Conservation Media’s photo, entitled Sage-grouse in Gas Country is one of thirty jury-selected photos for the 2012 Environmental Photography Exhibit at the American Mountaineering Museum February 24th.

Conservation Media is pleased to announce that we have picked up two, count ‘em, two Merit Awards from the 34th Annual International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, AND two Finalist Designations! There may be more Official Selections to come!

Our film Crossroads, embedded below, picked up a Merit Award for Conservation Message and a Merit Award for Made in Montana film, the home of the long-running, prestigious film festival.

More to come!

While watching this fun little film full of running, bouncing, and tumbling bighorn lambs, you can also learn how climate change may impact bighorn sheep and other larger herbivores. Produced for the Montana Conservation Science Institute.

We are pleased to announce that Open Space, our production for Sonoran Institute, has picked up another Official Selection at the CINE International Film Festival in Missoula. We will be at the opening reception on October 19th at 6 p.m. Filmmakers at the Roxy drinking beer and talking conservation! What could be better?

We are pleased to announce that our short films have picked up two more Official Selections, and in the same festival no less! Open Space and Crossroads both made the cut at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival this year. We plan on attending, so we’ll see you there!

We’ve been goofing around with time lapses on the 7D. Here is a nighttime time lapse of clouds moving past the moon over a small alpine lake.

The prolonged rainy weather in the Northern Rockies has finally given way to a spectacular green up and wildflower season. On this hill the incessant wind creates conditions equivalent to that of alpine tundra. As a result, many alpine tundra plant species can be found here at a surprisingly low 3,000 ft.

This is also the time of year when the screeching of baby great horned owlets fills the riparian galleries. This pair was hatched in this glorious ponderosa snag.

Male calliope hummingbirds patrol their territories from atop high perches in all the woody draws that fill with serviceberry, willow, choke cherry, and hawthorn. These birds time their migratory arrival with the spring flow of sap rather than the blossoming of nectar-providing flowers. Sapsuckers hammer into these sap-rich trees and hummingbirds, such as this calliope get a jump on the breeding season by stealing from the sapsucker wells.

And lastly, male butterflies, such as this silvery blue, are frantically gathering minerals at evaporating puddles to give to prospective mates.

Until next week…

This is a short web film produced for Montana Audubon addressing the impact oil & gas development has on sage grouse, a species recently warranted by the USFWS as worthy of protection under the Endangered Species Act. This film includes interviews with David Sibley, Dave Naugle, and Amy Cilimburg.

You can view a small version of the film here for faster loading:

We caught a fleeting glimpse of these incredibly fast pronghorns out
in the Big Hole Valley. A late spring skif of snow blankets the foothills.
This valley will soon be green, and just as quickly turn brown.

A red-tailed hawk surveys the landscape for prey, with the Bitteroot
Mountains in the background. Snowpack in these mountains is below
50% of normal this year.

Below, a snowberry clearwing moth (Hemaris affinis), a day-flying moth
that mimics bumble bees to deter predation. Unlike bumble bees,
however, this moth can hover at flowers.
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Conservation Media just returned from a scouting trip to Hawaii in preparation for a film about feral cats overtaking the islands and contributing to the extinction of the 70 bird species that disappeared this century, not to mention the impact of goats, cattle, and mongooses. Wow. This trip was a real eye opener for us.

While casing the joint, we also captured footage that we knew we’d need for the film, including shots of this lovely little Apapane, an endangered native of Hawaii.

Stay tuned for updates on this project.