Adventure Planning
When you talk to a birder who has seen a Black Rosy-Finch you’ll likely hear a story about a nomadic winter bird at a feeding station in a mountainous area (often with other rosy-finch species). Indeed that is where I saw my own “lifer” Black Rosy-Finch in January 2022, but where do these birds spend the summer months? The answer requires imagining some of the highest, windiest, rockiest corners of the North American mainland. When I stumbled upon an article from Audubon that explained that only 23 nests has been found prior to 2002, I was hooked. I knew that I had to plan a trip to chase this bird!
The adventure started to materialize one day this past February when I sat down and dug in on the research phase. My mind was initially intrigued by sightings in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada (also home to Himalayan Snowcock – another story for another day) or perhaps the Uintah Mountains of Utah. But then my eyes danced northward to the Beartooth Highway. Not only did that seem like a good spot for my avian target, but that entire road snaked along alpine ridges from Montana to the Northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park and had long been on my wishlist for the sheer beauty alone. I hurriedly put together a draft rosy-finch itinerary and sent it off to my birding buddy Bob Gress. His response came quickly “Wow! Great trip plan!” but unfortunately he already had a Pacific Northwest road trip in the works. Dang. I tabled the idea, thinking that 2024 would not be the year.
But a week later Bob sent another message “I keep looking at this……a great trip”. The hook was clearly set and our mutual interest was high! Thankfully by April we had a plan in place where Bob could still do his trip to the Washington coast and then he’d pick me up for a second adventure along the Beartooth Highway.
A Plan in Action
When June rolled around and the snow melted enough for the Beartooth Highway to open, it was go time! We packed up Bob’s camper van, “The Peregrine” and were on our way north. We arrived in the late afternoon, hopped out of the vehicle and were nearly blown over by a viscous (and cold) wind. Still, after so much anticipation we had to give it a try!
After some diligent searching we managed to find one female who was feeding slowly along a snowbank, but that remained our only sighting for a while…and then they were suddenly everywhere. It was rosy-finch madness as a big flock flew (or maybe they were blown) across the road and into an area with rocks and melting snow. They hopped up here and there, tails bending in the wind, and then just as quickly were gone to a downslope area that appeared to be a completely inaccessible nesting area. Those initial photos weren’t great, but they were a start! We would try again in the morning.
The next morning dawned clear and much less windy, so we set to our quest. But a couple hours later we only had occasional glimpses to share. Given their cliffside nesting areas, male Black Rosy-finches don’t defend a specific territory, but they do follow their mate around and fend off rivals as necessary. The key, it would seem, would be to find active foraging locations where the males would be interacting and (hopefully) pausing long enough for a few photos.
The second morning was another great day, and we took off over the hills to find an area where we felt the birds were foraging. The snow was rapidly melting and looked completely different from the previous morning, but our strategy worked and soon we had the perfect conditions with more than a dozen rosy-finches that were periodically feeding, chasing each other, and sometimes landing on big rocks scattered across the tundra. Oh that was the shot! Bob and I got to work and we took a ton of photos of this amazing pink and black bird!
In the words of Bob, it was an “Oh baby!” moment and we high-fived each other and knew we had captured what had dreamed up those many months earlier. The Black Rosy-Finch adventure had been a total success, and now it was time to move down the road and see what Yellowstone National Park had in store for us!
