Occasionally my photographic pursuit of birds leads me to a mystery. This is one of them.
Whenever I visit Montana’s Centennial Valley (which is often) I make a side-trip to nearby Paul Reservoir, a small, remote and beautiful “lake” surrounded by timber and sagebrush. It’s at the end of a long, dirt road in Idaho though it’s right on the Montana border and very near the continental divide. I make the trek for a variety of “critter” reasons – moose, deer, badgers, a variety of birds and the potential for other very interesting wildlife.
But this dead aspen adjacent to the road and very near the lake has been a primary draw. The tree and several of its neighbors have nesting cavities used by Red-naped Sapsuckers and House Wrens. Two of those cavities can be seen in this photo.
1/250, f/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF500mm f/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in
It’s a difficult place to photograph birds because light doesn’t hit those trees until midday so when it does the light is harsh and dappled as you can see here. I photographed this Red-naped Sapsucker (probably a male) last summer as it delivered a beak-full of ants to its chicks in the nest cavity. This cavity is the lower one in the previous photo.
Ok, here’s the enigma. Very near to Paul Reservoir is one of the trailheads leading to the Continental Divide Trail. Last summer (2014) I noticed an old pickup parked at the trailhead that had obviously been there for an extended period. It raised my curiosity but not quite enough to take a photo of it and I didn’t think about it again.
Until 5 weeks ago when I visited the area once more.
The pickup was still there. But now it was surrounded by a very active electric fence that was barely large enough to enclose the Dodge Dakota pickup. There were sunscreens on the windows, the tires were inflated and it had Colorado plates. There were no tracks in the grass to indicate that it had been moved recently. The sign in the foreground (within inches of the fence) reads “Closed Area – The area beyond sign closed to all”. There’s a little more printing at the bottom of the sign that is illegible – the sign has apparently been there for a very long time.
There’s no source of electricity nearby so the fence is powered by a solar panel attached to the pickup.
They’re very serious about keeping folks away from the pickup, no matter their native language.
The “Closed Area” sign obviously is meant to apply only to the small area within the fence and not to the trail which was open and available for use.
Yes, I realize that I’ve gone off on a tangent with the primary subject of this post but this little mystery has been niggling at the back of my mind for weeks now. Why leave an apparently functional vehicle at a remote trailhead for so long? Perhaps it belongs to the Forest Service but the plates are from Colorado and they’re not government plates. If it’s a private vehicle why would the Caribou-Targhee National Forest authorities allow it to stay in the trailhead parking area for such an extended period? My curiosity continues to badger me about this little enigma.
Any thoughts from my readers? Perhaps the explanation is an obvious one but it continues to elude me. Won’t be the first time…
Ron
Very interesting about the pickup truck and electric fence. I won’t try to speculate on that, but I really love the picture of the sapsucker and the light on its head. The red is so vivid.
I have enjoyed reading all the comments!! I like the bone farm theory from Elephants child!! There’s a place like that at a university in TN?? Rate of decay, cool stuff!!
The writer in me wants to tell a tale of a bank robber who’s hidden his stash in the cab of the truck. Now he is living off the land waiting for the statute of limitations to drop….
It might just be a back country ranger’s truck and he’s (she’s) tired of it getting vandalized.
Always enjoy your photos!
Another interesting theory, Curt, and definitely more plausible than some. Thank you.
I much prefer the Sapsucker to the pickup… Red-naped Sapsuckers are fun birds to watch. This one is definitely a male (the female has white immediately under her beak). I join those who are wanting to know the answer to the mystery, though.
Susan, I’ve spent many hours watching Williamson’s but much less time watching Red-naped. I’m curious if there are any obvious differences in behavior.
I didn’t positively ID this bird as a male because Sibley says some females lack the white under the chin so it’s all red there like in the males.
Ron, I’m guessing Sibley knows a lot more about these birds than I do… Everything else I’ve seen shows the females with the white. I’ve never seen a Williamson’s Sapsucker, and only seen the Red-naped a couple of times – just enough to see that they have great personalities.
Sibley also shows the female with the white there, Susan so I’m sure that’s typical and usual. He just says in the side note about the female: “white chin, sometimes all red”. So I was hesitant to positively ID this bird as male. I’m pretty sure it is though.
Really like the sapsucker! The way the light hits it’s head is gorgeous!
As for the truck, if it’s been there that long, I’m surprised it doesn’t have any bullet holes in it!
You’re right, Jeff. Now that I think about it I’m surprised also.
Love the sapsucker.
The mystery? Bone Farm. There is a body or bodies hidden in that car and scientists are tracking and measuring the rate of decay. Can you tell I got up on the dark side of the bed this morning>?
What kind of dreams do you have down there in Australia, EC?
