Spring Has At Last Sprung, the Wildflowers Tell Me So...

A walk in the sage a couple weeks ago the only wildflowers we saw were a few patches of Hood's flox--one the tiniest blooms I know of perhaps 3/16" wide and nearly flat to the ground....

Hood's flox

 But yesterday right out the truck Gale spied several bunches much larger, about the size of a half dollar, daisy-like flowers, Hood's Townsendia

Hood's townsendia

From that point on we were never out of sight of one flower or another such as the pretty mountain bluebells; a bit larger and standing taller than Hood's flox, against the gray/brown sagebrush and brown grass bluebells are difficult to miss...

Mountain bluebell

Not much drab about the few seeded draba and while these too fall into the really tiny class the yellow stands out like a beacon in the night sky might...

Few-seeded draba

Moss campanion is another tiny flower but the bright pink stands out and in some places rivals Hood's flox in abundance, like everywhere you look...

Moss campanion

Many think of sagebrush as wasteland, lifeless, empty and worthless but nothing could be further from the truth. Take a hike most anytime and chances are you will bump into all sorts of wildlife: elk, moose, antelope, mule and whitetail deer, songbirds, sage hens. pygmy, cottontail and jack rabbits, badger, coyote, golden eagles, you name it. Obviously spring is one of the best times, don't buy it? Take a hike and see for your ownself...over and out...Chuck

Snow Gods Smile At Last Leave This Ol' Boy Grinnin'

When at last the snow gods conspired to blow the storm away, Bert and Jane were able to finally get out of Utah and make their way to Montana.

As planned early next morning found Bert and me huddled in a hastily erected photo blind at the edge of a sage grouse breeding ground, aka dancing ground or lek.
Because of the seemingly endless unsettled weather pattern than had been plaguing southwest Montana since mid March I had grave doubts the weather gods would cooperate this morning. But my fears proved unfounded as the day dawned cold and clear, perfect actually for what we had in mind.

At least a dozen roosters were engaged in their spectacular dance even as I set the blind up. Again Lady Luck was on our side as sometimes setting the blind at dawn spooks the birds which then usually return but it takes awhile...Not this time however as the dancing cocks simply moved off a short ways and we were soon able to start shooting. As the sun came up the strong backlight proved a slight problem but only for a few minutes. As there were enough targets to aim our long telephoto lenses slightly left or right of the rising sun and keep shooting.

I suppose it might have been better somehow but I really can't think just how. Anyway thanks to our large capacity digital cards we both shot several hundred frames before the dance crowd started to leave around 9 a.m. And while I can't speak for Bert, trust me this ol' boy was sure grinnin'...

I'm sure upon reaching home Bert will post some of his shots on his blog as soon as he gets time. Check out the Links to the left...that would be Gildart Photo and click on Weblog.

Sage Hen Alley, Antelope and Rabbit Trails

Sage Hen Alley lived up to its handle big time today as the Pointer Sisters pointed an estimated 40 or so during a couple hour loop through the snow-covered sage. While we only saw two antelope you could not take a step and not trample a track; ditto rabbit tracks(jack, cottontail,pygmy). Sage hen sign, tracks and droppings everywhere. Yesterday we saw far more rabbit sign and way less sage hen and antelope sign, no sage hens or antelope sighted and just two rabbits, a whitetail jack and a pygmy. Curious since today we were actually just over the ridge from yesterdays hike. Good thing our goal wasn't to shoot sage hens since they were about as wild as sage hens get...several times the Sisters locked up long range and each time the birds boogied, like right now. I saw one big cock stretched to full height gawking our approach; watching cautiously he stood his ground until we closed to about 75 yards. When he flushed so did 4 of his buddies and as they flapped to put distance between another single flushed wild, at least 200 yards off. All in all I would have been lucky to kill even one bird...so much for the piece of cake reputation you so often hear bantied about, eh? Believe it or not but if there are any other critter tracks in the above rabbit thorofare I could not identify any.

Pointer Sisters in Action

That's Kate backing little sister Annie. However, yesterday on our near daily afternoon trek to the sagebrush north of town it was Annie who stole the entire show. First she nailed a single sage hen, then she bounced a whitetail jackrabbit, which she did not chase... good girl Annie. But sometime later must have had second thoughts because when a second whitetail jack jumped she did not even hesitate and took off in hot pursuit...To her everlasting credit however it only took a half dozen or so raging NOs!!!! on my part to end the chase. Whereupon she came in tongue hanging, chest heaving and sporting that inimitable wide grin of hers...obviously quite proud and no I don't think for a moment the delight had anything to do with obeying master's rants...

Good By and Good Riddance...Hooray!!!!

Riding into the sunset of what turned out a not so hot year, always the eternal optimist I look forward to a big turn around in 2010...good luck, eh?

Oh well, the past year did at least start off with a bang, as we spent the entire month of January bird bumming around the Arizona outback in search of quails and such. Staying the month was not only a big surprise to both Gale and me an even bigger surprise was how easy life with two dogs and a small trailer turned out. I can't recall a single significant crisis the entire time.

From there however things took a distinct downturn culminating I guess with the very real slap in the face the day my Medicare card arrived in the mail...like holy shit, you really are getting old...In between we endured getting screwed big time by outfitter buddy...OK I won't go there only because I don't want to lower myself to his lowlife friggin' level...2009 was without question our worst fishing season, if not ever, certainly in recent memory...not only did we not get out that often it seemed every time something happened to dust the deal...cows trashing our favorite little crick...everywhere we went others beat us to it...favorite campsites already taken...but the topper was the fishing for the most part bordered on grim...the only really good day I recall was the day Gale landed a really big cutt up at No Name Lake...you guessed it, Johnny on the Spot was none other than a guy from Idaho...why not...the bird season started out slow then picked up to more or less tolerable, then we endured a grim week west of Havre but later enjoyed a really fine week up Malta way...then winter hit and hunting around home mostly hit rock bottom, of late we hardly buy a bird just for the dogs to point...

On another track our photo/writing careers pretty much tanked, lots of rejected queries, very few photo sold, Great Places isn't selling worth crap, news the other day I'll only be writing 8 Sagebrush News columns instead of 12 and then yesterday I found out a feature piece scheduled for Nov/Dec09 has been bumped at least to May/June 2010. I'm afraid to ask same editor what might happen to the conservation feature submitted recently...and then there was the royal screwing we got from our doctor buddy...OK, enough, by now I'm sure you get it and understand quite clearly why I headlined this rant thusly...Happy New Year...we can only hope...right? Right.