January 20, 2010

Lions, birds, elk and crazy weather patterns
by Steve Lamar

Mountain Lion track

Around the New Year my wife Sharon and I were skiing in the Loon Flats area of Swan Valley. The landscape was picturesque as it was draped in a white blanket of fresh snow. We noticed some recent deer tracks along the trail as we skied along. Later I noticed from reading the tracks in the snow that the deer had been startled and had bounded away. Only half paying attention, I figured that the deer had seen or heard us and that we were the cause of its alarm. Then I quickly realized that the deer had not bounded away from us but had bounded toward us before jumping off the trail. Now our curiosity heightened!

We skied a short distance and found that a young mountain lion had intersected the trail traveling from east to west. As it was snowing steadily and these tracks were very well defined with no fresh snow in them, we realized this interaction had just taken place possibly minutes before we arrived on the scene. What had been an enjoyable ski outing to that point, all of a sudden became a heightened and memorable experience!

While recently skiing in the Swan Valley I came across an interesting scene, a lone Townsend solitaire was sitting in a Rocky Mountain juniper that was loaded with pale blue juniper berries (actually berry-like cones). With a heavy snow clinging to everything, this bird was no doubt content in finding this bonanza food source and had it all to itself. That situation changed rapidly as a large flock of bohemian waxwings descended on the tree and began voraciously feeding on the juniper berries. The Townsend solitaire was not happy about this turn of events! It squawked and ‘whined’ quite loudly as it protested having to share its bounty of food. The waxwings fed for a half-minute or so then retired to a nearby western larch tree to perch. The Townsend solitaire flew to the top of a tree between the waxwings and the juniper tree as to serve notice that it intended to guard its food source and would challenge the raiders of its food supply. I got the impression that the waxwings could care less what the solitaire’s intentions were as shortly they descended on the juniper tree for another round of feeding. Again, the solitaire protested long and loud! At that point I smiled at the interaction and continued skiing down the trail of my planned route. An hour later as I returned past this point on my way back home, the bohemian waxwings were again perched in the nearby tree and the Townsend solitaire was still attempting to guard its food source.

Rocky Mountain juniper	bohemian waxwing

Earlier that week and during the night, a small herd of elk had fed along the forested edge of our yard. They pawed through the ten inches of snow and fed on the elk sedge that grows in this area mostly on slight east and south aspects. By morning they were gone. Later in the day, I saw 6 of them as I drove to work.

We've had crazy weather patterns these past few weeks similiar to what we experienced earlier this winter. First, we received up to a foot of heavy, wet snow. That was followed by frigid cold temperatures down to -19 degrees. Then a few days later the cold snap left our region replaced by warming temperatures and rain. The rain and melt then usually freeze into lots of ice. This up and down pattern has defined this winter here in Swan Valley. I personally preferred the ‘good old days’ when winter was winter. This winter is all over the map as far as weather conditions go.

An interesting phenomenon took place when the temperatures dropped to -19 degrees. Outside, in the forest, it sounded like a gun battle going on. But it wasn’t rifle shots that were being heard. When the temperatures dipped into this range, the water in the sap of the trees expanded as it froze. The loud sounds were produced when the tree bark split as the wood contracted from the cold as the sap expanded from the freezing.  Interestingly, to the native cultures of the Dakota Sioux and the Cree, the first new moon of the New Year is known as the “Moon of the Cold-Exploding Trees”.