Bison in Lust

One morning in mid July I walked out of the bunkhouse to hear a new sound.  It was the bellowing of of bull bison.  The rut was starting and the bison were in the Headquarters pasture, where the bulls love to posture, fight, and challenge roll in the  many wallows they have made.  This pasture is adjacent to the bunkhouse area, so we could see a lot of the action from the bunkhouse.

Challenge rolling

That week, we set up the Talk-to-a-Biologist program along the road where cars would want to stop anyway to see the action.  In between customers, I tried to document all the interesting stuff going on.

Bull keeping cow from other bulls and constantly smelling her

 Kelsey, the biology tech working the program with me, told me that mostly it's the young bulls that tend cows at first.  This means they cut a cow out of the herd and then keep her isolated.  Other bulls may come and challenge him for her. This tending actually brings the cows into estrus.  The older bulls are much better at knowing when the cows are in estrus and then move in on the young bulls and claim their cows.

Agitated bull with cow

So we had challenge rolling going on, chases of females by bulls,  one bull making another bull give up his wallow, and lots of bellowing and lip curling.  The lip curling allows the bull to smell through the roof of his mouth.

Bulls too young to mate practicing their moves

From a distance, the bellowing sounds almost like a really loud and deep  purr.. It can get louder as bulls challenge each other. But many bulls stand around singly and bellow or tend a cow and bellow.

The real deal with older bulls

The bulls  want most to mate with a dominate female and sometimes she gets chased a lot.  Her poor calf gets worn out, and sometimes separated for a while.

The lip curl

The bison have been moved to the next pasture and are now over two miles from the bunkhouse. I finally got to spend about an hour watching them Tuesday evening.  Many females are no longer being tended, so I think they have mated.  But I've yet to see that happen.  A pair of bulls tussled a few seconds very near the truck.  Several bulls came by tending females and bellowing. But nothing very exciting was happening and I've yet to see any heavy  duty fights.  If the bulls are very closely matched, they may fight a long time, but usually, the bulls are not all that close in size and age and one of them can intimidate the other without a fight.

Two bulls fight over a female

But Tuesday evening became more  and more magical.  After spending a hour close to a group of bison, I hiked up to High Point to look for a family of Lewis woodpeckers.  I didn't find them but enjoyed the setting sun on the Mission mountains and the panoramic views.  The sun going behind the mountains when I left to move on to Triskey Creek to put out my bee cups. But once again, I was detoured by over thirty bighorn sheep.  I ended up getting out of the truck and walking to the back bumper where I took pictures and enjoyed half of them.  The other half had crossed in front of the truck and were back lighted.

Big horn sheep hanging out by the auto tour road

Still more fun awaited.  I drove down the Triskey road - a bumpy two track - to put out my bee cups.  I stopped to open a gate, and  thought I saw a mule deer on the top of a golden mountain.  When I grabbed my camera, and took the beautiful composition, I found that it was an elk.

I have been wanting to continue to climb to the top of the hill, so did it.  The best news was that I  my step meter actually reported that I was doing aerobic exercise. I climbed and then walked around on the top of the mountain for ten minutes, then walked back down.  So I'm definitely getting my mountain legs.

Coming on around the loop auto tour to reach the bunkhouse, I was able to enjoy the lights of St. Ignatius.  This was the first time it's been dark enough to see them. I was also able to enjoy the last of the sunset, and the appearance of the evening star.  Then I got one last jolt when a bull elk raced across the road in front of me.  I barely missed hitting him.

The last of the sunset

 My morning treat was getting to visit with about forty people, including a man and his daughter from a town very near Houston and Galveston. I also talked to a lady  from Hempstead, a town a little north of Houston, Texas. Out topic was invasive species and I was able to interest the visitors by telling them how we have to work really hard and spend lots of money to keep the invasives from replacing the grass in the bison's pastures.

So yesterday was a very good day.

What I Saw From the Auto Tour At National Bison Range, Part 1

Although Friday was supposed to be a rainy day, it dawned clear and I decided to take the auto tour. I thought I'd leave early, but found I hadn't plugged in my camera battery charger correctly so had to wait around for another hour until it charged. By this time it was 7:00 A.M. and the sun was already up. But since we are on the west side of the Mission Mountain Range, we don't get direct sunlight for a while longer.  Clouds were already moving in, sometimes lightly covering the sun, so the light was still beautiful along the first several miles of the tour.

The auto tour road works its way up and down for a while, then goes up steeply through a series of switchbacks.In places, it is near the boundaries of the refuge and we get beautiful views out of the refuge. At the highest point, at the end of High Point Trail, at 4700 feet and some 2000 feet above headquarters, we can see a three hundred sixty degree panorama.

It took me four hours to do the first seven miles of the tour.  Then I mostly just drove home, only stopping for big obvious things. The day got fully cloudy and I lost my light entirely.  But this will be a place I'll go often.  Yesterday, I saw my first lazuli bunting and took a picture of the first orange-crowned warbler I'd seen and heard singing. Both birds breed here along with the willow flycatcher, which I haven't seen yet. The spotted towees were also frequently singing - they just sing "teeeeeaaaaa" rather than the  "Drink your teeaaa" the eastern towhees sing. I saw one Bullock's oriole but more will be showing up.

