MPG Ranch

The latest edition of the MPG Newsletter just dropped, and it's a doozy! Not only does it contain updates and links for projects on the ranch, it also delivers the word + photography work of field crew chief Jeff Clarke, who is as much poet and artist as he is crew boss. We offer as proof these pics and the below words, which intro the newsletter: "Spring continues to unfold with remarkable fidelity to long-term seasonal rhythms—mild temperatures, intermittent rains, and a steady surge of vegetative growth. Across the landscape, hillsides and valley bottoms have become a living mosaic of emerald grasses and splashes of wildflower blooms. Bitterbrush, mountain mahogany, currants, and hawthorn hum with pollinator activity, their nectar-rich flowers sustaining native bees and early-season insects. Above the greening canopy, bluebirds and swallows sweep through the warming air, harvesting emergent insects to feed the insistent calls of nestlings hidden in cavities and mud-lined nests. In the surrounding mountains, coyotes and red foxes tend fresh litters concealed among rocks and brush, while elk and deer mothers nourish the young they carry into another Montana spring. Beavers have settled into the Clubhouse Pond, selectively harvesting young aspens along the forest’s edge and quietly reshaping the shoreline in the process. Beneath the freshly felled stems, morel mushrooms emerge from the damp soil beneath yellow bouquets of Oregon grape flowers. In the pond, floating islands have become seasonal refuges, crowded with basking painted turtles and sleeping goldeneyes drifting in the spring sun. Newly transplanted lily pads have begun to unfurl at the water’s surface, while pondside willows stand on the threshold of budburst, their branches swelling with the stored energy of another growing season. The ranch pulses with renewal." In a perfect world, everyone would love the place they work as much as Jeff loves this place. Email [email protected] to sign up for the newsletter. #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

If this were a picture of a rock band, what would it be named? We can tell you what it would NOT be named: The Rolling Stones. And not just because of the cease-and-desist letter they'd surely get from across the pond. Nope - they could not be named The Rolling Stones because these people are clearly moss gatherers, and we all know that rolling stones gather no moss! Since "The Sedentary Stones" lacks a certain panache, we offer as a title for this group "Twisted Star Moss" - the street name for *Syntrichia ruralis,* the species of moss being gathered here. These fine folk are researchers from Northern Arizona University (NAU), with whom the MPG biocrust team has been collaborating for some time now. So, what are they doing with our moss? They've taken it back to Flagstaff, where it will be a key component in the larger effort to upscale the production of biocrust inocula (starter material) for use in large-scale restoration projects. NAU researchers have access to expanded facilities that can grow enough biocrust material for large projects like those at MPG, including a dedicated greenhouse as well as outdoor and/or hoop house farms. Once the moss has grown, they’ll drive or ship the rolled-up moss mats - much like how sod is transported – back here to MPG for transplanting. In biological science, that's what is known as a symbiotic relationship, which is a fancy way of saying "win-win." Which could totally be the name of the debut album by Twisted Star Moss! 📸: Monica Fedrigo #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

While they are common throughout Montana as both a year-round and migratory resident, we don't often get such a clean look at them on the ground. They're most commonly spotted flying low and slow above terrain favored by the small mammals (mice, voles) that make up the majority of their diet, at times slowing down so much that they appear to hover in mid-air. That trait inspired the naming of a military plane capable of performing similar vertical movements. So if you guessed this hawk to be a Northern Harrier, namesake of the Harrier Jet, great job! Adding to the naming mojo between the bird and the jet, the British company that first designed the Harrier Jet was named...Hawker Siddeley (that second name also bears a close resemblance to beloved birder/naturalist/author David Allen Sibley). Whoa. That this bird sticks to terra firma for a good chunk of time provides us with a great look at another Northern Harrier defining characteristic - its disk-shaped face, quite similar to that of an owl. Indeed, the stiff facial hairs of the disk are designed to funnel sounds to the NH's ears, just as they do for an owl. That's because the NH is one of the only hawks to rely on sound as well as vision to locate their next meal. And lastly, it's interesting to see how the bird uses its wings and tail as brakes and a rudder as it navigates downslope. These ground-nesting birds have plenty of walking experience, but it's still obvious that their anatomy was built for air travel. 😉 #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

