Instagram: National Parks

With the weather still a bit dicey (and icy!), I’m starting to suffer from cabin fever.  It seems like I’ve been cooped up inside forever and I’m dying to get out into the wide world again.  For now though, I’ll have to satisfy myself with living vicariously through others posts on Instagram.

Check out these incredible National Park accounts that showcase the natural beauty available here in the United States.

National Parks Service

National Parks Guide

National Park Paws

Capitol Reef National Park

Glacier National Park

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Think of a person you lost track of. Someone you got to know who later slipped out of your life. You no longer know where they are or what they’re doing. Will you ever cross paths again?⠀ ⠀ Perhaps this is how scientists studying northern hawk owls in Montana feel. ⠀ ⠀ “They’re a pretty tough thing to study,” says Matt Larson, author of a 2019 paper about hawk owls in Montana. Out of 72 northern hawk owls banded for this study over 22 years, only one was ever seen again.⠀ ⠀ Northern hawk owls are permanent residents of Canada and Alaska, but can show up elsewhere, like an old friend you haven’t heard from in years. They occasionally venture outside their range to far-northern parts of the lower 48, like Glacier National Park.⠀ ⠀ If you want to find a long-lost hawk owl, try a recently burned forest. Snags from burned trees are perfect for nests, and open habitat cleared by fire makes it easier for a daytime hunter to spot prey.⠀ For a researcher who’s spent years searching for these owls, finding a previously banded owl can be a thrilling reunion.⠀ ⠀ The day of their sole recapture, researchers had already spent several days casing out a tree where a pair of owls was spotted. They assembled a net, using a mouse on a sort of tightrope set up behind the net as a lure. Larson and his teammates held their breath as the male of the pair swooped down towards the mouse and flew straight into the net.⠀ ⠀ Owl in hand, they realized this bird had been banded as a nestling six years prior, only a mile away. “To find one that was banded where it had started its life—that was pretty cool,” remembers Larson. This would end up being the only documented recapture of a northern hawk owl returning to where it was born.⠀ ⠀ “I think owls will continue to remain mysterious," he continues. "There’s just something intriguing about them, something humans are drawn to. If you’ve seen an owl, you have an owl story.”⠀ ⠀ Source: The Northern Hawk Owl in Montana: A Summary of Breeding Biology, Diet, Habitat Association, and Records (1994–2015). Matt D. Larson, Jessica C. Larson, Denver W. Holt, Steve Gniadek & Adam Eckert, Journal of Raptor Research Feb 2019 Vol. 53, No. 1: 66-7

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Grand Canyon National Park

Joshua Tree National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Everglades National Park

Denali National Park

Saguaro National Park

Devil’s Tower National Monument

Death Valley National Park

Olympic National Park

Zion National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Bryce Canyon National Park

Haleakala National Park

Acadia National Park

Yosemite National Park