I keep expecting it to snow one last time, as a kind of parting shot from this past winter, but for now the dial seems to be pointed squarely toward “spring.” The road into Yellowstone was opened a few days ago, and the Bighorn Basin itself is greening up nicely.
Castilleja sp. (probably chromosa), a.k.a. Indian paintbrush
The sage-grouse mating season is largely over now, and I probably made the last of my lek visits the week of the 8th. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t still around:
But any more sightings are likely to be incidental—in a best-case scenario, this could help identify nesting and chick-rearing habitat, so it’s important to stay on the alert. Considering how cautious and well-camouflaged grouse are when they’re away from a lek, though, the hen in this photo may well be the last I’ll see during my time in Cody.
In any case, there are dozens of other species that still require attention. Most of them seem to be secure, from a conservation standpoint, but there are some whose populations have been declining—in a few cases, “crashing” may not be too strong of a word—and others that are simply too elusive to be completely sure about.
For example, the mountain plover is rare, easy to overlook, and breeds on the High Plains and in parts of the intermountain desert. East of the Rockies, it prefers to nest in black-tailed prairie dog towns…and that covers most of what we know for sure about it. In order to say anything with any confidence about their population trends or conservation needs, we need to know a lot more about where they’re found, and in what numbers. There are countless questions to address beyond that: How do plovers respond to other prairie dog species, which have different behaviors and impacts on the landscape than the black-tailed does, and how exactly do they benefit from having prairie dogs as neighbors? In the absence of prairie dogs, are there ways to manage habitat that will attract and support larger populations of plovers? Considering how significant the impacts of fire and cheatgrass can be in this part of the country, and how much potential habitat lies in or near oil and gas developments, do plovers respond strongly to any of those? Can prescribed burns, invasive plant control, or drilling activity be sited or scheduled to accommodate their nesting patterns, if needed?
The sage thrasher is another species of interest out here: it’s considered to rely entirely on sagebrush habitat, like the grouse do, but how do the details of that requirement compare between the different species? Does the thrasher, as some researchers have suggested, prey on the eggs or chicks of other birds of conservation concern—and if so, how can we manage their habitat to promote healthy populations of all species? Conversely, does thrashers’ willingness to nest on the ground make their nests more vulnerable than other species’ to rodents or snakes—and if so, can we manage their habitat to mitigate that vulnerability?
The results of some studies indicate that sage thrashers colonize new habitat very reluctantly: once an area of sagebrush is lost, its population of thrashers may be lost too, and even if the sagebrush is reestablished or restored, a new population of birds may not settle there for a long time. Other studies, though, suggest the opposite—that thrashers are more flexible in their habitat requirements, and more willing to recolonize recovering habitat, than other sagebrush birds are. Whose results are accurate? If they all are, which interpretation is valid? And once again, how tolerant are thrashers of human activity? If the answer is “not very,” how can the BLM best reconcile the species’ needs with the social and economic need for minerals, grazing land, outdoor recreation, and other resources?
To be honest, I don’t expect to have confident answers to any of these questions by the time the season is over, but the bedrock requirement for working towards those answers is, as usual, more data. (“You can’t make bricks without clay,” to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes.) This, of course, means a lot more early mornings and a lot more hours in the field. Hopefully I’ll have new experiences to report soon.
