"Stuff is eaten by dogs, broken by family and friends, sanded down by the wind, frozen by the mountains, lost by the prairie, burnt off by the sun, washed away by the rain. So you are left with dogs, family, friends, sun, rain, wind, prairie and mountains. What more do you want?" Federico Calboli
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Wyoming
Every spring I try to take one person who has never been to a grouse lek out to see the sage grouse strut. This morning I took Haley out to a lek not far from home. We were driving in about 20 minutes before sunrise, rolling through the lek (which is adjacent to a gravel road), admiring the grouse as they went about their business, when suddenly the entire lek erupted, with grouse bombing out in all directions to get away. A magnificent golden eagle had entered the scene, like a cruise missile gliding just a few feet from the ground. The eagle didn't succeed in taking a grouse (although a hen was in grave danger for several seconds). I expected the grouse to quickly return, but when I turned around to look again, the eagle had established a perch, so I knew the grouse would not return.
We drove about 15 minutes to another lek and enjoyed seeing a herd of pronghorn antelope standing atop a nearby hill, also watching the grouse activities below.
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wyoming, oh how i miss working there in the summers. n.e. wyoming a little north of newcastle paleo digging crew. the wyomingnites (if that is what they're nomer is?) set us arizona boys straight when we remarked about their weather: if you don't like the weather in wyoming, wait 15 minutes! (true) and the other: wyoming has 2 seasons, winter and the 4th of july! (never been there xcept in the summer, so can't vouch for truth there?!)
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