The Battle of the Bighorn

No, I'm not talking about the great historic battle that happened in Montana many moons ago - you will need to head to Billings, MT and take a right turn there to see that battlefield memorial! I'm talking about the Bighorn Sheep at the Oak Creek Wildlife Area and how they performed for me the other day before the Badger sighting took over my short-term memory span.

This year there are nearly 170 sheep in this unit of the Oak Creek management region. However they are behaving somewhat differently than some years as most often they all aren't just rushing down Cleman Mountain to the feeding station in the morning. Many days no rams have been seen, as was the case when my friend Don Geyer went less than two weeks ago. The biologist that I spoke with there mentioned this as well that many days only a few are down. But then again, about five days ago nearly 160 were present!

I was fortunate to not only have 80-90 Bighorns down briefly on Wednesday morning, but to have lovely warm low-angle sunlight all morning. I have visited these magnificent critters six times now, and never have I had anything but fog, drizzle, low clouds, howling wind, and more often than not the temperatures were only 5-15* above zero! So, the day was an extra special treat --- sometimes life is pretty good to me.