More wildlife around Sweet Spot Ranch

~ For Sale by Owner: $1,490,000~ SWEET SPOT RANCH More Wildlife
The House The Land Wildlife Living Here Around the Area Sweet Spot Main Page Contact Us	Henrietta, standing her ground.	Sometimes the wildlife isn't so wild. I have always said that we would never feed wild animals. Not good for them, not good for us. So, after Jane gets some chickens, she throws scratch out for them and guess who shows up (besides a ton of quail)? In addition to being ugly, turkeys can really grease up your yard. I'm getting an air rifle and having a little fun "shooing" them away. Life is tough in Salmon River country.

Whitetails are more common at our elevation,
but we see mule deer, too.

Frost on the lawn—and other things too.

Calf moose on our driveway.

We don't have to exaggerate the wildlife you see around the ranch. I don't remember a day here without an interesting wildlife sighting of some kind—occasionally, a little too interesting for some tastes. Last spring Jane was coming back from her walk and a cougar crossed the driveway in front of her. It made her nervous but there was no real danger. There has never been a confirmed death by cougar in Idaho. I have spent a lot of time in the woods and have seen only one.

Certain rock outcrops on the ranch house colonies of yellow-bellied marmots. They drive Gus mad. One whistles and Gus is off to dig for hours—in vain, of course. He did catch one in a culvert once.

The first year we were here we saw a couple of rattlesnakes. One day I heard Gus barking. He and the kittens were very focused and surrounding two rattlers. The snakes weren't rattling but they were standing straight up—like cobras. I pulled the cats back and killed one of the snakes. The other got away. I poked around and saw why they were acting so strangely. They both had their tails down mouse holes and couldn't coil or rattle, but it gave them the leverage to raise straight up. Last year we saw none.

Jane gives flying lessons to her young goose.

Ringneck rooster off the driveway.

When the bugs are a bother, there's help.

Little brown bat hanging out at White Bird school.

Nine-foot sturgeon on our Snake River jet boat tour.

In July, 2005 I went on a jet boat tour of the Snake River with some friends. From the Salmon River bridge at White Bird, it's only a 17 mile drive over to Pittsburg Landing, where you can see petroglyphs and load up the boat. Including a lunch stop, it is a seven hour turnaround by jet boat up to Hells Canyon Dam. Hells Canyon is amazing to see. Deeper than Grand Canyon by about 50%, it is loaded with history and scenery. Ours was not a fishing trip but when we tied up for lunch the crew set out a couple of poles. The result was a nine-foot sturgeon. You can't keep them anymore so he lived to fight another day.

More critters in the Sweet Spot news. In January we got to watch a parade, right from the house. A cow carcass appeared across the creek from us and up the hill (don't know how it died). It was on the skyline so we saw it clearly. I set up my spotting scope in the dining room to watch the scavengers come and go. They were numerous and had an obvious pecking order. The magpies always find the carcass first, then the ravens. The coyotes arrive, run off the discovery team and dominate until they get their fill. There were as many as five coyotes there at a time, one of them with a bad limp (out there that's like wearing a target). They squabbled with each other and chased off the birds, which just perched the nearby fenceposts or soared, waiting. When the coyotes left, the birds would converge—eagles first. There were four adult bald eagles and a couple of juvies, tearing and humping to pull off each tidbit—like the coyotes do. Every so often they'd stop eating to chase off the braver ravens and magpies. When the eagles took a break the corvids would descend on the body and start their own turf battles. Then, inexplicably, there they'd be all together, a cooperative effort. Go figure. The immoveable feast lasted almost two weeks, the hide mostly shredded or pulled aside by then, with red-streaked bones bared to the weather until summer sun bleaches them white.

At the same time, a herd of 35 elk had been hanging around not far from the site of the gluttony, and the other herd (of 70) up the canyon came back where we could watch them, too. After the last season closed at the end of December the elk quickly settled back into their normal routines.

Our neighbor a mile up the creek had a visitor last week — a wolf, about 60 yards from their house. Someone saw another (same one?) from the road, just up from our gate and across our barns on the other side of the creek. I want to see one! Four or five years ago we captured two on video up by our first White Bird home. The Feds are getting ready to delist Idaho's wolves, and maybe next year set a season and issue permits. I'm betting that will stop, or at least minimize, any problems with stock.

Less on the wild side, Jane now gets about a dozen eggs a day from her 14 chickens. We maybe average eating one a day between us (isn't that a profitable little enterprise?). I'm not complaining, though. She derives a great deal of pleasure from her venture and gets to be a hero giving away free-range eggs. There really is a difference between these eggs and the store-bought versions.

At night we put the birds in the chicken house at the garden. During the day they roam free and hopefully earn their keep by eating bugs. This year we're going to limit their time in the garden in order to save some for ourselves. It seems that bugs aren't the only things they eat.


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