![\"montana](\"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/montana-sunrise-0850-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a>Eye candy similar to this\u00a0 greeted us each morning as we began the day’s journey searching for birds and other wildlife.\u00a0 We traveled far and wide in the western part of the state and the scenery was typically\u00a0breathtaking.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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One morning we watched as three elk jumped\u00a0one fence, crossed our dirt road and then jumped a second fence in front of us.\u00a0\u00a0 They weren’t quite close enough for quality photos but I still liked the behavior.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I have a lot of experience with Montana ground squirrels (Richardson’s Ground Squirrel in particular)\u00a0but before this trip I’d never noticed them on elevated perches.\u00a0 We observed them sitting high up in sagebrush like this several times.\u00a0 This one is almost three feet off the ground.\u00a0 I’m not sure of the species but they don’t seem to be communal so it may or may not have been acting as a sentry.\u00a0 I wanted to ask this little fella “what part of ground squirrel<\/em> don’t you understand?”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But ground squirrels weren’t the only rodents I saw on elevated perches.\u00a0 This fat and adventuresome Yellow-bellied Marmot was belly-resting on top of an old corral post.\u00a0 To me this seems like strange behavior indeed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One morning a fascinating drama played out before us involving a mixed herd of pronghorn and a single coyote.\u00a0 When we first observed them the pronghorn were simply watching the coyote which was very close to the herd but after a few minutes the entire herd took off after the coyote and they looked serious about causing harm to the canid.\u00a0 The pronghorn chased the coyote laterally to our position for several miles and though they were almost a half mile away we were able to follow them well enough to see what was going down through our lenses.<\/p>\n Fawning season had just begun and for obvious reasons they apparently didn’t appreciate the close presence of the coyote.\u00a0 In this image you can see the harried coyote running hard\u00a0in the middle of the herd as the herd bears down on him\/her.\u00a0 Eventually the herd quit chasing and the coyote ambled off.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n On one of our side journeys we stumbled across this lonely gravesite in a beautiful and relatively isolated valley.\u00a0 Buried here is Samuel A. Glass, a soldier in the Second Cavalry who was killed in 1877 during the conflict with Chief Joseph and the Nez Pierce Indians.\u00a0 He had been struck in the bladder by a bullet and was mortally wounded so\u00a0the soldiers left him behind to be cared\u00a0for by settlers until he expired two days later.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This grave was especially poignant for me.\u00a0 My great-grandfather, Joseph Smith Dudley (if you’re familiar with Mormon history you’ll recognize some significance in that name) was a freighter who hauled mining supplies\u00a0and dry goods\u00a0in a huge wagon\u00a0from Utah to the\u00a0gold fields in Helena and elsewhere in Montana from 1875 to 1879.\u00a0 Those trips were arduous and extremely dangerous and each trip took about three months.\u00a0 Joseph and his contemporaries passed through this very area each time they made the journey and he had several\u00a0harrowing encounters with Indians.\u00a0 Perhaps Joseph and Samuel even knew each other – a long shot perhaps but I couldn’t help but wonder…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n