Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Finally some nice weather. Sunny and it got into the 60s today.

Once again, it was back out to the den at Slough Creek. This is the only reliable place to see wolves right now, so I'm trying different ways to get pictures and video. The video today was a bit better because the light was better:

This was one of the adults and several of the pups at the den entrance.

It's over a mile away, so I'm not unhappy with the quality, but I think I can do better.

Monday, May 16, 2016

Cold and rainy, again today. It might have made it into the 40s, but not by much.

It was back out to Slough Creek this morning to see the wolf den and see what happens. We saw a couple of grizzly bears way up high above it, but lost sight of them later. I should have stayed around because, according to people I talked to later, one of the bears got a little too close to the den and was accosted by 7 wolves. He did the prudent thing and left.

I went on to the Lamar Valley and watched several of the Mollies pack surround a bison, but nothing came of it.

Tiring of wolves, I went in search of close bears. Over by Tower Fall, I found some. A mother with 2 young cubs, right next to the road.

Sunday, May 15, 2016

It was a cold rainy day. It rained off and on all day and it never got above 45 degrees. But, lots of wildlife was seen.

I got to the Slough Creek den area early – about 6:00 am. There were already wolves and pups out. I got a bit of video:

It's a bit hazy because it was a really gray day.  

Later, one of the wolves decided to chase a group of bighorn rams along a ridge top. It had no chance of catching them, but I guess it just wanted to run.

A pronghorn came past the parking area and posed for us:

After that, the wolf activity quit, so I went off looking for more adventure. I found a grizzly bear:

And followed it for a while until it crossed the road and disappeared in the Soda Butte Creek bottom. Then there were wolves chasing elk.

Then there were the bison calves. People have been saying that they aren't seeing as many calves as they had in the past. I think it's still early. I came across this area that had 13 adults and 7 newborn calves. Newborn as in yesterday or today. They were very small.

Even newborn, they know how to treat the photographers. Show them your best side:

Saturday, May 14, 2016

Mammoth Campground, Yellowstone.

Back in Yellowstone for 3 or 4 weeks.

I drove up on Thursday and stayed just west of Cody for 1 night. Then, yesterday, I moved up to Mammoth Hot Springs Campground. I'll stay here for 2 weeks or so until Tower Campground opens.

Drove around a bit yesterday and got my bearings. The Junction Butte wolf pack has a den that is in view of the road. The closest you can get is about 1.1 miles away, so the photos aren't great, but you can see what's going on. The light is best in the mornings as in the evening, you're looking almost directly into the sun.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

2 more days of chasing wolves. No real pictures as they were far away. I did get some others, though:

The weather is threatening for Saturday, so I'm going home on Friday.

Tuesday, Feb 9, 2016

A slow day today. I didn't sleep well, so I didn't get out until 11:00 am. The first place I stopped, at the self-guided nature trail near Blacktail Creek trailhead, was the furthest I got. There were 9 or 10 wolves way out – 2 or 3 miles away. People were coming all afternoon and we were letting them look through the scope.

On the way back to town, I saw these deer:

Monday, February 8, 2016

Just another day in Yellowstone. A fox, a coyote and 13 wolves – a 3 dog day.

The fox was midday when I spotted 3 of the Junction Butte pack way up high near Specimen Ridge. The fox was running away from them as fast as it could go.

The coyote was a bit earlier. 2 wolves had been spotted above the road near the Lamar Ranger Station. There aren't a lot of parking places there, so I wasn't able to get in until after most of the crowd had left. Way up high was a wolf and below him was a coyote standing on a rock:

Later, we had 12 of the Junctions way up high on Specimen ridge.

I was going to go photograph a frozen waterfall, but got sidetracked by some bighorn sheep.