New Doings on the Range

I'm really digging my jobs with the biologists.  I get to work with Amy and Kelsy.  Yesterday, I thought we were going to a workshop and didn't take my camera.  It turned out we were going on a collection mission to collect some fighters against the evil invader, Dalmation Toadflax, Linaria dalmatica.  The warriors are very tiny weevils whose scientific name is Mecinus janthinus.  We went to  the University of Montana campus in Missoula  and climbed a steep hill up several switchbacks, then took a little side path and went around looking for the Dalmation Toadflax. Then we bent it over a plastic shoebox and tapped it.  This caused the weevils to drop into the shoe box. From there we dumped them into cardboard containers and put a lid on them. While doing this, we had wonderful views of the entire city below us.

The evil invader, Dalmation Toadflas, Linerea dalmatica

The fighting wevils, Mecinus janthinus -  at least a few are in fighting form.  I dumped them out on the lid of their container straight from the refrigerator and quickly took a picture before they warmed up.

This picture from UM's web page shows the hill behind the campus where we did our collecting.

After about an hour and a half of this hard work, it was time to break and go to the Taco Shop for a huge fish burrito. Then we came back to the refuge and put the weevils into the refrigerator to await transporting them to their battle stations this morning.

This morning, it took a while for Amy to get through her e-mails and other work but Amy, Kelsy and I finally went out to find areas with a lot of toadflax - and not much evidence of weevil attacks -  ato introduce the weevils. Before we left, we got sidetracked again because Amy asked if I wanted to certify to drive the ATVs and UTV's by taking a course offered by Darren this afternoon .  Of course my answer was "YES", so we had to go back to the bunkhouse and get my long-sleeved shirt and high topped work boots, then go to the chemical building and pick up a helmet and find some gloves.

My job on the dispersal of the weevils was to take pictures. We climbed a barely-there rocky two-track trail, that was hardly wide enough for our truck, to one of the highest places in the refuge, then turned around, came back down, and stopped at several locations to release the weevils. I also changed to my riding shirt and boots and grabbed a cereal bar I found in my pack for lunch and was ready to be dropped off for my training down at the maintenance building.

Kelsy is checking a Dalmation Toadflax for signs of weevil damage

Deciding that this place needs weevils, she releases about 500 of them

Amy(R) is getting the GPS coordinates while Kelsy is filling out the record

Finally they put a label on a little white board and take a picture of it.

Why, you ask, are we messing around with bugs and plants.  Invasives, including Dalmation toadflax usurp the native plants that bison eat.  So the amount of food on the range is severely diminished. Every manager of government and private lands, the Indians on their reservations, and landowners all are fighting a massive battle against invasives.  It seems to me that fighting invasives takes the bulk of the time here at the refuge, especially in the summer months when they are pulled,  cut,  sprayed, and bio-controls are introduced and spread on new infestations. During the winter, the lands are burned to help control invasives.


At the ATV/UTV training, we got a lot of safety information and then learned to drive on the flat, around cones in various patterns, on the side of a hill and down through a gulley that was supposed to have water in the bottom of it, but was dry today. Then we had to load a UTV on to a trailer and the unload it. Finally we had to take a test of about thirty multiple/true/false questions. We all passed. I had two male classmates, both younger than my children. So passed another hard day of work.
 

Me certifying to use off -road vehicles

Tomorrow, I need to transfer the  materials I've set up to order for the bee survey to an official order form and then Kelsy and I are supposed to try to collect more weevils and transfer them to other places. These guys do pretty good at working their way up the hills, but not at coming back down.  So we want to collect them near the top and and then release them at the bottom of hills infested with the toadflax. I'm not supposed to work tomorrow but had a terrible sinus attack and didn't work Monday so decided to help out tomorrow.

National Pollinator Week - Help 'Em Live On!

Last year, while volunteering at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge on their bee survey project, I realized that, not only are the non-native honeybees in trouble, so are the native bees. And the native bees are far better pollinators for native plants and many of our fruits and vegetables.

A few native bees

Some bumblebees are believed to have recently gone extinct and others are in serious trouble. And it seems we don't even know the status of many of our native bees.  As bees go, so do we, since we depend on bees for one-third of our food.  And wildlife depend on bees for most of their nuts and berries.

