new-to-me fauna, coast to coast, over six-ish months:

roadrunner

elk and their speckled babies

black-tailed deer

bald eagles

one golden eagle

bighorn sheep

wild donkeys

sandhill cranes

jackrabbit

a young coyote

mule deer

pacific seals

pronghorn, which are not technically antelope but a lot like ‘em

busy gophers

owls

quail, who are hilarious

a wolf

ground squirrels, which might also be known as whistle-pigs ? but prairie dogs do way more whistling

prairie dogs

banana slugs and painted snails

zebras in a coastal pasture

hundreds of buffalo and their “red doggy” babes

wild horses

a scary amount of locusts

lizards of the redwoods

one very long grey snake

hundreds of swallow-tail butterflies that i scared from their mud

a curious mountain goat

marmot

the only swimming songbird on this continent

golden crested squirrels

a young black bear

big fat salamander in a cold mountain lake

two moose

too many mice

noisy, bold rufous hummingbirds

trout swimming upstream

one massive grizzly butt, loping off into the forest

other cool birds: Ravens, Phainopepla, Pine Grosbeak, American Coot, Bullock’s Oriole, Marsh Wren, Barrows Goldeneye, Osprey, Clark’s Woodpecker, Godwit, Grey Jay (aka Robber Jay), Pileated Woodpecker, Goshawk, Curlew… et al.