Bluebird Field Trip Results

We saw 67 MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRDS on our trip south of Pomeroy.  We checked out over 40 boxes and only two of them had not been used last year.  I'd say that is a very good indication that Tom's boxes are successful.  We also enjoyed seeing several VESPER SPARROWS and got to listen to their pretty song.  There were CHIPPING SPARROWS and HORNED LARKS all along the high open areas and many RED-TAILED HAWKS and NORTHERN HARRIERS. On the way home we saw GREAT HORNED OWL chicks and their parents in several locations.  Probably the most unexpected find was a ROCK WREN on a very small rock pile in an area that didn't look like rock wren habitat at all.  We saw a total of 37 species. In addition, we saw several early wildflowers - fields of grass widows and lomatium, a a few balsam root, yellow bells, prairie smoke and buttercups.   It was fun to be up on top of the world looking down into canyons and out over the horizon to Steptoe Butte, the Blues, and all the valleys to the west.  Ginger