What the ranchers see on the Grove Creek Rd.

Ranch life in Montana. Driving down the Grove Creek Road is always special. Will it be a cattle drive, horses in pastures, wild life, a pickup truck with a load of hay, or perhaps what I saw on this day. This is an outlyer as far as the sheep go. Most of the males are bigger than this one and most of them do not have horns. This guy was standing by the side of the road along with his girl friend. it's too early for the lambs. These 2 are fortunate that the shearers have not been to their pasture as they still have their wool to keep them warm. A significant number of the pastures you will see the sheep already shorn. These 2 may have too much wool because the shorn ones are surviving the current cold weather and snow. It will not be long before we have lambs. I did hear from one rancher that their ram (male sheep) had escaped his holding pen several months ago and that they are having a very early crop of babies.

When you see one of these, you can figure that the owner has a warm spot in their heart for animals like this. They are too small to do any kind of chores unless the rancher has put them with the sheep to either be a leader or a protector. Llama's are better protectors. Most people passing them say they are cute.

Almost very field you got by these days has lots of these. Calving season started in January. Some of the ranchers are done and others are just starting. If I had been about 30 minutes earlier I would have been able to show you a calf being born. Mother still has the afterbirth and this little guy got enough milk that it had to take a rest. I tried to get a picture of the nursing but mama was very protective and as I circled her hoping to get a picture with the sun on the calf, she would turn to protect her calf from me and my camera.

This young calf came to the fence to check me out. He's probably a week or so old. Old enough that the rancher has identified him with his own tag and he's independent enough that his mama has let him wander off on his own. He was not the 5th born, the number is the same as his mothers so the rancher can tell who belongs to whom.

Yellowstone is next week, come back soon and see if we were lucky enough to get a picture of a grizzly. They are out of hibernation.

We didn't have to go to Yellowstone

Either on our property on within a mile I have found these creatures in the last 2 weeks. As I leave the ranch I always have my camera sitting next to me on the front seat. I have my favorite routes to take either to Absarokee or Fishtail or returning. This picture was taken on the return trip on the Johnson Place, the Lower Grove Creek Rd. This time I was leaning on the open window pane to get this shot.
A few days later on my way to Fishtail, I spotted this Red Tail hawk in the middle of a pasture. Not sure if it was full and resting or awaiting something to aware in the field. Not as big as some but it posed nicely.

I was looking out the living room window and saw something unusally large along the fence near the shed, just north of the Grove Creek. I grabbed my spotting scope to get a closer look and guess what I saw, a porcupine. I was too far away even with my zoom lens so I jumped in the truck and drove down to the creek, expecting to take the picture from the truck. I didn't want to be picking quills from my body. This is the first picture, I framed it for a post card, liked the finished product, so you get a fancier image.

I was having trouble finding it's face, so I decided to be brave. I got out of the truck, crossed the fence and approached the critter. It didn't seem to act like I was even in the vicinity so I got closer and closer. Got this picture, no quills in my leg and returned to the truck.

Just 2 days later I was near the spot where I photographed the eagle you saw above and spotted another porcupine. I had good pictures already, so I just watched for a few minutes and was on my way home.

Another eagle. Not a day goes by that we don't see an eagle either flying over the property, in a tree, or enjoying a feast on a carcass. This one was content sitting here as I manuvered around to get it's picture.

I guess I am bored with all of the deer I see on a daily basis so today they are only memories. If we had traveled the 160 miles to Yellowstone I would have had some bison and elk, perhaps a coyote or wolf, and I just read in the paper that the grizzlies are out of hibernation. The neighbor spotted coyotes chasing his sheep last week and wolf tracks nearby. We will be going to Chico Hot Springs and Yellowstone in about 10 days. Come back again and see what I find down there.

The rest of the story

There must of have been a number of you who decided that the contest to determine where the picture of ducks was taken was a sham or figured it was on the Circle B Bar T Ranch and didn't participate. There were a number of you who did and the winner was Scot Billings. Scot and his wife Peg were the people who we purchased Barlo from and they traveled all the way from Michigan to deliver him to us just 8 years ago. Scot said, "it must have somewhere between the Circle B Bar T Ranch and Fishtail", and he was correct. The reason that I didn't tell you the complete story was I knew it would be a give away if knew what was happening the day I took those pictures.

I left the house with my camera by my side in the pick up truck. Shortly after I left, on the Grove Creek Road on the way to Fishtail, I spotted the mallards, stopped the truck and took the first pictures, not far from there were the Western Meadowlarks. Had I told you I was on my way to Fishtail or shown you the next picture, it would not have been a difficult decision determining where I took the duck pictures. Yes, it is spring in Montana, and almost every pasture has calves in it. These were not totally dependent upon their mothers and were assembled in the sun near the hay.

There are pigeons everywhere and I have not been fortunate enough to get close enough to get a good picture. That day as you know by now was a good day for Clint the photographer and guess what was waiting on a fence post along the road. I have to say, it was a great picture.

