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. 

Migration Day Work

I raced up to Bison Range National Wildlife Refuge, my summer home, so I could be in time to help out with the Migration Day Celebration. We had only a small crowd, and I was able to tag along on the bird walk early in the morning.  Then I set up and sat with a game called Migration Headache, for kids. It has been modified from the version played by many kids with paper plates to one that uses a die, so each child can singly play through the stations and see if he/she survives the trials of migration when migrating as a bird of their choice.

Some of the birders 

Playing the Migration Game

Me helping with reporting - what bird was successful or died during migration

Then, after a couple of hours off to eat supper and rest, I joined the staff-led tour of the refuge.  We got great views of the bison, elk, white-tailed deer and mule deer. We also saw two coyotes and a couple of interesting birds.  One, a dusky flycatcher, was a life bird for me. The flowers along the short Bitterroot Trail were enchanting and we  searched, unsuccessfully, for the black bear with two cubs seen there earlier. The view from High Point was fantastic. You get a 360 degree view of the refuge and surrounding towns   Soon after we returned to the tour road,  we had the adventure of being attacked by a dusky (formerly blue) male grouse  Apparently he has part of the road in his territory, and fights with any species that tries to use it.  He even runs at the cars. 

Momas and babies with a few bulls

Serviceberries are blooming, especially near the wooded areas of the tour

A view from one of the switchbacks

Some of the tour group

Lots  of wildflowers are blooming along Bitterroot Trail

Prairie smoke - but I think of them as Teletubbies and chuckle whenever I see them

A mule deer watched us pass from right next to the road

The attack grouse

This bull was hanging out right next to the road. 

I started birding at 5:30 A. M. and ended the tour around 10:00.  It was too dark to take pictures of the moose herd when we found them.

I'm writing this Tuesday night and I'm still trying to catch up on my lost sleep.  Then I'll start spending more free time touring the refuge. To get great pictures, I need to start around 5:30 A. M.  But it has been a great place to explore so far.  Even the walks to work are exciting.

On the work front, I'm learning how to run the visitor center, getting started on plans and protocols for doing bee and amphibian surveys with the Montana Civilian Corp kids we'll have here this summer, taking courses online for the required defensive driving, and one to certify me to handle government money. But I'll be off Thursday's through Saturdays so I'll soon have more time to get out and explore.

Dining with a Dipper

On my third night of my trip north, I camped for free along the Tongue River in a Wildlife Management Area.  I seemed to have a choice of two main locations, but choose to stay along the river. I came to an outhouse where there were several fire rings and continued on past them until I saw a place where I could pull off between the river and the road.  There were no signs except for the fire rings.

The only downside to my site was that it was right along the road.  But only about ten cars passed during the late afternoon and early evening. Then it was quiet except for the river noise.

The source of the fortissimo water music 

This part had chunks of concrete damning the river

The view looking downstream from in front of my campsite and over the dam

I pitched my tent on the same level as the side road.  Then I took my supper and went down to sit next to the river. The river was running fast and pretty clear and I thought, "this could be a place to see a dipper".  No sooner was the thought in my head then a dipper flew up out of the water and landed almost directly across the river from me.  It did its sharp series of bounces, then almost disappeared into a structure that I realized was a nest.  I even thought I could see insects in its bill when I really blew up my pictures. It came back several times before it got too dark to take pictures.

The dipper always landed on this spot, then did his dippy bounce several times

Then it would go into the nest and stay about thirty seconds

Then it would come out, turn around and fly off, sometimes right back towards me

The sun is lower, now and you can see the bugs in her bill

Off for more food. 

 It had to be feeding babies, but, even though I repeatedly took pictures as the sun lit the nest better and better, I could never see anything in the nest.  The nest looked very different after I noticed it but if I moved around and then came back to look for it, I had a hard time finding it again. So it blended in much better than the blown-up pictures indicate.  I've heard that dippers like to build their nests behind waterfalls to make them totally invisible.  I felt so blessed to have gotten to see this nest.

