What's Up With This Weather??

Not an extraordinary day today, but a good day. First thing this morning I spotted a fox along the road and quickly pulled over to get some photos. This is the same spot I photographed the fox last year, but not sure it's the same fox. Last year she really wasn't concerned in the least bit but this year the first click of the shutter startled her. Could be that she's forgotten about last year, or this could be one of her pups from last year, taking her place. Can never be certain - they all look alike to me! But she pounced on - and caught - a ground squirrel right before my eyes. Unlike last year, she didn't gobble it up in front of me, but instead hurried over the hill with it in her mouth. If she has pups they're about six to eight weeks old by now, and still needing mom to provide dinner, but most likely catching grasshoppers and mice on their own.

The Pond Lilies are in bloom - finally! I was expecting the flowers to open up more, but it doesn't appear that they do, as I noticed a couple of them already fading and not open much more than this one. There are a lot more of them now, however. And, after several weeks worth of trips to the pond, wading through a sea of tall, tick-infested grass, where did I find this one? Right alongside a paved walking path... go figure!

We've had the strangest weather this year! 80 degrees in February, then snow in March; then 91 in April, and today it is snowing in the Bitterroot Mountains. Maybe April was summer for this year. The National Weather Service says this is going to be one of the worst forest fire years in a very long time. What? Worse than 2000, or 2003, or 2006, or 2009??? I see a pattern here - every three years we have a bad fire season, so does that means that this year - 2012 - history will repeat itself?

Here Kitty, Kitty... I mean GO AWAY Kitty, Kitty!

Living in Montana, you are more likely to see wildlife than in many other places. Just about ten minutes in any direction from Missoula, you're in a National Forest. Because of this, the wildlife sometimes gets a little "disoriented" and wanders into areas they are best to stay out of. People living in the outlying areas will often find bears in their yards - attracted by gardens, orchards and bird feeders. Deer are regularly seen wandering down the main streets of town; and foxes and coyotes are not all that uncommon either. And occasionally a mountain lion will wander in.

That's exactly what happened Sunday night in my little half acre heaven. At around 3:30 or so in the morning, I heard what sounded like someone banging on the side of my house. I got up, turned off the fan, and leaned into the window screen to listen - nothing. Turned the fan back on and went back to bed. A few minutes later I heard it again and repeated the process with the same results. By now my dog was awake and wanting to go outside to potty, so I opened the back door and let her out. It was a very pleasant night and I stepped out onto the back porch in my nightshirt and bare feet, and within a few seconds heard the banging noise again. Thinking now that there was a prowler in my yard, I hurried the dog back inside and shut the door, pulling the curtain back to peek out the window.

At the back of the yard are the dog kennels, covered with a tin roof which itself is supported by a 2 x 6 post in the front. In the front of the house is a street light, and in that light I noticed a shadow moving across the face of the kennels. Completely confused by what in the world it was, I watched it move across the kennels until it transferred to the back of the neighbor's garage, which is just behind my back fence. What I saw completely unraveled me - a mountain lion was walking along my roof!!

Knowing that it had probably been sitting up there watching my dog, and possibly only a few feet over my head, I felt myself begin trembling uncontrollably. I watched its shadow stroll across to just about the end of the trailer, then stand there with its tail switching. I quickly called 911 and reported it, not knowing if they even cared, but said they would send someone out to investigate. As I waited I could hear it walking the length of my trailer, first one way and then the other. Moments before they arrived I heard it back at the other end, scraping its claws on the siding as it scrambled down onto the ground. By the time the two sheriff deputies arrived it was gone.

They drove up and spotlighted my house and I opened the front door to let them know I was still up and waiting for them. They walked up to my porch as I stepped outside and told me there was nothing up there. I told them it had jumped down and that it might still be in the backyard. They circled my entire house, and even spotlighted a couple of large spruce trees in my neighbor's yard, but did not see anything. Then one of them said what I probably saw was a house cat!! I told him that I would not hear a house cat's footsteps on my roof, nor would it cast a shadow as large as the swamp cooler. They did say that they would patrol the surrounding streets to see if they could spot it, but I never heard anything back so I'm guessing they did not.

On Monday I called Fish & Game to report it, and received a message back from them, telling me that there was usually "a lot of mountain lion activity in your area"... Well, thank you - I needed to know that. Today I received another call from a gentleman who works for Fish & Game, telling me he was a tracker and if I saw it again to call him anytime day or night and he would bring his dogs out to track it. He also said it was probably just a house cat. REALLY??? Probably thinking this is just some hysterical woman who thinks she's seeing things? Do these people think I'm so stupid that I can't tell the difference? I'd be willing to bet a year's salary that if I had been a man calling to report this, it would have been the top story on the evening news...

