Happy in Montana: Too many critters in the yard

 A bit of a traffic jam this morning in the early light . The twin fawns were nibbling the grasses with their mother. Not too long after they came through , the turkeys were cruising. About 10 or so . It is hard to count a moving target.

 The baby turkeys have taken on their adult feathers and are no longer quite as cute as when they have their lighter brown fluffy feathers. They are destined to be somewhat ugly adults. The forest floor is alive with motion as they pick through the leaf litter.

Finally the crowd moves along and it is safe to go outside. Needless to say this was fun entertainment for the 4 dogs. Lots of whistling and wagging at the french doors as the wild life parade went by .

considerations

As a person inclined to choose veggies and beans , I have to wonder long ago before the concept of  "Turkey Dinner" was embedded in our DNA, who looked at these birds and thought "yummy!"?

Traffic Jam

 So it is getting crowded in the yard. take a number ! Bobcat tracks in the foreground curving through 14 inches of snow . This is what is left of the repeated snows over the last 6 weeks. The first night Bob ran across the front porch and jumped down onto the snow berm from the roof. He/She trotted along the top , jumped down by the nice miniature Alberta spruce and headed west into the woods. This time Bob came down by the East side of the house and snaked across the front yard before heading south for the day. Bob was trotting with a 29 inch stride. The paws were circular with less than a 2 inch diameter. Distinct pads were noted. Bobcats are said to be 17 pounds or there about. So I am thinking "not too much to worry about ".  Then my student informed me they were 17 pounds of teeth and claws and I should think " disemboweled " instead. Now that changes everything when considering the run to the garage in the morning.

 Ginormous turkey tracks . That is my boot and basically the turkey track is about as big as half my boot. probably not a good idea to tick off Tom.

 Meanwhile in the drive Bob is on the move and something small is scittering past the cat tracks . not sure what this is and can not find the tracks in the Scat and Tracks book. I will continue to look.

 Close up of Bob's paw. distinct even after a couple of days of thawing and freezing . We also have Canadian Lynx which are in the same weight category but have bigger paws at about 4 inches. They also have fuzzy paws so their prints are more indistinct. So we are voting for the Bobcat this time around. And yes I was running around in the yard this morning with out a coat ( it was a sunny 26 degrees ) with my tape measure checking paw size and stride size . Quite fun.

long view of the tracks snaking across the yard. Perhaps I will see the visitor in person some evening .

Feathered friends

Some of my favorite Turkey friends

Amazingly the turkeys do not see any danger in being in the middle of the road. A wise colleague of mine stated" you don't want your food to be smart." So I will continue to watch for the fowl and maneuver around them . This was a particularly fetching group.

Spring break up in the seasonal creek

Perhaps in the lower US winter does not have such a grip . This year in Montana we have had whopper snow that started November 17th and actually continued until April 29th when we had 4 inches. Before you send care packages of extra snow shovels and cherry pie Lara bars, know that it has since melted. So the arrival of the seasonal waters in the seasonal creek is a good sign. Snow melt this year will probably bring some flooding as the snow pack is generous.