“Short Eared Owl”

We started and ended the day putting together a giant lawnmower that hooks to the back of the John Deer Tractor.  We worked through the afternoon hooking this beast up and finally finished, just as another rain cloud passed overhead.  That shut the work off for the rest of the day.

After tonight’s dinner, Bill and I headed out on the ATV’s and went to check the entire length of the new pasture we will be moving the bison into when things dry up.  We must have travelled at least 5 miles, because the dog we had following us dropped off after about 40 minutes of hard running.  We flushed a few white tail deer, a couple mule deer, and two short eared owls, one of which is above.

- Keith -

“Hide and Seek”

The mud here is incredible.  It sticks to everything like molasses and makes traveling anywhere extremely difficult.  Pickups were useless today, as the mud continued to cake up on the wheels, so all traffic had to be employed by the ATV’s.  There is standing water on almost every trail, and the creeks are flooded to capacity.  Unfortunately that means working in the dusty, dingy shop.  

I did manage to take the ATV out to check on the buffalo and make sure that the electric fences keeping them on our land, were still charged.  The mud and rocks were kicked up over 15 feet above and behind me as I went.  For your information, rain stings when you are moving down the road at over 20 mph.  This rain is soon to bring us some friendly mosquitoes with all the standing water.  

Hope you are enjoying the commentary.

        - Keith -

“Eastern Kingbird”

Today was a rather fun day.  Dennis Linghor, the Assistant Ranch Manager was with me today.  Being an avid photographer himself, he was happy to take me out on a wildlife safari.  We loaded up our gear, woke up at 5:00 in the morning, and hit the road looking for sage grouse.  Unfortunately, the skies darkened and a light drizzle killed our efforts.  We did however, visit a remote Indian rock.  These are large boulders with intricate carvings.  Evidently, offerings to the rock are still made by area tribes-people, as we found many artifacts.  We moved on from there and were able to get some great shots of many different birds, a few snakes, and some nice looking butterflies.  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us for very long.  

As far as work on the prairie is concerned, we took down about a half-mile of barbed-wire fence, and put up electric fence in its place.  In the next week I have been informed that there will be a writer/author from The Reader’s Digest coming in to write a story about the project.  Well, waking up at 5:00 in the morning leaves you feeling tired quickly.  I am going to hit the sack early and start early again tomorrow.  Keep checking the species checklist as it is growing constantly.

“Prairie Gathering”

Today I had a run in with one of the most deadly creatures out on the prairie, the western diamondback rattlesnake.  Though I was not able to see it, due to the dense brush and perfect camouflage, the distinct rattle froze me in my tracks.  I ended up slowly walking away without incident, but it was an intense moment.  To be so far away from help and to have a highly venomous snake a mere couple of feet away is an interesting predicament.  The second snake was bigger.  

I was driving the ATV near the house and almost flipped myself trying to stop for the gigantic snake meandering in front of me.  I knew immediately that this was not a rattlesnake due to its 6 feet of length.  The rattlesnake is the only venomous snake in Eastern Montana and though I knew this to be true, I was not getting close enough to find out.  To see a picture of the snake, head on over to the species checklist.

I also went exploring today on the ATV.  Out here, to the outsider, everything is absolutely beautiful.  There are vast swathes of land that are broken up only by the occasional fence post or small tree.  Since arriving here though, I have come to the understanding that there is a certain monotony to the land.  Everything is much greener now and flowering, but I can see that there is the potential for a sea of yellow.  However, this being said, the wildlife here is second to none.  There is a plethora of different wildlife everywhere you look.  Everything here is just a bit more subtle.  With nothing to hide behind, most of the wildlife have taken on the same color as their surroundings, adding to the monotony of the landscape.  The biggest thing for me that I see here is the absence of mountains.  These being the calling card of my home town.  Being located somewhere else, always leaves you appreciating what you have.

   - Keith - 

“Bison On The Prairie”

Today was an interesting day and I met a few influential people.  I started the day again with some lawn mowing.  The reason for the exorbant amount of mowing is to protect the buildings from the threat of a wildfire started from lightning.  After lunch, some people from the Nature Conservancy stopped by for a complete tour of the facilities, land, and some nearby surrounding areas.  We went to a local archaeological and historical buffalo jump.  This is a giant cliff the Native Americans would funnel the bison over to kill them.  One of the men I met and chatted with, was the Chief Executive Officer of Orvis, Perk Perkins (that was pretty cool).  He was familiar with the Roanoke area, so we were able to strike a good conversation.

