Wordless Wednesday: Wildlife and Winter's Onslaught

Long-Nosed Leopard Lizard in the Colorado Desert

Red Fox in my backyard

Curious Coyote in my backyard

Agile Coyote in my backyard

Big Bull Elk in my backyard

Doe and male fawn with antler "buttons" in my backyard

Yesterday in my backyard

Today in my backyard

Today in my backyard

Superbike, Fatty, comes out of hibernation in my backyard

My Backyard

K is mending

I went to visit K yesterday, and she's recovering, albeit slowly. She walked well, ate a tiny bit, and obviously adored her technician. However, she was agitated and whined with pain when she moved. I wasn't certain that she knew who I was, which disconcerted me. In the photo below, she seemed leery of coming over to me. Eventually, she settled down.
The tech says that K seems sharper and is acting like she's in less pain this morning. They're trying to wean her off her IV so that she can travel with us to my surgery location this evening. If they advise against taking her, my wonderful regular vet will medically board her while I'm in the hospital.
Yesterday morning, I had the soul-nourishing pleasure of taking R with me for a snow bike ride on my Fatback bike. It was special to be with our exuberant little boy alone. He zoomed at crackling voltage levels but responded with enthusiasm whenever I asked him to 'come' or anything else. He does everything, even a 'sit', at warp speed.
He seemed to sense that I needed a little quiet time with him and stood close to me at our favorite viewpoint.
On a fascinating note, we collected more images from the mountain lion cache of a deer carcass. It seems like the lion has abandoned it (but cameras still stand guard, just in case) but a plethora of fascinating events have been captured by our cameras. If I have time today (and to distract myself from all the stress), I'll try to put together a short video of the highlights. I'm saving the bigger project of compiling the 400-500 photos and video clips into a chronology for after surgery.

I probably won't have time to post again before we leave to stay in a hotel tonight and arrive at my surgery before dawn tomorrow. Thanks to all of you for your words of encouragement and thoughts. They've warmed my heart and soul.

I plan to visualize K and I returning to this quiet alpine lake this summer. I hope that we'll both strong by then. And, we'll be ecstatic to visit one of our favorite places.
I apologize that I haven't been able to visit many blogs over the past two days. Life has been out of control, to put it mildly.

Mountain lion sex ID and waning days of biking

We're working on a more 'documentary' presentation of the close to 300 photos and videos that we have of the mountain lion so far. We almost certainly have more photos and footage waiting for us in our cameras that remain posted by the deer carcass that the mountain lion has been guarding. It's a project that I probably won't finish until after my surgery but it's fun getting started.

I've read at the Colorado Division of Wildlife website about how to visually sex a mountain lion, and it involves seeing black spots just above the scrotum on the hind end. None of our photos give us the view that we need to sex 'him'. Are there any experts reading this who might offer some more hints? We have several photos and videos where he might be urinating. Do male and female mountain lions adopt different postures for this activity? I'm going to continue my research but any insights would be very welcome! In the photo below, I suspect that he's simply walking, and not urinating, but I can't be sure.I've been giving 'our' lion a wide berth but still exploring the forest every day with my labrador, K. I'm treasuring every moment because an enforced hiatus from bike-riding is on the way after my neck fusion surgery on Wednesday. So, I'm trying to soak up every last drop of joy from our beautiful world that I can.
Today, the air temperature soared to scorching levels - it might have reached 35°F! K and I rolled fast on the hard-packed trails with my Fatback snow bike unperturbed by any obstacle. Moreover, K was finally crackling with energy, displaying her normal voltage level, for the first time since aggravating her pancreatitis by gorging herself on the deer carcass that she found last Saturday (the beginning of the mountain lion saga).
As we blasted along the empty trails, we accidentally sneaked up on a pair of deer. K saw them, and turned to me for a jackpot of treats. After six years of training, I truly trust her around live deer. She sees a deer as a cue to look to me for treats. Yes!!!
Part of why an enforced hiatus from bike-riding is so hard for me to accept peacefully is that I know that a dog's life is far too short and their athletic years wane too rapidly. I hate to miss any trail time during K's physical peak. So, today, I took more photos of her out on the trails. She glowed in the warm sun.
And climbed huge boulders.My neck fusion surgery looms on Wednesday's calender spot. I feel as if I'm saying a melancholy good-bye to my favorite biking trails. I'm not sure whether anyone can understand how much the forest and its trails feel like my home. So, leaving them for a while brings me deep sadness. But, when I start to fall into the abyss of feeling sorry for myself, I remind myself that I want grit and determination to define my life. I'll be back, and sooner than anyone thinks! I'll see this view again, from a bike, before the snow melts - that's my promise to myself!I'll be required to 'walk' extensively during my recovery. Since we have no sidewalks or pavement near our home, I'll be walking (hiking) on the trails near my house. My world will shrink, because I can't travel as far by foot as by bike, and I won't be allowed to drive to other trailheads (or anywhere for that matter). However, when I can walk a mile, I'll be able to see the sun set. That's a worthy goal!
Some have asked that I write more about my surgery, including exactly what's being done and the details of the recovery period. I'm going to save that post for after surgery and focus on sucking every last drop of beauty from my world while I can still bike through it. Briefly, for the curious, I'll be having 4 segments of my neck fused together. I already have several fused segments in my lower back so I'm turning into the bionic woman, with lots of titanium hardware bolstering my spine's strength. More details later.

