a New Motto

"When Life gives you Mountains, put your boots on and start hiking."  That's the way to be.  I will do that soon, once the snow melts off the trails.  The ice has melted off the lakes, and I been out in my kayak twice.
     It has taken us a week to set up the Gift Shop with the help of 2 women from the corporate office who are Head Buyers and  set-up people.  New floor plans have been created, and its all looking very good now.
    Photos from the first week of living in Paradise.

Bison at Elk Flats.

Mountain Bluebird

Sunset sunbeams behind the Tetons

Black bear, my first bear of the season

Yellowbells,  Fritllaria pudica

late afternoon light on snowy peaks

Another Teton summer

Admist the preparations for Mom's memorial service, I was invited to come back to Signal Mt Lodge in Grand Tetons Park.  It was an offer I could not refuse.  I spent 12 days on the road, visiting siblings, friends, and relatives along the way.  NH to MA to CT to NY.  This photo was taken at my friend's rented house in Cooperstown, NY.  A pastel sunset colors the pond behind her house.
     I drove across NY, touched into PA, and into Ohio.  Spring migration for birds had started, and I wanted to see a few eastern migrants before I drove further west.  I tried to stop each morning, weather permitting, to find some local birds. 

Spring was happening in Ohio.  Flowering Dogwood trees were abundant.  Below photo of Violets, and Spring Beauty, taken between the morning rainstorm and the afternoon rainstorm.  Strong winds created a headwind into Indiana. and continued to blow against me as I headed north into Wisconsin.

     I spent 2 nights visiting my relatives and we enjoyed a lovely walk along Pheasant Creek.

Bird reports for this area were very good, however, we saw mostly resident species.
     I continued west across Iowa, and spent a night with pleasant company.  A stronger wind and rainstorm blew across the plains that afternoon as I left Iowa and entered Nebraska. 
    

Below is a photo of Wisconsin River, where I stopped for a short morning walk.  Trees were beginning to "pop" their buds and grow new Spring leaves.

Such a place I would like to paddle my kayak.

To be out of the wind and rainstorm, I stopped at the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center in Nebraska City.  It is a wonderful museum.  These 2 photos show a replica of the boat they paddled upstream on the Missouri River, as they began their exploration in May 1804.
    Photos show a few raindrops on the camera lens.

I stayed overnight in eastern Nebraska.  Several inches of snow fell in central Nebraska that night.  A sudden Spring blizzard covered the fields and trees that had started new growth of leaves.
    

and on into Wyoming.  Many Pioneers crossed the open plains of Wyoming heading for one of several destinations.

Spring is finally here

     February and March brought several big snowstorms. I certainly had my exercise shoveling snow !  We enjoyed birds at the feeders, altho some mornings there seemed to be few birds. 
     4 species of woodpeckers have visited the suet offerings. A few Chickadees, House Finches, Titmice, White-breasted Nuthatches, Cardinals, and the Carolina Wrens. A Pileated Woodpecker female came to eat suet everyday for a few weeks  She may be nesting in the area.
      This week has been truly Spring-like.  The Belted Kingfisher has returned, a Great Blue Heron was fishing at the edge of the river,  and I found American Tree Sparrows at the end of the road.  American Goldfinch males are bright yellow, and this morning a Chipping Sparrow came to the feeders.  Hooray for Spring !     Photo below is a Red-bellied Woodpecker.
     This Spring has had a somber note as well.  In mid-March Mom passed away.  It was a bit unexpected as she had been at her baseline in the nursing home. We have organized a Celebration of Life event to be held next week.  She will be missed by her family and community.



    

Fun photos

Flowers were spectacular.  I may not learn the names of these flowers, but I took their photos anyway.

Both of these were found at Yanacocha Reserve, a high-altitude cloud forest at 10,500 ft elevation on Pichincha Volcano west of Quito.  

I found this lovely cluster of tubular flowers at a stop in the Tandayapa Valley.

These yellow flowers may be orchids.  Photo taken at Guango Lodge in Provincia de Napo.

These flowers looked like red slippers.  taken at Poco de Choco Nature Reserve.

Another maybe an orchid. This one seen at Amagusa Preserve.  We saw wonderful hummingbirds and tanagers at this location.

a view from Yanacocha Reserve looking across the volcanic mountains. This is truly an incredible place.  We saw some amazing birds here,  Swordbill  (a hummingbird whose bill is longer than the bird),  Golden breasted Puffleg, Sapphire vented Puffleg, Tyrian Metaltail, and more. 

I snapped this photo at a quick bird stop along the road to Antisana and the Paramo. Horse is saddled and ready to go, with no rider in sight.

What to eat ?

