Thursday, September 10, 2015

Today was quiet. Yesterday, on the way to the bear spot, I saw a barn that looked like it might make a good photo. So, after stopping a few minutes to see 3 of the Prospects, I went out and took some shots

And, with that, my trip here is done, I think. I'm leaving tomorrow and should return home on Saturday.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Today was lots of wolves and grizzlies – 13 of each.

I started early up on the blacktail plateau looking for the the Prospect Peak wolf pack. They are the most reliable wolf viewing right now. I got lucky and saw 13 of them for about an hour. They were way far away, though – about 3 miles – so no pictures were to be had.

While I was there, people told me of a place grizzlies congregate to dig up roots. It's outside the park to the north, so I went there this evening. They weren't kidding. There were 13 bears – 8 cubs, 3 moms and 2 single bears.

They were a long way off and the wind was blowing making things tough to photograph,, but I did get these 2

It's on the edge of a ranch's pasture land, thus the fence in the first one. In the second, you can see a deer behind the bear. It wasn't really nervous, so I'm guessing it was a long way behind.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Kind of a nothing day today.

I started out in the Lamar Valley looking for wolves...nothing. The people with the receivers for the radio collars said they had no signals. This pack is out of town.

I had heard of an antelope that had been hit by a car, so I went looking for that. The rangers had moved it away from the road into some deep sagebrush and about all you could see were ravens. I breifly saw a coyote, but that was it.

So, it was back to camp for a shower and lunch, then laundry later.

In the evening, I went back to the antelope carcass, but even the ravens were gone, so I played with the scope and camera. This photo is from about 1/3 to ½ mile away and is way better than the 600mm lens would do, so it is possible. I just need more practice and technique:

Monday, September 7, 2015

The morning started off watching the Prospect Peak wolf pack in the northwest part of the park. They are a long way off – around 3 miles away. I saw 8 of them today.

Later, I went down to the Hayden Valley and missed the wolves, but got to see a grizzly for a while. It, too, was a long way off, but I got a couple OK pictures:

Later, there were pronghorn near the Lamar River bridge:

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Back to the Hayden this morning and saw 3 of the 4 pups:

Saturday, September 5, 2015

More wolves.

Early I went down to the Hayden valley and got to see all 6 members of the Wapiti Lake pack:

The gray ones almost disappear in the sagebrush:

Later, I took some pictures of bison

Friday, September 4, 2015

More New Wolves!

Got up early this morning and went west to the far end of the Blacktail Plateau where Doug has been reporting seeing the Prospect Peak wolf pack. When I got there, the fog was trying to cover them, but for about 30 minutes we got to see them chasing bison and then being chased by the bison.

The rest of the day was spent driving to Bozeman for some warmer pants. The weather is supposed get cooler and I'm not really ready for it.

In Mammoth, there was a large bull elk lounging on the lawn:

On the way back it looked like he was still there, but a closer look shows a different animal:

Back in camp, the bison was back: