The past few weeks have seen me chasing grouse all over hill and dale. I don’t know if grouse have a great appreciation for scenery, but they sure do love to hang out on top of hills with beautiful views. Though I’ve mastered the tools of telemetry sometimes it still throws surprising curveballs. Once we heard a pretty strong signal from the top of a mountain. We went down to the foot of the mountain, hiked around searching for the signal, and finally found it faintly pulsing from miles away in the valley. From the opposite side of the valley we could hear it ever so faintly back in the interior. With square miles of roadless valley between these two listening points we had to stop for the day and hope that the bird moves by the next time we look for it.

One of the perks of tramping these hills is all the other wildlife that turns up. Like the golden eagle perched solemnly on a fence post or darting kestrels with voles hanging from the talons. Tiny praying mantises with stunning defensive displays. When we startle a herd of deer or family of antelope I think of the hunters who would enviously place themselves in our shoes. Of course that’s what makes the area so splendid. It is public land so anyone can come and stalk around and see the awesome animals and even hunt them if that is their desire.

Much of the area inhabited by the grouse is the site of an old burn. It’s fascinating to see the progression of recovery. The diversity of forms post-burn that attracts the grouse. I’ve seen all stage of burning at this point. An actually fire, its terrible billows of greasy, poisonous smoke. So visibly foul and polluted, striking fear even when one is safely out of the way. Since then I’ve seen a wash of green grass appear in a matter of days on the slopes. We visited another burn site where the BLM had flown seed and was chaining the ground to turn up the soil and promote germination. A powerful piece of machinery. At the same site a bullhog was in action, placidly chomping down on the  the charred junipers. It’s very thought-provoking to see these powerful forces of destruction, both wild and man-made, that are contradictorily serving to revitalize the landscape.

My internship here ends in just a couple of weeks. Let’s hope I’ll manage to track down the lingering confounding grouse and see the elusive wash of green on the burn fill out and soften the blackened hillsides.