Pronghorn Season Miller Ranch 2017

Pronghorn Season Miller Ranch 2017

Pronghorn season on the Miller Ranch ran from September 30 through October 8 this year.  Overall, the Miller Ranch has had a successful summer and fall.  We had fairly good spring rains.  Then the rains stopped for several months, the grasses dried up and turned brown.  For the first time we left the cows up in the mountains because it was still green up there with water in the headers and tenajas.  In July it finally started raining again, the country greened up and we made grass.

The Pronghorn herd adjusted by scattering out and moving between pastures.  Many Pronghorn does successfully raised their young.  We had some nice bucks guarding their group of does and battling for breeding rights.  The Miller Ranch donated one hunt to the Houston Safari Club, and Kevin Chestnut from Washington had bought that hunt.  Our other hunter, Geoff Murphy, had booked a hunt through Jim Breck Bean’s guide service, High West Outfitters.   Both hunters left with nice bucks, and now we’re looking forward to a good quail season.

pronghorn season miller ranch 2017
pronghorn season miller ranch 2017
Pronghorn CE Miller Ranch

Pronghorn CE Miller Ranch

Pronghorn CE Miller Ranch

The Pronghorn is one of the “flagship species” of the CE Miller Ranch and the Trans Pecos Region of Texas. Here on the Miller Ranch, we are fortunate to normally host about 50 to 60 Pronghorn.  In the winter, the Pronghorn run in large bunches on several parts of the ranch, and in the spring they break into smaller groups and spread out to find available forage. We see “bachelor groups” of young males running together.  The does form another group, and in late April and early May, they go off by themselves to give birth.  We work to keep the predators down to give Pronghorn fawns a chance to survive.  If the fawn lives, it can join the ranks as one of the fastest land mammals in the Western Hemisphere!

     In the 1950s, Clay Miller helped Texas Parks and Wildlife catch and transport Pronghorns from the Rocker B Ranch in Texas to the Trans Pecos Region.  In 2011, after the Pronghorn were declining in numbers from drouth, Texas Parks and Wildlife once again set out to relocate Pronghorn from the Panhandle to several area ranches, including the CE Miller Ranch.  Since 2011, Texas Parks and Wildlife have successfully relocated Pronghorn several more times to various areas in the Trans Pecos Region.

Desert Oasis

Desert Oasis

Desert Oasis at the CE Miller Ranch

With the recent rains, 2015 is starting out wonderfully!  As one friend stated, “Everything is blooming except the rocks!”   In April, a botanist/plant ecologist from Texas Parks and Wildlife and a land snail researcher from the University of New Mexico were here for several days, and it was exciting to see two men so enthusiastic  about their jobs and what they were finding on the ranch.

 

The cattle are fat and happy, with lots of little Hereford and Angus calves making us laugh with their antics.  With the return of the mice, kangaroo rats, rabbits and other small mammals, the owls, hawks, and eagles have come back to enjoy the pickings on the ground and the skies above the ranch.  This week we have also seen Short-eared Owls and Burrowing Owls out in the flats.  Even though there are many plants blooming everywhere, the Black-chinned Hummingbirds are still coming to the feeders.   Orchard Orioles and Blue Grosbeaks have joined all the other little birds in the yard.  Jody has made sure over the years that this yard is an oasis for the birds!

desert oasis ce miller ranch Jill D Miller-TK7A6088-Edit wmdesert oasis ce miller ranch Jill D Miller-TK7A5168 wm