07/11/2011, 22:18 EST

It is currently 8:19 local time and we have just gotten to our hotel after a fun-packed day.  We woke up early this mourning to go to bear lake, where we heard there was good birding.  Fortunately, this area filled a habitat that has been laking in this vacation: a wetland.  Because of this I saw many new birds, including a Sandhill Crane, a Redhead, a Northern Pintail, a White-faced Ibis, a Red-necked Phalarope, a Western Grebe, a Western Meadowlark, a Clark's Grebe, and a Yellow-headed Blackbird.  In addition to this, I was able to photograph the Northern Pintail, Western Meadowlark, Yellow Headed Blackbird, and a Ruddy Duck, which I had seen before.  See If you can figure our which is which.

After driving around Bear Lake, we pushed on to the Grand Tetons, which were stunning.

On our way there, we saw a female moose, which half of the people in the state of Wyoming seemed to be gawking at.  After getting to the trail head, we took a hike, which was unfortunately very crowded, and climbed a little ways up until we were almost at the level of the snow.  After that we drove around and stopped at some scenic pull-overs to get some different perspectives.  After that, we drove home through the park.  As we did so, we were able to see a large herd of female elk, many scores of Bison, a coyote, a badger, a MALE Pronghorn, and two unidentified rodents scurrying across the road, which I think were both of the same species.  Fortunately, I was able to get some photos of some of these animals, some of which are worse than others.

Yes, unfortunately the badger only graced us with his behind.  But look at it this way, how many times have you seen a photograph of a badger's backside.  Pretty cool, huh?