High Plains

Eastern Montana is in a sub-region of the Great Plains, famous for low moisture, high elevation, and large temperature changes.

In 1916, Browning, Montana fell from 44 F to -56 F in 24 hours. Vananda probably did the same, but there was nobody to record it.

Drove 5 hours from the Custer to north of Forsyth: 1 hour on a 2-track, 1 hour on a dirt road, 1 hour on the highway, 1 hour on a dirt road, 1 hour on a 2-track.

Survey is on the horizon.

Half of this job is driving.

Collapsed culvert in the way.

Greater Sage Grouse

Shield Lichen

Car in the middle.

Transect was a collection of ant farms.

Horned Larks, Vesper Sparrows, Brewer’s Sparrows, Western Meadowlarks, Greater Sage Grouse, snakes, rabbits, coyotes, and Mule Deer live here. Ants rule.

Car center right.

Vananda Montana

Had a survey northeast of a ghost town.

Vananda was a water stop for the steam engines on the Chicago Pacific line.

Forsyth, Mt

Eventually, homesteaders found the climate too dry for farming. They would have loved this year.

Found 2 fledgling Great-horned Owls in this tree.

One flew inside the top window.

Love you Mr. AK 4 Life

Campground Flooded

Finished in the Custer and drove up to Forsyth.

Campground closed.

Walked in to get water.

Sage Flats

The Custer has vast sage flats along with Ponderosa and Juniper forests.

Drove as far as I could on the 2-track, parked.

Trying to go to sleep while its light out.

Walked down to the transect next morning in the dark.

It bugs me that I have to walk in the dark, because I’m scared of bears and lions. Some people backpack in to transects the evening before; then they can sleep in until 4:45. But I prefer sleeping in the car.

The car is in the forest on that ridge. Try to remember to GPS mark the car before I leave each morning… if I don’t make it back, that’s because I forgot to mark the car.

A sage bush makes a perfect house for a bird.

Brewer’s Sparrows, Vesper Sparrows, Lark Sparrows, Lark Buntings, Common Nighthawks all live and build nests in sage.

Smells good!

Sago Lilly

You can barely see the snowcaped Rockies on the horizon.

The Tongue River

The Tongue separates the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Lands from the Custer National Forest.

The Big Horn, the Little Big Horn (site of Custer’s last stand), the Tongue, and the Powder drain into the Yellowstone River. This year’s flooding has been called a once per 500 year event.

Miles City is at the conjunction of the Tongue and the Yellowstone. Called “Miles” City because it is miles and miles and miles from anywhere.

Bird surveyors in the western part of the state have been flooded out of half their transects. So far, I’ve been lucky in the east.

Yellowstone Park has received 3xs the rain it usually gets in June. The park closed and 10,000 visitors evacuated.

Even the little Tongue river is engorged.

Chief Dull Knife College

Windy, so I spent the day in Lame Deer at the public tribal college. About 150 students.

Dr. Woodenlegs Library

They have a Northern Cheyenne elders photography exhibit in the library.

Check the embroidery.

These were the first generation born on the reservation.

Teresa East Man, Northern Cheyenne

The project took 2 years, 1993-1994, and Hilda Moss translated between Cheyenne and English.

Thelma Two Two, Northern Cheyenne

Elders chose places to be photographed with personal significance (land allotment, childhood residence, vision quest, first kiss, etc.).

Pine Bark Beetles

This survey was in the forest at the top of the draw.

I heard beetles on every point, scratching into the trees.

Warming climate is hard on forests, because more of these beetles make it through winter - supercharging the beetle population. They bore through the bark and lay their eggs in the cambium layer.

Instead of absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, dead trees release CO2. Healthy forests combat climate change; beetle-killed forests drive climate change.

Woodpeckers can save us! They need to eat more beetles.

One had the other’s head in its mouth. Mating?

Older, bigger Ponderosas are more vulnerable, because they host bigger infestations of beetles. Younger trees can fend them off easier.

Wrong Way

Black Bears and Mountain Lions are present.

The biologist from last year said they walked from the car down a barbed-wire fence for 30 minutes in the morning to the transect.

I’m scared of the dark, so I opted for the hour walk on the dirt road. Thought I might try the barbed wire fence on my way back since it would be light.

Every night I try to go to sleep around 7 / 7:30, when it is still light out.

