DON AND LOLLY MING

MONITORING FRESH TRACKS AND RRG

January 2008

1 - 3 Saw Bison from Road CC - on ridge north end of pasture

1 - 4 Saw Bison from Road CC - on ridge north side of pasture

1 - 10 Snowed about five inches last night. Have not been by water tank on RRG since Dec. 30 but since there is snow on the ground, and it has been warming up during the day and melting the snow, there are puddles all over the pasture for the Bison to drink from, if they don’t go into the tank. Besides, J. George has put up electric fence with out a gate where we go with the ATV along the outside of the west fence to road DD and then to the tank. Now we have to go by the road, which is blown in with snow and is muddy, or thru RRG, which we don’t do.

1 - 12 Looked for Bison from road CC but did not see them, but that is not unusual as they have been staying on the north end where we can’t see them.

1 - 13 Road has dried out so we went to the water tank and found the metal gate open and Bison tracks leading out of it to the south and east. Called Robert to see if he had moved the Bison out. He said he had not and that he had been down here last Sunday, January 6 and saw the Bison on the north end in a shallow depression - had trouble finding them.

We then took an ATV and a pickup and drove to the west side of RRG, Took the ATV all through RRG both the Bison pasture and the grass to the south and did not see the Bison. Drove the pickup along the west fence(on our side of the fence) to where we could see to the northwest part of the pasture. Went back to our gate and drove thru the south west corner of RRG to the house and met the ATV. No sign of the Bison. Robert had told us we could drive in there if we needed to to care for the Bison. This is the only set of vehicle tracks we made.

We then went east along road DD and found tracks to the top of the hill east of RRG and lost them. Picked up the tracks again on road 8 and followed them south for several miles and had to quit because of it was beginning it was getting late and the light was fading. The ATV went farther south and west and we took the pickup west over a different route. Did not see the Bison. We did see two large groups of antelope - 30 to 40 in each group.

Called the Sheriff and he said he had had a report of the Bison being along Hiway 160 Thursday or Friday (the 11^th or 12^th ). Called the Brand Inspector and called all the near neighbors - no one had seen them except the man that had called the Sheriff. Called Dude Ratliff and talked to his wife. Asked her to have him call us if he heard anything. Called Robert and left a message that we had not found the bison.

1 - 14 Called more neighbors, farther to south and east. Called Dude Ratliff, talked to Shiela - she didn’t know anything - asked her to have him call if he heard anything.. Called Dude later and left a message. Robert called.

1 - 15 Nicole called. Called Sheriff again - he said no more reports, asked if I had called Dude. Said he would call me and let me know what he found out. Never did return a call.

This afternoon, I went over and took pictures of open gate and tracks. Two eagles perched on poles on each side at west end of road DD. One flew on east, the other just sat there until I drove to the house, took picture and headed back out. Got nearly to the pole and it flew low over the Prairie Dog town. Followed tracks down road 8, then I went over to US 160 and went south, east on road W and found tracks and followed them nearly to road 13 where they turned south through wheat stubble. Called Cathy at the Café and asked if she had heard anything and to please let me know if she did. Called Robert tonight and asked him to call Sheriff, Brand inspector and Dude.

1 -16 Robert called. Had called Sheriff, had wrong number for brand inspector, so I gave him the correct one. He had called Dude and talked to his wife? But she didn’t know anything. Left number to call him back. I called Wilson Huff (lives on rd 13) - he had not seen bison but had driven around in that area a lot yesterday and didn’t see them. Nicole called. Sent her the December log today.

1-17 Robert called. Said Dirk Davis (brand inspector) had finally called him back and told him he had no new reports but that the Bison would pop up somewhere, sometime. He also said Rich and Lauren would not be coming down, but his neighbor and sons from Golden would be down this weekend.

1-19 Robert Called and said he had had his friends look around on the west side of Hiway 160 and around the homestead. I reaffirmed to him that they had last been seen south and east of highway 160. He said he would tell them to look farther east tomorrow, but that they would only be here until about noon. Robert said he would be down Tuesday, the 22^nd.

1-25 Have not heard anything else from Robert.

1- 27 Today we drove thru Fresh Tracks on road JJ. There has been no activity there for some time except the REA truck had been through and apparently checked out a couple of poles. No other tracks. Then we drove by RRG on Rd DD - someone had been down the road in the last few days. The metal gate was still open - saw a couple of Ravens and several fat prairie dogs west of the house. In fact as we made the whole trip we only saw a few birds and nine antelope. It is cold, there is still some snow on the ground and very little activity - everybody and everything is trying to stay warm.

Robert was calling almost every day but I haven’t heard from him since the 16^th. He did not put advertisements in the papers about his missing Bison. I did hear that he had come down and went down to Ratliffs, so I guess he did, but I don’t know if he has done anything else. As mentioned above the gate to RRG is still open. I would recommend that you close it, as an open gate is an invitation to stray cattle and people to come right in.