Recent travels....

Craig and I just took a week's vacation to canoe in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota. It's a land of berries, loons, and leeches. Thankfully the leeches were mostly found on the ends of our hooks, a tasty temptation for small-mouth bass and northern pike. The blueberries and raspberries were insane! We feasted on berries and fish (and the occasional mac & cheese burrito - coming soon to a store near you).

Gwen and Ross

Craig

Craig with his first small-mouth bass

I think we were all baptized by a leech between the toes during the week, only Ross was lucky enough to have a mom with babies attach!


Paddling through the lilypads

We also spent some time recently working nights, spotlighting and catching sage grouse to attach radio-transmitters, which happily coincided with the Perseids meteor shower.

Prior to that we spent some time mapping prairie dog habitat in the Pinedale area, which put us close to the Tetons, where we got to meet up with friends and go hiking in the ominous-sounding, but very beautiful Death Canyon.

Pinedale

Lost prairie dog

Yellow-bellied marmot

Death Canyon

Death Canyon

Fun things I've seen lately...

I love spring! It's so easy to be uplifted in the spirit of life! The birds are singing, newly fledged meadowlarks are all over the roads and baby pronghorns are hiding in the grass. Craig actually touched a deer fawn that he came across in a meadow. Here are some photos of north-eastern Wyoming where I've been working...

Coal seam running through cliffs

Elk Antler

Mourning Dove Nest

Unidentified flowers (anybody recognize them?!?)

Snow....in JUNE!!?!?!

Does anyone else find it ridiculous that I'm sitting in my hotel room, unable to work because its snowing on June 7th!?! And I'm not on a mountain top or anything, Buffalo Wyoming is only at ~4,600 feet.
On a happier note, yesterday I found my first lark bunting nest - it had 6 beautiful blue-green eggs (an unusual number, I think the average is 4-5), and I flushed a Great Horned Owl which had been sitting in the shade of a sagebrush, with a pellet nearby which included the tiny vertebrae of a rodent.

Appalachia Restoration Act

Exciting news! There is a new bill going through Congress right now that would prohibit coal companies from dumping waste into streams in Appalachia mountaintop removal mining. Please follow this link to the NRDC to read about the act and to send a message to your representatives asking them to support this bill. This would be a great stride toward protecting our water and the communities in the vicinity of these mining operations.
Consider it a belated Earthday action!

Beautiful memorial of the Battle of Little Bighorn

Frosty morning

3 degrees!

More time spent in Baker, Montana! Craig and I are continuing to conduct sage-grouse and sharp-tailed grouse lek surveys. I love seeing these birds on the lek. I'm attaching a video of the sharpies, to give you an idea of what fun it is to see them in action!
We were briefly in Sheridan, Wyoming last week to trap grouse and on the way there drove past the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn (aka Custer's Last Stand). Its been made into a park and is also a national cemetery. There's a neat museum with lots of things found on the battlefield. I learned each cavalry company had a specific horse color, I suppose for organization.
We hope to finish up around the beginning of May, then we'll take a couple days off at home in Fort Collins. After our lek surveys we have a lot of time to kill, and we've spent some of it watching interesting videos on the TED website. Thought you guys might want to check it out.

Baker, Montana

I'm back in the field and grateful to be here! Although it was nice having time off and a chance to work from home for a few months, it's wonderful to be out in the wider world again. Craig and I are working together for the next few weeks which is especially nice.
We headed up to Laramie, just in time to encounter snow and bad weather and had to spend the night there before taking advantage of a few days break in the weather to head up north, first to Sheridan and then on to Baker.
Baker is a very small town in southeastern Montana, and hasn't yet escaped the grasp of

winter. We got about 8 inches of snow yesterday and so can't go out today. I did get to see a few sage grouse on the lek before we got snowed in though, so I've attached a video (its using my little camera, through the spotting scope, so the quality isn't the best, but you get the idea!). It is so incredible to see these birds on the lek! The noises they produce are so cool and the males are so striking.

What else can I say about Baker? Prom was this weekend and our supervisor went out the next morning at 5am and found a couple who'd gotten stuck in a snow drift on the dirt roads and had to sleep out there. He said their truck was surrounded by empty 40's and .22 shells!
That might give you an idea of the options for fun in Baker...

Thoughtful Talk About Healthcare

So as I've confessed before, I am an NPR junkie, and tonight's Fresh Air just reinforced all the reasons why. Where else have I heard healthcare talked about in depth without histrionics and catch-phrases? Nowhere. Thank you NPR. If you missed the show or aren't a listener, but would like to check it out go to:

http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13

and click on the link titled "Listen to Wednesday's show"

This link may move next week, but by searching www.npr.org for Fresh Air (and perhaps the date it aired - March 11 2009) I'm sure you can find it.