Early this morning I noticed the cow moose I saw a few days ago lying by the meadow/forest interface. I glassed her and saw, to my surprise, she had a little calf with her. I watched them both for about 45 minutes. What a treat!
And the last treat: Yesterday on a hike I stumbled upon a grove of beautiful fairy orchids, one of my favorite flowers here in the mountains.
Calypso bulbosa
Filed under: Moose, wildflowers | 1 Comment »
I’m doing some work here, adding a utility room. With all the noise and construction, it was a great opportunity to escape to the park and let the workers watch the dog.
Since it only takes me 40 minutes to the NE entrance, I escaped around eleven and was back by 5. The day was overcast and on the cold side. I’d planned to do a day hike, but chucked the idea with a cold wind blowing through the Lamar. There was enough activity to view right from the road.
I’ts early June, the kids are still in school, and usually May and June the Park is still quiet during the week. Yet last summer was the busiest the Park has ever seen and its predicted to be the same again this year. The Lamar Valley had plenty of people today, but they all seemed serious wildlife watchers and so the atmosphere was calm and peaceful.
I do have to say, with all the hubbub around the ecosystem about wolves–rallies in Jackson and Cody recently, sponsored by outfitters and the Elk Foundation, complaining about wolves taking their business away [i.e. “biggest slaughter since the bison” meaning the wolves are eating all the elk, like when we killed all the bison] and wanting Wyoming wolves hunted as predators–it seems to be completely forgotten that wolves have created an incredible tourist attraction that benefits Wyoming. I only talked with a few tourists in the valley, but they were all looking for wolves. I ran into a carload of tourists from Oklahoma who had gotten out of their car to use the restroom when they heard a wolf howl. They walked out to an overlook of the Lamar river and saw a black wolf–a thrilling experience for them.
Another man stopped and asked what I was looking at through my scope. When I told him ‘a black bear’, he said “We already saw that. We’re looking for wolves.”
It seems to be one of the main draws to the Park these days. Wolves have fueled the attendance to record numbers!
With the Druid Pack all but gone, I didn’t expect to hear or see wolves in the Lamar, but there was a black wolf running around there, plus a tourist told me she’d seen one on a kill earlier.
Mostly though, since I see wolves in my own valley, I love to see the Bison and especially their babies at this time of year. They are the only wildlife that cannot leave the Park so I have none in my valley.
There were a lot of Bison in the Lamar this day. I always try and imagine the great herds that once roamed everywhere just a few hundred years ago.
Loads of Bison
Besides Bison, wolves, and black bears, on the way out I saw 2 beautiful old bull moose hanging by the side of the road (until a crazy tourist tried to get a close up picture. Fortunately for the tourist, the Bulls decided to head up the hillside instead of into the tourist).
Filed under: Yellowstone National Park | Tagged: Bears, Moose, Wolf, Yellowstone National Park | Leave a comment »
Last week an elk calf was killed right in the little meadow by my house. Koda discovered the leg, lying in the disturbed grass near a solitary aspen. The mother elk had been hanging around all morning, calling and calling for her baby.
Now, almost a week later, I heard her early this morning, still calling.
Cow elk sniffs where calf was killed
It breaks my heart to hear her. I saw her last week quite a lot, coming closer and closer into the meadow, unperturbed by my presence or the dog, obviously confused as to where her baby might be.
Koda and I walked the trail through the little adjacent forest. Fresh black bear tracks, a mother and her cubs, had wandered amongst the springs. I set up my trail camera and found another leg from the calf.
The little elk had disappeared almost without a trace. I’ve walked and walked around the area looking for more evidence. One leg in the meadow; one in the woods; where’s the rest of her remains? She barely lived, barely had a chance.
Yet, maybe these two little bear cubs will now have a chance.
Black Bear cubs
Its bear hunting season and although you can’t shoot a mother or her cubs, the young male whose been hanging around, digging for roots and insects, is fair game so to speak.
Its sad, but yet true. One life feeds another. I sing for the bear mother. I cry for the elk mother. One does not negate the other nor hold more value than the other. Its’ the old and ancient dance. Don’t be fooled. Despite all the latest new fangled technologies, extended life, genetic transformations, new pills, greed on Wall Street, fat cat politicians and the usual rhetoric, we too are dancing.
