One of my BEST. DAYS. EVER.

I really do love my job!

The most recent jaunt into the woods was a short one. The way transects are located, I had a few scattered farther away from other plots. And also, since my coworker quit, I wanted a short trip to stay energized and pace myself well.

So, Friday, I headed to the Pole Mountain area east of Laramie to do the lone transect over there. A nice pleasant transect to do. And scenery there was incredible. And for the first time in a while, I was able to get all 16 points of my transect done (and done by 9 am, no less!). No weather issues (except being kind of cold) for once. No rain, and the wind stayed relatively calm for the morning (meaning it stayed below 15 mph). Here's a shot of camp at dinner time - with the calmer winds, I prefer to sleep in a tent. It's more comfortable.
From Pole mountain on Saturday morning, I headed west, through Laramie, to go into the Snowy Range to do the first transects in there. Since the weather has FINALLY dried up a bit, rivers have gone down (though the Laramie River is still in flood stage), and the roads have dried, which is more important for me, for access. Sometimes, when I drive these roads, I feel like I'm in a truck commercial. I got to the next transect fine, took my short siesta, made camp, and went to bed. The next day, I did my survey, and once again, I got nearly all the points done - 15 of the 16 - before 9:30. The only reason I didn't do the last point was because the bird activity had died down, which may have been a result of the winds that were pushing 20 mph plus.

Then it was off to my next transect. The usual routine, find a place to camp, take siesta, enjoy the view (the first photo), and get ready for the next day. Which brings us to one of my Best. Days. Ever.
The transect was what I would consider below average for difficulty, meaning pretty easy. Very little in the line of slopes, most of the vegetation was sage shrubland. I was getting a nice variety of birds, so all was going well.

Near one of my last points, as I was walking to my next point, I heard a very deep hooting (think owl, but really really really deep). I knew it was a Dusky (formerly Blue) Grouse male displaying, likely on log. And it sounded very close. So, I peeked around the tree, and lo and behold, there he was! And because I was moving so fast in my transect, I had the time to set my gear down, take my camera out, and stalk him a little bit. He wasn't too nervous, and so eventually he afforded me some good photo ops (though the light was not at a perfect angle).

This was just the beginning of a great day. Grouse are just very leery, so having the chance to watch one display (they open the feathers on their neck to expose a bare patch of skin, pretty cool to see) up close, and even get photos of it (he was behind the log when he displayed when I had my camera out, so I didn't get shots of the display) was a great treat.

From there, it was time to finish the transect, and again I got all 16 points done - I like this trend. Then it was back to the truck to get things packed, eat some snacks and lunch, and head back to Laramie for some more time 'off' (for me, just not being in the field, doing office stuff), but I decided, since we were running into snowpack issues in places, I would scout two transects to see if I could get into them yet.

On the drive out, I saw my first black bear of the season run off the road! Those of you who know of my work in the Sierra Nevada in California, know I seem to have a knack for seeing oodles of bears (and yes, oodles is a scientific term). The suspense of seeing the first one was killing me! It ran off pretty quick, so no photos, but still, that made for large mammal in Wyoming number six (after Elk, Moose, Antelope, Mule Deer, and White-tail Deer. Number seven if you count the badger as a large mammal).

As I was nearing the trail access for one of my future transects, I had stopped the truck to check my map and my GPS location. I looked out the front windshield. And saw a large tan body go across the road about 150 meters ahead, with a long tail. And I said to myself, no way. No way. NO WAY! It just ambled across the road...so I slowly drove closer (there was no way in hell I was gonna follow on foot!) to where it went into the woods. And yep, I got myself another new mammal species. My first ever MOUNTAIN LION. Or COUGAR. Or PUMA. Whatever you call it, it was AWESOME! It even afforded me some good looks while it was tracking something among the trees. I was in awe - I would consider this one of the hardest wild animals to see in North America.

Of course, my only concern now is - it was about 1/2 mile from my trail head that I head to walk on tomorrow (Thursday). Gonna be keeping my eyes peeled! (for safety and photo opportunities).

And yet, that wasn't even the last good thing that day - though by far it was the best thing that day. Maybe for the summer (but I expect to go to Yellowstone in about 1 weeks time, so we shall see...). When I got back to Laramie, and the much needed shower and beer, I even had some surprise money waiting for me in my mailbox! Thanks again (you know who you are). A small contribution to my Peru travel fund always helps.

So, that's it. Part V of my work here begins tomorrow. Backpacking. River crossings. And hopefully more wonderful wildlife encounters are in store.

I was very happy Monday. Hell, I seem to be riding a happiness high that doesn't seem to be ending in the foreseeable future. YEEEEEEE HAWWWWWWW!