Archive for the ‘antelope’ Category

West Yellowstone

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

I’m staying in the West Yellowstone area, just a few miles from the west entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It’s a traffic jam, as usual to visit the park. Traffic comes to a stop when elk are seen. In past visits I saw a male elk with huge antlers just a little way into the park. This visit I have consistently seen female elk with some young ones. Some females have an electronic tracking device around their necks. Yellowstone may want to build a large herd in the area.

So far, I’ve just seen one bison, the bull above, when I came to a traffic jam of people taking pictures. One day in the campground I’m staying at, a ranger came by and said to stay inside if I saw bison. A herd was being tracked nearby by a helicopter. Unfortunately, they didn’t come through the campground.

There has been road work being done between Madison and Norris during all my visits the past few years. This year it’s worse than ever. There is a half hour wait going both ways and the road is really rough.

A lone swan I’ve seen several times near where there is an empty eagles nest.

Firehole Lake area.

Below, the first fireweed I’ve seen in Montana.

Posted in antelope, bison, National, swan, West Yellowstone | No Comments »

More from Malheur Refuge

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

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Horned owl at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center.

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Young swan seen at the same spot a number of days. Two adult, banded, swans were seen in a nearby water channel.

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Two young male California quail, on right, in a covey.

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Female ring-necked pheasant.

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Young hawk often seen flying with two adults, probably it’s parents.

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Livestock is often on the road. I can’t pass through the area without getting cow dung on my truck. The day after this picture was taken, saw  two cows with their calves walking along the highway a few miles away. They soon showed up at the cafe/rv park/laundromat that I had gone to do my laundry. They wanted in the owner’s pasture, but he said “no way”. He got on his atv and herded them to the other cows in their herd about a mile away. Glad they finally got some water, it was hot out.

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Stayed one night at the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge.

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Posted in antelope, Burns, hawk, owl, quail, ring-necked pheasant, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

No Bull!

Friday, July 10th, 2009

This is the typical landscape, without the bison, that you see driving from Bozeman to Missoula, Montana. Outside of the towns, it is only lightly dotted with homes and ranches. Most offramps have signs saying “No Services”. I did not see a single highway patrol or sheriff’s car until I got to Missoula. The picture above, of course, is from the National Bison Range.

Bison calves among the big guys. The 2,000 lb bulls are imposing. The bison are moved to a different pasture each day. Wonder how it is done.

This was the only pronghorn I saw tagged like this. It would be hard to catch a pronghorn, the way they can run.

Above: A catbird at the refuge.

Below: Another beautiful view from the refuge road.

Posted in antelope, bison, catbird, Flathead Lake, St. Ignatious, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Camas National Wildlife Refuge

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Top picture, a young antelope. The only one I’ve seen. It stayed perfectly still as I drove by. Have also seen a lone moose, but it was too far away to get a picture.

Second picture, a porcupine was plodding along the road on one of my morning visits to the refuge.

Eared grebe with a baby on board, literally. I had heard grebe babies ride on a parent’s back. This is the first one I’ve seen.

Have seen quite a few ibis’. They are like ducks though, they tend to take off when they see you approaching.

Coot smackdown. Pre-fight posturing in top picture. They use their feet in fighting, holding onto the other bird with one foot and slapping with the other, along with pushing with the beak. The goal is to push the other bird onto his back. Think this fight was over a female coot. The bigger coot won.

Another picture of the owl, this time on the ground.

The pictures  below were taken by my rv site in Rexburg: baby robins in the first pictures and a Wilson’s warbler in the second. A parent robin was calling to the young ones today, trying to get them to fly to the ground.

The rv park I’m staying at is a family farm/rv park/bed and breakfast/cabin rental/and gift shop. There is a for sale sign out front, so the owners may have over extended themselves. They are really nice people and work really hard. There are lots of birds and, so far, no mosquitoes. Cotton, from all the cottonwood trees blows around in the air. I decided to stay here through the 4th of July.