These are challenging times for well-informed naturalist types (be they amateur or professional). Between mass extinctions, climate change-induced ecosystem havoc, and the proliferation of PFAS and microplastics into every nook and cranny of the planet, caring deeply about natural systems can feel not only overwhelming, but sometimes even like pure folly. We know of one way to combat the helplessness that accompanies these big-picture issues, and it's a reverse "can't see the forest for the trees" kind of thing. In other words, shifting perspective from the big picture (forest) to the little picture (trees). From macro to micro. From "can't do anything about it" to "this is what I can do, right here and right now." We at MPG are so very fortunate to be working on dozens of little-picture projects that deepen our collective knowledge of how the natural systems we study work, and how to fix them when they're broken. For naturalists who don't have that kind of professional outlet, there are plenty of opportunities in the growing world of citizen science, both by volunteering with local organizations (Montana Audubon, Montana Native Plant Society, etc.) and by becoming contributing members of larger platforms like EBird and INaturalist. And then there are projects like this one, conducted by MPG researcher Mike McTee but available to anyone with control over even a small plot of land. It's kind of a two-fer, in that it benefits both the ecological community at large and the immediate living space of the participator. Transitioning from a monocultured grass environment to a diverse native habitat saves water, reduces invasives, and supports a vast array of native organisms. As for the benefits in immediate space, we'll simply encourage you to read Mike's piece in Montana Outdoors (pictured here and linked in profile), the excellent magazine by @montanafwp . Great stuff, Mike! #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

In terms of desirable job descriptions, being a prey animal in the wilds of Montana is surely near the bottom of the list. Top-level predators abound here, with bears, cougars, and wolves representing paws on the ground while eagles, owls, and hawks provide air support. That's not to mention extreme climate conditions that necessitate coping with 100℉ temps in the summer and minus-forever thermometer readings in the winter. With that said, we could probably build a PR campaign around vacationing as a bull elk at MPG Ranch in the spring. Winter, with all its pawing through snow to nosh on frozen forbs or woody stems, is a fading memory. Those heavy antlers they've been lugging around since the previous fall? They're history, along with associated neck and/or back pain (that must be a thing, don't you think?). River bottoms and lower-elevation slopes are absolutely exploding with the lush forbs that provide the perfect balance of protein, nitrogen, and other vitamins and minerals in the elk's diet. Sure, predators are still around, but even without their seasonal bone spears, bull elk in their prime (making the hopefully safe assumption that vacationing as a very young or very old elk would not be a thing) are infrequent food-chain victims due to their imposing combination of size, speed, and agility. And it sure doesn't hurt that by far a prime bull's most lethal predator - a human with gun or bow - is months away from the legal authority to ply its craft. We would definitely show this trail cam video clip to prospective vacationers-as-elk. Who wouldn't enjoy a rowdy romp through the woods, like you and your buddies own the joint? Who wouldn't want to feel what it's like to move that much mass that quickly and easily? To feel the free ease of having shed a crown of bones and the thick, now-itchy winter coat that has served its purpose? That's some high-quality vicarious living right there! #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

We don't consider ourselves to be overly sentimental, but a recent update from the bird crew had us in a full swoon, and not only for the heartwarming science involved (ok, maybe we can be a *bit* gushy). Nope, this one got us in the feels because it features not one but two long-standing friends of ours, one avian and one human. Our avian pal is the handsome fella pictured here. He's been returning to MPG for almost as long as we've been studying Lewis' Woodpeckers, which also makes him one of the oldest documented members of that species. The human is a neighbor of ours whose land makes excellent LW habitat, and graciously granted our researchers permission to use their property for the LW study over a decade ago. Here's avian researcher Kate Stone: "Some of you may remember our team effort to “rescue” a stand of cottonwood snags slated for removal by the local power company on private property between Stevensville and Florence [note: that post is linked in our profile]. We’ve worked at this property for 10 years. The landowner let me know she was starting to see Lewis’s Woodpeckers again, and sure enough, when I got out of my car yesterday, I was immediately greeted by a glimpse of a woodpecker with color bands and a transmitter antenna. Amazingly, this woodpecker had arrived just hours earlier, passing four Motus stations in the Bitterroot Valley. Previous to these detections on the night of 4/29, he was last picked up on 4/24 in northern California. “OPAB”, named for his color band combination (Orange-Pink-Aluminum-Blue), has been one of our longest project participants and, at more than 8 years old, is one of the oldest Lewis’s Woodpeckers ever documented. We have multiple years of tracking data for him, and he is one of the few woodpeckers in our study that shows breeding-site fidelity. He is an extremely territorial male and has been churring non-stop on the rescued snags even as I write. We expect more Lewis’s Woodpeckers to trickle in over the next few days. Like many other birds, they are arriving a week to ten days early this year- keeping us on our toes! We had our first capture and new tag deployment yesterday, and hope for many more."

