![\"dudley](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/dudley-road-5572-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhenever I visit the northwest Montana farm where I grew up I feel like I’m returning home. It’s been exactly 50 years this month\u00a0since I actually lived there but I don’t think that feeling will ever leave me. It’s a dry land grain farm on the east slope of the Rockies so it’s in the midst of what used to be prairie and I’m sure that’s why I still crave the wide open spaces of the American West. The famous big sky of Montana is nowhere more evident than it is on the farm.<\/p>\n
Last month I spent\u00a0almost\u00a0two weeks in Montana and half of that was on the farm. These are images from that\u00a0visit. There’s not a “great shot” in the\u00a0bunch but I thought some of my regular readers might enjoy seeing some of the place (and its critters)\u00a0that\u00a0means so much\u00a0to me since I’ve mentioned it often.<\/p>\n
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On a return trip my heart always quickens when I reach this spot where the pavement ends and Dudley Road begins.<\/p>\n
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From\u00a0that\u00a0point\u00a0this is what I see to the west\u00a0– the 3 mile dirt\/gravel road (Dudley Road) leading to the farm, the vast expanse of wheat and barley fields on this part of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation (the farm is on the reservation), Horse Thief Mesa in the middle distance and the majestic mountains of Glacier National Park in the far distance. The Canadian Border is just out of frame to the right. On many days\u00a0while I was there a huge\u00a0smoke plume from\u00a0the recent fire in Glacier NP streamed in a northeasterly direction toward the farm. Thankfully, some days were clear.<\/p>\n
There’s a good number of birds and other wildlife on the farm to be photographed when you can get close enough.<\/p>\n
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![\"eastern](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/eastern-kingbird-0089-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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Both Eastern and Western Kingbirds are fairly common and like to hang out on and hunt from the fences. This Eastern Kingbird let me get fairly close.<\/p>\n
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![\"killdeer](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/killdeer-9985-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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There’s a creek that runs through the home place so Killdeer are common there. This recently fledged youngster was performing some kind of display where it would repeatedly stand erect like this and stretch its neck vertically and then return to a more “normal” posture.<\/p>\n
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![\"say's](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/says-phoebe-0180-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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This is a juvenile Say’s Phoebe and the first time I’ve ever photographed a youngster of the species. I only wish it had chosen a more attractive perch.<\/p>\n
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And speaking of unattractive perches how’s this for ugly? Swainson’s Hawks were extremely common on the farm this year as were voles, their primary food in the summer. They sure weren’t very cooperative when it came to perch choice, light angle and direction of take-off though. And a taunting Golden Eagle continued the uncooperative trend as it stayed just out of reach of my lens the entire time I was there.<\/p>\n
There are of course many birds on the farm that I wasn’t able to photograph but there are other wildlife opportunities too – among them\u00a0badgers, weasels and skunks\u00a0and\u00a0the occasional fox, coyote and pronghorn. Jackrabbits and cottontails are everywhere.<\/p>\n
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And then there’s the ubiquitous “gopher” (Richardson’s Ground Squirrel). They’re not very popular with farmers because they do so much crop damage\u00a0and their holes and mounds\u00a0(and attendant badger holes and mounds) can make driving farm machinery seem like an eternity spent on a bucking bronco. But I always like seeing them when I go back and for me it just wouldn’t be the same without them.<\/p>\n
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![\"white-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/white-tailed-deer-9876-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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This White-tailed\u00a0Deer and her fawn hung out just west of the farm house the entire time I was there. On this morning I was looking for Great Horned Owls to photograph but couldn’t resist pointing my lens her way. Her fawn was hidden in the grasses and she was quite wary of me…<\/p>\n
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![\"white-tailed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/white-tailed-deer-9898-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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so she climbed a small knoll and stared me down with an old combine header behind her.<\/p>\n
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She then walked behind two old vehicles and\u00a0peered at me from a notch between them.<\/p>\n
There’s probably some curiosity from readers\u00a0about the\u00a0signage on the side of the truck to the left, especially since it includes the word “beer”. No, the\u00a0Dudley family was not in the profession of beer distribution (in spite of the fact that much of the barley produced is\/was sold as malt for the beer industry).\u00a0Many years ago my\u00a0father bought that truck from someone in town and converted it to a grain truck. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ve posted photos of Great Horned Owls in the auger cutouts of the old granaries so often in the past that I thought some might enjoy a little more information and a slightly\u00a0more expansive look at one of those old granaries (you can see a juvenile owl in the cutout in this image). This one was built\u00a0by my grandfather (with the help of my uncle and father who was 17 at the time) in 1937. It’s 100′ long and\u00a0was a\u00a0huge granary for its day. They poured the cement floor by mixing it in wheelbarrows (or so the story goes as I remember it). I’ve mixed a little cement that way in my day and can’t imagine the work required for this job. Oh, the stories this granary could tell…<\/p>\n Cousins (who are like siblings to me)\u00a0who live on and\/or operate part of the farm today and in the recent past have made\u00a0efforts to save some of these old buildings – thus the cables you see in the image. As a family we love these old buildings and vehicles because they’re part of\u00a0our history. And also because\u00a0the granaries are\u00a0home to the owls…<\/p>\n Ok, enough nostalgia. Back to more typical fare tomorrow.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whenever I visit the northwest Montana farm where I grew up I feel like I’m returning home. It’s been 50 years since I actually lived there but I don’t think that feeling will ever leave me.<\/p>\n![\"owl](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/owl-granary-9928-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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