Wildlife Encounters~The Big One

Sunset over ripe winter wheat, Sweetgrass Hills standing sentinel. 

One of the best things about living in a very rural place is that we see all kinds of wildlife on a regular basis. We see deer and antelope, for example, pretty much every day. And it doesn't get old!

Lately, we've been spending a bit more time than normal driving around on crop tours, assessing how close we are to being able to cut wheat and get harvest underway. With all the extra time spent out in the field, we've been seeing even more wildlife than normal. In some cases, we've been VERY up close and personal!

This post is very photo heavy-- photos are from me and Jeff of wildlife encounters! Some of them are a bit blurry because it can be difficult to photograph an animal on the move with a cell phone camera. Enjoy!

Pronghorn Antelope grazing on a stubble field.

Starting off with antelope. Pronghorn Antelope are fairly pedestrian where we are. We live in one of the most densely populated antelope counties in Montana. It's quite possible that antelope outnumber people. We see them all the time. They're still cool.

Antelope Buck in wheat field.

They're especially cool when you see a monster buck! This is one of those blurry photos. He only stopped briefly... apologies. Hope you can still get an appreciation of his grandeur!

Mule Deer bucks in velvet.

And then there are the deer! Jeff and I spotted these while down in the creek in one of our pastures. They were easily within 100 yards of us, maybe even closer, when we first saw them. Three young (small) mule deer bucks, in velvet. Again, photo is blurry. :(  Still, very cool.

Rocky Mountain Elk in crop stubble.

Don't forget about the rare elk sighting! We do have some elk around, but as I said, they're very rare. Not this guy, though. He was just trotting through some crop stubble about a mile south of our house. Jeff got this photo on his way home from his parents' place. Probably a small cow or yearling bull. No antlers. Tom, my father-in-law, just saw two larger bull elk in his pasture yesterday, full racks in velvet. Maybe he can keep them there until hunting season starts?! Maybe there's getting to be more elk around. We don't have much for predators, so it wouldn't surprise me if elk population is on the increase.

See if you can spot the wildlife in this next photo.
I'll give you a hint: I'm not talking about Harvey!


Here's a close-up...
We were out scouting crops and decided to hand-pull a few scattered weeds. It's a really good thing I didn't just reach in and grab this kochia plant!

Actually, I did pull up the plant that was close to this one-- about three feet away. And Harvey had just been right by that same spot, you know, doing his business...

The snake waited a LONG TIME to rattle. Boy, am I glad he warned us before I reached in there to pull out his cover! Could have ended in disaster.

When he did start rattling, I nearly jumped out of my skin. Jeff told me later he was proud of the string of cusswords I spat out as I got the hell away from that rattling snake! Definitely the closest I've ever been to a snake. My hand was within two feet of him when he rattled. Yikes. Needless to say, we decided to let the weeds grow a little longer after that and went home and had a beer. You know, to calm the nerves.  Being close to a rattling snake really gets your adrenaline pumping. Holy cow.

But the summer reptilian sightings are not done, alas.

Just this morning I was out walking Harvey. He had been pointing and flushing a lot of birds and really enjoying himself on our walk. Then he pointed and held his point for a very long time. I walked up to him to see if he'd release and flush and he just held it. I looked along the trajectory of his point and there, about six feet ahead, right in line with Harvey's nose, was a GIANT rattlesnake. I'm officially naming him The Big One. You can see most of his rattle in the photo below. He's not small.

I think it's very possible that this is the same snake that bit Harvey earlier this summer. When we saw him this time, he was halfway inside a gopher hole. He had no idea we were there watching him, and we were not close enough to get bit anyway. If he had emerged from the hole, you can bet we would have high-tailed it away from him pretty damn fast. You can see he's pretty girthy. He's probably been feasting on gophers and voles all summer. I think he was eating one right as we stood there and watched.


If you look really closely in this next photo, there's some snake skin that's clearly a different color. It's darker and more brown. When The Big One would wiggle and move around (still within that hole) the darker colored part didn't move at all. I didn't get any closer to investigate, for obvious reasons, but I think it could either be a second, live snake, OR perhaps a dead snake. It definitely was not an empty, shed snakeskin. It had flesh. And it wasn't attached to The Big One, i.e. not just still part of The Big One's body.

 Maybe they're a pair snakes? Maybe they have a nest? Maybe The Big One killed that other one for encroaching on his food source? Kind of hoping it's not a nest. In any rate, I plan to drive back up there later and see if I can find the snakes again (in a safe and cautious manner). I remember exactly where they were. If they're both gone, then at least I'll know that there were two live snakes. **shudder**

I am really proud of how smart Harvey was, though. He pointed the snake as if to let me know that the snake was there. He didn't charge toward him as if he were flushing a bird, he just held his point. "Mom, there's a snake down there! Be careful!" And then he just sat down right next to me calmly. Seriously, dogs are so smart. How often do I wish they could tell us humans everything they know. Oh, what we would learn! I'm grateful to have a dog that can at least communicate with me by pointing. Pretty dang cool. :)

Harvey the Vizsla, traipsing through a field of winter wheat.