Me, my dog, and a bobcat

My Labrador, K, and rolled out this morning onto trails with a few inches of powdery new snow covering a solid and deep snowpack. Snow adorned every pine needle and naked aspen twig. The low sun, just above the horizon, made the frosty landscape glow.
We rolled around our trail network, flying like I rarely can do in new snow. K posed for me in a favorite spot.
Only one person had tread on the trails before us, and animal tracks abounded. Deer tracks headed straight up toward the lion's lair. I'm amazed that the deer don't smell the mountain lion or the fresh deer carcass and stay far away.

I looked carefully for lion tracks on the trails but saw none. Prior to our ongoing lion presence, I always deluded myself into believing that I'd know if a lion was lurking in the area in the winter because he'd leave tracks. I'm learning that they don't necessarily use human trails, even if they are the most efficient routes due to the packed snow.

Some might wonder why I still go out into the forest, knowing that the fierce mountain lion shown in my previous post is guarding his cache and looking for new prey nearby. The reason is that I am fully aware, and have been for a long time, that I've traveled safely through these woods for the past decade thanks to the grace of the lions. If they wanted to eat humans or dogs, they would. However, they rarely do.

I must add that I'm not blindly taking this risk. I've read many books (approaching 10) and primary research articles about mountain lion ecology and their behavior in human encounters. I know enough to reduce my odds of an attack but I also know that I do take a risk every time I immerse myself in the natural world that I love so much.

This morning, as K and I explored one trail, only a coyote had loped through the snow before us.
When we gallivanted far away from the lion's lair, I gave K a tiny bit of freedom. I called her back soon thereafter. She charged back to me for her reward!
After my ride with K, I left her basking in the sun, working on a kong with dog food frozen inside it.
I headed out solo, rejoicing in the crackling crystal cold and endlessly deep blue skies. My Fatback snow bike rolled over the snow like an unstoppable tractor. And, the trails remained deserted. Below zero temperatures provide solitude on the trails!

The trail began as an endless slope of untracked snow.
But then, a set of tracks joined the trail from the north, marching purposefully eastward, in the same direction as I was pedaling.
A closer look revealed that a bobcat had left these tracks. Each track had no claw marks, was almost as wide as it was long, and measured about 1.5" across, making me certain that a bobcat had walked this way. I've recently captured photos of bobcats on one of my wildlife cameras.
The cat and I followed exactly the same path for about a half mile until he had decided to take a hunting side-trip into a jumble of boulders.
He then stayed off the main trail for a third of a mile, a section where the trail avoids the rough terrain of rocky ledges and boulder piles, the favorite terrain of a bobcat. Then, to my surprise, his tracks emerged from a cliff area to rejoin my route.
For a while, my snow bike tires and his tracks traveled companionably, side-by-side. No other marks marred the fresh snow.
Soon, however, he took another boulder-strewn and steep route, short-cutting a big hairpin turn in the trail.
Once I'd navigated the hairpin turn on a mild gradient, I crossed his path again. Alas, it was the last time because the trail approached civilization. He simply crossed the trail, leaving his tracks as he plunged into a deep and dark gulch.

I felt honored to be the first human to follow in the tracks of this bobcat and see signs of his purposeful foraging for rodents among the boulders. Living on the wild edge, on the border between human habitation and vast tracts of forest, I find animal stories in the snow on almost every bike ride. How lucky I am.

I rolled home, gazing at a winter wonderland, feeling fully content.

A mighty mountain lion

Our mountain lion adventure started on Saturday, January 2, when my labrador, K, discovered a freshly killed deer. A mountain lion had left tracks in the snow surrounding the carcass, which lay mostly exposed.

Wildlife cameras have captured the lion's activity since that time. For the first three days (Sat-Mon), the lion's pattern was that he stayed by the carcass all night and departed for most of the day. Then, on Tuesday, his pattern changed. He stayed all day, vigilantly guarding his feast. Below, I've outlined the details of his behavior, and I've included a video montage of his movements and images.

After killing the deer early Saturday morning, the lion returned to the carcass at dusk on Saturday afternoon and stayed until about 2 AM on Sunday January 3. He spent that night feeding on the carcass and then covering it with snow. He lumbered away, straight up the hill, deeper into the pine forest. He likely planned to make a nearby bed to rest after gorging himself. I'm guessing that he watched closely as my dogs and I discovered the carcass. That's a bit unnerving.

Later Sunday morning, he returned at about 5:45 AM and stayed for an hour. Again, he ate, immersing his entire head in the ribcage, and then covered the deer's body with more snow before departing on exactly the same route as the previous time.

