Birds, Bugs, Weeds, and Weather (Billings, Helena: how much, house, to buy)

[NativeMontanan]

So, its come to my attention Spring is on the way here in Montana. I thought it an interesting post to let each resident of Montana know what's going on here and would like to know how Spring is progressing in their neck of the woods.

I'll start since I'm in what is termed eastern Montana on this web and I started the thread. I reside on the plains east of the Rockies. We appreciate the Southerly view of the Big Horns, Southwesterly view of the Beartooths, Westerly view of the Crazies, Belts, big and little, and a Northwestern view of the Belts both Big and Little, and lastly though certainly not any less spectacular a Northerly view of the Snowies and Easterly view of the Bulls. I guess this large parcel of ground might be termed the Yellowstone valley? There's about 5 or 6 other parts of Eastern Montana usually divided by old river beds or mountains.

Ours is a large state. Only a third of Montana is West of the Divide....you know where they take the pictures for the travel magazines. I am in the terrain that you'd see in Hollywood movies where Sundance Kid, Gunsmoke, and the Ponderosa try to depict the West.

We have coyotes, wolves, cougar, porcupine, skunks, rattlers, bull snakes, blue racers, jack rabbits, sage grouse, pheasant, ducks of all kinds, and on occassions black bear and brown bears to name a few. Though grizzly used to be common on the plains they have been pushed further toward the mountains. We've had moose out here but I think the two times I saw them they were lost or running from a range fire. Elk, deer and antelope play. Gophers are used for target practice (remember you swore not to change our rules).

Closer to the mountains I mentioned the flora/fauna change. They share much of the same game and have a few(?) additional. We have shooting star, lupine, blueeyed grass, sagebrush buttercup, coral bells, and bitterroot, though we call them sand roses.

Anyway, to make this not an extremely long post, I thought we could let each and all know what is going on regarding weather, flora and fauna since Spring is a new beginning in Montana.

On my adventures this morning, the grasses, grew at least an inch over night. The extreme wind over the last two days took away any dirt and left new pebbles to ponder.

Robins announced their arrival this past weekend and their numbers are increasing. They'll fly through to cooler more protected areas...a few will stick around. Bluebirds are making their march toward their summer irrigated ground and the cool streams of the mountains.

The Earth is cracked and from yesterday's wind is accepting seed from the grasses of last fall. Now we pray for rain. Its way too warm for spring. Its not even the 15th of March, but hopefully we are on the down side of a decade drought. This is the 10th year out here and we should be coming over the hump. 1997 was the last wet spring.

The ticks aren't yet out on the sage brush trying to hitch a ride. I have a LGD (Livestock Guard Dog) who as everyone knows is white. White attracts those daing "hitchhikers." She came back with no ticks. Might be too dry. It certainly has been warm enough.

The huge old ant piles have come alive. The old red buggers are working their nest to make it taller than 2 feet. The female gophers (Richardson ground squirrel) just started milling around and making a mess. The big old males have been out for a few weeks...right on schedule.

No fires here as yet, though I see they had a small one over in Stevensville yesterday. Thank god those people were burning in the Spring. Spring now is almost too dry. Now you said you weren't going to change the rules...yes we burn garbage and old slash piles of stuff. Some are just more careful than others and then again Mother Nature in Montana changes in an instant, too. No one burns when fire restrictions are on.

No hoppers yet, though I don't know why....it wasn't cold enough to kill them off...Maybe last Fall's cold rains did?

I'll end this post and let others shine if they feel so obliged.
We've got robins, green grass an inch high, gophers, no hoppers nor ticks yet. The daing black flies, because of the drought and warm winters are already making hay.

So what's going on in your neck of the woods?

[kabb36]

NativeMontanan~

I'm not in your neck of the woods, though I hope to be one day soon. I just wanted to thank you for the post. Sort of brings your area of Montana to life.

[NativeMontanan]

Originally Posted by kabb36

NativeMontanan~

I'm not in your neck of the woods, though I hope to be one day soon. I just wanted to thank you for the post. Sort of brings your area of Montana to life.