And by the way, I never did figure out what that banging noise was. At first I though perhaps it was using the tall, thin arborvita trees to climb onto the roof, or sharpening its claws on them. But it was already on the roof when I heard that banging noise as I was standing out on the porch. Or was it? Was it still on the ground just 15 feet away from me and jumped up onto the roof while I was standing outside? Were there two of them??? I don't think I even want to know!

The Photo Gods Are With Me

Another good photographic weekend! On Saturday I headed down to Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuge for a “quick jaunt”. I really don’t know why I tell myself it will be a quick trip; it always ends up being at least four hours.

Started out on the road just outside of Stevensville, where a friend has been seeing a Snipe, although usually much later in the day. I did not see it, but did get to photograph a female Wood Duck in the exact same location I shot the male a few weeks ago. This leads me to believe they must have a nest in there somewhere.

While I was watching the Wood Duck, I heard the call of a Sandhill Crane that sounded like it was coming from back in the trees; although they prefer the open grassland or marsh. I continued on down the road, carefully scanning the open fields and cattails for any sign of a crane, when an older gentleman in a pickup truck heading the opposite direction flagged me down. He asked if I was bird watching, and when I replied that I was, he said there was a crane “down next to the old barn”. I thanked him and headed in that direction. As I approached the barn I slowed and again carefully watched for the crane. Then suddenly as I passed a row of shrubs that lined an old road to the barn, there it was – right alongside the road! It peeked out at me from behind the shrub, and I very slowly approached it (in my car). When I got to within a reasonable distance I began shooting photos. The bird cooperated fully, strolling through the grass in the bright sunshine so that I was able to get several dozen photos, before wandering away from the road toward the barn.
After I left the crane, I headed to the ponds to see what was there, and was tickled to see a small flock of Wilson’s Phalaropes at the edge of the water near the road. These are odd little birds, in the way that they feed. They spin around and around and around in one place, stirring up the water, then drill in the water like a woodpecker, snatching up whatever tiny morsels surface within their personal whirlpool. It almost made me dizzy watching them all!

Along with the Phalaropes there were Northern Shovelers, Green-winged Teals, Cinnamon Teals, a Gadwall or two, and a Great Blue Heron wading through the shallow water, hunting for its dinner. I had a good vantage point and got several nice photos of the Heron until someone else drove up and stopped directly in front of it, scaring it away. It flew to the larger pond just beyond the visitor center. I pulled forward to get a good angle and continued photographing it. It crouched very low in the water, its neck stretched out and its head held sideways. In this seemingly painful position it continued its search for supper. Suddenly it began scurrying across the water – half running on its long gangly legs and half flying; flapping its wings awkwardly. As I continued shooting it shot its neck out like a spear, plunged its head into the water and came up with a perch that any respectable fisherman would have been proud to land! I ended up with a sequence of about 12 photos to document this. SCORE again!
I’ve been so fortunate the past few weekends to be able to photograph these amazing wild creatures. I think I need to leave some sort of offerings to the photo gods!

Weekend of May 12 & 13 (posted a week late)

It’s been an amazing week for me, photographically.

Last Saturday (May 12), I headed up to the National Bison Range for the opening of the road over Red Sleep Mountain – or as the locals call it, the “tourist road”.

Between Arlee and Ravalli I passed a small stock pond and noticed two birds that I initially thought were sandpipers, wading in the shallow water. it took me another quarter of a mile down the road to

realize they were Avocets and I turned around to get some photos, as they are rather irregular in their wanderings and I may never see them there again. Glad I did because upon stopping and walking down to the pond I saw that there was a whole flock of these birds and got several good shots of them. (And by the way, they were not there on my return trip home).

At the Bison Range, I started out with an early morning bird walk along a trail I never knew existed (“early” being 9:30, when most birds have settled in for their mid-day snooze), with one of the staff. While I never saw any birds that I haven’t seen before, I did learn that the small pond we started out at was home to a Sora Rail; a bird I have not seen before, and plan to go back and try to photograph. Also plan to walk that trail again, at a slower pace and possibly sit someplace and see what comes along. They told us that mountain lions are sometimes seen there – I’d sorely love to photograph one – at a safe distance!

After the walk I headed up the South Prairie Loop – the “short road” that remains open all year long. Typically if I see nothing else I will see Pronghorn here, but today the Pronghorn were either pastured elsewhere, were already resting for the day, or I just flat didn’t see them. But there were lots of bison out and about; they must have brought them in from the back pastures for opening day of the road. One of the largest bulls I’ve ever seen stood right on the side of the road next to my car, making my car look terribly small by comparison.

