Today, I was looking at my office window, or rather I was wishing I were on the other side of the pane. Snow flurries had move in from the west and the horses in the neighboring pasture were grazing in a tight bunch that reminded me of images I have seen of musk-ox circled up against some potential predator. Over the horses, a flock of geese flew over as they seem to be headed for warmer climes. It was the first time this fall that I felt the inevitable icy approach of winter.

This Saturday morning Olivia and I went up to Hyalite for a little hiking and check out the waterfalls. The weather was severely overcast with moments of sprinkles and glimpse of sunshine. Olivia loves to hike and explore rabbit trails. It was nice to see some old friends. Clark’s Nutcrackers were abundant and Golden-crowned Kinglets active fed among the spruce and fir.

With Election Day looming tomorrow, all the talk from the well-groomed media puppets is about character, experience and, even, the associations of the candidates; however, the one term I have not heard in quite some time is environment. It seems with the volatile state of economy and our current foreign policy engagements, neither candidate has or will address the environment other than tacit nods to global warming that were given during the early stages of the campaigns.

I think that issues such as resource extraction practices and wildlife/habitat protection should be pushed in front of future President with vigor. Leading a horse to water…or in all likelihood a donkey to water. As I see the current paradigm, the window of opportunity for securing habitat is closing with each passing year. We have to remain optimistic and positively influence our future President, so that these issues are dealt with in the true spirit of stewardship (a great word usurped by the right-wing).

Just my two cents.

As the light faded into twilight this evening, thousands of Mallards descended upon the few remaining stubble fields south of Bozeman. I surmise that this event is my true herald of autumn, the small waves of migrating waterfowl honking overhead as they pass through the valley. Some may settle for the winter or, at least, a couple of weeks; others are on their way to points further, the Rio Grande Valley or Bosque del Apache…places I must visit. The snap is in the air and a blue autumn sky is accented by colorful Mallards and Northern Pintails.

One day alone is wonderful to have at Ennis Lake during the fall, but to have two such days is sublime.

Sam Koenen and I took his mini-me, Jabe, out for a bit of guy time with some birding and breakfast at Yesterday’s Cafe (best sausage gravy ever…I mean ever…challenge me, I dare you!). Oh yeah, the wonder mutt, Miss Olivia was along as the offical bird dog. After breakfast, we headed towards Jeffers and the south end of Ennis Lake. The birds were the usual cast of characters for the area, save for a few Bonapart’s Gulls and Hooded Mergansers. The day was really about having a good time with good company, and little birding made it a great experience.

Oh almost forgot, at Harrison Reservoir, we had 3 American Pipits…probably the last I will see until next April/May

You can see the complete trip report here.

Every once in a while you come across a set of circumstances so incredibly odd that it defies description. At lunch today, I had to go into Safeway, and upon entering the store, two police officers were holding a obliviously “crazy” man. First of all, one of the cops had his flashlight beam focused on the suspect — we’re inside a brightly fluorescent lit grocery store. That works. Next, our suspect has schizophrenic hair that had not seen a comb or shampoo in at least a good month. He was wearing a white t-shirt — well, the t-shirt was white but the thick layer of dirt, grease, oil and other dried fluids obscured that particular fact. Now for the kicker, the other cop was holding a cheap, knock-off samurai sword. I kid you not, a sword, a f’ing sword. This brought many questions to my mind.

“A samurai sword, really?”

“Who brings a sword into the grocery?”

“Does this guy always carry a sword?”

One question after the next kept bombarding my cranium, well, they still are tumbling around in there. I should have asked the cops, “What’s the deal here because I can’t deal with mystery of the Safeway Samurai swordsman?”, and that way I could have got it out of my system.

This morning I woke to a steady, if not howling then talking loudly, wind. Looking outside there was a dusting of snow and big flakes screaming through the air. The first snow of season…looks like winter might be long and hard this year.

The last couple of days, the peaks over Bozeman have been dusted with snow. A sure sign that fall has arrived.