The Shoshone Indians who arrived about 700 years ago in Southwestern Wyoming named the river the Sisk-a-dee-agie. When the fur trappers arrived in the early 1800s, the closest they could get to that pronunciation was Seedskadee. That’s still hard for me to say, and anyway we now usually call it the Green River.

The refuge is a narrow strip of land running on both sides of the Green River for about 25 miles. It is a few miles upstream from the Flaming Gorge Dam and a few miles downstream from the Fontenelle Reservoir.

The Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge perpetuates the river’s original name. The Shoshone word meant the “river of the prairie hen,” the big bird that we call the Greater Sage-Grouse. This wildlife refuge is all about the Green River and the sage brush that covers most of its 27,000 acres.

Only grouse and pronghorn are adapted to eating sage brush in any quantity. Consequently, I wasn’t surprised to see both this bird and this mammal as I drove through this refuge.

An Adult Female Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocerus urophaqsianus) in the Refuge Named for Her (Canon 7D with 100-400mm lens at 400mm, f/8, 1/1000, ISO 800)

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With my telephoto lens I didn’t get so close to this bird that I spooked it. Likewise, I was able to keep my distance from the pronghorn below. It doesn’t seem concerned by my presence.

A Pronghorn Pees at Seedskadee (Canon 7D with 100-400mm lens at 400mm, f/8, 1/500, ISO 800)

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During my brief stay as I passed through this refuge en route to the town of Rock Springs, Wyoming, where I spent the night, I captured one other photo worth sharing.

Three American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erthrorhynchos) Swim Together in the Green (Canon 7D with 100-400mm lens at 380mm, f/8, 1/1500, ISO 800)

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As a photographer, these pelicans are one of my favorite species. One reason is that they coordinate their movements much more than other birds or animals as they hunt for food in a group. American White Pelicans can teach us a thing or two about cooperation.