Posted in antelope, coot, grebe, porcupine, Rexburg, robin, wildlife refuge, Wilson's warbler | No Comments »

Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

Traveled 100 miles from Tulelake to the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. I had driven over a 50 mile gravel road to see the east side of the refuge last fall. This time I entered on the west side. You drive up a 6% grade gravel road to get to the top of Hart Mountain and the park headquarters.

I camped at the CCC Campground at the base of Hart Mountain. While I could have towed my rv up the mountain, I didn’t want to. The Hot Springs Campground that is up there, while beautiful, is more suited to truck campers or small rv’s. The CCC Campground can handle about any size rv. There is no water or hookups and generators are not allowed. You also need to pack out your trash.

The refuge initially allowed cattle to graze on it, but after seeing all the damage they did, they were gradually removed. There is an interesting article on GORP about this.

I’m glad they have not paved the gravel road through the refuge. If it were paved, it would provide a shortcut to the town of Burns, Oregon and would get a lot more traffic which could not help but impact the habitat.

My rv against the base of Hart Mountain at the CCC Campground. I had it all to myself and really enjoyed it. Meadowlarks were singing all around me, hidden in the grass. When I returned from one trip up the mountain, a pronghorn was sniffing around my trailer. He ran when he saw me coming.

Hot Springs Campground. You can’t see the campground, it blends in so well. The hot springs is by the clump of trees on the bottom right. The campground is really beautiful, with wildflowers and a stream running through it. A single elk was also rambling around. The only negative, mosquitoes.

The hot springs at the campground. It is free to use, as is the campground.

There were a lot of these caterpillar filled sacks. Lots of butterflies will soon be in the area.

Barn swallow near the hot springs

Going back down Hart Mountain you get a great view of the Warner Valley Wetlands, an area of critical environmental concern (ACEC). This is a dry year, so you see mudflats circled with grass in the lakes. The sandy areas are interconnected dry ponds.

A northern harrier over the wetland area.

Below, a tree swallow nesting in a birdhouse in the wetlands area.

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Posted in Airstream, antelope, Northern harrier, Oregon, swallow, wildlife refuge | Comments Off

In and around Malheur Refuge

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Just a short distance from the southern border of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge there is a gravel road that goes around 40 miles to Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge. I had considered driving my rv over this road to get to Klamath Falls, as it is a shortcut and I wanted to see the refuge. After the cold front came through, bringing fresh snow to the mountains, I chickened out on this.  I did drive out to the refuge headquarters yesterday in my truck and saw the east side of it. Hope to see the west side sometime in the future. The gravel road I drove on is flat most of the way, with some washboarding. Generally in very good condition. Did not have to dodge huge potholes.

Common sights around Malheur: cows on the road and dogs in pickup trucks.

A lot of northern flickers here in Malheur.

Saw some swans on a cold and windy day. They were not close enough to get a good picture. They dunk like ducks, but are a lot bigger. Went back to the same spot today, but there were no swans.

Posted in antelope, northern flicker, Oregon, swan, wildlife refuge | No Comments »

Roswell, New Mexico

Saturday, April 26th, 2008

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Have made my way to Roswell, New Mexico and am staying at the Bottomless Lakes State Park. Roswell seems to be a green belt on the Pecos River that is surrounded by desert, much like Blythe and Needles are to the Colorado River in California. The park is composed of eight water filled sinkholes. Lea Lake (in second picture above) is the only one that allows swimming and is the one where the rv sites are. The lake is not bottomless, rather 90 feet deep. Cowboys gave it the name bottomless when they could not reach the bottom with rope.

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On the road leading to the park, usually see some antelope grazing. In the bottom picture you can see one eating cactus, that’s not it’s tongue! It is great that they are able to do this, as it is a very harsh environment, but there is a lot of cactus around.

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About 15 miles from Bottomless Lakes Park is the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Nice refuge that is working to conserve wetlands in the southwest desert. There were quite a few beautiful, fluorescent ibis’.

Posted in antelope, ducks, egret, Ibis, Roswell, State, wildlife refuge | Comments Off