First snow of the season

Last Friday our first real winter storm of the season blew in, covering Billings with record amounts of snow, accompanied by bitter cold single-digit temperatures. It was a full 180 from the previous weeks' Indian summer feel with highs in the 60s. It was early October last year when I wrote about the first snow on the ground; now that we have waited until late November for the white blanket to cover us, it seems that winter has arrived with an urgency. The cold and snow have been persistent for the last several days; highs are around 3 degrees each day and a new dusting of snow graces the ground every morning.

The winter weather doesn't deter our local wildlife from going about the business of finding food to fuel their bodies to stay warm. Our feeder has been occupied by chickadees (Poecile atricapilla) and house finches (Carpodacus mexicanus), two species that will remain in the area all winter long. The male house finch (left) is distinguished from the female by its red head and breast. The female (below) is a brown and tawny colored bird, sometimes described as "drab". This is typical of many bird species; the male bird is colorful, which helps it to attract mates in the spring. Females are dull-colored so that they are camoflauged when sitting on their nests. That way they blend in and don't attract predators to their helpless eggs or hatchlings. House finches often travel in small flocks and are regular visitors to bird feeders, often nesting on or near buildings. They feed on nuts, seeds, berries, and insects (making them an omnivore, an animal that eats plants and animals).

If the animals can get out in this cold, we should be able to as well! I encourage you to put on some warm layers and head out to explore the winter wonderland. You are likely to find some tracks in the snow, such as the deer tracks I captured in the photo on the left. Follow the tracks backwards to see where the animal came from, and where it stopped to feed or rest. Put together the puzzle pieces as you get a unique glimpse into the life of an animal that is not visible at any other time of year.

Yellowstone Adventures

On a recent October afternoon the Center Director, Darcie Vallant, and I traveled through Yellowstone to a conference on the far side of the Park. I felt immensely lucky to be commuting through one of the most spectacular places in North America on my way to a conference about connecting people with nature. We had ample opportunities to connect with nature ourselves as we traveled along Soda Butte Creek, the Lamar River, and the Madison River on the way over to West Yellowstone.

Not more than one hundred meters from the road along the Soda Butte Creek, our first big sighting was a grizzly bear. Grizzly bears are identifiable by their dish-shaped face and hump on the shoulders. Both grizzly and black bears can be a multitude of colors, from brown to black to cinnamon. See if you can notice the shoulder hump in the photo below.

If you get close enough to either bear (which I don't recommend!), you will also observe that grizzly bears have much longer claws. These are used to dig for tubers and grubs. Black bears' shorter, curved claws are made for climbing trees. Grizzly and black bears have similar diets, though black bears don't generally forage for tubers. They are both omnivores, meaning that they eat both animals and plants. Their diet consists of elk, bison, roots, berries, white bark pine seeds and insects.

The Lamar Valley was full of herds of bison, surrounded by cottonwood trees that were at the peak of fall color. A lone coyote was hunting just west of the Lamar Ranger Station. We observed while s/he tilted its head back and forth, listening for the sound of mice beneath the soil. We were not lucky enough to get to see this coyote pounce and capture its prey.



We didn't see any elk until we pulled into Mammoth and met the resident
herd that feeds on the pristine green lawns in front of Officer's Row. Here we also ran into herds of tourists that were photographing the elk. One majestic bull elk sat in watch over his harem, a group of roughly 20 cow elk. At this time of year, during the rut, a male elk participates in mating behaviors such as sparring with other males with his antlers and bugling. Bugling both attracts females and proclaims a male's dominance over other males. To hear an elk bugle is a magical experience. It is a combination of whistling, bellowing, and grunting. The whistling noise is made by air passing over the elk's ivories ("the bugling teeth").
Evening is the best time to hear the elk bugle. We saw a few more bull elk, surrounded by females, as we continued westward. The mating season, or rut, lasts for 1 - 2 months each fall and is currently at its peak.