The potential exists that tomorrow I may go out with the chief biologist from the nearby CMR Refuge to dust the prairie dog towns for the plague.  Prairie dogs are notorious for their contraction and spread of the plague.  This is the same plague that has decimated populations of humans in the past as well, so we need to be a little careful.  The reason to keep the prairie dogs alive is to have a good source of food for the black footed ferrets, one of the most endangered mammals in North America.

Keep on checking and commenting on here, it gives me a good lift every time I see family and friends interested in what I am doing here.  We had over 80 hits yesterday.  Sorry, this website does not do the pictures justice.

       - Keith -

“Prairie Sunset #1″

I had my first encounter with what the locals call gumbo today.  I was sent to clean the ATV we have out here on the ranch and found it to be caked with this stuff.  I can’t imagine what the person who had driven it last must have looked like.  I spent 2 hours cleaning the 4-wheeler until it was in good enough shape to run again.  We need to be careful about how much water we use and how fast.  There is an artesian well here that fills up the house’s reservoir at a rate of 1 gallon per minute, but if you are washing a bunch of cars or ATV’s you could use up the supply quickly.

I also learned the fine art of lawn mowing today.  Using the ranch’s large John Deer I mowed a large swath of land around the house.  We also did some basic ranch repairs, including fixing a few doors on the large equipment stores.  It seems that out here the day starts early and ends early as well.  I was up at 6:00 am and we headed out to work at around 7:00 am.  If you hit the sack at 10 or 11 this is no problem.  The workers out here move from one task to the next without much pause in between.  I am eating well, and based on the two large refrigerators that are completely stocked with food, I will continue to do so.

I went on a little photo safari tonight after all the work for the day was done.  I have committed myself to a new goal while out here:  To photograph as many different species of plant and wildlife as possible, and be able to recognize each species; a regular Audubon goal.  I was able to get quite a few today.  Please check out the new page entitled species checklist to see my progress.  If there are some animals that you would like to see me photograph, please let me know and I will add them to the ever expanding list. Oh yeah, and my sister scored a hat trick in the regional semifinals.

Thank you all for reading!

         - Keith -

“Pronghorn Fawn on The Prairie”

Today started out amazing and ended 10 levels higher than that.  I flew out of Bozeman in a small 6 person twin-prop Cessna and was able to see almost the entire state of Montana.  From Rocky Mountains in the west, to the flat prairies in the east I saw more of Montana today than most people who live in Montana ever will.  We picked up a National Geographic wildlife biologist on the way and cruised on in to Malta, MT, but not before passing low over the grazing bison.  After a quick bite at the local Dairy Queen, we headed off in our 4 wheel drive truck and travelled an hour’s distance into the prairie.  The road conditions were poor and sloppy, yet we made it to the ranch house without any incidents. 

The first thing that hits you while driving down the one dirt road to nowhere, is the immensity of the surroundings, followed by the density of the wildlife.  Wherever I looked there was some species of wildlife.  The picture above shows a newly-born, pronghorn fawn sitting where it’s mother told it never to move.  We were able to get up real close to it and I snapped off a few shots.  Once arriving at the ranch we set out to see the buffalo as well as the prairie dogs that populate most of the ranch’s holdings.  There were three new bison calves that had been born today, which we missed by only a few hours.  In all, there are about 75 buffalo roaming the reserve.  We had a nice dinner tonight and I chatted up the National Geographic biologist the entire time here.  Tomorrow the real work begins. 

I will keep you posted.

So, today I spent the majority of my day doing some manual labor and painting the American Prairie Foundation’s new offices.  Understandably, this is not part of my internship, but they were having trouble finding work for me while in their offices.  Tomorrow is where the real adventure begins.  I will be flying out to the reserve tomorrow morning at 9:00 am and will tour the reserve with National Geographic from the air.  We will then arrive in a small airstrip in Malta, MT, and take some 4 wheel drive vehicles to the ranch house, about 50 miles on a dirt road.  I will get some pictures of the whole event up as soon as possible.  Thanks for reading!

Hello All,

I have arrived here in Bozeman, MT.  Today was an extremely long day, starting out at 4:30 in the morning.  I have been hooked up with my own hotel room with a King size bed, 5 minutes walk from the corporate offices.  I was able to meet all of the employees of the American Prairie Foundation and met some really interesting people.  I also found out today that I will be heading up to the reserve on Thursday.  As it stands now, I will be flying up there in a small 6-person jet with the President of the organization as well as some people from National Geographic.  I am going to explore Bozeman tonight and grab some sleep.

Continued to get all of the necessities for the trip.  I am excited to get this going.  2 more days left and I will be on the plane.