Friday, June 12, 2009

The First Week

Well I have returned from the first week of my new research job in Yellowstone, although we weren't even there for a full week. However it was still quite an exciting time, with some very interesting weather. I also got to spend some time with the Fam since they came up to visit the park.

Boss and I didn't end up leaving Bozeman for the park until Thursday morning. More delays on the logistics of the research project. And there would be a few more logistical problems to come soon enough. We got to the park and checked into a campsite because Boss was still working on getting a trailer for us. We spent the rest of the day running around talking to park officials. Nothing really too spectacular.

The next day we started doing some research. I guess I should explain what we are doing. This project is examining aspen growth in west-central YNP to examine recent browsing pressures from elk in order to determine if this pressure changed when wolves reinhabited the area. Essentially we do a lot of hiking through the woods looking for aspen then measuring some of them. So the first day we started hiking. Then we hiked some more. And after that we kept hiking. The terrain was pretty rough. Basically lodgepole pine saplings that were so dense I could only see about three feet in front of me and dead trees crisscrossing my path forcing a lot of hoping, crawling, climbing, and balance beam-walking in order to get through. Very slow going... and no sign of aspen either. A little after lunch a storm blew in, bringing a short spurt of hail, lightning and thunder followed be a steady rain for the rest of the day. I soon learned two important lessons on my first day in the field. One: dead, wet logs are very slippery and it is quite easy to fall off of them. Two: that when companies say "waterproof" it is an approximation.

So the first day in the field was sort of rough. We ended up going back to Bozeman for a few things we left... and I was happy to get a warm shower. We headed back to the park, made a stop that resulted in finding a trailer and started working out some of the kinks with actually sampling the aspen stands. So the next few days weren't too exciting. I guess unless you count the five inches of snow we got one morning and the repetitive afternooon hailstorms. We basically spent a lot of time setting up the trailer and talking to more park officials. Other than that we spent some time in the field and determined that the methods we planned on using needed to be rethought. So we cut the work week a little short and headed back to Bozeman.

I didn't stay too long in Bozeman though. The Fam was visiting Yellowstone, so I headed back to the park to visit with them after one day in Bozeman. We had quite a good time wildlife watching and checking out some of the thermal features of the park. The first night I went out with them we spotted four wolves in Lamar Valley. They were just meandering through the valley, not paying any attention to the herd of bison around them, at least thats what we thought. Before we knew what happened they took off towards a lone bison, alone except for her calf. We then watched as the four wolves and the two bison fought for their lives. The wolves constantly diving in towards the calf only to be repelled as the bison mom charged at them. It was pretty remarkable to watch. The calf was forced to essentially run between the front legs of its mother in order to stay away from the wolves while the wolves would attempt to distract the mother long enough for another to run in from behind her to get the calf. The wolves were unsuccessful and the bison was able to fend them off, although we found out the next day that the wolves ended up killing a bull elk that night.

The next day, the wildlife viewing peaked at the very beginning of the day. Alongside the road, and I mean right next to the road, there was a great gray owl. He was in the company of about 50 photographers and tourists taking picture after picture of him. We stopped and quietly approached, although I have the feeling he didn't really care that all the people were watching him. He might even have enjoyed it! He was getting a ton of attention and seemed to know exactly what all the photographers wanted. He had his back to everyone the majority of the time, but every once in a while he would turn and look straight at the cameras. Which caused a flurry of snaps and clicks from all the cameras in the area. Then he snapped his head away again. Every time he moved to a new rock to perch on everyone jumped up and migrated to a new spot with a better angle. We ended up watching him catch a small rodent in the field then fly off into the woods. I still can't believe that he stayed so close for so long with all of the people there. But I think it is more unbelieveable that the majority of the photographers there, and I mean the ones with the big, expensive cameras that sell the shots they get, didn't even seem to be enjoying themselves. They were so concerned with what angle they were taking their shots from and the lighting in the area that they couldn't even appreciate what they were seeing. I was so excited and couldn't stop grinning at the sight of him, yet they only seemed to care about getting the perfect shot instead of marveling at what was before them. I couldn't believe it.

The rest of the day was fun, but I don't think anything really topped seeing that owl. We hoped that he would be hanging around the same area later that day, but we didn't spot him. That was the last day in the park(for the vacation that is) and this morning the Fam headed back for home and I headed back to Bozeman. Tomorrow I go back to the park, this time for work though. Hopefully we get a lot of work done and everything goes smoothly, but we will see. I have a lot of pictures that I will try to post on here later. I figure this post is already long enough.

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