I guess it says something about how much we like field biology that, after a grueling season in Lander, Gail Anna and I are willing to go spend another week being field assistants on someone else’s project. On the way back west to California, we stopped at John Byers’ research site to help out with his long-term study of Pronghorn.

John is set up in a beautiful old house, quite close to the National Bison Range. The site is in a picturesque agricultural valley between the Mission Range and Sapphire Range in western Montana. Great views everywhere, and lots of wildlife. It helps that we arrived at probably the greenest time of the year, with spring in full surge all around us. The house is on a ranch with a few horses, cows, and a lot of cute fluffy sheep.

The field site itself is incredible- 30 square miles of rolling meadows and tall hills carpeted with purple lupines and big clusters of yellow mule’s ears. There are a few hundred bison, along with a lot of white-tailed deer and of course the monitored population of pronghorn. John and his recently-finished graduate student Erin know all the individuals, and much of our first week has been tracking everybody down and waiting for the females (does) to give birth. The first birthing date was unexpectedly late this year, but we did get to catch at least one before leaving.

Erin weighs the first fawn of the season

Our travels have also taken us to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks- two of the truly spectacular places on this planet. Even if I don’t have an update specifically about those, I’ll definitely have some photos up on my flickr site.