Food we had in Ecuador was pretty good.  This was wonderful seafood dish with rice, salad, and a fried something (often plantains).

    The dish in the upper left of this photo has Fava beans (nicely seasoned) and Queso cheese, with an ear of corn (very large kernels).
     Upper right dish shows a  "platos tipicos"  which means  Typical plate of food.  It was usually rice, salad or vegetable, beef or chicken and often a bit of fried plantain or yucca.

This barbequed chicken on a skewer was quite tasty, served on a bed of french fries.  Notice the bit of sausage on the end.  The small food stall in Puembo had one choice on the menu.

This was a lovely lunch after a couple days of trail snacks and sandwiches.  Grilled Tilapa with vegetables and fried Yucca.  The restaurant is in a special place overlooking Rio Blanco.  Bird feeders and open bananas attract many birds to the patio for easy viewing.

View from a trail leading from the restaurant.



All photos on this posting taken by Susan Hochgraf.  I did not remember to take photos of the beautiful food we had.

Ecuadorian Amazon

The Amazon rainforest,  a place I have read about and never thought I would actually see.  We returned the rental car to the airport, and boarded a domestic flight to the east landing at Coca, a city along the Rio Napo.  We traveled by boat downstream for an hour to Yarina Eco-lodge on the banks of Rio Manduro. This was an adventure in itself.
     Photo above,  Rio Napo is the biggest river I have ever seen.  Rainstorms cause temporary changes in the water level.  Riverbanks are dense with trees and bushes down to the eroded edge of the land.

We traveled in the boat on the left side of the dock.  ✽

That day's journey ended at the Zona de Embarque,  the boat dock at Yarina.
We had meals on the dining patio and slept in thatched roof cabins with sleeping nets around each bed.
    Birds were spectacular, colorful, and sometimes hard to see among the large leaves of the tall trees.  I saw over 40 new species in this area.

We spent a morning at this lovely Laguna and saw many beautiful birds.

 Hoatzins look like a brightly colored Roadrunner.  One of my few good bird pictures from this area.

Yarina Lodge is along Rio Maduro, a smaller channel teaming with birds.




 This forest is amazing. Many trees with tangled branches grow together.  Larger tree trunks have a community of vines, ferns, mosses, and other plants growing on the bark.  ✽

A view from the 3-story observation tower.  So many birds flitted thru the forest, flew overhead, and called from a branch as we watched from the tower.   A few of the highlights were 2 White-throated Toucans calling across the valley at sunset,  a pair of Paradise Tanagers in a tree,  a Broad-billed Motmot called from a branch for many minutes, a Russet-backed Oropendula at its nest site.   too many birds to list here.

On our way to an afternoon adventure, hiking in the rainforest with our guide. ✽








All the  ✽ pictures are photo credits to Susan Hochgraf.

Ecuador's High Country

The high elevation Paramo grassland is like nothing I have ever seen.  Vast expanses of cold humid grasslands with sporadic shrubs growing at an altitude over 14,000 ft.  We drove up a mountain road to  Antisana Ecological Reserve located on the oriental slope in the Andes Mountain range.  The Andes mountains are spectacular even on a cloudy day.  Each range seems to go on forever.  We saw wonderful birds,  Carunculated Caracaras,  Southern Lapwing,  Silvery Grebes on Mica Lake, Chestnut-winged Cinclodes, and many more.  The most exciting was seeing the Andean Condor soaring over a valley.  After a hike, and more birds, we headed down the road and stopped at an observation platform.  The Andean Condor was across the valley sitting on a cliff ledge.  Two spectacular hummingbirds were flitting in the brush, Sparkling Violetear, and Black-tailed Trainbearer.

Above, a Carunculated Caracara waits in the grass. They were fun to watch.

To the right, the Antisana Volcano comes out of the clouds for a few minutes.

The other high elevation area we visited was the Papallacta Towers, the site of an array of tall antennas in the Pacque Nacional Cayambe - Coca. This ecological reserve has very high biodiversity and includes the Cayambe volcano at nearly 19, 000 ft.  This area is amazing. Tundra plants are not like anything I have ever seen.  Pointed leaf rosettes arranged in dense round mats so thick I could sit on one, and it did not compress under my weight.  We saw Sierra Finches, Stout

 billed Cinclodes, and a small rufous bird that may have been an Andean Tit Spinetail.
     We walked down a steep hillside looking for Seedsnipe.  At the elevation was near 14,000 ft. I had to stop several times to catch my breath walking back up the hill to the road.   I marveled at small flowers and these unusual high altitude adapted plants.
 Photo below.

The views were spectacular despite the oncoming rainstorm.

One of my few good bird photos, a Chestnut winged Cinclodes, a relative of the Ovenbird.