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. 

Hunting on the HiLine 2014, Volume 4: Week Of Hunting

Last week was the week of hunting around here! Jeff's friend Jeremy (remember him from This Post?) was here for the whole week. He's easy to host and fun to have around. Then, Jeff's Uncle Collin and Aunt Patsy arrived on Sunday and left on Wednesday, also for hunting purposes. They were staying with Tom and Carol, but we all got together in the evenings for meals.

Time was spent in the Lost River Wildlife Management Area and surrounding environs (again, read the post I linked to above for more info) and also in the Sweetgrass Hills, as the two primary hunting areas, with some excursions around old-standby coulees, too.

Because I was at work during the day, I did not go along on any of the hunting day-trips. Thankfully, Jeff shared some of his photos with me, so that's what we'll post on the blog this time, along with some info that Jeff did share with me about how the hunts went.

This photo (above) was from the hike into the Sweetgrass Hills. It had snowed a bit overnight, which typically means it's easier to spot elk. This particular view is looking back from the Hills to the surrounding flat-land. Pretty cool how the Hills just sort of rise up out of the prairie.

They guys actually did spot a group of elk right away, but were unable to take one home with them.

That's Jeff's Uncle Collin looking back at us.

Even though they day resulted in not bringing an elk out of the mountains after all, it sounded like everyone really enjoyed the hiking, as evidenced by the enthusiastic retelling of the day's events over dinner. Jeff said he learned a lot about what to do next time, and also that he just enjoyed being outdoors. He also said that it was cool to see the headwaters of Sage Creek, which is the creek that runs through our family farm, providing fresh drinking water most of the year to our cow herd.

At the bottom of this ravine is a very thin beginning of a creek, fed from a spring.
Thus, Sage Creek is born!

Much of the rest of the week for Jeff and Jeremy was spent driving around some of their usual haunts, looking for deer and elk. They did a lot of driving and A LOT of hiking in the coulees and along the Milk River. By the end of the week, Jeff and Jeremy had reached a number of conclusions about the deer population this year.

First, it appears as though the deer numbers are not actually less, as some around here have said, they're just spending their time in different places. With so much CRP having been taken out in recent years, it makes sense that the deer would seek different places to bed in safety. Namely, the coulee banks and ravines. Jeff is thinking they spend their day in the coulees, then feed on the flat lands at night.

Second, for some reason, there does not appear to be as many large deer in our area this year. Jeff and Jeremy spent significant time surveying the scene, and the deer that Jeff eventually shot on the last day of their hunting week was one of the largest they saw all week.

So, with that all being said, if you're planning on hunting in this area this year, remember two things: You're probably going to have to hike, and you're probably not going to shoot a record buck this year.

Jeff with this year's buck.
Not a record by any means, but not bad given what they saw in our area this year.

Hunting season is not over yet, so there's still time for Jeff to shoot an elk. Jeremy and his wife are coming up again in a few weeks, and they'll be looking for deer still, too. And, on top of all that, we have hardly taken Harvey out bird hunting, either! So, stay tuned for more Hunting on the HiLine updates as the fall hunting season continues!

Hunting on the HiLine 2013, Vol. 3: Buck Found on Lost River

The hype on the Lost River WMA (See Previous Post) proved true right away on Friday evening.

I had the chance to join Jeff and Jeremy on their evening hunt. We had barely driven into the WMA when we spotted a group of mule deer on a coulee bank. After scrambling out of the vehicle and slightly away from the road, Jeff and Jeremy scoped the deer and spotted a large buck. Jeremy was able to take a shot before the buck went out of sight around the bend of the coulee. It's pretty amazing he was able to take a shot after all the scrambling around and loud noises we were making. The deer were on the move.

 All except the one who took the bullet. He went nowhere.

We field-dressed the deer on the side of the point and loaded him in the pickup. With several daylight hours left, we decided to bird hunt in the flat along the south bank of the Milk River. We had a nice hike through some prime pheasant habitat. Harvey was with us and he trailed a few birds, but only pointed and flushed a pheasant hen. The hike was roughly two miles. We enjoyed working with the dog and the guys also took the opportunity to scout some prime deer and elk habitat. There were definite signs of elk having been in the river bottom recently.

This photo was taken from where we field dressed Jeremy's deer. The flat light makes the photo lose some dimension, but still gives an idea of the striking landscape and river valley.

We also saw three beavers and lots of gnawed trees and branches. It will be cook to see over the next few hunting seasons whether or not the beavers build a successful dam and watch their progress doing so.

As twilight fell, we began our trek out of the river and headed for home. We saw many, many deer on our drive back home but none were exactly what Jeff wanted to shoot. Most of them were does and fawns, which you're not supposed to shoot anyway.

The next morning, Jeff and Jeremy went out again. This time, they went to an old standby hunting ground which is actually the pastureland of a family friend of ours. Jeff got his buck that morning.

Group Photo

 This was the largest deer Jeremy had ever shot. Once they had both deer back to the yard, the guys measured and scored the size of the animals. I don't really understand the measurement process, but I think it involves measuring the width between both racks, the length of the racks as well as each of their tines, and the circumference of each rack at some strategic locations.  Jeff's buck scored 148 and Jeremy's was 172.  I think they are both planning to have at least the antlers mounted. The well-planned and executed decorating scheme at our house consisting of mismatched, second-hand furniture, and antlers on the wall will gain another statement piece.

The measuring process.

Now that they both have shot pretty nice buck mule deer, the guys are switching their concentration to hunting elk and working Harvey on some game birds. Jeremy will be back in a few weeks and the hunt will be on again. You can bet they'll be spending some more time in the Lost River. It has definitely shown it is prime habitat for many different types of animals. It's a neat place to hike. I'm also interested to come back during different seasons to see how the landscape changes.