Filed under: Elk, Grizzlies | Tagged: Bear cubs, Bears, Black bears, Elk, Elk calves | Leave a comment »
I recently visited some old clients and got a chance to see how their gardens had filled in. I want to comment on just two gardens with interesting patios.
The first was an idea I cooked up. It involved using pavers set in concrete around the edges of the patio. Executing it was a contractors’ nightmare I suppose. I wanted the pavers to be included in the final pour so the patio flowed together. First we did a hand pour and set the pavers in around the edges. You’ll notice those white things in the photo. That’s where the planted edging around the lawn goes and we had to have a backstop for the concrete, so it wouldn’t pour into the dirt. We used some styrofoam that could later be taken out.
The pour
The boulders to the right of the above photo are set so no concrete flows beyond them. That area was a planted pocket.
As we poured the patio, we had to hand work the concrete into the spaces between the pavers and wipe the pavers off of the concrete. We had to work fast and it was tedious. Like I said, a contractors nightmare!
Carex lawn with small plants as edging
I didn’t want the concrete to butt up to the lawn. I wanted a softer edge so I used a mixed planting of grasses and Stachys ‘Hummelo’, a small flowering Stachys which isn’t flowering in this photo, but flowers all summer long. The lawn itself is Carex pansa. The owner has two children who were around 10 and 8 at the time. They were able to play ball on the lawn.
Pavers set in concrete
Originally I’d picked out a dark purple colored paver, but that was too wild for the client so we went with a more subdued look.
The client asked for a small patio/sitting area in the corner of her garden. Instead of using more concrete, I chose decomposed granite with the addition of a few pavers in it to match. A path of the same pavers set in soil with ground cover leads to the patio.
Decomposed granite small patio with pavers; Pavers set in Dymondia groundcover
I say that a yard takes about 6 or 7 years to mature. This yard is about 4 years old, still growing in, but I was pleased at its progress.
I also visited a garden that used the DG dusting method described in a previous post. This garden was installed five years ago. The DG still looked excellent, but in a few spots you could see exposed baserock. After five years it’s time for another dusting of DG. In making a decomposed granite patio, the major expense in materials is the DG. At over $80/yard, doing a dusting instead of 2″ saves quite a bit of money.
Decomposed Granite patio dusting method after 5 years needs new 1/2″ DG application
The paver patio set in concrete looked good, although the client never had it sealed. Sealing is really not necessary with a hard stone, but it does bring out the wonderful colors of the stone. Here is a photo of some of the detail work we did with her patio. My client is an artist and fun to work with. She’s willing to take risks and stretch the boundaries. She wanted the edges to have a ‘river’ like look. She personally went and hand picked all the river cobbles as well as placed them herself.
Placing the edging cobbles
River rocks edge patio for an artistic look
cobble edging detail around natural stone seat
And to leave all you readers with a final funny thought: While driving around nearby Belvedere, the most upscale and expensive neighborhood in Marin County, my son and I saw a police car parked at a prominent corner with a stop sign. When we looked inside, there was a dummy policeman, complete with a donut and coffee mug on the dash. I guess the wealthy citizens of Belvedere can’t afford a real policeman to deter criminals.
Belvedere ‘fake’ cop. Dummy with coffee and donut on dashboard
Filed under: Gardening | Tagged: Carex pansa lawn, Concrete patio, Concrete patio ideas, Decomposed granite patio methods, Decomposed granite patios, DG Patios | 1 Comment »
Several weeks ago I wrote in my post about planting seedling trees that I accidentally dug up a cache of clean red fresh chunks of meat. I’d noticed a freshly dug area right by a rock and thought it would be easier to plant there. To my surprise out came about 4 or 5 pieces of meat, about 3″ or 4″ size.
Where the meat was cached by the mystery animal
Koda immediately re-cached them. Here is a video of him caching a found deer leg out on a hike for reference.
I wondered who put that meat there. It smelled quite fresh, although it probably was buried when there had been some snow on the ground.
