A Montana Haven

On our way to Yellowstone, we stopped at the home of friends outside Bozeman, Montana. It was a gray, rainy, cold day, but the birds and animals that flock around John and Durrae's didn't seem to mind. Their yard was a western wonderland for these Ohioans.

Let's just start with the view out the living room window.

and proceed to the lazuli bunting just outside the kitchen window screen.

Ah, but there was more to come. This little Richardson's ground squirrel (everyone in Montana calls them "gophers," even though they aren't...
charmed me with her muzzlepuff cleaning routine.
Kind of a shrinky prairie dog, they are pretty much everywhere in eastern Montana, running across the road, tails straight up in an exclamation point. When I first visited Montana as a 12-year-old, I wept for each one my sister's car hit. I cried a lot those first few days. And then realized that I didn't have tears enough for all the gophers with a death wish.

It was nice to see one close up, to see the sweet animal in what so many perceive as brainless video-game targets. I wish I understood what makes them decide to cross a deserted highway just as your car comes careening through at 75 mph.

There was much more to be enjoyed in John and Durrae's yard...

Watching for Wildlife

I'm not used to seeing landforms like this. A speeding car-window shot of the Theodore Roosevelt South Unit near Medora, North Dakota.
But much of the fun of travel is readjusting one's view of the land, accepting new life forms and landforms as part of the view. I never tire of it. Well, I do get tired of soybeans and corn, but I don't get tired of what nature put there. Don't miss the purple flowers in the vale. Unfortunately, a binocular view made them look suspiciously like dame's rocket, a Eurasian mustard often included in "wildflower" seed mixes. Ah well. They were lovely. I leave open the possibility that they're some gorgeous native that looks like dame's rocket, and hope to be corrected. Such a pool of shadow violet they made, incredible.

Wild prairie flax, Linum lewisi. Named for Meriwether? I'd imagine.

Perched up on a rock, we scanned for wildlife. Bill has the tripod splayed out to Hotdog Brother height.

The rock was inhabited by lovely bunches.


We found the first-ever elk Phoebe, Liam and I had laid eyes on (Bill had seen them before, but he was so excited to show them to us!) What a fine, fine sight, even if distant. We watched them for over an hour as they grazed and milled about. See the little calf?

A male lazuli bunting knocked our eyes out. His song, reminiscent of our indigo bunting. Could we switch, just for a summer? I'd like to put this one on the Indigo Hill species list. For me, the color scheme is a play on that of the eastern bluebird's. I love lazuli buntings, and I get all excited and jump around a lot, flapping my hands, when I see them.

But there was still more. There are wild horses in the park!

Of course, they need a post or two of their very own.

Until tomorrow,Li'l JZ and Big BT3, reporting from North Dakota, in a sundrenched June timewarp. Just the thing for dreary December, especially now that the sky's gone gray, and the nights are so cold.