"To stratify or scarify - that is the question!" It may not be Shakespeare, but that actually was the question facing the Native Plant Propagation team as they conducted a side project on germinating silky lupine in advance of this spring's planting window. Contrary to most domesticated garden plants and flowers, which readily sprout in the simple springtime presence of dirt, water and sun, the seeds of wild, native flora often have be tricked into germinating. Stratification and scarification are two examples of such seedy deception. In stratification, botanists try to convince the seed that winter has happened, and it's time to wake up and grow. The stratification method for silky lupine would be burying them in moist sand and refrigerating for a month or so. In this case, MPG botanists decided on scarification, which involves breaking or scratching a seed's tough outer layer to simulate natural conditions such as erosion, or digestion by animals, to kickstart the growth process. Who knew botanists used dark magic? This latest update from seed team lead Rena Belcourt has all that and more, including some cool stuff on snowberry, bee plants, and sagebrush buttercup (which would make for an awesome band name). Enjoy! #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

One of the things we love most about project updates from MPG researchers is where they take us. The information provided is not only enlightening in and of itself, it often points to any number of rabbit holes for the curious mind to explore. A recent, short update from the bird crew is a perfect illustration of this dynamic. At first glance, there didn't seem to be much meat on the bone. A pair of Calliope Hummingbirds had been trapped and banded, and it wasn't the first MPG rodeo for either of them. That alone isn't all that notable - 10 years of hummingbird research has produced plenty of recaptures, since they often return to previous nesting sites. In an update earlier this year, researcher Eric Rasmussen calculated that of the more than 1000 h-birds captured over the past decade, 11% were eventually recaptured. Here's where it gets weird. The two birds had been first captured within two weeks of each other back in 2024. They were then recaptured again later in 2024 and in 2025 - both times on the same day. This year, they were once again captured ON THE SAME DAY! We don't know the general statistical probability of two birds being captured on the same day for three years in a row, but we can assure you it is a tiny number. But wait, there's more! By their nature, hummingbirds are highly solitary and fiercely territorial about breeding and feeding areas (as anyone with an active h-bird feeder can surely attest). The astute among you might ponder that perhaps this is a breeding pair. But here's the catch: not only do hummingbirds not mate for life, they don't even mate for days! They're polygynous, meaning that males mate with multiple females during any given breeding season. We should also note that both birds in question are males (those crimson streaks on the throat are vanity plates for dudes). So as far as why these two bird-bros, who are loners by nature and hardwired to compete with other males for food and sex, have traveled in such close proximity for so long, well, your guess is as good as ours! Could this be the first documented Calliope bromance? 🤷‍♂️ #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

We're as apt as the next social media page to celebrate the marvels of alpha predators – awe is quite easy to find in the way a cougar takes down an elk in the woods or a bald eagle spears a trout in swift current. But we also have mad respect for the flora and fauna (not to mention the microbes, mycorrhizal fungi, etc) that build the food-chain pyramid atop which those apex predators sit. Without the complex network of natural systems and processes that ultimately produce its sustenance, the alpha would quickly become the omega (are dad jokes in Greek still dad jokes? 🤔). All of this is a somewhat rambling way to get to the point of this post, which is: aren't snowshoe hares awesome? We've previously noted the vast array of predators that directly consume hares: bobcats, cougars, bears, wolves, coyotes, martens, mink, owls, hawks, eagles - even corvids (ravens & crows are known to hunt leverets)! And red foxes, of course. Foxes generally breed in February here in Montana, and a roughly two-month gestation means the wee kits are born mostly in April. The mother remains fast by her kits until they develop the ability to thermoregulate, which takes several weeks. Consequently, the fathers hunt for both themselves and their mate during this time, which puts a lot of pressure on their hunting abilities and also explains why they're more apt to push hunting hours outside of the crepuscular and nocturnal times they favor, as in the first and last clips. As a father of newborn fox kits, imagine the satisfaction you'd feel bringing home a juicy hare instead of a mouse, vole, or one of the smaller ground squirrels that make up a large portion of the typical fox diet! Of the four foxes our trail cameras caught carrying prey last year between early April and early May, three of those mama meals were snowshoe hares. Nice work, fox father/hunters! Note to the second fox - there's nothing wrong with a (grouse?) dinner, and you know what they say: hare today, gone tomorrow 😉. And even though it clearly didn't help these hares, it's cool to see the color morphs of the hare aligning with ground conditions. #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

