Two weeks of adventure and science with Landmark in Montana!

So I’ve been living and volunteering for the Landmark project for two weeks now, run by Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation on the American Prairie Reserve. What have we been doing way out here in the middle of rural Montana? Monitoring all sorts of prairie wildlife with passion and gusto, that's what!

The two main monitoring methods we use right now are survey transects and trail cameras. Transects are about 10 miles long through rolling hills, flat plains, streams and occasionally flooded mud flats. Armed with binoculars, cameras and tablets, we try to identify and count all the wildlife in sight – from coyotes to deer to eagles to grouse, we want ‘em all!  Trail cameras need to be checked twice a month; we swap out memory cards and batteries and look over all the footage to see what unsuspecting critters they’ve picked up.  And next week we start counting sage grouse on their lekking grounds at sunrise – can’t wait!

Transect 12, 10 miles of muddy floodplain ;)

And I happened to grab the perfect Clif Bar for the day, "get muddy"

Then of course, there’s all the other fun stuff we do in our time off. We visit beautiful places like the stunning Larb Hills to the east, the gorgeous Charles M Russell wildlife refuge on the Missouri River to the south, and the humble Little Rockies to the west. We cook family dinners and make lots of music. We cuddle the farm cat and play many board games. All in all, it’s a great time of adventure, conservation and fun.  I’ve been spending lots of time photographing the plains wildlife and landscape, and scouting out subjects for future shoots (golden eagles and short-eared owls to come, if all goes well). 

Betty the farm cat. 

Ice patterns on the Missouri River at Charles M. Russell Wildlife Refuge. 

Let's have a little fun!

Relaxing with Yuccas in the Larb Hills. 

Burnt trees at Burnt Lodge, overlooking the Charles M. Russel Wildlife Refuge. 

Cool-looking burnt trees at Burnt Lodge.

View of the Bear Paw range from the Little Rockies.

The crew taking in the view atop the Little Rockies!

Until I get around to actually photographing them, I’ve been keeping track of all the fun new wildlife we’ve been seeing on the prairies:

• ·         Two short-eared owls
• ·         Three snowy owls
• ·         Three golden eagles
• ·         Three bald eagles
• ·         One prairie falcon
• ·         Two grey partridges
• ·         And lots and lots of sage grouse!

Everything is very exciting here, especially with spring just around the corner and new wildlife returning to the prairies… But I can’t help but miss my dear sweet home of Guelph and all my wonderful friends there. There is a big empty space in my heart that all the horned larks and sage grouse in Montana cannot fill!  

First butterfly of spring on the APR.

As usual, my bigger nicer photography website can be found at www.elainekennedyphotography.com.

On the road to Landmark: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

So I recently made the move from Guelph, ON to the American Prairie Reserve near Malta, Montana to volunteer for the Landmark Project. It's a volunteer-based wildlife monitoring project run by Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, where volunteers get to live on a ranch in the prairies and hike transects to spot wildlife, maintain and analyse trap cameras, and count certain species of interest such as sage grouse and prairie dogs on APR land. But that isn't what this blog post is about. This post is about Theodore Roosevelt National Park! 

I drove from Guelph to Montana, driving by day and sleeping in my car in McDonald's and Wal-mart parking lots by night. Typical road trip lifestyle. On the third night I slept over at Theodore Roosevelt National Park on the western border of North Dakota. I arrived fairly late so I only saw the badlands in the dim evening light before I tucked in for the night. But I woke up bright and early to the prairie sunrise bursting in my car's frosted-up windows, casting a gorgeous glow on the fractal ice. Unfortunately my camera was too cold to function for a shot of this :( Oh well! I hit the road further into the park, only to stumble upon a herd of wild bison, which I eagerly photographed, a herd of wild pronghorn, which I eagerly photographed, and a small herd of wild horses, which I eagerly photographed. Here, of course, are the results of the sunrise safari:

The bison were still covered in frost from the night.

This one's probably my favourite bison shot of the day. Something about the frost on both the bison and the grass, and the way they're positioned so linearly, and the contrast of the dark fur and white frost...

I really loved the way the sun caught in her eye here.

The pronghorn did not stick around for long.

I'd never seen wild horses before so these were a great find!! There were only four altogether but they were very majestic. 

They actually seemed pretty accustomed to people; they allowed me to get very close :)

Sooo majestic. 

I definitely don't remember exactly where I found this great-looked abandoned farmhouse; somewhere along a highway in Montana. But I loved the combination of red roof, blue sky and golden grass.

And later that day I made it to the American Prairie Reserve, and the start of a whole new adventure in Great Plains of Montana!

And as always,  check out my photography web site at www.elainekennedyphotography.com :)