USA 2014 - Mirror Lake Scenic Byway

Thursday morning we set off early to ascend the Mirror Loop Scenic Byway in the Wasatch mountains.

We quickly got above the snowline on the drive and it was indeed a scenic route.  We took advantage of the odd pull-out to stop and photograph some of the birds including a Chipping Sparrow:

The next bird was one I'd really hoped to see but just wasn't sure I ever would, Clark's Nutcracker:

We were lucky that it posed for us for some time, on a relatively clear perch:

This bird caught my eye too, it's a Dark-eyed Junco with what looks like a mild form of leucicism:

All along the road were full snow-melt rivers:

You can see the exceptional volume of water involved in these, which are at their fullest extent around this time of year:

Our first woodpecker of the holiday, a Hairy Woodpecker:

Helen snapped me trying to capture a Pine Siskin image, you can clearly see how much snow was still around:

I did managed to snap one:

It's not all birds on these trips, this squirrel was stationary long enough for a decent picture:

We had planned to do a trail but as it was above the snowline, the metre and a half deep snow and frozen lake firmly put us off the idea, so we carried on around and then back to our hotel for an early dinner.