Back from I-dee-ho

[takla_makan]

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I was up near Buhl, Idaho (that sprawling metropolis) at a place called Banbury Springs, which is a little resort/camping ground that features a pool that is heated by hot springs and that sits right on the Snake River

Comments

[alephnul]

That sounds like a neat place. We had such a horrid drive through Idaho when we moved out West, I've never wanted to go back, but I suppose judging a state by its major highway isn't exactly fair.

Where I grew up, turkey vultures were a bit like crows. They would roost on a big oak tree across the road from our house, and there would always be a few circling in the sky. In the evenings, when they came home to roost, there would be dozens circling slowly down. Since my childhood, there was a big power line built on the hill behind my parents house, and even more turkey vultures roost on the towers of the power line. It is funny to me to imagine them being something you'd only now be adding to your life list, like learning that pigeons were a new bird for someone.

White Pelicans, on the other hand, I've still never seen. They sound pretty amazing.

[takla_makan]

::logged in now::

The pelicans are common in northern Utah because a whole slew of them breed on Gunnison Island, in the northwest arm of the Great Salt Lake. It's out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, safe from predators, and at one time was a good source of guano.

I created a Wiki page about the island, but they deleted it. Morons.

[elfundeb]

Nice birds! Though I had thought osprey were more common where you live (I saw my first one at Grand Teton, before I realized that they breed along the Potomac just a few miles from my house). Turkey vultures are a dime a dozen out here, flying in lazy circles over the interstate highways in search of roadkill.