Bitey Things

Earlier this week while on a tour with a major land management agency I found a couple of interesting animals that I don't get to see everyday.

The first was this orb weaving spider my interns found in the grass as we were setting up a plot to measure Greater Sage-Grouse habitat. We had inadvertently flushed a few grasshoppers into her net and she was busy wrapping them up for a later meal.





We watched as she made her way from grasshopper to grasshopper, wrapping each in its own individual silken coffin. After each was well wrapped she would make a quick bite and move back to the center of the web. Even though she had unwrapped and subdued grasshoppers remaining stuck in the net, she would pause in the center before moving on to the next trapped grasshopper. We speculated that she was replenishing her spinnerets before she headed off to the next victim.



If you click on either of the previous two photos to enlarge it, you can see the silk emerging from her spinnerets as she rolled the grasshoppers around to cover them in silk.

On our way home we nearly ran over this larger fanged animal of the Great Plains - a Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalis viridis), the only rattlesnake found in Montana. It was lying in the middle of the gravel road and I had to swerve around her as we came over a hill. Before I could turn around another pickup passed us in the opposite direction and I thought for sure that they would hit it, but when we were able to turn around, the snake was still there in the middle of the road.



At first I wasn't too sure the it was still alive. As you can see in the photo above, there was a small stick laying across it's back and it wasn't moving at all. I scuffed a few pebbles from the road its way just to check and it became apparent real quick that the snake was indeed alive.





Shortly after I took these photos another pickup rolled over the hill coming our way. I hurried to pressure the snake off the road and into the grass, but it really wanted to make sure I would not get any closer, so it kept this pose as it slid slowly towards the road edge. Having a rattlesnake watch me like this certainly worked at keeping me a safe distance away.
The pickup pulled up next to me and the young man in the window peered out from under his well used felt cowboy hat and then looked down at the snake coiled up next to his truck and asked "Do you want a gun to kill that thing?"
I said "naw, I am just going to kick it off into the grass, but thanks"
"ok" he said and slowly shook his head back and forth as he rolled away from us.

I continued to pressure the snake until it moved all the way off the road and into the grass and disappeared.

Travels

Well, we did go south, but not too far and certainly not to the other side of the world as suggested by the photos in my previous post. Last week we took our nieces back to Colorado and visited my sister and family in Wyoming along the way. The photos from the previous post were taken at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, CO (hence the close-ups - needed to get rid of fences etc.). Here are a few more photos of the trip.



One of the activities at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is the chance to feed the giraffes. Both Crean (above) and Benton (below) enjoyed feeding them and feeling their long, black, tongues.




We also visited the Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Center in Woodland Park. Benton is a big dinosaur fan and we had a good time investigating all the skeletons and re-creations in the center.



Neither Benton nor Crean were particularly comfortable around the dinosaur recreations in front of the Center.



They also had a wonderful little exhibit on Darwin that I really enjoyed.






Below are a few of the more "normal" residents of Colorado and southern Wyoming.


Steller's Jay


Pygmy Nuthatch


Rufus Hummingbird


Fireweed


Least Chipmunk


Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel


The van put on a few miles and wound up with a rather thick coated of grasshopper remains over the front grill and fog lights. This year is particularly bad and they were very conspicuous between Gillette, Wyoming and Miles City, Montana. Much of the vegetation along the road had been stripped of leaves and there were occasional sparse "flocks" moving across the highway and thumping onto the windshield like scattered raindrops.

Not in Montana Anymore

Sprague's Pipit

Mule Deer Antler Retention

A couple of days ago I noticed this Mule Deer buck along the way into work. He was with a group of about 10 bucks, all in velvet, but this one stood out. He hadn't shed his left antler this spring. I didn't have my camera then so this morning I went to see if I could get some photos where he has been hanging out.

I found him and another buck at the same area and managed to get a few photos. I was speculation on why he might have retained the antler, but couldn't come up with anything that would explain why an apparently healthy deer would keep an antler like this.



After I got home and looked closer at the photos I could see the the deer was also blind in the left eye. I suspect the deer sustained an injury to the left side of his head (perhaps a vehicle collision since this group of bucks hangs out next to a relatively well traveled highway). He is also growing in a new antler that appears to be trying to form from under the old antler at the antler pedicle.



Other than the blind eye and retained antler, the deer appears to be quite healthy.

Common Nighthawks

Last Saturday we were banding birds at our study area in a rather narrow riparian area surrounded by native prairie. About mid-morning the skies above the riparian area were filled with Common Nighthawks foraging about 60 feet above the ground. They appeared to be concentrating on insects flying just above the canopy of the green ash trees but the would occasionally venture out over the open grassland near was standing and where I was able to get a clear view of the birds as they flew by.









These are one of the last species to arrive in the spring and the first to leave in the fall. Despite being so common in the area, we have yet to catch one in the nets, which is really not surprising given where they spend their time and where are nets are.
We did catch one rather exciting bird last Saturday. It was a House Wren that was one of the most tangled birds I have dealt with in a long time. The exciting part was that is was our first recapture of a bird from our initial banding effort in the area two years ago.

More photos

Long-eared Owl

I am going to break back into getting some posts on here with a rather quick one. If any one is interested in viewing more photos from me or my Dad, we have created a gallery at PBase. The address is:

http://www.pbase.com/mccownii

The photos are arranged in different galleries. Photo titles with four dots on both ends of the text are galleries and if you click on the photos, they will lead to more photos in that gallery.

Enjoy!