The staff at Malheur NWR were very interested in bees and  wanted to expand both their bee research and educational outreach about saving bees. I got very involved in all of this and helped design and produce a bee display that is now in the little museum on the refuge grounds. Parts of it can be packed up to use for booth displays. My boss on this project used some of my pictures and my research to make a series of posters on pollinators.  (We started with bees and added butterflies while I was there, and then she added honey-bees and moths, since there is also a person doing research on the moths of Malheur NWR.) I asked for, and was given the posters as files to use myself and share with others. And I worked with the Piaute Indian Summer Program by developing and presenting activities to the kids on various pollinators.

One of the pinned sweat bees

The original idea was to use some of the boxes of pinned bees with posters for the display.  I suggested we collect and dry plants bees and butterflies were using and then glue bees and butterflies I collected with a net on them.  So I carried my butterfly net, kill jar, zip lock baggies, silica gel and a drying box around with me.  I could only dry one batch of flowers a day and some I had to redo to get them to look natural so this was a slow process.  Shortly mid  summer came and all the flowers and grasses dried up, leaving me with no more materials to collect.

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Collecting  flowers and setting up the drying bin  in the field

I even had to think of how to present the flowers.  I ended up making home-made play dough into bases, then arranging the cuttings in it.   At first, I decided to make the dough match the native gravel we planned to use in the bottom of the clear donation boxes. My best match involved using wine and strong tea as the liquid.  That batch sat for the two months of my various vacations and turned to some kind of unusable mush.  After that we settled on just a neutral color that came from using whole wheat flour.

One of the posters Carla made using my pictures and research

This year, I'm working at National Bison Range.  The biologists here knew of my bee work from my resume wanted me to work with  them and the regional pollinator person to develop bee survey protocols to use with the Montana Civilian Corp workers this summer.  I'll be managing the surveys and working with the kids to pin bees. We are also going to be manning Naturalist stations one day a week and I'll be helping with those activities.My other job is to work with the recreation/educational outreach director, Pat, mostly in the Visitor Center.

We used many of the posters from Malheur for the display at the Bird Festival

She received a request from Salish Kootenai College to bring a booth and some children's activities to their first annual Community Bird Day Festival, on May 23. Sh, in turn, invited me to make up a booth and children's crafts for this, and suggested using pollinators as our theme. So that was pretty easy. I  decided to let younger children make a paper bag puppet butterfly or bee while the older children could work around stations to make an origami butterfly.

I printed out information people could download off the net for display and then made a handout with links to it. We also printed out the planting list of plants for bees in this area and gave away pollinator bookmarks and mason bee houses.

At the Bird Festival  - picture by Kyle

Thursday was my one of my official days off, so I didn't go to work until after lunch.  I finished adding the title to the display, then packed everything up and drove about 40 miles to the festival site. Fortunately, I conned Kyle into riding along to "hang out".  What he actually did was help with the craft table so I could talk to visitors to the display about bees. Both the display and the craft table were really popular. Kids of all ages, and even a few college students made the Origami butterfly.  A few little kids took home a bee or butterfly puppet to make later. And we ran out of the mason bee houses.

Kyle helping with the Origami butterflies

There are other on-line resources with information and materials you can download and use. I'm also listing the Sunflower Project so you can find out about a Citizen Science Project that helps track bee populations.

The Fish & Wildlife's Site with probably all you need - from kids activities to school gardens to posters and other information  and pictures.
http://www.fws.gov/pollinators/

Polilinator Partnership- another complete site of information and resources. Be sure and check out the Education, Just for Fun,and Pollinator Week (Under Get Involved). And check out Pollinator Partnerships gallery of photos from Pollinator Week Celebrations:
http://pollinator.org/pollinators.htm

Field Guides to Bees that (I think) print out as the front and back of cards. Use cardstock. These need better formatting to save paper.
http://fieldguides.eol.org/observer/Observer-Bees-ebook-v4DL.pdf

The Great Sunflower Project - both a good way to learn more about bees and to contribute your own data.
http://www.greatsunflower.org/

The link to my dropbox file of pollinator activities and posters. I'll try to get a prettier title in there soon - one you can print out on acetate. The posters are in one PDF file.  Just print the ones you want.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/iwnncely2n7lpsy/dZa6bVDZnN

Hope you can help spread the word on the plight of bees or start a project to help them during  Pollinator Week.  Boy and Girl Scouts, Master Naturalists and Summer Camp Leaders will all enjoy this. And you can probably get your library to let you build a display on pollinators and then add their books on them.

