The consciousness of One

Solitude

North End Lake Blaine and Swan Mountains

 Out and about on Saturday afternoon after errands. A bit of a drive around the the northern shores of Lake Blaine. The waters have receded for winter but will be brimming come spring melt which is not that far away. Ice fishing is big here and at any time you can see folks out on the lake looking for a good spot . These shallow waters will be a wonderful nursery for the waterfowl during the spring and summer months.

Game Trail

 In the early morning hours these fields host dozens if not hundreds of deer. you can seen a game trail above. These criss cross the fields through out the area .

 Some of the dozens of deer . Just a few feeding this afternoon but in the dawn hours this herd swells to close to a hundred. A nice grassy field several hundred feet from the road. some day I will invest in a telephoto lens . Below a few of the paw prints left by our four legged friends. Of deer one can always count on the entire group running across the road. They are a perfect herd animal . After watching them for a while they truly do not see themselves as separate . If one part of the herd crosses the street you can bet on the rest. Good reason to stop . You can see it in their face . They must go with the rest of the herd regardless of the cars and trucks racing towards them . They have a single consciousness it would seem. We see separate animals however they are connected by something invisible that forces them to move as one. We as humans are part of a larger group but we are more of the individual type of orientation. you can see herd instinct for a bit  in young children who will race blindly after a parent . We also revert to herd mentality in crowds that panic . In calmer situations and as we mature we consider our surrounds more and move as an individual . Not so for the deer. I travel in a patient way toward the cabin in the woods. Looking ever vigilant for the four leggeds at the forest edge.

 The ducks and geese are trickling back to the North Country. A pair of beautifully colored male mallards. A more subtle female is off to the side. Their green heads are iridescent.

Mallards

 More ducks and Canadian geese strutting around in the field past the lagoon. There is nothing like the return of the water fowl. This year I plan to travel to the Freezeout Lake on the Eastern side Choteau Montana. I want to see the swans and snow geese return . It is a shallow lake with grain fields around . One of the beer companies grow barley and other ingredients for brewing . The water fowl rest and feast on the leavings.  Jason Savage  is a professional photographer with some pretty awesome pictures of birds in general and Freezeout Lake specifically.His pictures are stunning . He captures the birds in flight and split second stillness.

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 .

Saturday Night

Whitefish at Dusk

 Saturday Night and a quick visit to the McKenzie River Pizza for a pie to go. Since Whitefish is a ski town the decorations are still up creating a dusky festive atmosphere downtown.

Great Northern Railroad

 Whitefish is also conveniently connected to amtrak and served by BNSF. One of the historic train engines sit outside the station . The station itself has a nice museum and features a Stuffed Mountain Goat. The Flathead Valley is fairly large with several different communities with different flavors. Whitefish has a nice small town feel to it with some great skiing near by .

Black Star Sunset

 We were blessed with clear skies again tonight with longer daylight hours. The sun blazes a good bye over the Black Star Brewery . They make some local brews and have a  place for lunch with spectacular views of the ski mountain.

Remaining Vestiges of the Holidays

So many trees decorated this year around town that I was exempted this year from the chore at home . The train station is in the background on the left of the tree . It has a nice Swiss look to it . Dusk is one of my favorite times mostly because that is what I get to see more than not but the sky takes on a life of it's own with deepening blues and painted fire colours.

Whitefish Mountain formally named Big Mountain for decades

A good nite to Whitefish for now . Pie in hand I turn the car toward the eastern mountains where I know of 4 dogs waiting for their slice . I know, they are  very spoiled puppies.

wordless thursday

Alpine Glow

How high is it?

Sun lingering low in the Southern Sky

Those who live in the Southern climates have the company of the sun year round. In the Great North West and some places north , the sun has a wild mood. In the summer it is frolicking till the late hours with dark coming well past 10PM. In the winter the sun barely crawls to 19 degrees above the horizon.  This could explain the lingering and piling of the snow in the winter. Then the tilt of the earth swings wildly back toward the Sun for the Northern Hemisphere  in March and April in anticipation of the warm season. What does it matter how high the sun climbs? Since we are part of Nature ( not just watching ) we have as a humans developed a close relationship with the Sun. The sun via vitamin D regulates our bone growth, immune system, and chronic illnesses. In fact sunshine influences expression of 10 % of our genes. So when the sun is less than 50 degrees on the horizon the rays are not able to shoot enough UVB rays to us to create Vitamin D the way mother nature intended. Here on the 48th parallel we only have 5 hours of above 50 degree sun on Summer Soltice. Sadly today the sun has only climbed to 19.6 degrees. Thanks sun good effort but no cigar. How do we know how high the sun climbs in our area? The US Navy has a website that allows you to calculate where the sun is positioned for your latitude. That being said once you find the availability of a natural source of vitamin D you can decide on supplementing . Dr Mercola has some informative reading on vitamin D replacement.

Two of the six Turkey friends

One of the fun things of being off from work and home is watching the local traffic. Earlier in the day a flock of  about 6 turkeys tromped through the yard. They seemed to loathe the deep snow and made their way slowly through the woods sinking up to their turkey "knees". I caught them on their way back through closer to sunset. I am still watching for something different than the usual deer tracks . With the abundant game surely mr cat is somewhere in the area.

Welcoming 2013

Swan Range in the Clouds