Wyoming

I updated my Texas post, the first one, so if you want to check out more pics take a look! Thanks to some comtacts I've made with some people I've met at the university, I spent another weekend in Wyoming last week helping a grad student do Grouse hunter surveys. I had a good time, I spent most of the time driving around in a truck with this sort of view. Notice the Antelope running from me. The second day was rainy, so we ended up doing some 4 wheeling in mud. 

There were Antelope everywhere, in-fact I almost hit one with my truck.

Here were some horses. They are wild horses, and really good looking. I saw quite a few of those. Interestingly I only saw one grouse, but I really wasn't looking for grouse I was looking for hunters.

This is an old cabin that I drove past, it looks cool. I'm tempted to look it up and find out its story.

Yesterday I went on a field trip with a few students to check and set up some cameras. It was fun seeing what wildlife is close to home, I could probably find any animal I want to within a few miles.

Wind Caves

Went up to the wind caves today. It wasn't much of a hike, but it was fun.

The caves are cool, when you make it to the end of the trail it looks like there's nothings. After you look around you realize that you are standing ontop of the caves.

Fall time is coming, the leaves are changing already.

Mountain-man rendezvous

On Labor Day weekend my wife suprized me with a trip to Fort Bridger Wyoming to go to the Mountain-Man Rendezvous. So me, her, Ammon, and Lance packed up and went to check it out.

When we first went threw the gates, there were at least 30 TPs set up that I believe you can rent. Some of them even had fires burning inside them. We'd like to go back next year and sleep in one for the weekend.

That’s me in the Fox head peace. It is one of the coolest hats I've ever put on. Those guys are throwing Tomo-hawks and knives. You have to be authentically dressed head to toe (especially no rubber soles on the feet) to throw them. Even the knives and Tomo-hawks were mostly home made.

On Labor Day we went for a trip to Cascade Springs in American Fork Canyon. Other than being really crowded it was nice. The best time to go is early summer when everything is blooming, but it's still really pretty up there.

 

Small Hike

Me and Ammon went for a small hike yesterday. It was only about 3 miles round trip, but it was a good workout because it was mostly up hill while pushing a stroller on a dirt trail.

The only animals we found were ducks at the mouth of Logan Canyon where we started. I did find this tree growing out of a cliff though, I thought it looked cool sticking up out of no-where.

The hike did have a nice view of Cache Valley, and especially the dam reservoir. Next week I plan on going to the Wind Caves. That is one of the most popular hikes around here, but being that I'm still new I'd like to check it out. 

Latter tonight I'll post some hunting pictures that have been requested, I just need to scan them in so it'll be a project for tonight. Talk to all-yall latter.

Welcome to EYE FOR WILDLIFE

Feeding the little monsters was always an adventure, it seems the two couldn't find the bottle.

Loco the yearling buck gets a little too friendly with people, he like to use us as a rubbing post. Thank goodness I left before the felt came off his horns.

There were two ponds, this was before we cleaned out all the algae. The scary thing about the ponds is that there are cotton mouths (water moccasins) in them so I always had my snake guards on while working on them, although I never saw one. Cotton Mouths are water snakes that are about as poisonous as rattlers, only they don't make noise and they are usually in groups so you are likely to get bit several times in an encounter.

After I brake a tire off the electric buggy, I ended up driving the polaris ranger around most of the time. That thing has a tun of power and goes surprisingly fast. The first time I got into that pool I was alone and came face to face with a snake. We both got out of the pool as fast as we could swim. It was just a garden snake, but I never saw it again after that, and after that I always checked for critters before I jumped in.

I am doing this blog to express my excitement about wildlife. I will be sharing what I have experienced, and what I will experience in my studies and also my outdoor activities. I know that I do not know everything, but I am eager to learn from those who do. Any fun facts that anyone can share are welcome.

A little about me, I am from Pleasant Grove Utah. That is located on the foothills of Timpanogas Mountain in the Rocky Mountain Range. I am majoring in Wildlife Resources in order to work with Problem Animal Management.

During August I was working on a White-tail Deer ranch in South Texas. This pic was taken from one of the motion cameras that I had by a mud hole that the deer like to drink from when it isn't dry.


My main responsibility was to bottle feed and care for the doe fawns. They may look cute at first but we quickly started calling them "monsters" because they have no patience when it comes to being bottle fed. They would jump and paw at me trying to be fed first. That became painful as they got bigger. That # 916 was the best looking.




















Being on a ranch, I ran into several different types of animals. Rattle Snakes being the most feared. They are not tolerated on the ranch so when we found them they usually didn't live threw it. This one was in the middle of a dirt road by some deer pens, I found his brother a few nights later on my front door step at 1am after I was done working. Baby rattlers are more dangerous then adult rattlers. This is because the babies can't control how much venom they inject because they get too excited when they encounter humans. Adults on the other hand just want us to go away because they know we aren't a food source. So if they do bite, they don't inject as much venom. Any venom is too much for me though.















There were a lot of road runners. These birds are cool, I clocked one running about

25 miles-an-hour. I'm told that they eat snakes. This is a bird I don't get to see often, but on the ranch I saw about a dozen a day.