It snowed a few inches the next day and while walking in the woods by the cabin, I noticed Black Bear tracks. The bear had walked the trail, circled around the tree at the base of my spring, then walked back the way he came and up the hillside. Could that bear be the culprit?
I work once a week at the Museum in the Natural History Lab preparing specimens. I asked my boss, the assistant curator, for his opinion.
“Could it have been a bear or coyote?”
“Coyotes eat everything all up. They don’t cache.” he said. “Maybe a crow or raven.”
Yesterday I walked to the upper area to check on my seedlings. We’d had rain and bits of snow so I figured they’d be fine. All looked good, even putting on new growth. But then I noticed that seedling in the old cache hole. The protective cage was scattered, the plant was dug up and pushed aside, the rocks I’d dug up and used for mulch were helter-skelter, and a nice hole was there that had all the markings of a larger animal–kind of like my dog might dig. Whoever dug that hole was definitely NOT a corvid!
The animal had come back looking for his cache. I felt badly. He or she must have been sorely disappointed, a meal gone without. Koda was all over the place with his nose and although I didn’t see anything, I assumed that animal had left a calling card there to let other animals know this was his place.
I found where Koda had cached the meat, dug up a piece and froze it for later I.D.
Frozen piece of cached meat. Notice hairs.
I went back and asked my boss the question again.
“Well, could’ve been a badger.”
The mystery continues. I’m going to find out who that animal is. Any hints, readers?
Filed under: Tracking | Tagged: meat caches by animals | Leave a comment »
They’ve been back for a while. They are the heralds of spring. Their call is distinct, awesome. They’re beautiful to watch fly or on the ground. The Sandhill Crane.
Here’s a short video I took the other day on the road to Yellowstone.
Filed under: Sandhill Crane | Tagged: Sandhill crane | Leave a comment »
It snowed about 4″ here last night but I braved the drive into town early in order to hear Arthur Middleton’s talk at the Buffalo Bill Museum. Arthur is the PhD student that’s in charge of the study on why the Sunlight elk herd has such low calf/cow ratios. He’s been working up here in the field for 3 years, and now he expects to crunch all the data for another 3. But his preliminary findings were what he wanted to report today to the public.
First off, I’ve seen his interns up here for the past two years and gotten to know them and Arthur. I can’t say enough about how focused, diligent and hardworking these students are. Up at dawn in the dead of winter to observe elk in the freezing cold. As Arthur put it today, they had 4 behaviors that were noted: feeding, bedding, vigilant, and running. That’s about all the elk did, day after day.
Arthur did a great job of presenting all this info to the public in lay person’s terms. He used slides and began step by step explaining some of the biology necessary to understand the complexity. Simply put, there are many factors to consider, and I do remember at last years’ good-bye party for the interns listening to Arthur thinking all the factors through. Here’s my summary of Arthurs’ points and I hope I’m doing justice to it all.
1. First there are two herds that he studied, one migratory (Sunlight herd migrates here in winter and to the Park in the spring/summer/fall); and one non-migratory which is down north of Cody. By looking at data from a lot of years ago, the elk have changed their patterns. There used to be no non-migratory herds around here. Migration, as Arthur pointed out, is a fairly fixed behavior taught by cow to calf, so it takes many years to make a change. Arthur explained the advantages of migration, mainly better food quality as the elk follow the new grasses up as the snow melts. There might be some predation advantages too as the predators den in the spring and stay put for a while as the elk move higher up.
Elk from the trail camera
2. Arthur explained how lactation takes a lot of energy from the mother (as all of us mothers know!). Basically, non-lactating elk have 50 pounds more fat on them than those that lactate. While the normal pregnancy rates for elk is 90% (and the NON-migrating herd is at that bar), the Sunlight (migrating) herd is at only about 60%. The premier finding of this study was that the Sunlight herd cows are only getting pregnant every other year. By doing that, they save energy vis a vis body fat that helps them through the winter.
3. Displaying a slide of the rainfall patterns over the last hundred years, and comparing that with satellite data that looks at greening rates (especially in the months of June/July during lactation), we could see that this area has been in a severe drought, as well as compressed warming trends (i.e. shorter winters). A photo of the high mountain pass between Sunlight and Yellowstone in June showed not as much green as should be expected.