Arrived at the transect on time: moon set

1. Yellow Warbler

2. Red Crossbill

3. Western Wood Peewee

4. American Goldfinch

5. Least Flycatcher

6. Spotted Towhee

7. House Wren

8. Say’s Phoebe

9. Bullock’s Oriole

10. Gray Catbird

11. Black-capped Chickadee

12. Black-headed Grosbeak

13. Wild Turkey

14. Chipping Sparrow

15. White-breasted Nuthatch

16. Black-billed Magpie

17. Lazuli Bunting

Finished the survey on the point farthest from the fence. Couldn’t find the fence. Ended up walking through gullies for several hours (1 hour) trying to find the road.

There is “a” barbed-wire fence. But not “the.”

Also, I don’t have a hand-held compass. Just my crappy Garmin that doesn’t work if it’s cloudy.

Hard to see, but this is a massive Prairie Dog town.

The road is up there somewhere.

Found it. That’s the car under the tree.

Custer National Forest

Spent 5 days in the eastern portion of the Custer; 4 surveys and 1 wind day.

Red belongs to Northern Cheyenne.

It is east of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal lands.

Birding in the Custer is easier than the sage flats, because there are more species and fewer individuals. Until now, I’ve spent mornings counting meadowlarks and buntings who will not stand still.

Eastern Kingbird

Ponderosa Juniper forests predominate.

Red-winged Blackbird

Western Meadowlark

Bullock’s Oriole

Gray Catbird

Lark Bunting male

Flooding

Mom sent this.

Kitten Manager

Survey north of Forsyth, Montana.

The manager wasn’t there, but I met a teenage (looking) cowboy as he drove his horse trailer out.

He said, “The bull is in with a two steers.” And waved his hand to the northeast.

I was exhausted and went to bed.

When the alarm went off at 3 am, I was thinking about the bull.

It was an Angus, color of night.

Figured I would walk the fence line and if anything rushed me, I would roll under the fence.

Started walking.

It was scarier in the car thinking about the bull than it was walking to the survey in the dark.

Got there at 0500, on time.

Spotted Towhee, Greater Sage Grouse, Killdeer, Vesper Sparrows, Brewer’s Sparrows, Cliff Swallows, Chimney Swifts, and Field Sparrows. Brand new survey, so I got to name it.

Field Sparrow Gap

When I got back to the cabin, the young guy was feeding 10 kittens.

His older brother will get them fixed and they will live in the new barn, once the price of lumber goes down and it gets built.

He said the bull is “sweet” and will say hi because he thinks you have food.

Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum

“Where biblical history comes alive.”

Advancing Creation Truth, a non-profit, owns the museum.

The Gianforte Family Foundation donated the T-Rex.

Greg Gianforte is the Republican governor of Montana convicted of assault for body-slamming a Guardian reporter.

Who made an ugly diorama?

Noah didn’t take any dinosaurs on the ark, that’s why they’re extinct.

10,000 visitors a year.

Yellowstone River

The Yellowstone river originates in Yellowstone Park, flows across the southern part of Montana 700 miles, and empties into the Missouri River in North Dakota.

I had a survey in a cottonwood stand here.

The landowner didn’t answer his phone for days. So I drove from Albion, Montana to Glendive, Montana (3 hours) and knocked on his door. Only his dogs were home.

His neighbors said I missed him by five minutes. He went to his nephew’s to check cows.

Hours later, as I sat in my car at the fishing access wondering what to do, a truck pulled up with his dogs running behind. I asked if he was Mr. So and So. Yes he was.

He’s retired and doesn’t answer his phone.

His son photographs Red-headed Woodpeckers in the cottonwood stand. After he left, I tried it. This bird has been a model before.

He let me get as close as I wanted.

Showed me his butt.

Stuck out his arm.

Flew to a snag with better light.

Long Walk on BLM

We’ve been surveying near Albion, Montana for years. My field organizer called this landowner in April to ask if it was still ok.

He said sure.

I called 2 days before the survey and found out he sold it. And said he didn’t know who bought it.

No more easy access from the highway. Had to find a way in on BLM property, so I would not trespass.

Orange is Bureau of Land Management.

White is deeded.

The back roads are the dashed red lines.

My survey was in the white at the lower left of the screen. I drove as far as I could on BLM and parked (upper center of the screen in the orange). Would have to walk the edge of the orange to the survey next morning. I sat in my car and ate.

Wilson’s Phalarope

Petticoat Mottlegill

Had set my alarm for 3 am.

A truck arrived on the 2-track.

A man in a cowboy hat with a dusty passenger with a black mustache said hello. I asked if they knew who owned the land between me and the survey.

The driver owned it.

He didn’t care if I drove on his property, just don’t get stuck. And he wanted to know if Grasshopper Sparrows ate grasshoppers. I promised they did.

I drove to within 2k of the survey and parked on his property overnight.

The survey was a 45 minute walk from his fence.

American Avocet

I heard a Pterodactyl screech from this tree.

But it was 2 raccoons.

I doubt they had ever seen a human. What a life to snooze in this tree all day and then roam the sagebrush at night.

Raccoon

Desert Prince’s Plume

4: Lark Bunting Eggs

0: Brown-headed Cowbird Eggs

Northern Shoveler

Sandstone Reservoir

Excited to use this covered picnic table on my evening off, until Barn Swallows attacked.

Barn Swallow

More Rain

Every landowner I speak to says they haven’t seen grass this big in years. And they all say last year was horrible.

Male Lark Bunting

Photo by Bruce Lyon

Lark Buntings fly over their territories, singing on their descent.

One Brown-headed Cowbird egg in this Lark Bunting nest.

Female Brown-headed Cowbird

Photo by Steve Byland

Female Brown-headed Cowbirds lay one egg at dawn for six days - in other birds’ nests. She usually chooses a smaller species. Her egg hatches sooner and her baby is bigger, so it gets more attention. She can make several clutches and lay 30 eggs in 1 summer.

The female Lark Bunting may throw the egg out, abandon the nest, build another nest on top, or raise the chick along with her own.

Male Brown-headed Cowbird

Photo by Steve Byland

Upland Sandpiper

Mourning Dove

Western Meadowlark

Dog Vomit Slime Mold

Grasshopper Sparrow

Common Nighthawk

Brewer’s Sparrow

Vesper Sparrow

Horned Lark

Merlin

Found a Gadwell nest under this sagebrush.

Because she flew out as I walked by.

Male Gadwall

Females don’t have a black butt.

She joined a male on this lake.

Golden Banner

This landowner said they’ve had more rain in the last 3 days than they’ve had in the last year and a half.

So much rain that the Cheatgrass is tipping over from the weight of the water.

Greater Sage Grouse

Antelope

My car is the silver spot in the middle left.

Rain

I took a rain day in Miles City.

My Goodwill knives suck.

The Pioneer Woman

Went shopping in Miles City.

Next day drizzle, so I worked.

One hour walk on this gumbo road to the survey.

Orchard Oriole here.

Gumbo Pansys

White-flower Beardtongue

Brewer’s Sparrow

Lark Bunting

Western Meadowlark

Grasshopper Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Mourning Dove

Miner’s Candle

Scarlet Beeblossom

Brown-headed Cowbird

Sage Thrasher

Rock Wren

Gumbo Pansys

Great Blue Heron

Lazuli Bunting

Common Nighthawk

False London Rocket

I know the names of the flowers because of the Seek app.

After the survey, I stopped in at the farmhouse to brag about the wildflowers. When I showed her the False London Rocket, she said, “We call those weeds.”

We got to chatting and she said she hasn’t been to Billings in 2 years. And hasn’t been west of Billings in 10. She goes to Miles City every day for the Gazette.

Downy Paintbrush

A Miles City dog.

South of Fort Peck

Forgot I did these surveys in 2019. It looks new.

Moose Crossing

Last time, Travis woke me up in the middle of the night coming back from town and scared me to death. This time, two enormous cattle trucks came down the tiny road where I was parked, within inches.

Except for Travis and cattle trucks.

Unmastered, Unmuzzled, Unvaccinated, Unafraid

Curlew in the Center

Western Meadowlark

American Goldfinch

Eastern Kingbird

Badlands in Central Montana

The survey points were inside the gullies.

Sick rock formations.

Western Meadowlark

Mourning Dove

Vesper Sparrow

Sage Thrasher

Lark Sparrow

Norther Rough-wing Swallow

Horned Lark

Rock Wren

Canada Goose

Brown-headed Cowbird

European Starling

Lark Bunting

Brewer’s Blackbird

This coyote barked at me for ten minutes as I watched through the binoculars: big, gray, and beautiful.

I turned Merlin on (a song identifying app) and it identified the coyote as a Common Loon.

There were a few points up on the sage flat with cows.

Jordan Library

The librarian sat down and visited while I did paperwork.

Unlike one or two days in some places, jury duty lasts one year in Jordan. Her first year as juror: no trials. She is six months in to her second year as juror: so far, still no trials.