More Adorable Rodents of Montana

Looking at my recent entries, it seems I have developed a preoccupation with rodents. The truth is that I like rodents as well as I like any wildlife. Mostly I just like any wildlife that lets me get real close with my camera.

I'm remembering a Patton Oswalt line. "I like porn. Because I can get porn."

But I do like yellow-bellied marmots, and not just because I can get pictures of them. A marmot is nothing more than a nicely colored woodchuck that lives in a group. And living in groups, yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) are a lot more noticeable than our solitary eastern woodchuck (Marmota monax) is. Eastern woodchucks generally reveal themselves only first thing in spring, when they're ratty and moth-eaten and hungrily vacuuming up clover in tiny median strips, or the rest of the year, when we find them taking dirt naps on highway shoulders. Marmots are also bolder, perhaps because having many eyes watching out makes them feel more secure in revealing themselves. Perhaps they aren't as heavily persecuted in the wild West as woodchucks are back East.

My affection for woodchucks is sincere; I have a number of wonderful woodchuck stories. The people who lived on our Ohio farm well before we bought it used to take in injured and orphaned wildlife. I'm thinking it's something in the water. Anyway, they had a pet woodchuck that loved to play. Its favorite game was to be slid on its back across the kitchen floor, caught, and slid right back, like a hockey puck. You have to love a rodent that likes to do that.

On our way to Yellowstoen, we stopped at Pompey's Tower, a state monument to Lewis and Clark along the Missouri River in Montana.

William Clark's signature, on the rock of a stack called Pompey's Tower. It was named for the toddler son of French-Canadian expedition cook Charbonneau and his Native American wife, Sacajawea. Lewis and Clark took a huge shine to the child, who they nicknamed Pompey, and named this promontory after him. He was the expedition mascot. I would think a toddler would be a bit of a liability on the push into the Northwest Territory, but Sacajawea must've stocked up on disposables and Tupperwares full of Cheerios before they took off. By all accounts Pompey was a happy baby, even though he was probably chewing on a bit of dried bison sinew instead of Pepperidge Farm Flavor Blast Pizza Goldfish.

Wild rock pigeons flapped and moaned from their nests along the flank of Pompey's Tower.


At the park below, we ran into a little colony of yellow bellied marmots.

They had burrows at the base of the huge cottonwoods along the river.

They peeked out and then came out, perhaps to see if we had any food to offer. Note the white brow band--distinctive.

Also distinctive is the pot-bellied profile when the animal sits up to take a look around. Awwww!

At this point, I was jonesing bad for a fix o' Chet Baker, having been away from him for a whole week.
So when a marmot spraddled out in what we call the frogleggin' pose, I melted.

They seemed to know I meant them no harm (or know that I thought they were meltingly adorable) and relaxed visibly after a little while.

At last, a little babeh marmot peeked out from his cottonwood fortress. Melting, complete. Just another bit of fauna I would love to have in Ohio. Magpies and marmots.

Tanagers and Badgers, Oh My!

In this cold, rainy spell, our Montana friends had a big flock of western tanagers in their backyard, feasting on suet cakes. What an amazement, to see them whirling around the feeder, a blur of orange, yellow and black.

Female western tanagers are more modestly attired.

No modesty in this rooster ring-necked pheasant! Another bird I could never take for granted, extravagant in its beauty. I don't mind that they came from China. I'm simply amazed that they took hold here.

Speaking of amazed...one of my unspoken goals for this trip was to see a badger's face. I'd seen their disappearing carpetlike bodies as they dove into North Dakota ditches. And I'd sadly stroked the fur of one who'd been shot at the mouth of her den, doubtless leaving kits to starve. Oh, I wanted to see their faces, alive and doing badger things.

While on the road to John and Durrae's, we were advised to be on the lookout for a badger den where they frequently see the animals during the day. We found the den...and there were two little faces at the entrance.
Oh joy, oh rapture. Badgers, alive, beautiful, doing what badgers do.

Though we kept a discreet distance and viewed them through the spotting scope, the female badger seemed perturbed by our scrutiny. She took her kit up the long hillside and under a barbed wire fence into another pasture, throwing dirty looks over her shoulder the whole way.

The kit is in front, sniffing the air...you will need to click on the photo to see its face. Badgers!
What a thrill. One of my most-wanted North American animals, finally seen well. I wish we'd make more room for badgers in this world. They are the coolest of weasels, great broad-shouldered trundlebeasts.

I turn now to the better glass of Bill's fixed 300 mm. Canon telephoto with its 1.4 doubler for these two shots:

Here's Mom in lovely profile, and the kit turning away. Badgers have the neatest ears, great big things set low on the sides of the head, as befits a burrowing animal. I'm sure there are neat adaptations to keep from getting dirt down in them, too.

