Tag Archives: wildlife

Unattended Landscapes

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Listen up America! we have just discovered a huge and growing problem in our favorite National parks. That problem is “Unattended Landscapes”. That’s right, some of our most desirable sought after landscapes, the very reason many of us go to these National parks, are being left unattended. Look closely at this image and you will see that there is not a single attendant anywhere. We even went down there and looked around the corner at the river and yelled a lot to see if anyone would answer and there wasn’t a soul.

This particular landscape happens to be on the Firehole river in Yellowstone National park, a park known for its attention to wildlife and the comfort of its visitors, and we found that not only was this portion of the landscape unattended but there were great huge stretches of the river that did not have a single person watching it. We were stunned. What is happening here? We pay enormous taxes to run this country right and we find that there are huge gaps in the allocation of that money. At least as far as protecting our scenic treasures goes. What is that money being used for? Sneaky, stealthy new bombers that we can send to wreck other people’s scenic areas? What about us. What about our important problems?  Where are the concrete attendants shacks? Where are the white hybrid cars with the big national park stickers all over the doors? Where are the attendants? Where are the klieg lights to turn on to see if anything is messing with our landscapes after dark? This is shameful. Is this happening in our other National parks as well?

This is a question we intend to pursue and we will get to the bottom of this situation. There are the makings of a national disgrace here and we’re not going to stop until we have examined every national park, scenic highway and byway, every national monument, state, county and local park, all those scenic areas on federal land that are visible from the highway, anything that looks landscapey, until these areas are fully attended and protected. We believe the problem of Unattended Landscapes is going to be our next national crisis.

Some of you may be saying “What’s the big hairy deal, some of these places have been unattended for a long time.” Well our response is “Yeah, So what ? What are you a communist?” There’s lots of reasons we need to attend to our scenic areas. Things have changed since Teddy Roosevelt was around. We’ve got more people now and some of them are bad. We’ve got people who want to mow down all the shrubbery and drill for oil in the middle of the Firehole river and there’s terrorists that want to sneak in and blow up a tree or something. We’ve got no idea what can happen. Some of these scenic places are irreplaceable. You don’t just go in there and stand them up willy-nilly wherever you feel like it.

We know that some of you may have already noticed this situation and perhaps even begun acting on it but we need everyone to support this important movement. We cannot leave our God-given scenic areas to the happenstance of nonchalance. Get involved. Volunteer. If nothing else go to an unattended scenic landscape and park your car and watch these places. Be an attendant. If you’re unable to spend weeks or months at a scenic site, write your congressman. Send emails to politicians running for office, find out their viewpoints about this problem, then vote your convictions. We’re going to. Several times if it will help. OK then, this is our month to attend to a particularly scenic site along Highway 287 here in Colorado so we have to go. Remember, Pay Attention, Do Your Part, and Be Involved, it’s the right thing to do.

Have Some Nice Rabbit Ear, M’Dear

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A few seasons ago I was fortunate (read really lucky) to find an open Great Horned Owls nest that was mostly unobstructed by branches, leaves or other things put there by the photo gods to make a photographers’ life miserable. The owlets are good-sized by now, it is early April, and they still need food to be brought in by their Mother. She works hard for her living (my apologies to Ms. Summers) and brings a variety of offerings to the nest. This morning they were extremely lucky because she brought in a nice fat rabbit. Their usual fare is mice or voles, sometimes a snake and on the rarest of occasions a small peasant child. No wait, I made that up, this was supposed to be the April 1st posting.  She is very careful around the young ones and feeds them in a delicate almost refined manner. Not like the hawks and Eagles which look like they used a chainsaw to prepare their prey. The young however aren’t quite as refined and will grab a portion like this and force the whole thing down their gullet in one big gulp. It doesn’t take long for the rabbit to be totally consumed and after the owlets have stuffed themselves silly they settle down for a nap. It isn’t long before they’re up and at ’em again but Mother is done for the day. They’ll have to make due with whatever leftovers they find around the nest because she isn’t leaving again until dark.

Vigilance

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Wild turkeys live in out here in Northern Colorado and are regularly seen as you travel about in our rural settings. In the spring there will be large flocks with many hens and numerous chicks. It is not unusual to see flocks with as many as three or four dozen birds in them. That’s in the spring, right after the hatch, and before they begin moving around too much. Then nature begins to make adjustments. Coyotes are probably the turkeys biggest threat as they can easily run down the chicks who aren’t able to fly well, if at all. Sometimes the chicks will be taken by hawks or owls but mostly it is coyotes who are the main predators and sometimes unfortunately, by dogs running loose. This picture was taken in mid-August and though the large flocks of spring have by now broken up into smaller groups, there is only one chick left in this brood. If this chick is to make it to an age where she can have chicks of her own, every step she or the rest of the flock takes must be taken with caution and they will have to exercise one of their most important skills, Vigilance.

Cliff Dweller

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Most people are used to seeing Great Horned owls sitting on branches or in a hollow tree or even perched on a church steeple against a full moon if you’re in a Halloween frame of mind, but out here in the west we sometimes see them sitting in the small caves high up in a redstone cliff, like this female. The red stone outcropping above her head is being lit by the setting sun. Sunset comes early to the bottom of these deep canyons and although it is mid-afternoon the rich warm light of the setting sun is already present. When you look around the cave you can see the geode like formations on the wall. The whole cliff in this area is covered with them. Owls must like good design because these are pretty plush digs she has chosen.

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This owl family consists of the female and two owlets she has raised to young owlhood. When you look closely you can see that they have not grown their “horns” yet and are still a little gawky and unsure of themselves.

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That all changes when they fly however. They have all the grace and confidence of an adult when they’re in the air. The female takes note of this one’s style as it glides by

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and lands on a small ledge near the cave. They appear to be quite comfortable in this environment and the steep cliffs with it’s small footholds don’t pose any problems at all.

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The young owls were flying constantly as if they were making sure of their skills and as it turned out it was because this was their last day here on the cliff. Although I checked back on them every day for several weeks they were never seen here again. It has been a couple of seasons now and they still haven’t returned but since this spot has been used for years I have high hopes that I’ll see another owl family join the ranks of the Cliff Dwellers.

Tough Love

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Being a grizzly cub can sometimes be a tough job. You have to get up in the morning, follow mom all over because she’s hungry, and if she’s hungry then there is a good chance you’re going to be hungry too. And because you are little you want to eat all the time and all you want is some of that nice warm milk that Mom provides. But like all moms she sometimes wants you to try something new, like some freshly caught and just squeezed Yellow-bellied Marmot.

After she has just spent 45 minutes digging one out of it’s den she is pretty determined that you are going to try some. It seems to be  a fairly difficult task to force down marmot this early in the day and it does not help at all that there are at least 50 or more photographers documenting your every move. The whole marmot eating thing turns out to be a game effort but lost cause because you just can’t handle that kind of food.

Expecting the worst everyone watching waited apprehensively as mom approached. It looked like this was going to be handled rather firmly and not by a time out either. Grizzly moms are known for a rather firm application of right front paw when they’re displeased. Instead mom did the right thing (moms usually do, right?) and carefully nuzzled her offspring’s face to show that it was perfectly ok to throw up in front of photographers. There was a chorus of awwww’s throughout the crowd and we were all happy and relieved to have witnessed what turned out to be a Disneyesque moment. There are a million stories in Yellowstone National Park and this has been one of them. There will be more as time goes on.