The more I become familiar with this site the more I realize alot of what we do, don't do, have and don't have, want and don't want come to life. We take a lot of things for granted...like no smog...at least over here. The wind clears that out in short order. Cough Cough....we do have range fires, but most of the smoke pollution comes from the forest fires to the West. If anyone has an allergy to dust they don't want to live out on the plains.

People don't dust their furniture here. They bring in the shovel. We spend a great deal of time, but never enough, taking the Airstream and going to where we need to fish, enjoy water and cool off. Most all campgrounds are boondocker camps. This means electricity, dump stations and the such are not provided in our forests unless you go to a private campground.

We build our own sweathuts, drink some beer or sometimes a foofoo drink if we have an ex-bartender along and don't bother anyone. We prefer not to be in a civilized campground. I gave up tenting, but my bro and his wife that usually meet us, tent. The bears because of sloppy campers or people that feed bears have made the bear unfearful of people. So we scraped enough together to buy an Airstream that we had to travel to Oregon to purchase.

With the way the stockmarket is going, down another 2%, and housing taking a dive and the price of gasoline climbing people with 2 or 3 summer homes up here might be selling. You might get a place already built with improvements like a well, septic and electricity.

Montana isn't what the brochures say it is unless you have tons and tons of money. Just like anywhere else. I'm sure they have pretty cool brochures on California. We love it. (Actually there are some very pretty parts of Oregon I wouldn't mind trying.) We live on the family homestead...we aren't going anywhere. Whats that old boy scout thing. Perservere Overcome Adapt? Montana - adapt to the lifestyle. Perservere through the bad times and Overcome the winey crying when the tire goes flat out in the middle of NOWHERE and you don't have a jack or you slide off the road and can't get the vehicle back out of the muck. At least when you scream and curse at the wind....no one hears you. So then when you eventually get back to civility you can act like nothing happened. Who needs therapists...

[ladyflyfsh]

NativeMontanan, we are at a higher elevation than you so are not quite as far along in terms of spring advancements. BUT, that said, the robins are back as of a week ago today along with the red-winged black birds that are eating all my wild bird seed faster than I can put it out!

I have yet to see a gopher in my fields and have been watching for them. I expect any day now I will see them out digging like the little maniacs they are.

I'm also expecting the Sand Hill Cranes to be here within short order. They usually re-appear mid March. The pheasants have been quite visible lately and the whitetail deer are keeping a low profile. Lots of very pregnant doe's this time of year.

My daffodils, tulips and day lilies are all about 4-5 inches high out of the ground. No signs of the rhubarb yet. As for the grass, it's starting to get a little more green color to it although for the most part it's still quite brown but starting to think about turning with a few blades of green here and there.

We had a rather cold winter for the most part with at least 5 different episodes of below 0 temperatures, with the coldest getting to 30 below 0. It started off cold in October and especially November and December. January was not too bad but then February brought significant snowfall here. We had one snowfall of around 14+ inches which is more than I've seen in a single snowfall since December 1998 when we only got a foot. Of course it warmed up quickly and it all melted leaving huge puddles in my field and driveway etc. Now, with all the wind, the puddles are finally drying.

I'm hoping the winds subside enough so I can do some burning around my irrigation ditch and cottonwood trees to burn off all the old dead grass that's 2 feet tall and make room for new green growth.

That's about all there is to report from the SW. The ice is quickly melting from the Jefferson River and it's now time to exercise the fly rod!

Just one week until the official start of spring.

[lesliegrace]

Native Montanan and ladyflyfsh,

Thanks for sharing your descriptions of spring in Montana!

We visited Montana in June of 2001. It was raining when we arrived, and much cooler than we expected. We visited my aunt and cousin in Billings for a few days, and then drove to Helena to see the state capital before heading back south.

I believe that it was on this drive from Billings to Helena that some little animals kept darting across the road in front of the car! They looked like prairie dogs; we kept joking about the little daredevils. I don't remember which road we were on; it seems as if I recall it being a two-lane highway rather than an interstate. Luckily, they were very skillful at dodging traffic!