See how the mom looks faded, while the kit looks newly-laundered?

File this next photo under "you had to be there." While the badgers were trundling up the hill, a western tanager came down and landed on a boulder to watch them pass by. You can just make out the grayish spot of their backs to the left of the tanager. It's not much of a photo, I know, but the waving flax and gray-green grasses, the undulating badgers and the brilliant color accent of the tanager all combined to lay me low. You really did have to be there, in that fresh cool wind, seeing live badgers humpeting up a hill.


I love Montana.

If you're in the Parkersburg, West Virginia area this weekend, please come by tomorrow, Friday, September 10, to see our new quintet, The Rain Crows, perform from 7 pm-10pm in the Blennerhassett Hotel's lovely rose garden. Bill and I have been working doubletime to pull together a very promising lineup, which includes bassist Craig Gibbs, formerly of Hoodoo Hand, and two former Nashville session musicians, singer/keyboardist Wendy Eller and drummer Jeff Eller. We're rehearsing as you read this, no doubt. Hope to see you there!

Magpie Madness

How better to define and excite a beautiful landscape than with a bird of paradise?

Those who live among black-billed magpies may become inured to their charms. It would take centuries to inure me to a bird this magnificent.

John and Durrae moved to Bozeman from Pennsylvania. They've lived here almost as long as we've lived in Ohio--17 years or so. But they still love the magpies.

They love them so much they buy big bags of cat food to keep them fat and sassy.


Well, who wouldn't want to see something like this on their deck a couple of times a day? The air rang with their jaunty jake-jake calls.

Note the bit of kibble in mid-gulp on the right-hand bird...


I could have spent days capturing flight images of magpies through the sliding glass doors. Had it not been cold, I'd have loved to open them and sit just inside, the house as my blind.

These birds are one big flash pattern. Pure white primary feathers are rather rare; generally the flight feathers of birds are dark, because melanin strengthens them, and the primaries, being propellers, take the brunt of the wear. They do have a nifty black picotee edge, which I'm sure helps with preventing too much wear. You can see that edging in Photo 2.

The pied coloration of magpies has to do with sending visual signals over vast open terrain, with gathering one's compatriots for raids and mischief. Nothing translates like black and white in these huge, often low-contrast spaces.

Magpies are a gift to the Montana landscape. Though I'm sure our nesting songbirds would disagree (magpies have an appetite for eggs and chicks), a few magpies sure would dress up the meadows of Ohio. Bet they'd love Zick Dough.

A Montana Haven

On our way to Yellowstone, we stopped at the home of friends outside Bozeman, Montana. It was a gray, rainy, cold day, but the birds and animals that flock around John and Durrae's didn't seem to mind. Their yard was a western wonderland for these Ohioans.

Let's just start with the view out the living room window.

and proceed to the lazuli bunting just outside the kitchen window screen.

Ah, but there was more to come. This little Richardson's ground squirrel (everyone in Montana calls them "gophers," even though they aren't...
charmed me with her muzzlepuff cleaning routine.
Kind of a shrinky prairie dog, they are pretty much everywhere in eastern Montana, running across the road, tails straight up in an exclamation point. When I first visited Montana as a 12-year-old, I wept for each one my sister's car hit. I cried a lot those first few days. And then realized that I didn't have tears enough for all the gophers with a death wish.

It was nice to see one close up, to see the sweet animal in what so many perceive as brainless video-game targets. I wish I understood what makes them decide to cross a deserted highway just as your car comes careening through at 75 mph.

There was much more to be enjoyed in John and Durrae's yard...

My Matchday - 263 B2net Stadium

Chesterfield 2v1 Lincoln City
League Two
Saturday 4th September 2010
After last weeks visit to Morecambe, it was the turn of the other Football League club who have relocated this summer. The B2net stadium replaces the ‘classic’ Recreation Ground, the former home of The Spireites and the oldest continuous used ground dating back to 1871.

The Derbyshire market town of Chesterfield lies north of Derby on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper and is the largest populated town in the county.
Chesterfield is well known for the "Crooked Spire” of the Church of Saint Mary and All Saints, which twists at 45 degrees and leans 9 feet 6 inches from its true centre.
The spire is not attached to the church building, as it is kept on by its own weight. The bend follows the direction of the sun and it’s believed that the bend formed when the original wooden roof tiles were replaced by heavier slate and lead.

