Another coronocruise to check out a wild life refuge. Grays Lake National Wildlife Refuge a wet land about 3 hours north of us up in Idaho. A beautiful day well worth the drive. We saw a wonderful assortment of birds, the sounds of the Sandhill Cranes were joyous. Our big treat was when we were heading down the west side of the marsh and we came across a great herd of elk!
What a wonderful animal observation moment we had while returning home from yesterdays adventure. We had headed up to the Uinta mountains to check out the wildflowers and take a little hike, and while the wildflowers were beautiful, a mountain rainstorm and reluctant old dog derailed our hiking plan. So we decided to head out the Mirror Lake highway through the Wyoming route and after a bit of exploring the vast and beautiful expansive range lands in the middle of nowhere Utah/Wyoming we looped back to Utah through Chalk Creek Canyon. It was that 'deer time" time of the evening and the light was so pretty so when we spied our first two deer grazing in a farmers field we pulled over to take a look.
As we stopped the car I noticed movement next to the road. "Babies! There were babies" Two fawns were hanging out next to the road unable cross the fence to join mom. As I hung my head out of the car window to snap a few pictures the fawns were clearly nervous about the big green monster (Subaru) who had stopped right near them. They paced along the fence, bobbing their heads, looking for an opening for escape. I could not hear them but I'm sure there was a panicked mule deer language call for help, because mom, who was about a hundred yards away headed back up the hill to help.
"Momma! I'm scared! How do I get under this fence?"
"This way! Follow me! Maybe if we go this way we can find a way!"
As we watched, mom effortlessly (it was almost as if she levitated) leaped over the fence and crossed the road. She paused on the hillside for a moment to wait for her kids. They skittishly crossed the pavement but rather than just running away as we thought they would, the fawns excitedly started suckling! How cool! Were they seeking comfort and security because they were scared or were just hungry since they had been left along the side of the road while mom had dinner in the pasture? Mom kept a wary eye on us as they nursed. Of course I wanted a picture but was sitting on the wrong side of the car so I handed Shin my camera so he he could snap a few shots from the drivers side.
After a moment mom seemed to say "Hey kids, that's enough, we need to get out of here" and lifted her hind leg to swat her baby off of her teat. After dislodging the fawns she again leaped over the fence, and head up the hill, while her poor babies scurried around once again trying to find a way through the fence.
It was quite interesting to watch, and to anthropomorphize about maternal care in the world of deer.
I guess the ways of mother nature are a little different for deer than humans. Maybe nature is cruel, or perhaps its just a little tough love that leads to survival of the fittest.
For us biologist types getting to observing their behavior was a real treat. Another nice perk of life on road less traveled.
Who would have thought I'd become an antelope hunter? My Pentax is my weapon of choice, though someone suggested to me that if I am going to go shooting antelope perhaps I need a canon (pun intended). Antelope hunting started on thanksgiving last year, when we took a morning excursion out to Stansbury Island. On the way back we spotted a herd of antelope, just off of the highway west of the airport. We were quite surprised to see them so close to town, so we started taking regular treks out the frontage road to observe.
Come spring they seemed more solitary, and on the day we found just one shaggy old fellow we gave him a name- Alistair, but eventually his friends showed up.. Alvin, Art, Andy, Archy, Allen, Alice... and more. How fun is to get to visit antelope any evening?
Our new found fascination with antelope led us on bigger trek. There is a major antelope migration corridor in Wyoming, herds that migrate from south of Pinedale up to the Tetons. So many that a special animal crossing bridge was built across US hwy 191. You can read more about it here. Pinedale is about 4 hours away, but we thought it would be worth the trek. As it turned out there were no antelope at the bridge, but we saw so many antelope along the way. It was quite a great day for antelope hunting.
A few antelope facts... they are amazingly fast. We saw some near train tracks by Fossil Butte National Monument. As we watched a train came by and spooked them, and they literally out ran the train. Watching a whole herd gracefully speed over a sage dotted hillside is a breathtaking site. Despite their speed and agility, they are not good jumpers. They actually will crawl underneath a fence. We were pretty jazzed to see one do that. And a third interesting antelope fact - their closest, though distant relative, is the giraffe!
Last Sunday morning at 11 Shin said to me... "I think we have a window. If we leave now we can get to Kearney and have a day of good weather. Are you game?" We'd been watching the weather for a break in storms so we could cross Wyoming and Nebraska and have decent Sandhill Crane viewing weather. Game I was, so by noonish we were in the car heading east. Made it to North Platte on Sunday, then over to Kearney very early on Monday. Spent the day and evening finding all the birdy places, got up for the dawn bird viewing on Tuesday, then headed back home, with a small detour so I could see a little of my old Sandhills stomping grounds.
For those that aren't familiar, the Sandhill Crane migration is one of earth's major animal migrations. During March, 80% of the world's Sandhill Cranes (over 500,000 birds) enroute from the south (Mexico, New Mexico, Texas etc.) to their breeding grounds in the north (Alaska, Canada, Siberia), spend a month on a section of North Platte River fattening themselves up for the journey. At night they all converge to roost in the shallows of the river, at daybreak they fly off to forage in surrounding corn fields, then return again at night.
I'm a bit under equipped lens wise for good bird pics, but even if I had that long lens to better capture close up birds, close ups don't show the sheer number of birds in the water and in the sky. During the nightly fly-in you'd really need some sort of 360' virtual reality gear to capture the experience; birds flocking in from left, from the right, from behind, squawking in every direction. You also need audio, as the cacophony of calling cranes is an experience in itself. Even daytime corn field foraging birds were amazing, Sandhill Cranes are big 'displayers' and do a lot of 'happy dancing' so they are really fun to watch.
I know most folks don't think of Nebraska as a spring break destination, but if you're at all a nature lover, biology geek, or nerdy birdy type you should put spring in Nebraska on your bucket list!
A few pictures are in my facebook album Off to see the cranes