Renewal Time on National Bison Refuge

We're getting all kinds of babies here on the bison range. Some of them we've seen and some of them are still hidden. The bison babies started arriving in April, a few weeks before got here. A few have just been born within the last week.  At least two of them were born very near the road to the delight of several visitors. Bison babies are born a bright orange- brown color and retain it for only two months.  So its easy to spot the youngest calves.

This calf is probably less than a week old

The proghorn antelopes are getting rounder and rounder. A few of them have already "popped" out babies. I was fortunate to get a picture of the first baby. But I haven't gotten to see a brand new baby.  A couple came in  to the Visitor Center a few days ago, and I gave them the spiel about the auto tour.  I always tell people who ask how long it will take that it will take and hour and a half to two hours to drive it but you will be there as long as you are willing to stop and look.  Then I tell them about where we are seeing the various mammals, birds, and blooming flowers. I also tell them, the more you stop and look, the more you will see. Stop often and use your binoculars because animals can be so far away, you will never notice them while moving.

The couple came back all excited because they had seen - and taken pictures of - a newly born pronghorn antelope. They reported that when they spotted it, the mother was licking off the afterbirth.  They watched the baby get to it's wobbly feet the first time and hunt down a nipple. Then three does came over and all sniffed the baby.  The baby tried to follow one of these does instead of its real mother. The mother had to go after it and get it to follow her. The told me," This was all because of what you told us."  So I guess they did follow my instructions to stop often and look lots.

At first the baby pronghorn looked like it was struggling to keep up

But seconds later it was running ahead

The same day I saw the baby antelope, I found this trio waiting for mom to come back and nurse them.  They are Colombian ground squirrels.  Their den was right in the road.  I saw the mother leave and one little head stay behind. After I stopped to take pictures of them, several other cars also did. One baby was super bold and stayed out a lot.  The second one would shortly follow the bold one's lead.  But the third one was really shy and would run back in the burrow at the slightest provocation and mostly stayed hidden. These squirrels are here in in much smaller numbers than were the Belding's ground squirrels at Malhaur NWR. 

Colombian ground squirrels just starting to check out the world outside their den

Birds all seem to have nesting on their minds or already be raising babies.  Robins, western and mountain bluebirds, and tree swallows, kestrels, and red-tailed hawks are bringing food to babies. Other birds, like the vesper sparrow and the catbirds are setting up territories and singing their heads off to defend them. Male Bullock orioles are competing for females - I've seen a couple of them at a time chasing after a female.

The vesper sparrow has a really beautiful song and sings it over and over. 

Western bluebird dad is busy bring in food

All the big-horned sheep babies are on the ground - about sixty of them - but we don't see them from the tour. A researcher was living at the bunkhouse for several weeks.  Each day he tried to find any big-horn sheep babies that had been born in the last couple of days.  They can't run and he could capture them, notch their ears so he could identify them, and collect some DNA samples. He knows the genealogy of each kid that he has caught. But we are getting very distant views of the rams when they climb over the mountain to the side nearest the auto tour road.

And the elk, mule deer, and white-tailed deer should be birthing but we haven't seen any babies from them yet.

Tuesday I started working on the bee survey project. I'm to head it up and figure out what we are doing, how we are doing it, and what materials we'll need,  I also have to figure out where we can buy each item, how much we'll need and about what it will cost. I'm also collecting questions to ask of the pollination coordinator.

I'm so glad I can get other people interested in helping our most important pollinators survive.

Virtual Walk to Work

I live in the bunkhouse, on a street with two more houses.  I'm very safe because our Law Enforcement Officer  lives next door and our Assistant Project Manager lives in the second house down. A third house is on the intersecting road and the barn and maintenance area is beyond that house. The Visitor Center is up and over the hill so our area is not visible from the main road.

Last Tuesday, I was in a hurry and decided to go up and over the hill.  There is a little canal that runs behind our house and off the refuge and is used for irrigation in the area. Behind the next house over is a little footbridge to cross it.   Here are pictures I saw along the short, but steep route.