The B2net Stadium was built on the former site of Dema Glassworks, north of the town at Whittington Moor on the Sheffield Road, just off the A61.
Built at a cost of £13m by GB Building Solutions, the stadium was designed by Sheffield based Architects Ward McHugh Associates. Planning permission was granted in July 2008 and construction began in July 2009.
The official opening match was a friendly against neighbours Derby County on the 24th July 2010 with new signing Craig Davies scoring the first ever goal in a game which Derby won 5-4.

The stadium has four separate stands with an overall capacity of 10,400.
The main HTM Products Stand has a single tier of blue seat with executive boxes and viewing area for disabled supporters at the rear. The stand has a flowing white curved roof which improves the overall appearance of the stadium. There’s also a police control tower in the south west corner and a capacity of 2,902.
Opposite is the Midlands Co-operative Community Stand which is similar in appearance. The stand has the same style roof, but no executive boxes which gives it a larger seating capacity of 3,144. The stand also houses the TV gantry.
The stands behind each goal are similar, having a single tier of 2,000 blue seats split into five sections. The Karen Child Stand is where the main vocal support gathers and opposite is the away end called the Printability Stand. Both stands have standard flat roofs with glass windshields at each side.
For a new’un the ground isn’t too bad. The curved roofs on the west and east sides gives it a more unique look, which is much better than the standard made to measure stadia which have appeared over the last few years.
The ground also has the welcome sight of four thin floodlights pylons in each corner, which is an old football ground tradition that I like to see maintained.

Chesterfield's good start to the League Two campaign continued as they retained their 100% league record at their new stadium
After a lively start from the visitors, Chesterfield took a grip on the game as the half progressed, taking the lead when a Dean Morgan cross was glanced home from close range by Dwanye Mattis on 36 minutes.
The Spireites doubled their lead after an hour when Jack Lester clipped a through ball over the Lincoln defence for Craig Davies to finish from six yards out.
Ben Hutchinson halved the deficit with a late strike, converting Joe Anderson's left-wing cross. The Imps agonisingly failed to grab an equaliser, as the hosts held on and thoroughly deserved the three points.

For my latest venture I left home at 11am, arrived in Chesterfield within three hours via two lifts sandwiched by two train journeys,
I was accompanied by squad #88 and disillusioned Grimsby fan Graham Precious, who picked me up at Retford for the last leg of my trip to Derbyshire.
On arrival we parked off the Sheffield Road in the Red Lion car park, which is free to use as long as you call in for a drink. The pub serves a good selection of ales from the Old Mill Brewery in Snaith, East Yorkshire, of which I chose Blonde Bombshell(4%)****

We arrived at the stadium at around 2.30 to find that the programmes were sold out and then having the endure the real negative about the stadium, which is having to queue for tickets, before having to queue up again at the turnstile.

Special thanks to Graham for making this trip possible and helping me get home, as I very nearly missed my train at Retford. I had it in my mind that my train was due at 1747, but I was a few minutes out as it was 1744 and we pulled up outside the station at 1743.
To say I made my train with seconds to spare would be an understatement. Retford station only has two platforms, one heading north and one south, however the northern line is on the far side under the subway. I was running through the subway when I heard the train guard's whistle blow, only my desperate cries of “wayyyyttt” give me that few extra seconds to run up the stairs and board the train, greeted by three stunned looking train guards and grinning passengers who were staring at me as if to say “You lucky get!”

I’m pleased to get the two new additional grounds out of the way early in the season and after already ticking four grounds off the “Pissing against the wind 92” as I prefer to call it, I’m now find myself back at the total I was at when last season ended.

My visit to Saltergate in 2006.

Matchday stats

CFC 2(Mattis 36, Davies 62) LCFC 1(Hutchinson 88)

att.6,429

Admission £16

Programme £3

Ground no.263 B2net Stadium - Matchday Web album(19 pictures)

Prairie Dogs and Mule Deer

One of our favorite spots at Theodore Roosevelt National Park: a place called Buck Hill. It's hard to beat the view from the top.
We feel compelled to photograph each other at the modest summit (There really aren't any mountains in North Dakota).

The kids love to shelter under a ledge and pretend they're hunter/gatherers, looking for dinner, building a fire, flensing skins, perhaps.

Dinner is everywhere--mule deer are plentiful.

It's a great place for wildlife photography. You're largely ignored, and the tableaux are stunning.


The biggest bull bison are often solitary, like this one. Imagine yourself on that winding road, passing from vision to vision. That's TRNP, at dusk in June.

A spotted towhee rasps out its song against the badland backdrop.

We round a corner to find a mother prairie dog and her three exclamation point babies!!!

They wondered why this woman was groaning...

never realizing that they and their tiny hands might be the cause

Three perfect little sod poodles in the slanting light of an endless June evening.

