Yesterday morning minutes before sunrise this view from my campsite on the mountain put me over the edge. For the first day and a half I’d been there the skies had been clear of smoke but the predictions were that smoke would move in during the day and here we see a layer of it moving in from the south and east. In this view we should\u00a0 be able to\u00a0 see the Tetons in the far background but they’re already hidden by the smoke.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nIt was all too much so immediately after this photo was taken I started packing up and then headed for home.<\/p>\n
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I did see a few birds while I was there. Flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers were migrating through, there were still many Western Bluebirds in the area and I found a clump of bushes loaded with Cedar Waxwings pigging out on berries but they were back lit. And in all my trips to the area I’ve never seen so many Sage Grouse. It must have been a good year for them.<\/p>\n
But I didn’t get any good photos so I deleted the few I took before I left the mountain. Then Lady Irony stepped in.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/house-finch-5850-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"house-finch-5850-ron-dudley\\"")
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I took this photo of a bathing female House Finch very soon after I got off the mountain on my way home. Take a wild guess where I took the photo.<\/p>\n
At the RV Dump Station in Dubois, Idaho for gawd’s sake! As I always do I’d stopped in tiny Dubois to gas up and dump my trailer tanks and this bird was bathing in water dripping from the culinary water source right next to the sewer dump. While my tank was draining I grabbed my camera on a whim and took this shot. It turned out to be my best one of the trip.<\/p>\n
So, I went up there looking for wildness and solitude but the best shot I got was taken at a dump station in a small town on my way home.<\/p>\n
That says a lot about my trip.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
And the best shot I got while I was gone (he says with a wry smile.)<\/p>\n
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