Idaho trip wrap-up

I'm tuned into the FIFA Confederation Cup Soccer final on ESPN this afternoon. USA is ahead of Brazil 2-0 with 32 minutes played. Shock!

I have been home for a week and was just blogged out. With the game on, this is a good opportunity to put the finishing touches on my trip.

The last stop I made before making the beeline home was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. Here I saw wild horses, one old bull bison, a few trip birds and a beautiful desert-like landscape with buttes and canyons. Not quite as spectacular as Glacier NP, but well-worth the visit.

From Theodore Roosevelt NP, I decided I'd been on the road long enough and began the long push to get home. On Wednesday I drove from Billings, Montana to Fargo, North Dakota - amazingly long drive! Two cities which I feel certain I will never visit again are Minot and Fargo. For small cities they were incredibly unattractive, lacking any regional charm and it was difficult to find a reasonable place to stay in either. I don't know why this surprised me, but it did. On Thursday morning I was happy to leave Fargo behind and drove to the tri-cities area of Iowa/Illinois and stayed the night just east of Davenport and Moline in the small town of Geneseo, Illinois. From Geneseo the drive to Detroit on Friday, June 19th was easy. I arrived home at 3:00 pm with lots of energy and happy to see Seabiscuit, who was also happy to see me. Even today, over a week after my return, he's still very cuddly.

I finished the trip with 136 trip birds and of these ten were life birds. I think this was an excellent outcome given that I was birding alone, was most often pressed for time and there was dreadful, un-June-like weather for three of my birding days. I did miss some really sought after birds - Lewis's Woodpecker and Spague's Pipit amongst others. Another time, another trip.

Dean's house.

Dean learning the technique of digiscoping.

Then stepping back to inspect the results. What was he digiscoping?

Bald Eagles perched and calling from a dead tree on the Pack River.

One of Dean's five chickens.

It's now USA 2, Brazil 2. Time to end this blog entry.