4. Another interesting find was behavior, what the interns were watching during those months they were here. The vigilant behavior time was the same for the non-migratory and the migratory. But where they differed was that the non-migratory herd spent more time bedding while the migratory herd spent more time feeding. The nutritional quality of the migrators just wasn’t as good. Factors governing the non-migratory herds were irrigated pastures and intentional low grade fires set to improve grazing in areas where cattle are. The migratory Sunlight herd goes up through wild and high country where natural fires and rainfall determine feed quality.
More elk
5. Lastly, looking at predation, Arthur showed a chart from research in Yellowstone pre -wolves on calf predation. Predation was looked at by bears (main predator of calves), coyotes, cougars, natural causes, and survival rate. He compared that to a more recent chart that included wolves. Interestingly enough, wolves were almost about the same as the coyotes in the first slide but the bear predation had increased 3 fold. Lots more bears are in the Park since the 80’s.
This grizzly spent hours upturning Bison paddies for insects underneath
Although Arthur has more data to analyze, it seems obvious that the main factor that is affecting this herds’ decrease in cow/calf ratio is quality of feed. These elk, smartly enough, are compensating for the nutritional loss by having calves every other year, instead of every year. Add to that the increased predation on calves by bears in the park, with the new factor of wolves predating at the same rate as coyotes approximately, and you pretty much get your 30% drop.
Bull and cow mating in Yellowstone
One other comment Arthur made was that most of the migratory herds are doing well in Wyoming. Sunlight as well as one other herd stood out as extremely low on a comparison chart and that was why this study was conducted. Why this herd suffers more from drought than other herds–you’d have to look at each herd individually.
After the talk I went to the local hairdresser to make an appointment for next week. As I was waiting at the counter, I noticed a large poster ready to put up, advertising the ‘Wolf Rally’ in Cody on May 22 by hunters, like the one in Jackson several weeks ago. These guys are blaming wolves for all their woes and want the Wyoming delisting plan enacted which would give the wolf predator status all over the state (meaning you can shoot on sight). On the tag line of the poster there was an invitation to ‘Come and learn the science of what’s happening with the wolves and elk’. Somehow I don’t think so.
Nature is a beautiful complexity that takes much time and pondering to put some of the pieces together that Man can understand. What I learned from so many of my biology classes is that things are just not as simple as you think. I watched Arthur over these last several years thinking through so many pieces of this puzzle in a questioning way, trying to piece parts together. Its much easier to have an emotional opinion, play the game of scapegoat, and rally around a cause.
Filed under: Elk | Tagged: Elk, Grizzly bears, Wolf, Wolf pictures | 2 Comments »
A friend came up late morning to help me plant more trees. A squall came in and with it a fierce cold wind. After several minutes the weather settled down, the sun shone through brilliant cumulus clouds but it was still hovering above freezing. This continued several times all morning until I’d had enough. Hungry and cold I suggested we quit for the day and head to the house for lunch.
Since I’m needing some poles to repair a gate, we decided to see if we could make it up to Beartooth Lake to cut some lodgepole poles. The road was clear and this typical May weather had brought new snow into the mountains. Pilot and Index Peaks were covered white in snow, the deep of the blue sky setting them off.
We got a little past the maintenance yard and then got stuck in the snow. I let the dogs out while my friend shoveled and I pushed the truck. The dogs, like 2 kids, went wildly romping around the deep snow pack.
That adventure foiled, my friend suggested we see how far we could get towards Cooke City. About 5 miles from Cooke, the road was full of snow, although a plow had gone over it. The sign said ‘Road Closed’ but we kept on. My friend said they run a plow now so that the heat of the sun will melt the rest off. That way there’ll be less work to do come May 7th when the NE entrance officially opens.
Once into Cooke, the road was clear and dry and we decided to head for the Lamar. By now it was about 6:30 pm and a perfect time to catch some wildlife watching. But as we drove into the park, a deep fog appeared and it started to snow…sleet really. My friend commented that he’d been coming here for 50 years and during that entire time the willows had never been able to grow.