Speaking of dreams, my most recurring one is of losing my 500mm lens. I have that dream several times per week – the background of the story is always different but the basic theme is the same. Wonder what Freud would have to say about that…
Freud was full of it. And your dreams fall firmly into the nightmare category…
I think Neil Rossmiller is on to something. There’s a TV program that’s claims to be about “Finding Bigfoot”. Maybe the truck belongs to the bigfoot hunters…and the wooden structure in the bed of the truck is meant to transport one if they capture one..or maybe a bigfoot got them, instead! Of course, there’s always the possibility that the truck belongs to a squatch…and he doesn’t want any nosey bird photographers messing around with it. The real mystery is how many languages does a squatch speak, anyway…….
Ha, squatch! Another possibility I never considered!
Maybe just some backcountry campers worried about their transport home? Love the sapsucker.
Thanks, Kathy.
Harsh lighting perhaps, but I like the spotlight effect of the dappled light on the head of the sapsucker.
As to the pickup mystery. It doesn’t appear to be meant to keep humans out. Although, like a padlock, it would be a deterrent for honest folks. Anyone could disable the system by cutting or detaching the ground wire from the T-post, the white lead in the close up and strung around the bottom in the other image ( I’ve never seen it set up this way before), or pushing the on/off button with a stick to just turn it off would work even better. It seems to be over done to keep bears out. The bottom three strands would be adequate as bears investigate with their noses first and getting zapped once would probably do the trick on a curious bear. I think they are protecting whatever is stashed in the truck from Sasquatch! …..snicker.
Interesting observations, Neil. Love your conclusion too!!
The sapsucker image, great as it is, can’t hold a candle (solar powered, of course) to the mystery of the fenced in pickup…I’m not going to rest until you find and share the answer to that one! The local ranger station must have the key to that mystery….
I’ll report back if I or anyone else solves the mystery, Patty. Thank you.
Maybe someone is using the vehicle to run drugs. Most campers, hunters, etc., are not so secretive. Hope you find the answer!
I hope so too, Jane.
If that is a remote place what puzzles me is why bother writting the sign in four different languages. Is it common to have French and Spanish folks on that area? I would’t mind knowing the end of this story.
Perhaps that beautiful Sapsucker knows the answer…
Jorge, Yes, we have a lot of foreign tourists in the summer out west but I suspect the sign you refer to might have been included with the fence transformer kit. And there might be Forest Service regulations that require such signs in public places. Just guessing on that…
Wish I could ask the sapsucker…
Like everyone else, I haven’t a clue as to why the pickup is sitting there but I will say this, the Red-naped Sapsucker picture is wonderful. I like the way you caught the bird in the “dappled” light. Well done, Ron.
Thanks very much, John. I wondered if anyone would notice the bird…
What bird???
If and when you get an acceptable answer to the mystery, I hope you’ll revisit the question in a future post……
Good idea, Kris. If no one figures it out I may eventually send the link to this post to the Forest Service and ask them.
The truck is illegally parked. Since it takes a while for a tow truck to get to that remote spot, the fence is serving as a “Denver Boot”. 😀
I’m willing to try out any theory, Dick – even this one. 🙂
Is this bear country, Ron? Your post had me a bit curious as well so I looked up possible reasons on the Internet as to why the vehicle would have a solar powered electric fence surrounding it. What I found was interesting.
Some people use these to keep bears out of the vehicle when camping in the deep backcountry. Hunters use them to keep bears away from their vehicles (I can only theorize that this may be due to the food they are storing in their vehicles or possibly because the vehicle is used to transport animals they have taken and the odor from a kill is all too enticing to a bear).
In my puny brain I thought that perhaps this is a hunter’s vehicle or maybe even a rancher’s (due to the high stake sides) that is used only for this location and may have trace odors of animals that would attract an unwanted visit by a bear that may get a little aggresive with its inquiry into where a delicious meal might be. We’ve all seen what they can do to a car while looking for a donut.
Just a theory…
Yes, there’s potential for bears in the area, Steve.
But I can’t see why a local rancher would have Colorado plates or why a hunter (or anyone else) would leave the vehicle there for so long.
It’s an intriguing conundrum, isn’t it?
Maybe some obscure government agency is doing a survey to determine how many curious photographers are migrating through the area 🙂
Ha, if so they’ve tagged me there more than once, Jeff..
OK, I’ll give a stab at it. I don’t know why someone would use a completely functional vehicle and go to the expense to enclose it with an electric fence, UNLESS they are trying to protect scientific equipment stored in the pick-up so they do not have to carry it out with them each time they arrive there. That being said, it would be easy enough for someone or ones to vandalize the setup which obviously hasn’t been done. This is only suggestive either that people that go there are respecting the set-up or there isn’t anything worth stealing. Beyond that, I haven’t a clue, but you have certainly made me curious. Hope you will keep us apprised.
Dick, I suppose it’s possible that there’s valuable equipment of some kind inside the cab (I couldn’t see in there very well because of the sunscreens) but that would surprise me.