Last night was rough. Maybe a maximum of three hours sleep, broken into several sessions. So it was surprising that we got out of town early, for once.

A dreary, overcast morning. Several attempts at drizzling, until we crossed the Continental Divide (which we did three times to get to our leks for the morning... once over the Atlantic branch, twice over the Pacific).

A dreary, overcast morning. Perfect for checking strutting grounds. No wind, so the eagles were grounded, and with the dim light, the grouse strutted later after sunrise.

Checked three leks, and found birds on all three. And two "ewww, ick!" maneuvers.

Especially happy to get a count on the second lek. Failed to do that the previous two springs because these birds seem to be unusually sensitive, flushing immediately as my truck came over the hill. Crept over the rise this year, and got good numbers.

Also spooked up one of our desert elk bulls, still sporting his small rack from last year. He should be dropping those any day now (found a shed from one of his neighbors, too).

My compadre to the north came over the radio, advising he was in rain and snow on South Pass. And it was headed our way.

He was right. I could see the black clouds he was in, 60 miles to the north. They caught us before we were halfway home, but never really put down any moisture.

Short nap after we got home, then prepped for a meeting with the feds and a company on a huge seismograph project on our desert unit. Summarized the meeting and made recommendations as soon as I got home. Got an attaboy from the boss a couple hours later.

So, not a bad day.

And, just to prove that not all of my country is sagebrush flats, a couple pics from yesterday afternoon:

Seminoe Canyon, with a small piece of Seminoe Reservoir (near record low water levels, by the way). (The Pituophis lives on the top of the mountains in the background, mid-frame.)

And some of the larger vegetation in my country: