Welcome to Wyoming! Mwuahahaha
In spite of some snow and one of the coldest periods we can remember, things are getting going! Our crew, or at least most of them are here, and we’ve now been out to see the grouse two days in a row.
It took a couple of days, but four of our five technicians are here now. Arrival day coincided with the most recent winter storm, so one tech didn’t make it until a day later than the others (no big deal in the name of safety). The 5th technician? Well, that is another story. We’ve had people withdraw from the project before, sometimes for personal reasons, sometimes to pursue other career opportunities. It’s always a bummer when someone breaks their commitment to join us in Lander, but at least they’ve usually given us some advanced notice so we can find a replacement. Until now… Tech # 5, who was himself a replacement for someone else who withdrew back in January, let us know just a few days before the start of the season that he wasn’t going to make it!
When Gail and I stopped seeing red, we posted a quick request for a replacement on social media. We got a great response- strong applications from all over the country, and their references were similarly quick to get back to us or willing to spend a few minutes over the phone to discuss the candidates. Miraculously, three days after we sent out the request, we made an offer to our top candidate and that offer was accepted! We will be at full strength next week. I feel like modern-technology is a double-edged sword for us with regard to hiring and retaining our crew- it seems a lot easier now than it did even 6 years ago for people to continue to prospect for new jobs, but at the same time when we need to fill a vacancy ASAP, it sure is nice to be able to spread the word so quickly without having to formally post an advertisement and deal with the dozens of responses like we do in the fall. A big thank you again to all those who helped us get the word out.
First sage-grouse of the season! Right where they are supposed to be on Chugwater Lek.
Back to Chicken Camp. The crew’s first morning here was well down the minus side of the Fahrenheit scale. Chances of sage-grouse doing much interesting was pretty low, and chance of misery on our part was pretty high, so we delayed our first visit to the leks until yesterday. We drove out towards Chugwater and were rewarded with 6 males visible. We parked along the road and checked them out in the scopes for a while, then headed past the lek and visited a neat badlands area. The crenulated landscape was particularly beautiful with the few inches of snow. All in all a nice morning.
Today we got into some proper grousing. Ryane and Amber set up a blind on Chugwater Lek while I took the rest of the crew up to our overlook hill. It was quite a bit warmer than yesterday, and really one of the most stunning combinations sunrise and moon-set that one could ever see. (Regular readers will remember that I get really excited over the full moon here). We saw 10 male grouse on or near the lek. They all hunkered at some point, implicating a nearby predator of some kind, but it wasn’t until about 6:30 that a Golden Eagle flew high over the lek and scared the birds away. We waited to see if the birds would return, and for the moon to finish setting, but were out of there pretty early by sage-grouse standards. An entirely beautiful and pleasant morning!
We’ve even managed to have a crew birthday already! I think the blue frosting was even bluer in person.