Do you have any idea what these small creatures might be? Do you all have prairie dogs in Montana?

[NativeMontanan]

Originally Posted by ladyflyfsh

That's about all there is to report from the SW. The ice is quickly melting from the Jefferson River and it's now time to exercise the fly rod!

Just one week until the official start of spring.

Yes....fishing !!! I love to float the Jefferson in innertubes. It is such a beautiful river. So gentle, but so wonderful. I like going to the hot spring just out of Whitehall. Its fun to wade in the different temperatures, that is once one removes the broken beer bottles, LOL. Are they going to create a project for cleaning that up...or do they clean it ever year and it gets trashed again?

Well, I awoke to about 3 inches of white stuff this morning!! Yes!!! What they say about the soil around here is "Stick with the ground, cause it sure will stick to you" held true on my rounds this a.m.

My altitude is close to 4K. What is Dillon?...or are you closer to Whitehall?

Do you attend Rocking the Rockies? I haven't made it yet. I may be too old to take the Airstream and spend a weekend in the confines, but then its pretty expensive to travel in and out everyday.

No new critters today. Our neighbor down the road called and wanted to borrow a back hoe. Lost a horse today.
My second LGD pup (Livestock Guard Dog) came today. Had to make a trip to the Big City airport. It was tense going because of the snow (I don't like having to drive in the snow anymore), but by the time I got back it was all melted, but in the shade.

I highly recommend the LGD breed of dog to anyone living on acreage. What a wonderful dog they are. We've been exposed to the blue heelers, australian shepherd and the border collie. I don't need that much help moving my cows because we have a lead cow so I don't need a herder dog. Point the lead cow in the direction we want her and she knows which pasture.

We have had problems with coyotes coming way to close for a couple of weeks. Must be the calving, but they have never gotten this close. Course our old dog, a Rotty, died last fall. Didn't realize how much she did around here. We didn't pick old Rajah...but because we have a farm we sometimes get dogs that get in trouble in the city. She was our son's dog. We didn't need to worry about strangers coming...she lived here for 10 of her 12 years. So anyway, we moved to LGD's and they work great.

Yes, the sandhills...they are always a good signal for spring. Curlews though shy should be coming soon too. I think the bald eagles must be making their way back to Canyon Ferry...we had a bunch together with Goldens, but the Baldies usually move to more water. They must be all the way up the Musselshell perched in the river cottonwoods. Its is always a new beginning every spring in Montana.

Thanks for keeping the thread alive...

[lorelei2873]

Originally Posted by lesliegrace

Native Montanan and ladyflyfsh,

Thanks for sharing your descriptions of spring in Montana!

We visited Montana in June of 2001. It was raining when we arrived, and much cooler than we expected. We visited my aunt and cousin in Billings for a few days, and then drove to Helena to see the state capital before heading back south.

I believe that it was on this drive from Billings to Helena that some little animals kept darting across the road in front of the car! They looked like prairie dogs; we kept joking about the little daredevils. I don't remember which road we were on; it seems as if I recall it being a two-lane highway rather than an interstate. Luckily, they were very skillful at dodging traffic!

Do you have any idea what these small creatures might be? Do you all have prairie dogs in Montana?

There is a large prairie dog colony by Big Timber, which is between Helena and Billings on 1-90. It's called Greycliff Prairie Dog State Park. We also have lots of gophers along Highway 12, which is the two lane that can take you the back way from Helena to Billings.

[NativeMontanan]

Originally Posted by lesliegrace

Native Montanan and ladyflyfsh,

Thanks for sharing your descriptions of spring in Montana!

You are welcome...Thanks for reading.

We visited Montana in June of 2001. It was raining when we arrived, and much cooler than we expected. We visited my aunt and cousin in Billings for a few days, and then drove to Helena to see the state capital before heading back south.

Sometimes children (adults children included) are lighting their fireworks in their winter coats. It snows on the 4th of July every once in awhile.

I believe that it was on this drive from Billings to Helena that some little animals kept darting across the road in front of the car! They looked like prairie dogs; we kept joking about the little daredevils. Luckily, they were very skillful at dodging traffic!

