Coop's Corner: Wyoming - Some Animals and a few Plants

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Wyoming - Some Animals and a few Plants

As promised, there were a few items in the flora and fauna world I thought I'd share from my time in Wyoming. Though I spent considerable time in the more remote areas, the most prevalent creature that I had contact with, the closest contact, was...

Beef

They were everywhere, doing what they do....free-ranging. I actually expected to see cattle in the more open areas but I was continually surprised at the elevations and in the dense forest settings that I saw them. It wasn't only seeing them but coming upon them in the road and often in the middle of the road.

I've spent a lot of time around Angus cattle...cows, their calves and even time around some bulls. Almost always just curious, they may stand and look, then walk away or bolt, but seldom any direction other than away. I came around a corner and met this guy and he just stood, centered in the road. He had a look of defiance; experience and something about the way he stood there told me that I should just be patient. We had a standoff; he looking at me as if to say, "I've got all the time in the world, how about you?" At that place and point in time, I did as well. I turned off the bike, still sitting on it and just looked at him. When he did finally start to move, I pulled out my camera and took his photo. His brood of cows and calves had long since left the roadway.

Due to his stubborn behavior, I decided to call him Agnes....he reminded me of one that I knew.

In the Medicine Bow Forest, this ride too me past over a dozen of these little gatherings of cattle....I'd pass one group of a dozen or so, then a bit further, another group of the same size. A general rule of thumb seemed to be, every other group would have a bull prominently present. For the most part, the bulls lazily walked off the road with the rest of the herd.

These 2 big bulls were having a scuffle and it went on for quite some time. I stayed back; their location an intersection of roads I decided not to navigate further.

Again, these cattle in these very steep locations, often more woodsy to me than grassy, were quite a surprise. We often had trouble rounding cattle up when we could see them. I can't imagine getting these Angus out of these locations when the weather turns....these aren't little paddocks.

On the way out of Wyoming that Thursday, listening to Wyoming Public Radio, I heard an interview that really interested me. Now at home, I found the exact same news item online here. The Omega 3-rich grass at the higher elevations makes for richer, better tasting beef. More and more beef is being 'finished' on grass rather than on grain, something Wyoming is hoping to use in its favor. Check out at least one side of the story if you're curious.

Thought this was very interesting.....I stopped nearby for a granola/water break and happened to notice these two large fungi growths; both of them easily stood out with all of the greens and browns that surrounded them. What caught my eye was that both of them, within only inches, were sections of vertebrae. This can't possible be merely chance, can it???

Bison......there was this one that was quite far from his mates (at least as far as we knew), appearing after I'd stopped for a bit of quiet along the Yellowstone River. There were many in Hayden Valley, some of them very close, there was the Yellow Stripe Walker but most that I saw, the "herd" numbers were far off in the distance.

The buffalo weren't exactly the novelty to me that they were to most of the other park visitors. For years, our next door neighbor had a decent sized heard right next door (75 yards from our house to the property line). Often the herd next door was even closer....One year we hosted Easter dinner for our extended family, a houseful. Just ready to sit down at the table, one of our guests looked outside and informed the group, "there's a buffalo in your vegetable garden." There was indeed and that wasn't the only time.

Our neighbor, concerned about our family's small kids, often warned us about watching for the large animals' tails to go up, almost a wave. When that happens, it's a sign that something, possible something quite dramatic is about to take place. We don't miss them next door, other than when the calves were born in the spring; that made us laugh and smile. Their bounding leaps and running speed making circles around the cows and bull was something to see. Did you know that 2/3 of a buffalo's mass is on its front legs?

The early morning sun in these burned/diseased tree woods was a glorious rainbow of color. Places where the green grass, yellow, purple and red flowers (the best I got...no idea what the species are) were simply beautiful.

I never saw bears though they maybe saw me. As far as I know, this was as close as I got; my size 12 against what this one left behind.

On a much smaller scale, though much more dangerous (it's a matter of scale)......Dragonfly vs. Horse Fly. I came back to my open tank bag and saw this sequence....

Horse fly there....

Horse fly gone....

It was fascinating and pretty out there.

8 comments:

redlegsridesAugust 24, 2017 at 11:33 PM
I encountered a small herd of cows recently in Nebraska....slowed way down and meandered past several young cows who would only move off at the last second....couple of them didn't move at all and I had to move around them....every eye was on me. I was glad to get clear of them.
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SonjaMAugust 25, 2017 at 11:12 AM
We often encounter the odd free ranging cows, but hey we live on the countryside, so that's alright by me. In Switzerland while hiking it was fairly normal to find free ranging cattle in the mountains. They are quite apt in climbing.
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EricAugust 26, 2017 at 6:31 PM
Seems like you really enjoyed your adventure and at your pace. Good for you!
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TrobairitzAugust 27, 2017 at 9:37 AM
It is nice that you could see so much wildlife and flowers too. Helps pretty up the scenery, not that the scenery needed it.