“You’d have to have come here for that long to see the difference. The willows are growing now. They’ve never been this big. The elk used to use the Lamar like cattle. They’d be down in the river bottoms. Now the wolves keep them on the move and the brush is coming back.”
As we continued towards the Buffalo Ranch, the sky cleared. We kept commenting that we wished we’d brought our cameras. I thought about it as I walked out the door, but figured I was just going to cut poles. Instead, the air, the sky, the mountains, the weather was magnificent…a special day, a special light.
We watched a grizzly for a while nosing around for food. Three sand hill cranes hunted nearby. Elk grazed easily in the valley, while a Bison, beginning to shed, rubbed his back on a rock. No one was in the valley. It was left to the wildlife.
Coming a little north of Crandall on the way home, a grizzly bounded across the road in front of us. It was about 7:30 and I suppose he was headed out for his evening rounds. We stopped and watched him climb up the rocky cliffs on the other side of the highway, so close to the homes around there.
A spontaneous surprise, the day was full of typical May weather, my favorite time of the year. Snow, sleet, sun….dry, wet, foggy, brilliant need-your-sunglasses light. And lots of wildlife. Although we kept commenting how, of course, where’s your camera when you need it, I reminded my friend “This was a day just for our eyes only.”
Filed under: Yellowstone National Park | Tagged: Bears, Grizzly bears, Yellowstone National Park | 1 Comment »
I finally got my tree seedling order. I almost didn’t get my Limber Pines, but at the last minute the CCD found at least 1/2 my order. Today was a frigid day, hovering around 35 degrees with a chilling wind–perfect for planting. I gathered up my pick, several containers of left-over chippings from splitting wood last fall, a can of polymer crystals, and the plants and off I went to the back forty of the property.
What I used for mulch...leftovers from splitting wood
Since the trees were in tubes, just little things, I thought it would be no problem planting the 60 that I had. But the ground is all rock, so planting just 15 today was enough. I dug all the holes first, excavating about twice as wide as deep. The depth should be no more than the plant itself. Remove all the rocks, but save them for later.
For a long time now I’ve noticed and wondered why the limber pines seemed to congregate next to large boulders, sometimes even growing in a boulder pocket. Today I solved the mystery. Believe it or not, it was way easier to dig a hole next to a boulder—even next to one that had a tree by it that I had to cut down because of beetle kill (meaning there would be roots nearby). That was because between the wind and snow, over years and years soil tended to pile up against the rocks. Elsewhere, in the open, there was so little soil, mostly rock, that when I went to plant the tiny tree I had a hard time finding enough actual soil to refill the hole.
I learned fast and started digging next to rocks. I also know that Limber Pines regenerate nicely after fires. Although the pines themselves are not specifically fire adapted, after a fire when the birds cache their seeds, the seeds grow quickly in a newly burnt area. With that in mind, I planted in the areas where I burnt brush piles this winter. Those areas were also really easy to dig in. Why? Although there were still rocks there, there were NO roots to contend with from grasses. The soil was thick and loose there.
Mystery solved!
One interesting thing that happened…I saw a nice start for a hole by a rock and thought to put a tree there. I dug the hole around a bit deeper and uncovered a cache of meat! Some animal this winter (the meat smelled fresh still) had cached several fistfuls of what looked to me like deer meat. The meat was not chewed or regurgitated, but in slabs. Koda immediately grabbed the chunks and re-cached them elsewhere.
Where the cache was.
In planting each tree, I added a small amount of polymer crystals.
This stuff is a good moisure keeper
I used these before and highly recommend them where it will be difficult to water and in order to give plants a start. Since there is no irrigation nor water available where I’m planting, these crystals will absorb a great amount of water and expand about 5 times their size. Then they slowly release the moisture. Another but much more expensive alternative used on oaks in California is a product called Dri-Water. But watch out with the crystals. Newcomers to the product tend to think they’re not putting hardly enough in the hole. If you go over the recommended amount, the crystals ‘bubble’ out of the soil like an alien.
