, and not at 10 degrees either. So I make do with snapping the wild plants around, som familiar some not, and other forms of wildlife: four Dusky Grouse, several Clark’s Nutcrackers, a Pine Martin(!) and various crows and other SBJs, taking up two hours.

I join Jools in the car for a bit, we talk and admire the view, but in that time the sun came out and the wind dropped, and once back outside i could see butterflies. Most were American Painted Ladies, but a couple of Fritillaries too, and after another 90 minutes looking, I find a female blue, I believe to be a Rocky Mountain Dotted Blue, and so being female was mostly brown. Another half hour brought no luck in seeing a male, so we move on to a site lower down the mountain.

My luck did not change, I see one blue, but it fails to settle, so I give up, having got at least one of what I was searching for.

We were on our way to Silver Gate for lunch, and if there was space near the Osprey nest, we would stop. There was and we did.

And good job we did as in the nest with the two juveniles was one of the parents, while on a dead branch near to where we parked was the other eating a fish. And its young called out repeatedly for food, and it kept on eating.

I wanted flight shots, to see the markings on the underwing, and soon the other parent took off from the nest and flew round its partner, screeching, so in the end both parents went to the nest to feed their young, making a nest full to snap.

Job done.

We get back in the car and drive out ot the park, stopping at the cafe a mile from the gate, we park up and take a table in the front window, and were given menus by their trainee Russian waitress.

We manage to order our lunch, what I though was peppered steak actually was steak thins and bell peppers and cheese in a seeded bun. Oh well, it was good.

We had the afternoon to ourselves, well we had the whole day, whole 5 days to ourselves, but you know, no plans. So on the way back, we stop off a couple of times at likely spots to hunt butterflies, meadows and river banks.

The first one I find more Skippers, whatever they’re called over here, and a white and something that looked like a Clouded Yellow, passable shots of all three.

At the next site I get shots of a Green Comma, another fritillary and a small Brimstone like butterfly, all to be identified once we get home to Blighty.

On the drive back, we come across more Bison, crossing the road, we both get shots, but as we are Bison’d out now, we move on to allow others to get shots, but still we see people within 10m of the beats, and one quick charge and a flick of those sharp horns and it would mean a mountain of paperwork for someone. I did not stalk or get too close to Bison at any stage, happy with seeing them up close when they strayed or crossed the road. The one time i did see a herd safely, is the only time I snapped them with the 6D, the rest are with the compact.

I drop Jools off at the stors so she can get coffee and chocolate for us to enjoy on the stopp, and I go to the cabin to unload the car.

We sit and watch new folks arrive at the nearby cabins; French and Belgian. The Belgians being noisy, but then you would with the beers they drink back home.

We make plans of the morrow, packing and traveling to a city, where we might just get a decent internet connection and catch up with six day’s news and football results.