Prairie – at last!

After my recording trip to Red Rock Lakes, I headed east, across Yellowstone, to the Pryor Mountains.  The plan was to meet Lang Elliott at the Pryor Ice Cave and try recording inside the cave.  The plan was thwarted by a muddy road, with foot-deep ruts, which was too much for my small SUV to handle.  After a productive few days in Yellowstone, Lang dropped his travelling partner, Beth Bannister, off at the Bozeman airport, and headed south to meet me near the Pryors. He made it to Joliet, Montana, where he found a nice little motel.  After my failed attempt to get to the Ice Cave, I was quite happy that the motel still had an available room for me and my dog. Any doubts about the difficulty of the road into the Pryors were squelched when he saw my car, which was entirely covered in mud.

After a quiet night at the motel, which allowed me a hot shower and time to do some laundry, we headed north.  Our plan to camp along the Missouri River didn’t happen as the campground was full.  So, we continued north, and found some nice campgrounds in the Little Rockies, near Zortman.  This was a great spot, with a lovely mix of pines and deciduous vegetation, and a nice mix of western and eastern birds.  We used this as our base while exploring the prairie to the east.

Our main goal was American Prairie, an extensive patchwork of shortgrass prairie, sage steppe, river bottoms, and riparian areas near Lewistown, Montana.  The goal is prairie restoration, including bringing back the grassland engineers: bison and prairie dogs.  Neither of us had been there before, and it looked like an excellent place for sound recording.  We spent several days in the area, dodging storms, and probably would have been there longer except that Lang had camping reservations in Grassland National Park in Saskatchewan.

We camped on the edge of American Prairie one night, not far from a wetland Lang discovered.  If he had not pointed it out, I would have driven right by.  It was a shallow puddle amid grass and sage, and full of birds.  The dawn chorus was full of interesting shorebirds, like Wilson’s Phalaropes, Marbled Godwits, and Long-billed Curlews, as well as more grassland-sage species like Lark Buntings, Western Meadowlarks, and Brewer’s Sparrows

I also set out mics in the sagebrush near camp, and despite the wind, managed to capture a lovely dawn chorus of meadowlarks, Lark Buntings, and Brewer’s Sparrows.

Although we were eager to get out to American Prairie, yet another storm was on the way, which may have led to muddy and impassable roads. Rather than risk it, we headed to Malta to restock and wait out the storm.

After our overnight stay in Malta, we drove out to Buffalo Camp, a remote campground in the middle of the prairie.  The campground was on a small bluff, with a lovely little stream winding below.  Bison roamed through the area and there were several prairie dog towns nearby.  We only stayed a couple of nights, and I wished we could have stayed longer.  Lang and I set out mics overnight in a variety of habitats and I ended up with so many interesting recordings, despite the wind, it was hard to pick out which ones to share.

The prairie dog town northeast of camp was abuzz at dawn, with larks, sparrows, and buntings, Mourning Doves, Sharp-Tailed Grouse, Common Nighthawk, and even a distant Great Horned Owl.  A prairie dog adds its squeaky voice to the chorus:

The riparian area below camp was also very active.  The evening chorus was busy with Yellow-breasted Chats, Bullock’s Orioles, Lazuli Buntings, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Red-winged Blackbirds, Mourning Doves, Ring-necked Pheasant, and the ubiquitous Western Meadowlark:

The chats dominated the dawn chorus, and in addition to the birds from the evening chorus, Black-billed Magpies and Eastern Kingbirds joined in. I had hope to record some bison, but while I recorded some distance growls as they walked by, none came close enough for a decent recording.

After a lovely time at American Prairie, we headed north to Saskatchewan.  We were greeted at Grassland National Park by, you guessed it, more wind and clouds.  We did some exploring, checked in with the resident prairie dogs and bison, and found our campsite.  Unfortunately, the campsites were quite close together and out on the open grassland.  As far as Sage was concerned, everyone was too close to her car (especially our neighbors who set their tent just a few feet from the car) and she almost had a meltdown. 

Shortly after we settled in, a large thunderstorm rolled through the area, with dramatic clouds and some heavy rain so we headed out for photographs.  Luckily the storm was over quickly, and we were able to set out some mics, although we got soaked slogging through the wet grass.    

The wind covers on the mics were thoroughly soaked from the dew when we picked them up, but the mics and recorders were ok. Once again, the wetlands did not disappoint, with the birds singing a lovely dawn chorus:

After we collected the mics, we headed to the closest town of Val Marie for breakfast, only to find the only restaurant in town didn’t open until 11 am.  So, we each retreated to our respective cars to hide from the wind and review our recordings.  As we ate lunch, we discussed the week ahead, with high winds forecast for the next 3-4 days.  I was not looking forward to sheltering for 3-4 days just waiting for a decent opportunity for recording, and with limited amenities in town and a very anxious dog, I decided to call it quits on Grassland National Park.  So, I returned to the States, leaving Lang to finish his prairie recording.   He texted every few days to let me know what great recordings he was getting, making me feel bad about my impulsive decision.  I hope I get another opportunity to record in that region again.  But I had a good trip south, for the most part, and once I hit Wyoming the weather got a bit better.  I’ll fill in the details in a future installment.