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Tag Archives: Bighorn sheep

Seen While Birding

We went on an outing to see if we could find some wintering birds the other day. They are few and far between here at home except at the feeders. Imagine our surprise when we found four bighorn sheep right alongside the road. There was a ram, two ewes and a youngster. At first we thought they had pawed into the snow to find food but as we watched, we realized that they were licking dirt. I wonder if it’s a natural salt lick or if it has some other sort of mineral they need? Regardless, they were intent on what they were doing and did not leave as we watched and photographed. At one point, the big ram moved away from his dirt hole and the youngster started in on it. Shortly, the male came along and butted the little one on the butt, telling them to get out of his hole.

Elk and Bighorns and Moose, Oh My!

Yellowstone is home to all manner of wildlife and we enjoyed watching lots and lots of animals in the snow. Our biggest challenges were moose, otters and fox. We did find one fox on our last day as we were leaving the park. We never saw an otter. And as we approached our friends’ house, south of Missoula, Brad jumped out of his car and began waving his arms like crazy. What? There was a cow/calf pair of moose in the pasture not a mile from their house. They weren’t in the park but we were happy to see them on our vacation to Montana and Yellowstone!

A Watchable Wildlife Moment

Last Thursday I travelled down to Wenatchee for the weekend and as I approached Beebe Springs I noticed an animal getting ready to cross the highway. Having had a bad experience near there two years ago with a mule deer, I slowed way down in order to let her cross the road. I was surprised to see it was a bighorn sheep! I have seen them on the cliffs along that route but never on the highway. She was followed by a group of maybe twelve or fourteen with one big ram. After I stopped, giving them plenty of room, they turned and went to the railroad tracks above the road where they watched me and other people who stopped to watch them. It was sort of like a traffic jam in Yellowstone but on a smaller scale. The sheep finally decided that this was not a good place to cross the highway and retreated up the cliff face and disappeared over the top.

 

Watching from the RR tracks
Their ability to scramble around on sheer cliffs is amazing.