Dragonflies eat horse flies? Who knew.

Thank you for taking the time to post all of your pictures and write about your trip. It is time consuming for you to do, but i enjoy reading it and looking a the pictures.
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Others say....

"it was auspicious to approach any situation from a deferential, inquisitive place. Conceding that there is much to learn is the best blueprint for discovering something new." ----B. Fuller

The Man straightened stiffly above the block of salt fixed to the stake and looked at the young cattle ringed about him. The pasture was holding out well and the stock was looking good. This bunch would be ready to sell in another month, maybe sooner if the market was right.

A stir among the cattle down near the river brought him round to face the swinging bridge he'd built years before. Someone was coming toward him from the bridge. Someone in breeches, but it didn't look like a man, somehow. What was a woman doing in his pasture this time of night?

He bent over the salt again; maybe if he paid her no heed she'd go on past and let him mind his own business. He heard her footsteps come nearer and stop. "Good evening," she said.

Her voice was smooth with book learning but friendlier than most, and somehow almost shy. When he made no answer she went on, "I've been sitting on your swinging bridge....I thought I'd like to say thank-you...." Her voice stumbled a little, then she tried once more.

"You are Mr. ____". His name sounded strange in her voice, but she went on to tell her own.

"That's what they've called me the last sixty-eight years," he said, looking past her face to the hills fast darkening under a single star. "I reckon the woods are free for those that like to walk there."

The unfamiliar voice laughed a little. "That's what Emerson said: the grove belongs to the man who walks in it with an open heart....On that basis I guess I've owned part of your woods for a good many years.....". She made a final effort. "I've always wanted to thank you....."

Something deeply hidden stirred in him. "There's a stump up there, in the notch of the woods", he said slowly, "that before the timber grew so tall you could stand on it and see all over this country."

He kept still a minute, remembering, then, "I used to stand up there an' look at things, an' wonder how they come to be like they was, an' how the hills was created, an' all the things in Nature.... I told my wife I guessed all the religion I ever had I got standin' on that old stump, a-wonderin'..." He turned his face away from her.

She helped him out. "I know about that, a little. This afternoon I saw......." Her account of a thing she had really taken time to look at eased him, and he answered with telling of the badger den at the foot of the swinging bridge.

When she had gone, he turned to watch her. After a moment she stood clear and unmoving against the sky. You could hear the sounds of the river where she stood. She was one that could stand still long enough, he thought, really to hear what a body was saying, or a river.

Then she walked down the farther side of the slope and was gone. ------Margaret Snyder from A Chosen Valley

Fall was the end of harvest, end of the growing season, a burst of color and sun-warmth before killing frost turned the land gray and cold. Fall was a moody time, full of both life and death, a time when we were reminded of the power outside of us, reminded that the seasons happen to us. We do not invite the change to come.-------Ben Logan, from The Land Remembers

When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold onto them. They are the lifeboats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely elusive. So the question becomes or should have been all along, what would you do if you knew you only had one day, or one week, or one month to live. What lifeboat would you grab onto? What secret would you tell? What band would you see? What person would you declare your love to? What wish would you fulfill? What exotic locale would you fly to for coffee? What book would you write? ------- Ben Tyler

We were also cautioned about journeying far from home. As an example of the dangers, the town had a badly crippled lady named Lucy, who as a girl had traveled to New York City. As she traveled along a sidewalk, sightseeing, she was struck by the outstretched hand of a suicide who had leapt from high above. Her spine had been shattered and for the rest of her life, she was to walk bent forward at the waist, tapping the sidewalk with two black canes. Whenever the subject of travel to a big city was raised, someone would say, "Just remember what happened to Miss Tripp." ---- Ted Kooser, from Local Wonders

"Steamboats are like wedding cakes without the complications...." ----Mark Twain

"It's not about having lots of money, it's about having lots of options......." -----Chris Rock

As the very proud father of three former ponytail wearers, hopefully I can get away with this....."For the past few years it's been fashionable for young women to wear ball caps and to snap the strap on the back under their ponytails. I like the looks of that, their shiny ponytails jauntily swinging, but it's hard not to think of the rear ends of horses. There's a piece of harness called the crupper that goes just under a horse's tail to keep its nose down. If the horse lifts its head to look for a way out of whatever predicament it's in, the crupper tightens and hurts the horse. But it's foolish for parents to think that a ball cap might keep a young woman from running away. Anybody can see they're made for running." ------Ted Kooser, Local Wonders

"I tell the guy's girlfriend that the only difference between the book's main character Phaedrus and myself is that I am neither brilliant, tortured or insane, she looks at my bike and there is an uncomfortable silence." --------ahendepe (a.k.a. Vermin)