Fun on the Reservation

[CouesWhitetail]

Most of you know that I do wildlife surveys for the San Carlos and lately it's been mostly owl surveys. I was there the last couple days in the Malay area and had some fun.

 

On the way across Big Prairie we saw lots of antelope. One was a group of three does with three beautiful fawns. Didn't get a pic of those. But then shortly after seeing them we spotted a herd of 9 bucks. The full moon was above them and I tried to get an artistic photo but my little camera isn't big enough for the challenge. Since I don't have a telephoto lens I decided to just try and walk out to them and see how close they would let me get. I wasn't expecting much, but without any cover at all I was able to walk within about 100 yards of them! Lots of fun. Here are some pics (still not close enough to get great pics, but not too bad).

 

 

And here is the photo of them after they got nervous about me. The one buck in the back right is the biggest of the group.

 

 

Although it can be distracting to get any owl work done on the rez with all the big game running around, I did manage to find a pair of owls with two very small chicks that just got out of the nest.

 

How's this for a room with a view:

 

and here is the 2nd chick:

 

And the photogenic father:

 

 

 

And on the way down from the owls I passed by the bear skull and a mulie skull that I found years ago, but am not allowed to pick up since it's on the reservation. So I just visit them and generally snap a picture whenever I am in there.

 

 

 

 

And here is an Abert's squirrel in mid-leap between a couple trees. When I took the photo, I thought I had missed the squirrel, but it cracked me up when I got home and saw the pics.

 

 

 

And here is a WT skull I found years ago in another area. This is another rack that I just visit. I have a photo of it from 3 years ago which I will post together with this one sometime in another thread. This used to be a 5x4 plus eyeguards.

 

 

 

And lastly I got to see a couple high elevation javelina out on Bee Flat. One of these pigs was so big we thought it was a small bear at first. I just had to walk in on them and try and snap a pic. Got within about 20 yds, but still the photos aren't very good. Hard to tell how big it looked in these photos. It's the dark one.

 

 

 

 

Always an adventure hiking around the rez! I sure love my job!

 

Amanda

[kphunter]

Fabulous pics, nice variety of wildlife from the 'rez.

 

KP

[Red Rabbit]

I like the owl pics. Is that blood on his beak, or the natural coloration?

 

Doug~RR

[CouesWhitetail]

Yes, that is blood on the beak. If you saw the owl video that I posted in another thread recently, you might remember that I take live mice with me to "mouse" the owls. (that's why he has recent blood on his beak and also on his talons) The mice are offered to the owl and then he usually will grab them and take them to the mate and young. For those that might have missed seeing the owl video, here is the link:

 

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/video_clips/...music_video.wmv

[coueshunter]

Amanda, thank for posting your fun trip/pics/memories. Those owls are fantastic...............great job on the antelope pics, kinda strange they let you get that close..............Allen...........

[rabidApache]

Hey Amanda,

You didn't by chance hear or observe any wolf sign while on your surveys?

Great pix by the way....also seen and heard a couple of Spotted owls in Malay Area during a recent Fisheries project.

 

"kinda strange they let you get that close..." I guess many didn't know SC Rez is about a 2million acre Petting Zoo.....dewey lol

 

[CouesWhitetail]

I didn't see wolf sign but I heard them howling one morning around 3:30-4:30 am. It was a very eerie sound and it took me awhile to figure out what it was. They were far away from where I was, but I thought it was really cool hearing them. I can PM you more info if you need it.

 

Amanda