One of the signs of spring is the arrival of the cranes. It is usually late March or early April that they arrive. They come in pairs as the "sand hill cranes" mate for life and before fall they have hatched at least 1 if not 2 or 3 young ones. They leave when the young ones can fly and we wait for spring for their return. I had seen them and heard them for at least a couple of weeks, but it wasn't until I got closer on my trip to Fishtail that these 2 posed for me. I was also fortunate to have my 400mm zoom lens.

and what else do we see in the pastures in the spring? Baby lambs. Number 55 was only a few days old. You could tell that by it's size and shape. Another give away as to it's age is the fact that it still has it's tail. The tails are removed, the rancher calls is docking, to prevent the lamb making a mess in it's wool when it goes to the bathroom. This one is a cutey as they all are.

I had to get out of the truck to get the picture of the lamb. As I was walking by some trees along the road, a very small bird started jumping from limb to limb. It was not the least bit intimidated by my presence and allowed me to take a series of pictures, this one being my favorite. At this point in time all I knew about it was that it was small, black and white, and let me take it's picture.

When I got home, I had to get my Audubon Rocky Mountain field guide for birds to determine what it was. After several debates with Marty, we determined it was a Black-capped Chickadee.

Needless to say, it was one of the most fun and fulfilling 5 miles drives I've had in a long time. Hope you enjoyed it as well. I also saw deer and rock chuck and smelled a skunk. As you can tell I'm having fun with my new camera, more to come.

Sure signs of spring in Montana

As you drive down the roads of rural Montana at this time of the year, it's a sure thing that you will start seeing young calves in the pastures with their mothers. We will probably still be seeing day old calves at least until May, but the pastures are getting full and the calves are a sure sign.

Several days ago, I started hearing a pounding noise on our bay windows, at first I thought it was one of the dogs scratching or gnawing on something. Then I followed the noise to one of our large picture windows to discover a robin flying into the window. He could have been telling me they had returned for the spring and summer but experience tells me he saw a reflective image in the window and was either attacking it or trying to get in the house. Here he is in a resting position before his next attack.
The other site driving down the roads are herds of deer. You will see in this photograph that the girls have accumulated around the "man of the hills". You should also note that there is only one of these guys with the antlers. For now this is his harem, and you better not mess with his women.
There are calves, birds returning from their winter habitat, the female deers have selected a mate to share with their lady friends and there are many other critters starting to show up. If they have been around, they have found a warm comfortable place to stay, not to far from food, but now that it's getting warm and the snow is about gone, they are venturing out. This one was walking down the middle of the Grove Creek Road as I headed home the other day. I gave him a wide berth and waited for him to realize that I needed to get past him before I proceeded home.

As the days are getting longer and daylight savings time means it's darker later, we know that there will be at least another snow and that summer is next.

Kenya had a great day, look what she found

We spotted Kenya running down the lane toward the house after our morning walk. She seemed in a happy mood and was moving at quite a rapid pace. We noticed something strange, take a look closely and see if you see what we saw. I agree, you probably can't see what's unique, in fact, I had to look several times after Marty told me what she had seen. The real question will be not what it is or where she got it but how it became hooked on her dog blanket under her neck.


If you still haven't figured it out, it is a bone from most likely a deer carcass, most likely a front leg and from the joint there are 2 bones that have created a hook that is lapped over the top of the dog blanket under her neck. Whether she was rolling on the carcass or the bone, it was most likely the way it got bound on the blanket.

This may be the best angle to see the bone. Barlo was either not interested or had been told by Kenya to stay away from her bone. Ultimately, when Marty took off the blanket the bone was deposited in the trash barrell. But that was just the morning scenario. We took them for an afternoon walk towards the mountains, turned around at the gate at the Johnson place and as we started back towards the house, guess what. Kenya had found another prize.

It was obvious what she had found this time. It was the remains of the head, neck, and some of the pelt of a deer. Whether the morning find was related to this part, we will never know. The close up will give you a better perspective of this prize.

Kenya was ultimately asked to drop her prize. With much chagrin, she relented, Marty grabbed her collar and I tossed her token into a field with a good fence so that she could not return to the scene of the capture. Whether it's old age or a predator, these carcasses are not rare and a dog on the loose is always attracted to the parts that remain.

Have you ever counted deer with Marty & Clint?

If you have been visiting Montana, you soon discover that there are a lot of deer. Someone asks, how many are there? One answer is that for every person in Montana, there are at least 4 deer. So we're returning to the Circle B Bar T Ranch from a hike or dinner or a parade when we start a competition as to which side of the car are there the most deer. The counting starts and the winner isn't declared until we get fairly close to the driveway. The most deer every counted, both sides of the car, from Fishtail to our mail box is around 100.

I took this picture on our way home from the branding. I counted 33 deer. This does not include the males, as they are not with the ladies at this time of the year.

BE SURE TO DUBBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURE