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blizzard warnings - 13:52 , 03 October 2013

heelerless - 21:32 , 18 August 2013

Red Coat Inn in Fort McLeod - 11:38 , 23 June 2013

rushing into the waters - 09:53 , 21 June 2013

choosing a spot - 17:43 , 27 April 2013

04 March 2007 - 15:17

first morning lekking

Those of you who've been reading here a while know exactly what that photo up there means...

It's strutting season.

Aaaand... we overslept.

'Cause by any practical means, we should have been out in the desert, close to some strutting ground, by the time the sun came up. But instead, the sun was on our tails before the heeler sisters and I were a mile from home.

And our recently eclipsed moon was nearly set.

And we wove our wave west amidst the heavy traffic ferrying goods across the continent.

First order of business when we left the interstate was...

A drag race. An absolute necessity, according to the whining, bladder-full heelers sharing my seat.

First lek of the morning?

Well, we don't know how that first lek was. Never got there. Yes, I probably could have driven across the snowbank barring our way. It looked sturdy enough to hold up a truck. At least once.

But then again...

Maybe not. And then there was that frozen mudhole just beyond, with no way to pass around it.

Discretion, and an aversion to digging out yet another snow or mud-bound truck won out. Bob's lek can wait.

So... lek number two?

Empty.

Yes, we're early in the season. But it was empty last year, too.

Perhaps having that brand new gas well drilled a few hundred meters away had something to do with it...?

On to lek number three. Which normally has no suitable vantage point for viewing, the birds strutting on the highest point of the almost flat hilltop.

But here, the topsoil pile for yet another, unreclaimed, gas well gave me a few meters of height.

And a count of three birds.

They're there, honest. You just need a 22X scope to see 'em.

On to lek number four. But my speedy dash across the flats was interrupted by a gas field truck, and a driver I've known for years. Last seen at a hunter safety class in January, but I checked his and his daughter's fine bull elk on this very road last October.

So what's he doing out here on a Sunday morning?

Checking wells. Aaaand, welllll, checking sage grouse. Just for the fun of it. He reports there were 15 grouse at the lek by their Well 23-1.

Which is exactly where I'm headed. Leaving him, and our reddish dust trails, behind.

At Well 23-1, I turn to look northeast.

And see only five strutting grouse. But it is early in the season, after a full moon, and we're well over an hour after sunrise. I'm not surprised the others didn't stick around for me to count.

I know it's too late, but for the fun of it, we head deeper into the gas fields to check a couple more leks along the main road.

Passing some deer enjoying a snow-free breakfast along the way.

The drilling rigs are still running.

And I see they're still flaring off the waste hydrocarbons from their waste water pits in the early morning hours.

I don't yet know if companies do this because their pollution is less significant in the early morning hours...

Or if their pollution is just less likely to be noticed in the early morning hours.

Our coal burning powerplant off to the west was shoving out it's usual plume.

I've commented here about the burning throat I often get on cold mornings when I'm upwind of that plant, and I read in the paper just the past week they're being cited for air pollutant violations.

Well, duh.

As we turn north on the main road through the fields, I am surprised by this new addition.

A new road.

A road that goes...

No where.

Literally. They plowed up a bunch more sagebrush to build a road right next to this one, just as wide, that goes to nothing. A half-mile or so farther on, it pulls back onto the main road.

Complete with Stop signs at both ends.

Weird.

Their huge mancamp just north of town looks to be ready for business this summer.

No grouse at the next lek. No surprise, given the reasons mentioned above. Not much point in checking the next one but, hey, we're already here.

It was empty, too.

And gave me an opportunity to check out the newest addition to our landscape.

A flare stack. Out in the middle of nothin'.

It would seem, someone hundreds of miles away made a small mistake. And as a consequence, the huge pipeline running across this desert, and the state, got filled up with natural gas that was full of H2S.

Hydrogen sulphide. A highly toxic gas that comes with a lot of natural gas. And tends to settle in low spots, so you can't just open a valve and let it disperse.

They gotta flare it off.

As I understand it, they've been flaring our part of the pipeline for ten days now.

That's a lot of BTUs going up in smoke.

That's a lot of suphur added to our air.

Me, I would've made them backflow the pipeline and flare the gas in the city where someone made a mistake, but no. It's out here, in our desert.

Because, hey, who cares about this place?

After watching the sky be barbecued for a few minutes, we headed back towards the interstate. Giving the heeler sisters one last race before heading home.

Listening to: Julie Fowlis.

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