{"id":24511,"date":"2014-06-16T05:49:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-16T11:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=24511"},"modified":"2014-06-16T11:52:21","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T17:52:21","slug":"a-few-more-birds-and-a-personal-observation-from-our-recent-montana-camping-trip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2014\/06\/16\/a-few-more-birds-and-a-personal-observation-from-our-recent-montana-camping-trip\/","title":{"rendered":"A Few More Birds (and a personal observation) From Our Recent Montana Camping Trip"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is\u00a0largely\u00a0a collection of photos that documents some of the bird species\u00a0I photographed\u00a0on our recent camping trip to southwest Montana.\u00a0 Most of these images have flaws and as I’m prone to do I’ll be pointing those flaws out but for me each of\u00a0the images\u00a0has something positive to offer to make up for their shortcomings.<\/p>\n

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\"lesser<\/p>\n

Until this trip I had never even\u00a0seen\u00a0a Least Flycatcher but this time I actually photographed two\u00a0of them in two days on the very edge of their known breeding grounds.\u00a0 This tiny but aggressive little\u00a0bird posed for me near a campground\u00a0just over the Montana border in Idaho.\u00a0 I’m not fond of the\u00a0long, straight vertical stem in the background at\u00a0right but I was still happy to get\u00a0the flycatcher\u00a0in my viewfinder.<\/p>\n

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\"black-headed<\/p>\n

The Black-headed Grosbeak has been another elusive species for me but I was able to get fairly close to\u00a0this\u00a0female\u00a0in the same general\u00a0area as the flycatcher.\u00a0 There were plenty of attractive natural perches within a few feet of her but of course she chose galvanized wire instead.<\/p>\n

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\"black-headed<\/p>\n

Her mate was slightly more cooperative in the perch he chose but just to aggravate me he positioned himself on it so that two of those galvanized wires would be included in the background.\u00a0 They’re out of focus but still very visible.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

Both the\u00a0Red Rock River that flows through Montana’s Centennial Valley and Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge were named for the color of the rocks that can be seen in a few places in the\u00a0valley.\u00a0 They’re not commonly seen by most visitors but I was happy to get them in the background of this image of an American White Pelican in flight and nearly at eye level.\u00a0 The light is a little harsh and the bird is tight in the frame but the image is cropped very little so I didn’t have much wiggle room for composition.<\/p>\n

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\"house<\/p>\n

This is one of the House Wrens nesting in the “glory hole aspen tree” I posted about previously.\u00a0 These birds are hyperactive little buzz-saws and I’ve never before come this close to catching one at take-off or in flight.\u00a0 It just happened to perch in this bright spot for a moment in the otherwise dappled light so for an instant I had enough shutter speed (1\/5000 sec) to get this incredibly fast bird fairly sharp as it took off.\u00a0 But of course I clipped a wing…<\/p>\n

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\"beaver<\/p>\n

All but one of these bird images\u00a0was taken near a spot that has special meaning for me.\u00a0 I have a story to tell that may or may not be of interest to\u00a0my readers\u00a0but\u00a0I can’t be in this area without thinking of it so I’ll\u00a0present it anyway.<\/p>\n

From 1874 to 1879 my paternal\u00a0great-grandfather Joseph Smith Dudley (as is\u00a0apparent from his name he was an early Mormon pioneer, he and his brother Hyrum were the first white twins born in Utah) hauled freight in heavy wagons along the Old\u00a0Montana Trail from\u00a0Corinne, Utah\u00a0to the Montana gold fields – especially Helena and Fort Benton.\u00a0 It was an arduous journey fraught with danger from Indians, outlaws,\u00a0accidents and\u00a0brutal weather.\u00a0 These early freighters, including my great-\u00a0grandfather, would stop at the Beaver Canyon Stage Station near Monida\u00a0Pass (named for Montana and Idaho and located at the continental divide)\u00a0for a brief respite before continuing their journey.\u00a0 This historical\u00a0site marks the spot where the station stood, near Interstate 15 which can be seen in the background.<\/p>\n

Joseph’s visits to the station ended in 1879 because of a tragic event that occurred back in Utah.\u00a0 These round trips to the gold fields took many weeks and in his absence Joseph’s wife was having an affair with another man.\u00a0 On the night of February 10, 1879 (back in Utah) Joseph and that man got into a vicious fight and\u00a0Joseph killed him with a pistol (three shots, one in the cheek and\u00a0two\u00a0in the mouth but\u00a0no teeth were broken).\u00a0 Joe was charged with first degree murder.<\/p>\n

The trial in June of that year lasted 5 days (almost unheard of in those days)\u00a0and the jury found\u00a0Joseph not\u00a0guilty by reason of\u00a0self-defense (the story is long and convoluted\u00a0but I have\u00a0voluminous\u00a0copies of the trial records, newspaper articles and even the note that the jury foreman passed to the judge announcing the verdict).\u00a0 In those days there were serious tensions between Mormons and non-Mormons in Utah and the verdict was\u00a0controversial to say the least.\u00a0 Soon after the trial Joseph’s home was “mysteriously burned to\u00a0the ground” and eventually he remarried and moved to southern Alberta where he died in 1928.\u00a0 I was unaware of this event until a few years ago when I started digging into my family history.\u00a0 My parents had already passed away and I have no idea if they knew about it or not.\u00a0 I’m fascinated by my family history, warts and all.\u00a0 I give the jury the benefit of the doubt and assume they made the right decision but who really\u00a0knows…?<\/p>\n

Anyway, I pass the site of the former Beaver Canyon\u00a0Stage\u00a0Station every time I return to Utah from Montana and when I do my mind wanders.\u00a0 If this tragic event had not occurred Joseph likely would never have moved to Alberta, his son (my grandfather) would never have moved\u00a050 miles south to the Montana farm where I grew up\u00a0and my father wouldn’t have met\u00a0my mother (who was Canadian).\u00a0 And where would that leave me???\u00a0 Pondering the existential vagaries of life can be almost mind-blowing if you allow it to be.<\/p>\n

And ponder I do on the 300 mile drive home…<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Addendum: As an afterthought I decided to include the following image of Joseph Smith Dudley<\/em><\/p>\n

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\"joseph-smith-dudley\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Utah State University Special Collections – Compton Collection.\u00a0 Used by permission<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

This photo of my great-grandfather was taken in 1912 when he was 61 or 62\u00a0years old.\u00a0 One of his sons was also named Joseph Smith Dudley as was one of his grandsons.\u00a0 When you’re trying to track family history, three individuals\u00a0with exactly\u00a0the same name can be very confusing so I’ve always affectionately\u00a0referred to him as “Killer Joe” to easily make the distinction….<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is largely a collection of photos that documents some of the bird species I photographed on our recent camping trip to southwest Montana. Most of these images have flaws and as I’m prone to do I’ll be pointing those flaws out but for me each of the images has something positive to offer to make up for their shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[334,361,1493,360],"tags":[420,2065,1525,2064,2066,1780,2069,2068,1518,2052,2049,220,2067,1987,263],"class_list":["post-24511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-family-farm-in-northwest-montana","category-montana-favorite-locations","category-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge-favorite-locations","tag-american-white-pelican","tag-beaver-canyon-stage-station","tag-black-headed-grosbeak","tag-centennail-valley","tag-corinne-utah","tag-family-history","tag-fort-benton","tag-helena","tag-joseph-smith-dudley","tag-least-flycatcher","tag-monida","tag-montana-2","tag-montana-trail","tag-mormon-history","tag-red-rock-lakes-national-wildlife-refuge"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/lesser-flycatcher-4500-ron-dudley.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-6nl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}