The Great Snipe Hunt

It's almost 10:00 at night.  Do you know where your child is?

I expect to see my Man-Child around 3:30 AM in the morning.  He's off on a glorified snipe hunt with a man who is a very trustworthy employee of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, member of the ward, and all around nice-guy.

They are not actually hunting snipes.  They have gone up near Strawberry Reservoir to search for and observe the behavior of sage grouse.

What?  You don't know what sage grouse are?  Doesn't everyone know what sage grouse are? 

Umm.. actually, I'd never even heard of them.  But Clark had.  Here's a picture-- quite a fetching fowl.

They are most likely riding around on 4-wheelers right now and will continue until about 2:00 AM, when they begin their drive home.  A couple of other biologists will be there too.  You can imagine how thrilled Clark was to have this opportunity.   A lot (dare I say, most) people would not enjoy staying up all night in freezing cold temperatures, with snow on the ground, searching for snipes sage grouse.  

Abe and I are so grateful to have others willing to help mentor Clark.  Abe makes a great scout master and has helped lots of scouts progress and go on great camp-outs, but he's not really the outdoorsy type.  Clark needs to be around other people who also think sage grouse hunting is thrilling. 

The mother hen (yours truly) is very happy for Clark to get to go live his dreams.  I'll also be very happy when he is home and safe in his bed early tomorrow morning.  Until then, I'll think relaxing and safe thoughts.