The majority of cross-species interactions caught by our trail cameras are predation events, which for obvious reasons make for awfully compelling viewing. But we confess to a borderline obsession with the non-predatory encounters we uncover on our regular journeys through MPG video archives. Probably because of their rarity, and certainly because of their potential for absurdity, we find these chance encounters highly entertaining. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to lay eyes on this most epic and prolonged scene between a feisty muskrat and a couple of willing mallards (note that while we can't confirm these as the same animals throughout the video, we'd bet on it). Over nine days last spring, this video camera captured 11 different segments of what appears to have been a long-running game of chase! An internet search finds a small number of videos documenting muskrat-duck behavior like this, and the prevailing theory calls it a territorial defense on the part of the muskrat. But none of the videos we saw came close to the cumulative length of the encounters we have here. And none of them showed a duck chasing the muskrat, as this video does at the :15 mark; nor did any document the kind of consensual hangout time between the drake mallard and the muskrat seen during the final minute or so of this video (the five clips at the end of this video were captured on that last day). So while this whole thing may have begun as some sort of territorial dustup, it's hard to watch this video without concluding that these animals - who share a habitat and many food sources but do not share genealogy - are just goofing around. As an antidote to all this speculation, we'll point your attention to a fascinating biological feature at work in this video. There are several clean looks at the movement of the muskrat's tail as it swims along the surface, which creates a mesmerizing, spinning-helical sort of effect. According to Wikipedia, the muskrat uses their uniquely configured tail (unlike that of a beaver, a muskrat tail is flattened vertically) partly as a propellor but mostly as a rudder. #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

Following up our last post about Steller's Jays, in which we noted their elusiveness and thieving ways, we dug up this trail cam video clip showcasing a couple other SJ characteristics worth noting. If you had the sound on when this clip began playing, it will come as no surprise that the first of these is their remarkable vocal abilities. While they do possess a suite of "normal"-ish sounding calls that can be described as chirps, trills, etc., SJs are renowned for their vocalizations that can charitably described as "raspy" (and more accurately described as "harsh" or "grating") - and there are a number of examples of those sounds in this clip. But we think the distinctive audio at the beginning of the video (and repeated with lesser intensity at around the :44 mark) is something else entirely. You see, SJs are also highly talented vocal mimics and are known to imitate other birds, mammals, and even environmental sounds. The distinct sounds in question appear to us to be from that latter category, as they (the initial sound burst in particular) possess a certain mechanical quality that we can't quite put our finger on. Any guesses? And the second relevant characteristic would be their mating & family habits. SJs tend to form monogamous, long-term relationships with their breeding mates, and the workload is divided fairly evenly. Both birds are involved in choosing nest locations and accumulating nest material. The female is the sole egg incubator, though the male diligently feeds her during this period. Once the chicks have fledged, the parents and offspring often form a family group that remains intact though the young'uns first fall and winter. #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana

So you think being a bird researcher is all fun & games, huh? Well, sorry to pop that bubble, but the fact is that studying winged creatures involves a LOT of tedious work. For example, you have to find the dang things before you can study them. And before you get all "Just look up - the sky is filled with them!" on us, let us assure that for every "hey, look at me" bird species, there are dozens that are far more Greta Garbo than Marilyn Monroe (i.e. who would much rather remain anonymous). Take the Steller's Jay, for example. Native to and abundant in western Montana, these dashing thieves are known to frequent the upper canopy of coniferous forests in the western U.S. and Canada. That's generally where you'll find their nests as well, making the proposition of spotting them a daunting task, almost like playing that fun 'Where's Waldo?' game, er ... you get the idea. Take a close look at the second photo. That's the view of bird crew chief Kate Stone, as she and the team were trying to locate a Steller's Jay nest. The only reason they were able to spot the nest is because they had the good fortune of observing the breeding pair carry nesting material to the site (fun fact, according to @cornellbirds : Steller's Jays are one of two New World jay species to use mud in nest building, the other being Blue Jays). Steller's Jays are omnivorous, meaning they'll eat just about anything palatable they can find, from nuts and seeds to fruit and berries to arthropods and small vertebrates. Like many in the jay family, they are consummate thieves and will raid the nests of other bird species to steal and eat eggs and even young chicks. Their spatial memory is off the charts, which aids them in locating their own food caches as well as those of other jay species such as Clark's Nutcrackers. 📷: Eric Rasmussen (top photo); Kate Stone (remaining photos) #wildlife #conservation #restoration #research #Montana