Off to a Whirling Start at Red Rock Lake

May 15-27

I arrived at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge a day late, thanks to my third car problem - this a flat tire.  I ended up being able to get enough air into it to get me only six miles down the road to a Discount Tire Store.  I had to replace the tire.  I checked my new ETA and realized I would be coming in after dark.  I had checked on the quality of the dirt road and office manager, Jackie, who drives a four wheel drive truck, said there were a few wet spots but she thought I could get through.  I didn't want to test that hypothesis in the dark, so spent a night in a motel at Idaho Falls.  I got up the next morning, got breakfast, and then bought two bags of groceries to hold me for the first few days and then figured out how to stow them in the all ready fully loaded Fit.

This is the view near the last gas station before the refuge - I always stop to top off my gas here

My first view of pronghorn antelope - this was part of a herd of about thirty

I'm HOME - that is the bunkhouse behind me and there is another trailer between me and it.

I spent the next two days, working part time,  and unloading and shoehorning my stuff into my trailer. I rushed to survey the bluebirds and collect data on what field repairs I needed to do.  Some boxes were on the ground and missing lids or otherwise damaged.  One had been ripped apart by a bear. These I hauled back to the maintenance shop for repair.

A male mountain bluebird keeping watch over his box 

I found several boxes with eggs and a few boxes with females incubating them - this color is a little too green to represent the actual color

I've been dodging showers while out in the field.  They make for good pictures - this of a storm coming over Upper Lake

This is the view out my trailer door - the sky is endlessly different - this was a sunrise with the clouds still laying on the ground

I got my list of summer jobs.  They include bluebird survey, taking care of putting out and taking in gypsy moth traps, working on  the invasive warrior team, keeping four campsite bathrooms clean, helping to keep the office clean and doing a little office work, visiting with visitors, and a new, short term job of hauling water to a herd of horses we are using in a study on an invasive grass.  That lets me drive our little fire truck. And I found an e-mail inviting me to give my Power Point Program on native bees twice.

My new ride - the last half mile is across a field full of ditches to climb through

A few of the about twenty-five horses I'm hauling water for

Since then, I have completed one bluebird survey, and vacuumed the office a few times - it's been rainy and muddy and everybody tracks mud and pebbles in. And Jim, another volunteer did most of the work to make repair pieces for the bluebird boxes. I then did the remounting of them and the field repairs.  I am down to the last two boxes to remount in the field.  I gave up yesterday after my drill ran out of energy twice. That is on today's list of things to do.

Reading on the Upper Lake gauge - Boss Bill loves that I give him a photo report

And this is the view of Upper Lake as I walk to read the gauge which is behind the bushes on the right

It took me until yesterday (Saturday) to get out and explore parts of the refuge I don't regularly work on.  I hoped I would be able to get to Widgeon Pond and Coulter Ponds. This requires traveling on a road that sometimes can only be traveled by off road vehicles or four wheel drive trucks.  I hoped it had dried out enough to let my little fit to find a path through it.  I ALMOST made it. About a half mile from the turn to Widgeon, I found the road muddy clear across and with a deep hole in the middle. I was afraid to try to get around the hole, because I couldn't tell how soft the rest of the road was. I ended up backing up, and turning around, and parking.  Then I walked in a ways and enjoyed the views and the birds. I had to cut my trip short in order to go back to the visitor center and open it for an Audubon tour. I spent another part of the late afternoon on the bluebirds, putting up boxes on our western trail.

I found a herd of female elk about 6:00 AM  just outside Lakeview village

This same field is flooded and had a huge flock of Franklin's gulls feeding on it, along with lots of mallaerds

I went to visit the bison rock. I has a polished corner where bison used to scratch off their winter coats

Wild flowers are popping out all over - was caught by the composition of these shooting stars

The tree swallows are here and are checking out all the boxes - even peeking in at incubating bluebirds

A little male Swainson's hawk - they have started returning the last few days

Follow the lightest lines that don't have a high middle ground - didn't think to take a picture of my waterloo spot

Th

I continued my trip on foot to get this view from the dam on Widgeon Pond

And this one

This cabbage family butterfly flopped over and laid its right wing on the ground to maximize the
amount of sunshine on its wings

The lesser scaup are the most numerous duck breeding here

I was worried when I could only find one trumpeter swan, than relieved when I found the pair that nest on Widgeon Pond

Elk Creek Road is being repaired and by next year, even I can reliably drive it - this one of three bridges replaced last year

I didn't have time or energy to hike another few miles to and from Culver Pond so I was excited to see the Culver pair of eagles sitting just past Red Rock Creek Bridge

Some of the elk herd was still in the field just outside Lakeside Village

The blog was my priority today.  Now I can get ready for the rest of the day, eat breakfast, and go  finish my bluebird box installations. I also plan to survey at least the western set of boxes. I also have to vacuum and wash out the interior of my Jeep as two of the summer techs and I are driving three hours each way to spend two days learning how to safely and efficiently manage several invasive weeds which we will be waring against most of the summer.

