“Pronghorn Fawn on The Prairie”

Today started out amazing and ended 10 levels higher than that.  I flew out of Bozeman in a small 6 person twin-prop Cessna and was able to see almost the entire state of Montana.  From Rocky Mountains in the west, to the flat prairies in the east I saw more of Montana today than most people who live in Montana ever will.  We picked up a National Geographic wildlife biologist on the way and cruised on in to Malta, MT, but not before passing low over the grazing bison.  After a quick bite at the local Dairy Queen, we headed off in our 4 wheel drive truck and travelled an hour’s distance into the prairie.  The road conditions were poor and sloppy, yet we made it to the ranch house without any incidents. 

The first thing that hits you while driving down the one dirt road to nowhere, is the immensity of the surroundings, followed by the density of the wildlife.  Wherever I looked there was some species of wildlife.  The picture above shows a newly-born, pronghorn fawn sitting where it’s mother told it never to move.  We were able to get up real close to it and I snapped off a few shots.  Once arriving at the ranch we set out to see the buffalo as well as the prairie dogs that populate most of the ranch’s holdings.  There were three new bison calves that had been born today, which we missed by only a few hours.  In all, there are about 75 buffalo roaming the reserve.  We had a nice dinner tonight and I chatted up the National Geographic biologist the entire time here.  Tomorrow the real work begins. 

I will keep you posted.