On this evening, I had the opportunity to go for a bout of night birding with a group led by Byron Butler and Tom Forwood (park naturalist). We went late in the afternoon toward the cavern entrance, and we had Canyon Wren, Green-tailed Towhee and Western Tanager. The evening started off slowly with a few Lark Sparrows and a Sage Thrasher. As darkness fall, we started to get the first poorwills as the Little Brown Myotis were filling the sky as well.
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Every year, Robin and Richard Wolcott lead an Audubon field trip to the Mission Creek area southeast of Livingston. This is a great trip, and this year’s outing did not disappoint either. Sam and I went with Ed Harper (an excellent birder and interesting guy). This trip also served as a tune-up for the 2009 Big Day and some butterflying, although the insects were extremely active due to the high temperatures.
The first stop was the Swingley Bench, where the bird of the day was sighted – an Upland Sandpiper. This was my first ever on this trip. There were many prairie wildflowers in bloom as well.
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We continued onward to the Beaver Creek area and the famous grove just a couple miles further up the road.
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From the grove, we went on up the road to the divide between Mission Creek and the West Boulder at the Twelve Springs Ranch. This is our turn around spot, and from here we had lunch at the gravel pit, which is where we had a Bobcat last year with Lloyd from Georgia.
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After lunch, we continued down Mission Creek with a stop at the aspen stand about mile past the fork in the road.
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The next stop was the Mission Creek bottom and the “The Pond”.
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Complete Trip Report at WilderTrack – http://www.wildertrack.com/TripSight/ViewTrip.aspx?TripID=302