My Matchday - 262 Parkside

Kendal Town 1v2 Burscough
Evo-Stick League Premier Division
Monday 30th August 2010

Our Bank Holiday weekend on the north west coast finished with a trip to the Lake District, with our final stopping off point being the market town of Kendal in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria.
The town is the third largest settlement in Cumbria, behind Carlisle and Barrow and is largely known as a tourist centre, as well as a producer of pipe tobacco and snuff, but is mostly famous as the home of Kendal Mint Cake, which was accidentally discovered by Joseph Wiper during his search for a clear glacier mint.
The town was giving the nickname the Auld Grey Town because its buildings are mostly constructed with local grey limestone.
Netherfield AFC formed in 1919 when employees at the local K Shoes factory formed a football team. The club have constantly played on the same ground which was provided on land near to the factory at Parkside, the workers each paid 1d per week to fund work on the ground.
The club played in local leagues until joining the Lancashire Combination in 1945, winning the title on two occasions in 1949 and 1965 and also winning the Combination Cup twice.
In 1968 the club became a founder member of the Northern Premier League, but didn’t enjoy any success and struggled at the wrong end of the table. Due to financial restraints Netherfield had to step down to the North West Counties League Division 1 in 1982, but returned in 1987 when the Northern Premier League expanded with a second division.
In 1998 the Club changed its name to Netherfield Kendal and re-branded themselves two years later as Kendal Town to reflect it's relationship with the town.
Kendal enjoyed their most successful season for 40 years in 2005/6, winning promotion for the first time in their history to the Unibond Premier League. After missed out on automatic promotion on the last day of the season on goal difference by one single goal, Kendal Town went on to win the play-offs with a last minute goal from former manager Peter Smith against Gresley Rovers at a packed Parkside Road.
The following season long-standing friend of Kendal Town, John Richardson persuaded Preston and England football legend Sir Tom Finney to come to a home game and was offered a place at Parkside, later agreeing to become the club President.

The most striking thing about the Lakeland Radio Stadium(as it is now known) is it’s dominantly black and white. Everything has been painted to replicate the club jersey - the roofs of the stand, surrounding fences and even the rubbish bins have been toshed in black and white stripes.
The main entrance is in the corner of the car park, with an additional turnstile block further up Parkside Road beside the neighbouring graveyard.
Built in the 1920’s, the Main Stand is at the far side which has a 50p “upgrade” admission charge. The wooden framed stand has six rows of black benches and also houses the team changing rooms.
Further along towards the nearside goal is a diminutive covered stand which has two rows of black flip seats, although half the stand is currently out of use.
Next the main turnstile is a cong-iron covered paddock, which was built especially for the FA Cup tie with Grimsby Town in 1955. The open terrace continues behind the dugouts which is in front of a large grass bank.
Extra seating has been added at the top of the terrace behind the nearside goal in front of the clubhouse and the far side goal is open hard standing.
The Park Cabaret Lounge clubhouse isn’t, as you might expect, decked out with Kendal Town memorabilia, the club has a music theme with wall paintings of famous pop stars from the fifties to the nineties and vinyl records above the bar. Entry into the Park Cabaret is via a flight of stairs as the clubhouse looks down onto the ground as it is situated on the brow of the hill on Parkside Road.

Most of my Non-League career as a football spectator has been in the Northern Premier League (or to give it its new re-branded name the Evo-Stick Premier League) so I always welcome the chance to get to a ground I missed out on when Gateshead were playing at this level.
Kendal’s opponents were the Scousers from Burscough who managed to pinch the win with a last gasp goal, when the hosts looked more likely to gain victory.
Kendal lead at half time with a Danny Rowe goal in the 39th minute, taking a cross from the right, his first time shot from inside the box capped an encouraging first half display.
Burscough levelled midway in the second half when Darren Brookfield found space in the box to fire home and could have grabbed a second after hitting the crossbar with a close range shot. As Kendal pressed for a late winner, Craig Mahon fired home in the 88th minute to take all three points back to Merseyside.

Lakeland Radio Stadium is also used by Morecambe Reserves, whose new ground I visited last Saturday . The weekend also included a day in Southport on Sunday and our trip through the Lakes comprised a visit to Ulverston and the Laurel & Hardy Museum. (me and son James are huge fans)
I really enjoyed my Parkside visit. The ground is a bit hickety-pickety but has lots of character and is a friendly and pleasant experience, which makes it the ideal way to round off a Bank Holiday Monday trip to the Lake District.

Matchday stats

KFC 1(Rowe 39) BFC(Brookfield 67, Mahon 88)

att.276

admission:£8

Programme £2

Ground no.262 Parkside Road - Matchday Web album(19 pictures)