A couple thoughts for future reference, should I ever again be forced to solve my problem of being overworked in August by postponing some antelope classifications into September.

Antelope classifications are harder in September.

First there's the obvious difference. The country is a lot drier in September, so antelope are more congregated close to the few remaining water sources.

Which is bad.

Yes, it's nice to know where you're going to find antelope to classify. But you've got to be either really stealthy, to be able to classify all the pronghorn in group A before they panic and alert the antelope in nearby group B. And groups C, D, and E.

Or... you've got to be really fast with the spotting scope, and good at keeping numbers in your head, because you won't have time to write down the numbers for group A before they've started to blend in with group B. And groups C, D and E.

Meaning you get to start all over. Or worse, they're gone over the hill, and you got nothing but the tally for group A.

And that's another problem with pronghorn in the fall.

They like bigger groups. Instead of running four separate tallies for does, fawns, adult bucks and yearling bucks in your head up to, say, four or five animals, you're trying to keep straight four different tallies (I call them "registers" in my brain) that are climbing up to twenty or twenty-five animals in each register.

Good mental exercise.

And then there's the third problem. The biggest problem.

Normally I sweep across a herd, either left to right, adding each antelope into its appropriate tally as it comes into view and I figure out what it is. And, every so often, you have to subtract animals from your tally because some dumb doe thought the bush over there tastes better, and walks out of the field you've classified. Or a pair of fawns goes backwards through your sweep to get to mama.

Okay. Most the time the brain can handle that.

But by mid-September, the rut has started.

The bucks are acting stupid. For no whim at all, they'll suddenly take off and charge into the bulk of the herd, scattering does and fawns to the eight directions, and you gotta start all over again. Or they'll take to chasing a trespassing yearling buck, back and forth through the herd as you sweep.

Okay, that's 6-2-1-1, but subtract 0-0-1-1. No, add back in the 0-0-1-1. No, subtract that. Wait, add the 0-0-0-1, and subtract the 0-0-1-0.

Ohh, craaap. Subtract the 1-1-0-0 and the 0-0-0-1, then add back the 0-0-1-0 and another 1-0-0-0. And then take out the 4-2-0-0 and add back in a 0-1-0-0, then...

You get the picture.

To their credit, the herd bucks do have a benefit this time of year. They keep their harems together. So when a herd of 15 antelope busts out of sight over the hill, you don't have to wonder who went where, and which ones might be counted again when you get over the hill yourself. Like you would in the summer.

Instead, in the fall when you come around that hill, he'll be standing there, with all 15 neatly banded together.

But, in either case, my antelope classifications are done for this year. Frustrations and all.

Oh, and regarding the question I posed in the previous entry?

As Tweety would say, "He don't know me vewy well, do he?"

I went across.

Of course.