I've been working way more than my recorded hours and still need to set up my spreadsheet so I have a permanent record of my hours. But I hope to start weekend adventures off refuge soon.

Thanks in advance for your comments. I appreciate hearing from you.

Happy Memorial Day. If you served, Thank you.

A Campout at Antelope Island State Park

May 10-12, 2017

I've visited Antelope Island State Park once before and thought it would be a good last place to camp before my final run to Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

The weather was changing as I left my campsite at Grande Staircase Escalante National Monument.  My campsite was right along the Hole-in-the-Rock road, at an intersection with a little road to other dispersed campgrounds.  I picked it only because it held the first hammock trees I'd see in five miles of the road. I only had a hammock, sleeping bag, and water out, so packing up was easy. I ended up spending at least three extra hours taking pictures of the amazing skies.

My three day home

One of many pictures I HAD to stop for

Another sky scene

By mid morning, I was getting pretty hungry, since I had been up since five. I asked my GPS to find me a restaurant, and it came up with a dozy/  It was the Capital Reef Inn and Cafe in Torrey, Utah.  I loved the interior of the building with light, highly polished floors and a beautiful layout, as well as an interesting gift store.  I ordered a veggie omelet with a side of hash browns and a smoked trout filet. It was fabulous, and the omelet was better than I make, and I think I'm pretty good.

The day continued to get more cloudy and I ran into a few showers before I got to Great Salt Lake. And get getting later and later from my plan of getting there in time to spend several hours exploring the park.

Storms and light

But I had a lot of fun just getting across the causeway to the park, after getting a site for two nights.
The ever changing clouds had followed me here and I enjoyed the views as well as the quite far away birds playing along the shore.

View from the causeway to Antelope Island State Park

This willet was calling at the top of his voice 

Black Neck Stilt Pair

Willet showing his beautiful wings

Hungry avocets

My camp site. The night temperatures were going down to the low forties so I wimped out and put up my tent, not long before a big rain. ,

The next morning I was up before the sun i time to catch a golden sunrise and have the park mostly to myself.

The yellow sunrise

The weather rapidly deteriorated but I had good light for photos for a few hours 

Sky over the lake

Franklin's Gulls

I think these are semipalmated sandpipers - please leave a comment if I'm wrong

California gull - Utah's state bird - there are 75-80,000 birds breed on Great Salt Lake Islands

Just another view as I drove around the island

Storm a borning

Only three bulls were visible 

The rest of the herd was about a 17 mile round trip hike away

I spent the middle of the day at a library editing pictures and working on blogs, as well as eating lunch out. Again we had a huge thunderstorm during the late afternoon. Finally, just at sunset, a little piece of the sky cleared, making a dramatic sunset.

Sunset over Great Salt Lake

I had stayed up late the evening before, so didn't get started as soon as I had hoped. Then, not long after I got to Highway 15 and started heading north, my car started weaving. I pulled off and found a gas station and discovered my back tire was almost flat. I filled it and looked up a discount tire store. It was only 6 miles behind me so I carefully drove back to it. There I found that I had to replace my tire.  So this trip cost me more than an month's  income in care repairs. Had to fix the air conditioner, get a new battery and a new tire.  

I had called Jackie, the office manager to be sure I could make it to the refuge.  She drives a four-wheel drive truck and told me she thought my little Honda Fit could make it through the wet spots. But I wouldn't get to the refuge until after dark so I decided to get a motel room in Idaho Falls and come in the next day.  I had a lovely quiet night, then shopped for a few groceries and figured how to make them all fit in the loaded car. The rest of the trip was a piece of cake. 

Almost home 

Home

I'm still not quite finished with my first blue bird survey and have a lot of boxes to repair or replace. I've got a new short-term assignment of hauling water to a herd of horses we are using to study how grazing affects an invasive.  It requires me to fill the 250 gallon tank of our fire truck,  then drive the truck a couple of miles down the road, and through a field, across one fairly large ditch and a few smaller ones. My boss  drove with me for my first successful attempt and declared me OK to go on my own.  He said I can also wash down our one cement outdoor toilet since I know how to drive the truck.  I'll have to learn how to turn on the pump to make the water spray. 

And I've met the two techs I'll be spraying and pulling invasive weeds with. They are going to be fun to work with.  We'll be spending three days together at an invasive weed conference where we'll have to take a test. 

Jim, a volunteer who has been here two years of the ones I've been here is back after taking last summer to bicycle around Europe, before spending the winter in India. He has a friend who will also soon come to volunteer here. We are also overrun with young people working on the sage grouse project and now a project that will measure the effect of cheat grass on songbird reproduction. It's going to be an interesting summer. 

I'm publishing this just after taking a course on invasive weeds and managing them, especially by spraying. I passed two tests and will receive a certification for spraying invasive weeds. I'm also learning to use an app to enter sites with invasive weeds, into a data base shared by several western states.  I and two summer techs will soon be spraying or pulling weeds, revisiting the sites we treated last year and monitoring the refuge for other invaders.