Category Archives: Wildlife

Upland sandpiper

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We have been lucky to see a lot of wildlife this year. The weather and food distribution must be just right in our area. Earlier this year, we saw a herd of deer in the field. Neither of us had ever seen so many deer at the same time. Some of you might have seen the pictures I posted in our gallery. We have also been seeing a lot of different birds of prey. In the previous years, we were mainly seeing only harriers and great horned owls. This year we’ve added sightings of kestrels, bald eagles and golden eagles. And tonight, we first heard and then finally saw an upland sandpiper. Their song is particular. I would have loved to post a sound file here but couldn’t find one I could download and post here legally. So if you want to hear it, you’ll have to visit this website I found: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They have a good sound file on their site. The link will take you directly to the upland sandpiper’s page.

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By Johnath (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

Fawn rescue

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On June 7, we were out on the Missouri River with friends when we noticed a fawn frantically swimming in the river. The water was cold (about 68 F) and there is no way it would have survived. It finally made it to a sand bar where Jim managed to catch it and bring it on board.

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We warmed and dried the little fawn as best we could before releasing him on the shore. That was quite an adventure!

Resident bunnies

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Have we been busy or what? Between Cowboy Action Shooting, shooting for the pleasure of it, reloading, website maintenance, gardening, weeding, visiting with friends, taking care of the horses and pets and much more, time flies and we don’t realize it. Already the middle of July and I’m afraid we won’t have enough time before the winter to do all we want to do this summer!

In order to catch up but keep things kind of organized here, I’m going to post several entries in a row about different subjects. That way, if one day you want to view a particular subject, it will be easily tracable.

We have a cottontail couple living on our property under the old house. On May 26, while honing our skills at pistol shooting, we noticed three baby bunnies watching us. Of course, we stopped shooting and watched them. They didn’t move and appeared to be quite relaxed. What’s amazing is that while shooting, we were standing about 10 feet from them. Only had a cell phone with us so the pictures aren’t that good.

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Now that they’re older, they roam further away from the house and they tend to be more aware of the dangers of wide open spaces. Nevertheless, we often see them along the edge of the tall grasses near the trees. They won’t run if we approach within 20 feet of them but you can see that they are more skittish.

Game camera

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Approximately two months ago, we bought a game camera. For those unfamiliar with them, they are cameras with motion detection. So each time something moves within the camera’s range, it takes a picture (or video). We have had some pictures and videos of foxes, rabbits, and, of course, our horses before we fenced them out of the trees (more on this later). However, we didn’t get many pictures over that period of time.

Two days ago, we decided to move the camera again and did we get lucky. A doe stopped by to eat breakfast right in front of the camera!


With the camera, we are discovering that there’s more activity in our little wood than we thought. It sure is neat to live in the country.

Fort Abraham Lincoln and other news

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On August 21, we visited Fort Abraham Lincoln located south of Mandan. Those who know me personally know that I’ve been there in the past on numerous occasions but we had only done the trail ride or simply visited with people. This time around we took the interpretive tour.

Things are well organized. As you can see in the picture below, you really travel back in time. Our guide, Miss Cassandra, is a laundress at the fort. While visiting, she asked us how we reached the fort. Answer: by boat or ferry, which was the only way across the river back in 1875. Men were required to remove their hats inside the house as was the custom back then. It was really interesting.

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We’re planning to go back again and take some more pictures. In the meantime, I’ve set up a gallery in our Special Pages section. The page is titled Fort Abraham Lincoln 2009.

In other news, we made the acquisition of a Browning .22 rifle. Man, does it shoot nicely! It’s not in my nature to brag about my accomplishments but I do have to share my best target shooting to date. Everything just felt right when I did it. It’s such a special feeling. It’s like everything is in sync. It’s hard to describe but felt really good.

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We also purchased a scope to put on it. Unfortunately, the first base mount we got doesn’t work. It doesn’t allow the scope to be mounted back far enough so we ordered another base mount. We should receive it this week.

Woke up early yesterday morning and caught this beautiful sunrise. Sunrises and sunsets here are the best I’ve ever seen.

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A little later in the morning, I caught this pheasant hen with her young making their way through our backyard. We counted 8 chicks. Can you find all of them?

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