Geyser basin livin'

You'd think that a geyser basin would be a pretty intense place to be flying around what with the boiling water and aresenic laden springs (some of which were filled with a skim of dead bugs).  But, that didn't stop a number of birds from going about their business in a pretty extreme environment.

These western tanagers had the easiest time of it.  They were just in some of the brush around the parking lot of one of the basins.

The adult male looks to be about 1 year old based on somewhat limited orange on the and quite faded brown flight feathers.

This mountain bluebird went one step farther.

 It went down to drink from what had to be a pretty salty source.

Of course if you don't want to drink the salt water you can always live in a salt cavern.

Finally a young killdeer who felt that the runoff from another one of the features in Mammoth was the place to find bugs.