This trip was my annual June getaway from Arizona. The primary purpose of the trip was to continue to build my knowledge of the birds of Wyoming, a state that I've birded in 9 of the past 13 years starting in 1993 (mostly in June). Also, I planned the first part of the trip to look for target species in Oklahoma and North Dakota before continuing on to Montana and Wyoming. As things turned out, I spent way too much time in North Dakota and ended up with too little time in Wyoming. I also spent time in South Dakota instead of Montana. By visiting the links above, you can find day to day details of the trip (in my journal), see the the overall trip list and view all of the bird photos that I took in the trip photo log.

My targets were Henslow's Sparrow in Oklahoma and Gray Partridge, Black-billed Cuckoo, Philadelphia Vireo and Nelson's Sharp-tailed Sparrow in North Dakota. I missed the cuckoo and vireo but picked up a bonus Yellow Rail as some compensation.

The Numbers:
From May 31 through June 27, 2005  I drove 8,700 miles as I traveled through (in order) Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, South Dakota again, Wyoming, Utah and back to Arizona. My birding time was mostly in North Dakota (10 days) and Wyoming (11 days) with a day in Oklahoma and a couple of days in South Dakota. The remainder was travel and opportunistic birding through the other states. I recorded a total of 228 species (door to door from home) and managed to obtain photographs of 59 species with varying quality, 23 of which were new increasing my photo list to 351. I picked up 3 lifers and one U.S. bird in the bargain as well as increasing my Wyoming state list from 188 to 201, something that's getting difficult to do since I always visit in the same month.. 

Temperatures were generally well above average throughout the entire period. North Dakota was highly variable with wet and windy as well as sunny days. Eastern Wyoming was dry and very hot, western Wyoming less so but still uncomfortable at times.

As is usually the case for me on these trips, highlights were the high elevation birds, especially Brown-capped & Black Rosy-Finches, Pine Grosbeak and the mountain scenery that accompanies them. I also enjoyed seeing the eastern birds that I only see once or twice each year and expanding my knowledge of Wyoming by visiting new locations. Conversely, perhaps the biggest disappointment was running out of time in Wyoming and having to skip a visit to Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Spending almost four days looking for Philadelphia Vireo was a criminal waste of my time and I should have known better.

I really enjoy road trips because I have tremendous schedule flexibility and I can take lots of stuff with me. Black-billed Cuckoo remains a multi-year nemesis bird which in a way is good because it gives me a reason to go back (not that I really need one). However, the old Trogon now has almost 270,00 miles on the clock and perhaps won't be able to handle another trip like this (in addition to multiple trips to places like California Gulch). I'm not sure about the owner either (increasing years and decreasing funds).

Questions and comments welcome.