Late Breaking Aliens

Yes, we did another Alien Inspection last month, I didn't post it because the Poem A Day challenge was taking up all my brainpower at the time. So here are some pictures from that expedition to the backside of Devils Tower.

This time around was an all wildlife all the time trip. We saw lots, domestic and wild. I used my coworkers Nikon L110(?) camera for this series, not sure I like the autofocus and the big screen on the back is hard to see in sunshine- not that there was a whole lot of that, still, it makes me kind of reconsider replacing my old Canon flip screen. I did like the zoom on it, though. I'd love a digital SLR, but I haven't won the lottery - yet.

Here is the lineup for the expedition. First up - turkeys! The males were strutting, the females disinterested, and the hunters salivating.

"Gertrude! Did you see that? The nerve of some males..."

"Look over here, ladies, check this out..."

"Who da man? I am, oh yeah...
Read? Of course I can't read. Why do you ask??"
On the other hand


The deer were shy and elusive.

The cattle aloof and indifferent.

Or indifferently aloof.

The sheep, though, were curious and strangely scary.

Or shaggy scary.

And now for some landscapes.
Hulett from the golf course, featuring the sawmill.

Red rocks around Hulett
More red rocks and pasture.

Some bonus wildlife from coworker K when she was over in the west side of the state. You'll see why she has no problems slamming on the breaks when I yell 'Stop! Picture!"

Bighorn sheep

Bison

Honkers

Elk


And if that wasn't enough to intimidate you, a wolf track.

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Inspecting For Aliens Part II - The Landscape

Last week was devoted to the wildlife I see in our occasional outings to the remote regions of my part of Wyoming. While the eagles are always inspiring, the scenery plays a big part in my fascination with Wyoming.
At times otherworldly, even in the winter it can be beautiful and scary at the same time.
From sweeping vistas
To oddball little details like frozen foamTo the obligatory image for my neck of the woods.
There's wildlife and other things Out There, hiding in the treesbehind red hills
At the foot of the Tower

and between little clumps of dried up grasses
Of course, the military is out there too, checking behind every shrub and pine, scanning the skies for nefarious doings
While missing out on the strange beauty
of a late afternoon

in rural Wyoming

where all roads lead to a far distant horizon.



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Inspecting For Aliens Part 1 - The Wildlife

It was that time again at work. Time to go out into the wilds of Wyoming and inspect alien labor housing. The good part is always getting out of the office and into the backwoods. So armed with cameras, my co-worker and I set forth. Our objective: Inspect and get that part done on time, so we could take more pictures on the way back. Luckily, my co-worker is a fellow photographer who isn't phased when I yell "Stop the car!", bail out, fling myself onto a snow-covered hillside and start snapping away.

This was one of those days I regretted not having a better digital camera, or a SLR with me.Of course there were deer. Lots of deer. We didn't see one antelope the whole trip on the lower plains, but as soon as we got into the hills, the deer came out in abundance.

We also saw turkeys in the distance, nothing like the hundred from our last trip. Not close enough for pictures. A ring-necked pheasant ran across the road in front of us, much too quickly for us to get a shot off, and besides, I hate taking pictures through the windshield. (Although I abandoned that position later, as you will see.)
What's a road trip without cows? We saw plenty of them, although this was the only one that would pose. The rest turned their backs, or stuck their head into the grass and ignored me. Hey, at least this one was alive.
After lunch at the Co-op in Hulett, we started back. We'd seen eagles in the distance on the drive out and hoped we'd find some on our return trip. Be careful what you wish for. This time it was my co-worker who slammed on the brakes. While I was eyeballing the eagles high in the sky, she kept her eyes on the road.
A dead deer by the side of the road is an unmovable feast for eagles. Normally, they'd fly off if we approached, while the greedier magpies swooped in to grab a bite. This boy was unintimidated by us, however.
He flew off to a tree top for just a few moments, then came back to guard his lunch.
It's hard to tell from the pictures, but this was a big bird. Probably approaching three feet tall.
This is one of those through the windshield shots. He let us get pretty darn close. So we took a last pic and moved on. Oh, and the eagles do good work. The heart was gone, and they had started on other internal organs.
Another bend in the road, and some bald eagles hanging out in the trees.
This one flew across the road and perched in another tree, where he proceeded to pose for us while we frantically snapped away. The wind was blowing briskly, and the poor digital had a hard time of it holding focus.
But the eagle was obliging, and stayed for a good five minutes, calling and posturing.
Moving up fast on my Have To Have list. A digital SLR, the best of both worlds. Of course, by the end, my fingers were a bit frozen as were my feet from standing out in a snowdrift taking pictures of the eagles. I could have stood there longer, just watching and listening, but duty called, and so did the office. So we packed it in and headed home, heater blasting the chill from numb fingers.

Next: Inspecting For Aliens Part 2 - The Landscape

Alien Inspection, Take Two

Or: The Return To The Tower



















Some days I love my job. Once again, I got to go adventuring around a distant county, on the backside of Devils Tower and the Missouri Buttes. In a reverse of my last expedition, the day started out gray and ominous, and turned to bright blue skies by lunch. The highlight was the plethora of wildlife we observed, including 21 bald eagles. (Yes, we kept count.)



















The first pair flew across the road on a wooded curve, startled up from eating roadkill by our passage. I think both my coworker and I flinched at the sheer size passing by the windshield. We saw several more on that stretch of road leading to Hulett. Luckily, traffic was sparse, so I had my camera ready and my colleague was prepared to pull over at a moment's notice. Of course the drawback to a semi-cheap digital camera is inability to get closeups, or real action shots.



















But as honkin' big as bald eagles are, they were easy to spot in the sky. We scared several more on a back road, feeding off a dead deer on the side of the road.

WARNING: Do NOT click on the pic to enlarge it if you do not want to see an eagle gnawed dead deer.








Strangely enough, there was also a dead cow not 2 miles down the road, untouched by anything. It must have died in the night, and the eagles hadn't discovered it yet. Or beef wasn't what was on their menu.



















We saw enough live animals to make up for the dead ones.




















Turkey, whitetail deer, horses, live cows, hawks, more eagles, more turkey, ranch dogs, and did I mention the overly friendly ranch horses? They swarmed the truck the instant we came over the cattleguard, and seemed quite miffed we didn't offer them a treat, or at least some of our coffee.




















The whitetails were everywhere, watching us. Like the turkeys of the last expedition, every time we stopped to take a picture, they got shy, or bounced off, flag tails in the air.



















The strangest thing we saw in our travels had wildlife (deer) around it, but wasn't alive itself - as far as we could tell. Mixed in with normal stacks of hay, was a strange, caterpillar shaped object. Since the deer were quite intent on gnawing at the seams of the plastic, we reluctantly concluded the white tubular objects were... hay condoms. There was no other explanation. After documenting the alien objects for posterity, we moved on.



















We got to see some pretty sights, also. The backside of the Missouri Buttes in a bright afternoon sky.



















By the end of the day, we'd circled almost all the way around the Missouri Buttes, and as we headed for home, they sank on the horizon.



















We made our way out of alien environs, pausing to be glad our school was in a bit better shape than the one we found out in the wilds.

























After a fun filled day of eagle watching and sliding around on muddy back roads, we were glad to see the office. I left it up to my colleague to explain to her husband why his nice, shiny white truck now matched the red-gray scoria of county back roads, and why there was horse slobber all down the driver's side door...



















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