Snakes!

The weather is finally warming up here in the sage-brush steppes and that means that the reptiles are finally coming out of hibernation. I have noticed a lot more snakes basking themselves on the gravel roads and have taken the opportunity to run out and try to catch them, Steve Irwin-style. I've had doubts about grabbing them but after some practice and confidence I can handle them safely now. The only venomous snake in Nevada are the Great Basin rattlesnakes. I have not encountered a live rattlesnakes but my co-workers have. I have been taking precautions for this by watching where I step and not listening to music when I am out hiking- just so I can hear their warning rattle.

roadkill rattler

So I took his tail. Judging by the number of buttons, it was a juvenile.

Great Basin Gopher Snake, or Bullsnake

I got him by the tail!

Got him! It was at least 3.5ft long

Beautiful patterns

circular eyes, oval head= non-venomous

Unknown snake on the road, I was too slow to catch. 

Random wildlife photographs

I caught another horned lizard

Smile!

I love their dorsal patterning

Orange Mallow

Lupine, looks a lot like bluebonnets

Mountain lion poop in the area

Bull elk! He was huge!

Leopard lily, my favorite!

Radio telemetry and nest searching

The VHF (very high frequency) radio collars that we fitted on the necks of the hens when we were night-trapping  produce a radio signal. Each radio collar emits a signal at a specific frequency. By using an antenna, radio receiver we can listen to the beeps, determine the direction and find hens. Sage-grouse hens start nesting towards the end of April to all the way up to June. We will be spending the rest of the project locating these nests, monitoring their progress and then tracking the hatched broods in the late summer.

Telemetry requires lots of hiking and patience: frequencies on old collars often need to be dialed down, sometimes signals bounce between canyons and valleys or disappear altogether. I drive around and hike up tall mountains and walk for miles to best hear these frequencies. By following the direction of the signal (which can be more than 10 km away) and dialing down the gain I can track these birds down. These birds tend to nest under low sage brush and, after a couple million years of evolution, are so well-camouflaged that they are almost impossible to see. I cannot tell you how many times I have been deceived by a suspicious looking tree trunk, rocks, leaf litter, moss or a dark patch under a sage brush.When I am closing in on a hen, I will start to circle around the location and get a visual on her. Even with a human being walking around her, a good mother hen will stick on her nest, but there are times when an especially skittish female will fly away. My objective is to get a visual confirmation of the bird and not flushing her off her nest. Typically, sage-grouse hens do not nest under pinyon pine or juniper but the last three birds that I have found all have their nests under short trees. This is highly unusual and there is a elevated risk of nest depredation.

It is really exhausting work but the rush that I get when I am closing in on a nesting hen and looking for her under the brush with my binoculars cannot be duplicated. I am a sage-grouse junkie and the only cure is finding more nests.

Can you find the nesting hen?

Which corner is the hen in?

Because of her location out in the open, this hen was obviously not nesting.

Lek Counts

We had 11 leks to count this season. Each of them required 4 rounds of counts. We woke up at around 3:30 in the morning to drive about an hour to the displaying grounds before sunrise to survey for sage-grouse. It is one of the best way to estimate population size since most birds visit these areas during the breeding season. It was a surreal experience seeing so many birds on the lek, I had previously worked with APCs and there were not nearly as many prairie chicken males booming. I counted 46 males one morning at the Rock Springs Wash lek. I always enjoyed seeing and  the birds do their unique displays from the work truck and then hiking in and scaring them up to get a flush count. After almost 2 months we just finished our last surveys last Saturday. It's gonna be good to sleep in.

Can y'all count all of the males?

Flushing males

Desert Horned Lizard! (Phrynosoma platyrhinos)

I could not resist catching a horned lizard the other day while out tracking female grouse. He was quick but I was able to snatch him up when he was running between the sage brush cover. There have been other lizards around the Butte Valley as well, this was the first one that I have hand caught. Apparently they get Great Basin Rattlesnakes here, I've been looking out for them when I am out hiking through the sage. 

Mid-April Update

It is the end of my trapping season! Although there is still 2 GPS backpacks to put out, I have officially finished my spotlighting and trapping sage-grouse career and have moved onto the next stage of the project, tracking radio collared females and finding hens with nests (I will post some pictures later of me conducting radio telemetry). I have not found any nests yet and the birds that I have been tracking are still moving around the Butte Valley. I have already started to miss heading out at night with a long pole or a spotlight backpack hiking up and down hills and looking for grouse but I am glad to switch back to a daytime work schedule.

Cushion Phlox

Goat skeleton

After hours of roaming the sage brush in search of grouse, it
feels great to net and collar a hen!

Last week we had 4 straight days of snow! There was not a lot of accumulation but it was crazy to see so much snow falling. Driving on the frozen highway in near whiteout condition was an experience, so was changing a flat tire on the side of the highway after a long night of trapping. Nevertheless, as a Texas boy I was always impressed by the light, fluffy frozen precipitation. 

Illipah Reservoir

Frozen campground

Snow at the trailer

Lek counting

How many can you see?