The tour starts with a right turn from the visitor center parking lot, goes north for a few hundred yards and then turns again and travels east for about a  half mile as it starts to climb slightly.  This gives wonderful views of the refuge, the Rattlesnake Mountain Range, and the Jocko River Valley.

There are some bluebird boxes near the beginning of the tour and we have breeding western and mountain bluebirds using them, as well as tree swallows. I didn't see any of them this day but will go out looking for them soon.

A wildflower I've yet to identify

A long view to the Rattlesnake Mountain Range

View looking north up into the hills of the refuge

Jocko River Valley with the Rattlesnake Mountains and storm clouds behind it

  As the road comes near the east side of the refuge, it makes a sharp turn and travels east along Pauline Creek for a mile or two. This is an intermittent creek, but has lots of little ring-fed pools along it and lots of bushes, including serviceberry and chokecherry, grow along it. So it attracts lots of wildlife and is the place to reliably find the lazuli bunting and the willow flycatcher, as well as Bullock's oriole, spotted towhees  orange crowned warblers, and many other species of birds.  Buffalo are in the far views along here and, when we cross the next cattle guard, they could be near the road.

One of a pair of mule deer bucks sleeping in near Pauline Creek

Storm clouds forming over the Rattlesnake Range

One of the hundred (thousands?) of western meadowlarks the refuge harbors

View of the refuge lands  north of the tour road

South view down to a small pond along Pauline Creek which is hosting a pair of breeding mallards

Beautiful fresh chokecherry blooms

This bull bison was standing next to the road and eating dirt for its salts.

Another beautiful wildflower that is just starting to bloom

An  orange-crowned warbler between songs

A kiting male kestrel shows off his beautiful rust body and blue wings

 The road leaves Pauline creek and starts to climb through a series of switchbacks.  The long views are back to the east and the habitat changes to on of a forest for a very shorty while. I noticed I was running out of time and didn't stop as frequently or as long  here.  But this is the next area I really want to spend more time in.  Right at the edge of this is is the first place you can take a little hike, the quarter-mile long Bitterroot trail. I'll be back just to find all the wildflowers here and to look for bears down in the valleys, or just back in the wooded area.

 This bull liked the forest best

As you climb, there are more and more beautiful long views

View of  one of the Rattlesnake Mountains from high up

A long view way down into a valley from near Bitterroot trail

Another little, yet unknown, wildflower

One of the larkspurs

By now, I officially thought of myself as just driving back but I had to stop a few times.  The first big stop was at the place where High Point Trail intersects the road.  The only bathrooms are here. And the view is across to the Mission Mountains.  The sun was almost completely blocked by clouds, but occasionally a few rays made it out. From this point on, the trail goes downhill for the most part and sometimes very steeply. The next pictures are from these areas.

View at the High Point Trail Interpretative Area

This pronghorn male was a few miles away from the rest who mostly like the open plains  further down

A pair of Brewer's Blackbirds - the female is collecting nest material

All of these pictures were taken in the first eight miles of the auto tour.  The rest is both downhill and thrugh more plains until it runs along Mission Creek where there is another riparian area.  The deer - white and mule are found along tere as are elk, and sometimes bear and bull bison, unless the main herd is in this pasture. I got here two days before the entire  auto tour opened, so had only driven the last part of it, which is two-way during the winter.  I wrote about that evening drive here. 

Sweet Summer Home

About 3:00 P. M. today, I finally made it to Bison Range NWR, which will be my home until mid-August. I'm pretty exhausted since I've been getting up around 4:00 A.M. each day and then staying up way too long in the evenings. I've also unloaded about two-thirds of my car and stopped for a little grocery shopping when I drove through Missoula, the closest big town.

So I'll just give you a peek of what I saw as I drove in and then as I drove around the part of the auto tour that is open.  The staff expects to be able to open the rest for the weekend when we'll be celebrating Migration Day and Refuge Opening Day for the summer.

View from the parking lot

And turning to the right, you see this collection of antlers

This huge crabapple tree is in the yard of one of the staff

I was glad to see the yellow-headed blackbirds

Prairies and forest make beautiful patterns

The Mission River flows down from the Mission Mountains

White-tailed deer

I saw over fifty pronghorns

This was the only bison visible tonight

Lots of these flowers were growing in groups in the prairie

Mountain bluebird - western are also supposed to be here

A few of a small herd of horses used to herd the buffalo

So far, I know I'm going to be getting a little training tomorrow, and then Saturday, I'll get to go birding early in the morning - I think it starts at 7:00 A.M. Then I'll run a game called Migration Headache for visiting kids for several hours. And finally, I'll get to go on an evening tour at 6:00 P.M.

It's 10:00 P.M. and I still need to take a shower and make my bed. I do have a large room with 2 single beds so for sure can have female company.  We'll have to see if there is extra room for males.

Last night, I got to camp across the Tongue River from a dipper's nest.  Very cool.