Having not received a signal for months from two of the collared pronghorn by car or foot we needed to take to the air. For this we looked to Steven Garmen, a local pilot for Light Hawk. I have always appreciated pilots for their tales of adventure. When Steven arrived in his 70′s era FJ40 Toyota Land Cruiser, I knew I wouldn’t be disappointed.

We equipped each wing of Steven’s Cessna 180 with an antenna and took off from the Hailey airport. The antennas took some 25 knots off our cruising speed; to me this was unnoticeable, to Steven it was “barely better that driving.” As we flew east toward Lava Lake, Steven entertained me with some of his flight stories; crop dusting in California’s Imperial Valley at night and a recent trip up the coast of British Columbia to Bella Coola.

After weeks of needed rain it was a perfect day for the flight, clear blue skies, snow capped peaks, and green valleys. Flying over the Little Wood Reservoir we began to pick up a signal from one of the elusive collared does. In an effort to pinpoint the animal we flew in a circle around the signal to obtain a GPS point. From there we continued east over Blizzard Mountain along the well traveled pronghorn migration route to Birch Creek. Passing the toe of the Lemhi range we received a signal from the other missing collar.

The flight was a success, we accomplished what we had hoped to. We secured locations on both missing collars, as well as four additional signals from other animals that we have been tracking.

Thank you Steven and Light Hawk!