Home from Yosemite

The lack of blog posts in the past week has not been caused by my usual chronic laziness, but because I was on a family vacation in the Sierra Nevadas with my family. We spent most of our time in Yosemite National Park, but we also visited Mono Lake and Sequoia National Park. I had a lot of fun, even though it wasn't an intense birding trip, and saw a lot of interesting birds, animals, and scenery.

I took many photos, perhaps too many (>800), even though my camera had a close brush with death after a brief dip in a chilly creek. I will work on posting some of them this next week, though I plan to avoid lengthy chronicles of the trip; I don't have the time to write about every detail.

Briefly, some of the highlights of the trip are as follows: seeing four life birds (Calliope Hummingbird, Brewer's Sparrow, Sage Thrasher, and Black-billed Magpie); observing bears, marmots, deer, and various other mammals; having a close encounter with a Great Gray Owl; and rafting on the Merced River. Keep your eyes open for more photos and brief stories from the trip.