Birds and Motorcycle Rides

After having guests for two days, Michael and I decided to take it easy and even slept in yesterday. I finally got motivated enough to go and cut some houndstongue weeds that were too far gone to seed to spray. As I was heading over to cut the last one I could find, I almost ran over a flock of baby Blue Grouse. I slowly backed away and came to the house for the camera. Grouse are notoriously slow moving and with a flock of babies, I didn't think they would go far and I was right. When I came back with the camera, I could see Mom poking her head up now and then and I started walking toward her. Well, those babies gave me a scare of my life, I must have almost walked right over the top of them and they squawked and took off over the ground. Mom was very incensed and puffed herself up and began to hiss at me--I got great photos of her--but I walked a huge circle around her and never did see the babies again, they must have hidden themselves well!!

Momma Blue Grouse

Today, after lunch, we decided to take a motorcycle ride. Although windy, it was a beautiful day, just the right temperature! North of Big Timber about 20 miles is the small ranching community of Melville where most of the large ranches have been in the same families for generations. We rode that direction and even went on to Harlowtown, MT which is about 45 miles north of Big Timber. The scenery was beautiful and I got some great shots of Sandhill Cranes.

These three were just walking slowly across this pasture and we were paying attention to them when I spotted several more just up the hill from this trio.

As we turned around to go back and take some photos of the other gang, they took flight. In the center of this photo you can see about eight of the cranes flying low to the ground.

This is the Melville Lutheran Church established in 1885 with the Crazy Mountains in the background.

What a great day!!