I filled the hole, being careful to keep the roots straight and deep, putting some crystals on the bottom of the hole, some in the middle after filling. Tamped the soil down around the tree, making sure I didn’t plant the tree too deeply. Never plant a tree deeper than its crown. In this case, with the seedling so small, basically don’t plant it lower than it is in the pot. Then I mulched the tree with my wood chips. If you use a tight mulch, like from a store bought bag, then you have to be careful again about smothering the crown. I’ve planted a lot of California natives and the one thing they are all sensitive to is crown rot. Its better to plant too high on a mound so moisture runs off. But in this case, in a state where it snows but rarely rains, planting on a mound seemed like overkill. The chips are natural and loose, allowing air to pass through.
Burn areas were easy to dig in
Remember we saved all the rocks. I took those rocks and placed them around the tree and over the mulch. I’ve found that rocks can be one of the best mulches as they keep the moisture in underneath.
Lastly, I put a seedling tree guard around each tree. Unfortunately they only had a few left of these at CCD from last year. I’m used to using these in California on native trees in outlying areas. They give the seedling a chance for protection against browsing. I cut these in half because I’m having a difficult time finding them for sale around Cody. None of the stores even know what I’m talking about.
Can you tell which are the Pines and which are the Douglas Firs?
The reason I like these is because they’re easy and also yellow, making it easy for me to find the seedlings to water them over the summer. Of course, I can use homemade chicken wire ones; or take coat hanger wire, make an umbrella and throw netting over it. Just make sure each year to raise the height to accommodate the tree growth. But I prefer these simple plastic tubes. I hope I can find more.
I’ll have to hand water these guys about every 2 weeks for the first year, even with the polymers. If I succeed in a 50% viability I’ll be happy. Natives are hard to start. Probably the 2nd year it would be good to water them 1 time/month. By the third year they should be on their own. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Filed under: Pines | Tagged: Douglas fir, Gardening, Homesteading, Limber pine, Pinus contorta, Planting natives, Pseudotsuga menzieisii, Reforestation | 1 Comment »
According to an article I read, the GYE has 1.1 Grizzly Bears per 100 square kilometers (38.6 sq. miles). I’m not sure how many bears live in the Sunlight area of Cody, but I know its a drop-off place for problem bears. I was told by a Forest Service contract employee last summer that they collared 25 bears here last spring.
That same article estimated grizzly density during the time of Lewis and Clark at 3.1 bears per 100 square kilometers. Three times as many bears. I’d be curious to know the density around here.
What I do know is that although its common to see lots of fresh bear sign every spring, its not so common to run into bears. 1 bear per 40 square miles is a lot of miles. But I also know that bears like to use the same trails we do and precaution and care are important. I carry bear spray, watch the dog and stay alert, especially around blind corners and try to stay out of heavily wooded areas in the spring.
Grizzly in spring
That being said, I took a nice hike up Elk Creek the other day and spent about 1/2 hour investigating some wonderful bear tracks. After taking Jim Halfpenny’s tracking class last fall, I’ve become accustomed to looking at tracks from many different angles, including getting down on the ground and eyeballing them. Jim also urges his students to use all their senses. Feeling the imprints with your sensitive finger tips is just as important as the visuals.
By mapping out one track distance to the next, I was able to estimate where the next track might be even if I couldn’t detect it. Then by putting my face right down next to the ground I could make out the faint imprint of the track. After doing this for several non-discernible tracks, I was soon able to pick them out easily. I started noticing how, even if there was no visible track, the grass was flattened or there might be the slightest disturbance in the soil.
I spent a lot of time trying to understand this bears’ gait. Bears usually amble, where the back larger foot oversteps the front. For some reason I don’t yet understand, this bears’ hind foot hardly imprinted and it was mostly his front foot that was registering deeply in the mud.
Grizzly typical walk or amble
I backtracked the bear, who was headed towards Elk Creek valley not too far from my cabin. He’d come up a spur trail by the creek. I wondered what the bear was looking for, what he was eating, where he found food. I put my fingers in the track of his front foot and felt all the ridges. With my palm pressed against the large pad, I realized here I was ‘touching’ this bear’s foot. It held all the mystery and magic of bears themselves, all in a print.
Filed under: Tracking | Tagged: Bears, Grizzly bears, Tracking | 1 Comment »
Leslie Patten Books: Wild Places, Sacred Spaces 