This is the little canal behind my house where I start my walk

I walk past a Macintosh apple tree and this lilac bush 

Through a gap in the vegetation behind the houses, I can see the house and  barn on a cross street

This is the long view from just before the bridge, over the roof of the 2nd house  from me

In fifty yards or so, I reach the foot bridge

Then it's time to start my climb

I think I'll make it to the top when I see mountains behind this hill

Soon I can see part of the auto tour area

And to the right, our visitor  center which is nestled into the next hill. 

 When I have more time, I can walk along the canal until it crosses under the road, and then walk the last quarter or mile or so up the road. Or I can walk the roads all the way or even detour through the nature trails. So I can get to work in ten minutes or take over an hour, especially if I have my camera and/or binoculars with me. It took me 1.5 hours to come home on Monday because I started chasing bees and butterflies. It's a bad day when I have to take my car because I need to haul some stuff  to or from the bunkhouse. Then the trip is over too soon and I don't get to enjoy the views and the wildlife. One day, as I was walking along the canal on a little ridge, I looked down to see a young white-tailed buck with velvet horn knobs looking back at me.  I was carrying my white hat and swinging it, but even that didn't disturb him and he just kept lying there and looking at me.  M camera was backed in my backpack and was afraid to disturb him so didn't get his pictures.  But I expect he may use that area regularly so  I'll go check back for him.

I'm editing this blog on Tuesday night.  I'm just back from my 2nd day of getting to close the Auto Tour route. Yesterday, I  took another volunteer, Kyle,  with me.  We have to close the lower gate to the auto tour, go around the tour to push anyone out that is staying too long.  Then, after 9:30 P.M., when the front gate closes, we have to reopen the interior gate to the Auto Tour, so people can start enjoying it at 6:30 A.M.  Of course, we can do this as slowly as we want and we get to look for the bison, antelope, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk, coyotes, and black bear. Yesterday we have great views of close by bison, as well as some beautiful clouds over the Mission Mountains range. Tonight we had several storms earlier, but it cleared up and I saw my first bear.  AND he was climbing a hill that was completely empty except for one tree.  It would have been a tremendous picture, IF my battery had been charged.  Either I mixed up the batteries or the camera somehow got turned on.

Our final volunteer, Kyle, arrived Sunday to join me and the other volunteer, Will.  Both are young guys from   Florida who work for a group that contracts out young people to various agencies. The fourth housemate is law officer in training. He will only be here a few more days. But I'm enjoying working with the guys.  And they have to act like they enjoy me since I have the only car.

Bison among the arrowleaf balsomroot blooms

Sunset light on clouds over Mission Mountains

Farewell Paddle on the South Llano River

I ended my stay in Texas with a farewell trip to South Llano River State Park.  I birded, hiked, visited and finally paddled with various friends of a group of sixteen.  I've blogged about that trip here.  I birded all the way to the put-in and then had to wait on the rest of the group to arrive.

Summer tanager

Red-eyed vireo "preaching"

Eastern Wood Peewee singing

 Bob, Ann and I were the only ones paddling. The rest were either leaving, or birding. Natalie came to watch us take off and then planed to pack up and go to Austin to visit her daughter on the way home. Bill came to run the shuttle for us.  He followed Bob down to the take-out and then brought him back. Then he went back to pack up and wait for me.  He planned to stuff my things in the car for me.  (What a guy!)Finally, around 10:00 A.M., we were ready to do this short paddle -  I think it's about five miles.

Bob helping Ann at the put-in at the low water bridge in the park

We wound through the first chute and then pulled out so Ann could get her foot braces fixed.  After that we were able to paddle for over an hour before we needed a pit stop. We were also stopped several times by low water - the river was the lowest I've ever seen it.  This must be due the the on-going drought in the area.  But we still finished our paddle in about two hours.

River View

Winnie took this picture of me from a high bank near the start of the trip

Bob and view

Low water

Ann by cut bank

Bob struggling across a shallow spot

Some lingering blue-winged teal

Ann gets a drag from Bob

Finding a devil's trumpet along the riverside was a surprise

 But even low, the river was beautiful and we were a little sad to see the bridge.  I was surprised to see a new bridge that we could paddle under and the new parking area for paddlers.   I'm glad to see that more and more rivers are getting paddling trails with more amenities for paddlers.

Ann coming under the new bridge

At the take-out

I didn't take my canoe with me to Bison Range because there is hardly any paddling I can do by myself without running a shuttle.  There are a few lakes but I don't really like lake paddling. So this memory will have to last me until I go on a Boundary Waters Trip in September. 

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.