Back to the lynx work today following a cold front last night that brought fall-like temperatures – 40s in the morning rising to beautiful 70s in the afternoon. The front cleared out the haze, leaving the sky almost impossibly clear. I find it hard to pull my eyes from the full 80-mile-long profile of the Wind River crest against the cerulean sky – every peak seeming somehow more real with the obscuring haze gone. The Wyoming Range to the west and the Gros Ventre Range to the north appear equally clear, and the few cirrus clouds seem a welcome addition to the spectacle. Forecast calls for more of the same beautiful weather.
Kate and I finished 45 points today – shattering our previous record of 36 – but we are still only 1/3 done with the project. Should take us 2-3 more weeks, then on to the range water/birdramp work. Kate is eager to move on to a project at least tangentially related to cattle (she is a range management major with somewhat less interest in nonexistent endangered wildlife).
A group of Townsend’s Warblers made an appearance in the aspen canopy as we stopped for lunch. Not too different from their eastern counterparts (Black-throated Green Warblers), but even so it’s not that often I find a new warbler species.
