[meteorite-list] Buzzard Hunt

[Mike Bandli]

A big congrats to Tett on his first ever find! We were all honored to be a part of it and his reaction was both priceless and infectious. You couldn't have asked for a better stone, really. Beautiful piece ad the Buzzard definitely got him buzzed to find many more.

Congrats to Patrick Herrmann for finding some exceptional stones as well. That day our little gridding group was like a meteorite conveyor belt cranking one out every 5 minutes or so. It is sad to see the machinery getting prepped to mutilate the field, but it is planting time and farmer's have to farm.

Rob and I noted a few strange firsts (for us) during this trip. They are:

Finding meteorite within 2 minutes of arrival at strewnfield.
Finding meteorite while tying shoe-lace.
Finding meteorite under water.
Finding meteorite embedded in cow dung.
Park car, open door to find meteorite.
Park car, get out, find one meteorite at the back of car and one at the front.

We noticed four (very) elderly folks walking the roads dragging magnet canes across the gravel and stopped to talk. It became quickly obvious that they had no idea what they were looking for when they asked if the gravel dust on the bottom of their magnets was the meteorite. We didn't have any stones with us at the moment so Rob and I decided to hop into the field and see if we could find a stone to show them what they look like. We looked at our watch to time how quickly we could find a meteorite and within about 4 steps and under 30 seconds we found a stone. We quickly ran back to the elderly group and presented them with their first rock from space. The reactions were unforgettable. 4 more meteorite hunters born in their 70's and warm, fuzzy feelings for everyone. We dubbed this the 'Karma Stone' as it led to a chain of events taking us to a very fruitful area that we wouldn't have hunted had that not happened.

Some notes on this magnificent fall:

Many of the stones are exceptionally fresh. Some with no visible oxidation. The snow has had little effect on the material and this is, in part, due to the constant very dry air moving across them. Even the stone found under water looked good. Meteorites found on top of vegetation looked like they fell that same day. Meteorite in contact with the soil, especially with broken surfaces, showed the most oxidation. The stone I found in the dung was broken in half with the exposed interior facing up, but had no visible oxidation. Apparently, cow poo has some anti-oxidizing properties :) Lots of flow lines on pieces, which is not so typical for H-type crust.

Another magical life experience on the books.

Mike Bandli

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "tett" <tett at rogers.com> 
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com 
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 4:21:20 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: [meteorite-list] Buzzard 

Hello List, 

I have just returned from Buzzard Coulee after 4 exhausting days of 
travel and meteorite hunting. It was wonderful to experience the 
Prairies and to hunt with other meteorite enthusiasts. Hunted with 
friends from the Royal Ontario Museum, Patrick Herrmann, Rob Wessel and 
Mike Bandli. 

All of us were successful. Mike and Rob took me under there wings the 
first day out and shortly after starting with them I found a 90 gram 
individual with over 90% crust. I was on cloud 9! This stone turned 
out to be the largest our small group was going to find. After giving 
half of my haul back to the land owner, as payment for rights to hunt, I 
came home with just under 1/4 kilo (12 individuals). Will post some 
pictures soon. 

The plows are now working and it looks like the farmer's fields will be 
tilled any day now. However, there is much woodland to be searched and 
I am sure many fine specimens are waiting to be found. The woodlands 
will be extremely tough to search and it will take much more work to 
find anything compared to our field hunting. They may even prove 
impossible to search. 

Having walked over 50 km in 2 full days and 2 half days I now have a 
greater appreciation for how difficult it is to hunt for these 
treasures. Buzzard Coulee was easy compared to many and it still took 
about 3 km of walking (on average) before finding a stone. I don't 
think I would have been able to stand West where many hunters were lucky 
to find one stone in a day. 

Cheers! 

Mike (tett) Tettenborn 
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada 
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