Monday 8 October 2012

Wild Horses and Grouse. (121006)

A Big, Big day planned for today.  We are headed into wildhorse country with the hopes of bagging a couple of Ruffed Grouse for the table. Len was impressed with the deer and elk we spotted on the way into our targetted area.  This past spring there were 230+ horses captured and turned into dog food for $$$, so we are going in to see what the population looks like this fall. Hopes are high tht we will find a couple to get some shots.  We spotted a few horses on a high sidehill and they started up the hill almost immediately. The truck footing was pretty sloppy, but we continued to climb, and were rewarded for our effort. we came around the corner and the Stallion was standing in the roadway.

It was raining so the image isn't the greatest. He had 8 more horses in his herd. Here is a shot of the herd mare, this dapple grey looked great!
Here is a shot of the rest of the herd.
With one bird in the bag, and one herd in the area, it was turning into a great day! Back on the main road and we find this lone stallion, that had obviously been in a couple of scraps, on an accessible hillside.
5 miles up the road we found a second herd of 10 horses.  Here is a shot of a couple of Mares.
It was nice to find a second herd, we also had a second bird in the bag. We stopped and picked up some gas, and spoke to the locals. When we discussed the horse situation, they were saying that there were lots of horses in the area, so that was great news to hear. With a couple of birds in the bag, and horse presence confirmed, we dicided to switch targets and head out for a Great Grey. On the road back we grabbed our first Northern Shrike of the fall and managed to grab this coyote.
Two miles up the road we found this guy. Len is starting to learn that you never know what you are going to find around each bend, or at the bottom of the dip of the road.
Things were rolling along pretty well for the day. Len got a couple of Buffalo shots and we popped around the corner and came up the highlight of the day for me:
A beautiful covey of 7 Ruffed Grouse.  They wanted to get out onto the road. I think we split them from Mom as she was on the other side of the road.  Len got some great shots, as he was able to get pretty close.  We hooked up with Jamie and got some "fresh" owl info. We had an unproductive cruise and he heded off home, as did we.  It was a long day, then across the road here comes our Owl!
We put the finishing touch on the day with a couple hundred head of elk in one of our "hot" fields.
We went down and took some photos and video, they were spread out over several hundred yards. A terrific day all around.

Turbo


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