Date: May 18
Time: 8:19 pm
Temperature: 70°
Weather: Partly cloudy, windy, warm
Soil: very marshy
In my last observations I said the soil was dry but marshy around where flat creek runs through the refuge. I just learned that right now it is actually pretty marshy everywhere because the water table is so high. The refuge has actually greened substantially from last week. Also the numbers of elk have dropped. There were two huge groups of elk last time i checked, one on the north side of the creek and one on the south. Now, however, there are no elk that I could see on the south side and just a small group on the north. I'm guessing that soon the elk are going to be totally gone off the refuge, because they are migrating so fast. The bison I saw were far east and I'm not sure if that means that they are also migrating, or if thats just where they stay through the seasons. Far out near the bison are a bunch of cottonwood trees. They are about 40-50 feet tall and have grey bark. There are possibly other trees out near the cottonwood trees, but I am not sure if they are actually part of the refuge.
1 comment:
Good initiative to get the binoculars and the telescope out to see if you could see any additional activity with the elk. Also, the note about the water table being high describes the area well. Continue with your observations, as the elk will most likely be moving farther and farther away! Perhaps other populations will begin to move in and they move out!
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