Thunderclouds roll in,
Bring rain to Muddy Mountain–
pelting us with hail.
Tag Archives: Muddy Mountain
Storm Over Muddy Mountain
Sorting at sunrise
bringing in the sheep
We sorted two bunches of sheep, starting at sunrise. It was a cold morning, but beautiful.
foggy morning
sheep and crew ready to go
the sheep, the chute, and sunrise over Muddy Mountain
grabbing a snack
clouds building
more clouds
then came the thunderstorm over Muddy Mountain
Easter Sunrise on the Muddy Mountain lek
male grouse line up to try to impress the girls
One of the largest Greater Sage Grouse leks in southern Wyoming lies right on our lambing grounds below Muddy Mountain. We don’t start lambing until after the lekking season is past, but sometimes we go up just to watch the birds courting. It reminds me of a singles bar scene, where a bunch of guys show up and try to pick up a lady. The guys are the ones with the big white puffy chests, and the hens are the smaller brown ones. A lot of hooting and chasing around goes on, and I’m not too clear one why one guy becomes the chosen one. And these guys don’t seem to stick around for rearing chicks!
This particular area is slated for oil and gas development, and it has also been proposed for addition into Wyoming’s Sage Grouse core area, which would give some extra protections to the birds. It is also the nexus of a proposed mitigation area for the Grouse, which are awaiting a status determination from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Sage Grouse dancing under Muddy Mountain
guy Sage Grouse looking for “Easter Chicks”
Spring storm
Squaw Mountain
Sure enough–as soon as we finished shearing and started lambing, a cold, windy, snowy storm moved in. While we are happy to see the much-needed moisture, we have scrambled to try to save lambs. We estimate we lost about 150 lambs due to the severe weather. Our lambing grounds on Loco got a foot of fresh snow and we couldn’t get in there for several days. The herders were well-provisioned but couldn’t do much except get the ewes into sheltered areas.
This is the first year we have lambed ewes through our new shed on the private land on Cottonwood. We had preg tested the mothers of the replacement ewe lambs in March, and we sorted the mothers of twins into a bunch to be shed lambed. Our crew piled the straw bales to create wind breaks at each end of the shed, and were able to save most of the new lambs in the shed. We lamb later than most of our neighbors, and it is always a gamble.
Lambing shed with straw windbreak
Ewes pregnant with twin lambs sheltering in the shed
Ewes huddled behind tarp windbreaks
Baker’s Peak
Battle Mountain
Sheep Mountain
Horses at the lambing shed, with Muddy Mountain
Siobhan and Tiarnan in the mud
Greater Sage Grouse under Muddy Mountain
Pat took our Partners friends to watch Greater Sage Grouse dance on our BLM lambing grounds near Muddy Mountain. According to the Wyoming Game & Fish, it is the largest lek within 3,000 square miles. We told our visitors, “You’re from the Government, and we’re here to help you.”
More than 120 Sage Grouse were dancing on this BLM lek.
Grouse under morning sky
Love Birds
Ladder Ranch
