Re-enactment of the Golden Spike, the first transcontinental RR

Re-enactment of the meeting of the 2 trains

Re-enactment of the meeting of the two steam engines from the Union Pacific RR and the Central Pacific RR to form the first transcontinental RR in May 1869

The natives are complaining.  This may be a year without a summer in this Northwest Region.  Here in the desert the folks are astounded by summer tanagers.  These birds are everywhere and people who have never before noticed them now see their red faces peering from yard shade trees.  The birds want to go up the mountain and get about the business of breeding and nesting, but the mountains are cold and covered with snow fields and trees that are only now beginning to leaf o

We had NO IDEA when we were following directions from the Idaho Birding Trail that we were going to find a modern day “Brigadoon”.  June 7th had started out as a routine birding day.  At 6:15 am we were on the road in southern Idaho.  By mid morning we had already seen 42 species with 2 stops:  Bruneau Dunes State Park, which has “the tallest single-structured sand dune in North America” and Ted Trueblood Wildlife Management Area, a large lake surrounded by reeds.