Once, I thought the dipper had landed almost next to me with only a scraggly shrub between us.  I grabbed at least twenty shots before it flew off.  When I looked at my pictures, I found I had been taking pictures of a robin.

But he made a beautiful picture in the setting sun

This was a really special and memorable evening. 

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.

Saying Goodbye at South Llano River State Park

I need to be at Bison Range National Wildlife Refuge by Thursday, May 11, so I can have a day of training before helping with the Migration Day on Saturday.

But I HAD to spend four days with friends at South Llano River State Park, one of our best Texas birding sites and on one of my favorite rivers before I left.  This is another traditional trip that happens the first weekend in May to take advantage of the peak of migration and the river in new spring garb.

Bill and Bob getting organized Friday morning

I've had a wonderful time with old friends and friends I've recently met, including Bill and Carol, who I spent a week with at Yellowstone National Park last fall.  She was doing here last hurrah also and left for Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge where she volunteers each summer.

Bell's Vireo sing their chattering song only around the campground area

I managed to bird all four of  the blinds and several of the areas that hold large concentrations of birds, hike seven miles with Bill, enjoy a couple of evening fires and a group supper and finally, get in a short paddle. Natalie had two dogs and we couldn't take them on the river, so I babysat them Saturday while she paddled and she babysat them Sunday, while I paddled.

A female painted bunting getting her morning drink

A black throated sparrow

Even though I've been coming to this park at least once a year for many years, I still had never hiked up to the overlook.  And I hadn't hike the trails in several years.  So it was fun to discover new parts of the park. Bill and I hikeed the perimeter of the park for about seven miles.  But, since we had also wandered around for about two hours birding, and I had visited back and forth, and done lots of miscellaneous walking, I managed to walk over twelve miles on Friday, according to my step meter. And, on the hike,  we saw a porcupine and the biggest armadillo we'd ever seen, both firsts for me at this park.

An old porcupine 

A view of the old  wildlife management area, now park where most of the trails are

A mimosa species in bloom

Big armadillo

Baby sitting dogs - It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it 

Sunday I got up at 5:00 A.M. so I could get all my packing done before daylight. I almost made it.  The last two stars blinked out as I was stuffing my tent into it's bag. I grabbed a quick breakfast of leftover tabbouleh from our group meal, threw my paddling stuff in Bob's car since Bill decided to not stress his ailing shoulder any more, and told Bob and Natalie I would meet them at the put-in which was the low water bridge in the park. I gathered up my tea, camera, and binoculars and set off.

There are hundreds of black-chinned hummingbirds in the park

There were still a few lark sparrows coming to the feeders

After a few minutes of solo birding, I  met up with several other friends also birding.  The birds were especially hot and we were finding lots of new species. We had orchard orioles, ladderback woodpeckers, blue grosbeaks, chipping sparrows, wood peewee, red-eyed vireo, yellow-billed cuckoo, a vermilion flycatcher, and other birds, including the ever present pine siskins and painted buntings. I had to tear myself away and rush the last half mile to get to the put-in in time.

We had lots of painted buntings around all the bird blinds

We had a beautiful short paddle.  More on that next blog. By the time we finally tore ourselves away from the last of the group, it was 2;00.  Then we had a seven hour drive back to Seabrook an , after several minutes of transferring my stuff, I had another half hour drive to Houston.  After getting my dirty clothes washing, I had to write this blog.

Now it's Monday and I am just getting all the pictures in this blog and will leave for Montana in a few hours.  I'll not blog again until sometime next week.  But I'll get you pictures of  our paddle then and will have lots to tell you about my 2000 mile trip, provided I survive doing it in four days, and the new refuge.

I'll be in Texas until sometime tomorrow when I cross the line into Oklahoma   A few minutes after that, I'll be in Colorado. I hope to get to explore a little of LBJ Grasslands this evening, provided I can get moving.