Animals All Around Us

Yesterday's high temperature was 93, a tidge warm, but manageable.  There were warnings out for last night and today of high winds, gusting to 50 miles an hour.  And they were spot on.  But, we also saw 'smoke' warnings for today.  Never had seen this before.  Since the winds were out of the north to northwest, the smoke from all the wildfires in Idaho, Montana, and Washington was supposed to filter down through this area.  We had already noticed how bad the visibility was yesterday when we visited Fort Phil Kearny and could only imagine it getting worse.  Buckle up!

Smoky - can't see the Big Horn Mountains

The winds came in, were high, but not damaging.  But thankfully the winds were from the north only and the smoke did not come by us.  The Big Horn Mountains right to the west of Buffalo were capturing all the smoke, thankfully for us it did not drift to us.  What a mess.

Pronghorn antelope - every where you look in fields, they are there.  Lots of them.

Pronghorn Antelope

Another couple of things here at the campground.....the wildlife is incredible.  We are in "Deer Park" campground, and all day, all night the deer are out grazing.  Fun to watch Mom and 2 babies eating.  Grace and Buddy are having a good time too watching them.

Then there are the bunnies.  Lots of them.  One bunny sits right by a tree behind us, sits there for most of the day.  Until a little while ago our neighbor's small little yapper dog got out and chased the bunny into the bushes.  Haven't seen the bunny since.

And the turkeys.  Lots of them.  Wild turkeys.  Just meandering through.  Saw about 30 the other day, 4 adults with lots and lots of babies.  Then right before dinner today 5 adults came sauntering by.

3 adult turkeys walking by

Then last night's activity - bizarre!  About 4am I was awakened by Buddy and Grace pacing on the dash and jumping to the passenger seat, jumping back to the dash.  I could hear scratching on the door outside.  Looked out the passenger window and saw so many bats flying around, unbelievable.  The scratching was they were trying to tuck up inside the large canopy awning over the door and could not get a grip since it is fiberglass.  I think they were looking for a place to hide from the wind - it was that bad.

And the birds.  I did not know that woodpeckers eat off the ground.  Only thought they fed while hanging onto trees.  Lots of woodpeckers here, in trees, making their cawing sounds, feeding on the grass, lots of them.  Hopping on the picnic tables, flying around.  Weird.