Back at the visitor center I noticed the bison making their way up the mountain. It was warming up considerably and they were heading over the Pauline Creek where there was lots of shade and it was much cooler for them. But these bison have learned that there is an easier way of getting over the mountain – that being by walking along the road. And so I was able to document some early morning Montana commuter traffic, as well as a Montana traffic jam; that being several vehicles interspersed among the buffalo.

I did see some Mountain Bluebirds in one of the nest boxes near the small pond, and got some fantastic shots of the male; it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to photograph one. Also got a few photos of a Gray, formerly Hungarian, Partridge right alongside the road.

The big “catch” of the day however, was when a friend who lives in the same area called to find out what I was doing, and said to stop by on my way home to take some photos of a BADGER that was denning right behind his shop. His shop is built into a slope at the back of his property, so a few of the windows are pretty much at ground level. The problem with that however, was that the auto focus on my camera was grabbing the grass in front of the badger instead of the badger itself – and she moved to fast for me to manual focus. So we stepped out the side door of his shop for an unobstructed view – only about 30 or 40 feet from the den. I made sure he left the shop door open because badgers are known for their nasty temperaments, and if she took a mind to she could be upon us in just a few seconds! I wanted a safe exit (or in this case, a safe entrance), to get out reach of both her long, sharp claws and her dangerously sharper teeth! To my relief, while she did keep an eye on us, she didn’t really pay all that much attention to us. When she left to go hunting for dinner, two of her kits came out and watched us watching them for a short time, allowing for some very nice photos! SCORE!!!

The next day (Sunday the 13), I was informed that the foxes were making their annual appearance at Fort Missoula and made plans to be out there early in the morning when they were more active. I arrived at 7:30 am and was not disappointed. There is one den out there that’s been sort of a fixture for many years now, and is known by many local photographers and wildlife watchers. This den is about 30 yards off the west side of the road; a safe distance for the kits. What I discovered however, is that there are now two dens, the other being immediately off the side of the road to the east. This closer den had four pups romping about in the grass so I pulled over and began shooting, not even needing to get out of my car. I had the best vantage point of these pups, only about 15 feet from my car. Three of the four kept a bit further away from me, but the fourth was an adventurous little soul. She sat right down, only about 10 feet from me and observed me as much as I was observing her. She picked up a small piece of paper and stared at me with it hanging out of her mouth as if to make sure I knew it was hers. Then she “killed” it, pounced on it, “killed” it again, then got bored with the entire game and started stalking a small bird in the grass. When the bird flew off she bounded up the slope to join her littermates, but got distracted by a noise in the grass. I focused the camera and got ready and sure enough, she went straight up into the air and pounced on a mouse – caught it too! She carried it back to the opening of the den and had a nice breakfast. When one of her siblings came running up, her ears when straight back and, nose to nose, she made certain it knew that was her mouse!

Just in that one spot I took around 410 photos in 45 minutes… almost an entire day's worth! It takes five times that long to go through them all and edit them.

Who's Really There?

It was a reasonably pleasant day today so I decided to treat myself to a little picnic, of sorts.  Sat outside in the sunshine and was casually eating my lunch, when I heard what sounded like the telephone ringing.  I got up to answer it but there was no one there, so I figured it was a wrong number and went back out to finish my lunch, only to hear it again.  After three trips into the house to answer the phone with the same results, I decided whomever was calling was just going to have to call back later.  Then I heard a rooster crowing, but there are no chickens near my house, and I wondered if perhaps it was lost or had been dropped off alongside the road.  I tried to follow the sound of its crowing and ended up at the foot of a power pole... When I heard it again, it seemed to be coming from above me and I looked up to see a bird perched on top of the pole -but this bird was not a rooster at all.  Instead I looked up to see a Starling, sitting on top of the pole, crowing!   

As I stook there listened, a second Starling joined him, obviously a female, judging by the dull brown plumage compared to his bright, irridescent feathers.  When the female arrived, the male went into his entire repertoir of "songs".  This single bird imitated a cat meowing, a dog barking, a cat yeowling (as if in a fight), a duck, a goose honking, a hawk, a meadowlark, a siren, my telephone (so that was the culprit), a cricket, a seagull, a ground squirrel chirping, air brakes from an 18 wheeler (don't know where that came from, he must have moved out here from the city), the sound of someone whistling for their dog, and a chicken clucking.

After doing a little bit of research, I found that the Starling is very closely related to the Myna Bird, which explains the abiltiy to imiatate so many sounds.  They are called "the poor man's myna".   While I have long grumbled about the Starling invasion in this country (they push local birds out of an area and take over nesting sites), they really are pretty birds and, as I discovered today, rather entertaining.