Daing buggers. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. Those are Richardson ground squirrels...better known as gophers. Stupidest things I think I have ever seen. That is, next to people that blow themselves up.

Do you have any idea what these small creatures might be? Do you all have prairie dogs in Montana?

Yes, we have both prairie dogs (giant gophers) and gophers and rock chucks and pika. The is actually a tourist attraction near Big Timber off the interstate called Prairie Dog town. Its "protected." The animals carry so many disease, they'll kill themselves off in this confinement sooner or later.

Hey, aren't you proud of me? I just figured out how to quote in between parts of a post !!! Now if I can remember how to do that in an hour.

[ladyflyfsh]

Native...I am closer to Whitehall than Dillon. I know of the hot pool you speak of on the Jeff. It is not usable until the water comes up as it is a distance from the main river. It was clean the last time I was there, but when runoff gets going, it washes that all out.

I too float the Jefferson, but in a float tube so I can sit upright and fish along the way. The nice thing is when you want to fish, you just stand up and when you need to float, you sit down and go. I also have a pontoon boat for floating. I can take out right down the street from my house which is awesome.

My elevation here is around 4300' but no snow over here! In fact, this weekend will be back in the 60's to 70's so another nice weekend. We had 75here the other day.

Never been to RTRockies but know where it's held.

This time of year, it's quite common for the coyotes to come in close as you said, it's calving season and between the coyotes and bald eagles, there is lots to eat (afterbirths) not to mention if they get their grips on a newborn calf. We have lots of baldies around here and they've been quite visible lately. We have goldens too, but they are more up around Hell's Canyon than here along the river. That's baldie territory. There are a lot of Blue Heron Rookeries along the river here also.

I don't have livestock but I do have a border collie. Great dogs, super smart and wonderful companions. We have lots of wild turkey's in this area and one morning about 4 yrs ago on a winter day, I'd let Maggie out to do her usual morning business and then forgot she was outside. A while later, I was thinking, I wonder why the dog didn't come scratch at the door to come inside. I looked out the front kitchen window and there was my border collie herding a group of about 60 turkey's into a big ball. Every time one tried to wander out of the ball, she would run around and tuck them back in again. It was hilarious...I actually got it on video tape. We had about 100 head of turkey where I was living in Waterloo then and out of that big group, there was one peacock that thought he was a turkey. True story!

Do you hunt morels over your way? Last year was not good at all for the river morels growing along the rivers under the cottonwoods. Hopefully this year will be more productive.

Still no sand hills yet but any day now.

[lesliegrace]

Originally Posted by NativeMontanan

You are welcome...Thanks for reading.



Sometimes children (adults children included) are lighting their fireworks in their winter coats. It snows on the 4th of July every once in awhile.



Daing buggers. They're everywhere. They're everywhere. Those are Richardson ground squirrels...better known as gophers. Stupidest things I think I have ever seen. That is, next to people that blow themselves up.



Yes, we have both prairie dogs (giant gophers) and gophers and rock chucks and pika. The is actually a tourist attraction near Big Timber off the interstate called Prairie Dog town. Its "protected." The animals carry so many disease, they'll kill themselves off in this confinement sooner or later.

Hey, aren't you proud of me? I just figured out how to quote in between parts of a post !!! Now if I can remember how to do that in an hour.

Native Montanan,

I am very proud of you! I have noticed others who can quote in between posts, and I have tried to copy and paste parts of other people's posts thinking that would do it, but without success.

Thanks to you and lorelei for responding to my question about the little animals. I don't remember the exact route that we took to Helena, but it sounds as if these animals could have been either prairie dogs or gophers. It was a pretty lonely stretch of road, and it almost seemed as if the creatures were playing a game, amusing themselves by dodging our car.

On the day in 2001 that we drove into Montana, which was probably about June 14 or 15, we learned that it was snowing farther up I-90 than Billings (our destination)! If we hadn't been so tired, we would have probably kept driving to see it! Snow is so rare in our part of Texas.