During the day on Sunday, the lion stayed away from his prey for almost twelve hours, before sauntering back to the kill at 5:15 PM on that afternoon. Upon returning, he spent 14 hours at the site, eating, digging snow onto the carcass, and finally departing around dawn. He also spent time lying in the dirt spots that he'd exposed when digging snow. One of his 'beds' is shown next to his snow pile in the photo below.
He stayed away, perhaps resting in a day bed nearby, until mid-afternoon on Monday, before returning for a brief snack and some snow digging. Finally, after leaving for a couple of hours, he returned for a long stay at about dusk on Monday. Overnight, until dawn on Tuesday, January 4, he ate and remodeled the snow pile.

Then, contrary to his habit for the previous three days, he did not depart at daylight on Tuesday. Rather, he stayed by the carcass all day. He barely ate. Rather, he spent most of the time resting in the dirt spots created by his snow throwing, prowling around looking alarmed sometimes (probably guarding against scavengers), and remodeling the snow pile protecting his cache. Most of the video is from daytime on Tuesday because the wildlife cameras can shoot video only in daylight.

No scavengers, aside from an occasional raven or magpie when the lion was absent, has dared to visit the carcass. Eventually, when the lion abandons the carcass, I expect to see a parade of smaller carnivores and omnivores, like bobcats, coyotes, corvid birds (crows, ravens, magpies, Jays), and even rodents arrive at the site.

The cameras are still documenting the activity at the prey cache, as I write. My books say that the 'usual' stay at a large prey cache is 2-5 days. However, his intensive guarding and snow pile remodeling yesterday make me wonder if he'll stay longer. Moreover, an extreme cold front with snow has arrived. It'll be very interesting to see what he does next.

In the video below, my good friend from Dream Valley Ranch, has made a montage (with purrfect music) of the best video clips and photos of the almost 300 we have. The video clips are all from January 4 during the cougar's daytime vigil over the carcass. The photos, taken from two cameras, show him over the four nights he's spent at the carcass so far.



Believe me, the videos and photos have made mountain lions (aka, "cougars") much more real to me. K has been spending a lot of time in a 'heel', running right next to my bike on the right side.
I'm scared to give her much freedom, especially when we are even vaguely close to the carcass. She's much too precious to me. Moreover, we navigate lion-friendly terrain daily, like the rocky-cliff sided trail shown below.

Sunrise, moonset, and sunset

The Rocky Mountains shined with brilliance today. The golden hue of the rising sun and the white face of the setting moon greeted us as we rolled out the door.

The frigid air kept the snowpack solid, and I rode my Fatback on perfect snowy trails with K by my side for part of the ride. As we headed out, we crossed one route that animals could take up toward the deer carcass cached about a third of a mile from our house. Indeed, two sets of tracks, starting at the top of the photo below and moving toward the bottom, headed directly toward the site. At the start of the tracks shown below, the animals moved slowly, one directly behind the other. Then, something spooked them, and they briefly loped uphill. I couldn't see any of the tracks clearly but they were the right size and spacing to be a small lion and her kitten.
Nearby, a pair of deer had walked a parallel path. I now have a visceral feeling for how much courage it takes to be a deer in our forests.

While I looked at the tracks, K patiently sat next to my Fatback, watching out for me.
When I returned, she looked at me soulfully, as if apologizing for her crazy behavior when she ran away to the deer carcass two days ago.
Our next stop was our favorite view point. The wintery veil of clouds, glowing with the subtle golden hue of sunrise, mingled with the mountains.

Then, I took K home. She stood by the intersection leading to our house as if to say, "Why aren't we going further?". She's giving me conflicting signals. Some say that her tummy has felt bad since her venison misadventure and others say that she wants to romp. If only she could talk.

I rode solo after dropping off K, and I found some stupendously perfect trails for snow biking. I rolled up a ridge faster than I usually do on dirt. I had a blast and almost forgot about the rapidly accelerating countdown to surgery. On my way home, I coasted downhill, careening atop crusty snow with the world passing by at warp speed. When I was almost home, a gorgeous view of a mountain greeted me.

When I arrived home, the pups and I did some training in preparation for my surgery recovery. I won't be able to bend or twist my neck due to a restrictive brace that I'll wear for 6-12 weeks. So, I'm training the pups to put their front paws on a platform so that I can leash them without bending my neck.

This trick is an old one for K. I first taught her it when I had my lumbar fusion surgery almost 4 years ago.

For R, it was totally new. However, the boy learns fast. As usual, he added his own unique twist, putting his back paws on the bottom step rather than keeping them on the ground. That's fine for my purposes!

Tomorrow, I'll work on actually leashing them in this position. And, I'll work on having the one dog do a down-stay while I leash the other one.

That ended the fun part of my day. I then headed to the spine doctor's office for a lumbar steroid injection, designed to reduce the pain in my low back and legs before next week's neck surgery. I hate these injections but maybe it'll help. I'll know within a few days.

I arrived home in time to see the sunset light up lenticular clouds into a rainbow of colors against a deep blue sky. The snow turned pink, transforming our forest into a surreal landscape. I can't find such beauty and peace anyplace but in nature.