Birding at Pathfinder Dam

Pathfinder Dam
Pathfinder Dam 6/2/2011

Beautiful windy day at Pathfinder. We stopped there for a dinner picnic around 6PM.

My first visit ever to the base of the dam. Water is spilling over like Niagara Falls. At the bottom of the dam was 50+ White American Pelicans, sea gulls, cliff swallows, and we spotted two Red Tail Hawks flying off with dinner (a large snake).

A Sheriff Deputy stopped by and told us the weekend packs in the visitors, so hitting it during the weekday at 6 PM is a good time to visit as hardly anyone was there.

The pelicans allow you to get very close, so there is quite a show as they drift back with the water, then fly back up stream to get a better position for fishing. When one spots a fish, there’s a bit of jostling to get the best shot at the fish.  One thing I noticed is that there is little or no wind next to the canyon walls, so maybe that is why there were so many pelicans packed in there.

American White Pelican
American White Pelican at Pathfinder Dam, Wyoming
American White Pelicans
American White Pelicans
American White Pelican
American White Pelican