Saturday, January 31, 2015

Cold!

This morning I finally got some of the famous Yellowstone cold temperatures. It was -10 F at the Lamar Ranger Station at 7:30 and was only +2 at 11:30. Everybody was really bundled up.

We saw all 8 of the Lamar pack wolves. They own this valley, but the Prospect Peak pack has been pushing east into it and displacing several packs as they go. The Prospects were just west of the ranger station and the Lamars were just above it in the hills. The 2 packs were howling back and forth at each other for a couple of hours before they both bedded down. Apparently territorial wars must wait on midday naps.

The rest of the day was spent looking around for more wolves. None were found. There was a coyote on an elk carcass that the Prospects had killed last night, but the photos are fairly gruesome so 'll leave them out.

As I was leaving the park, I got what may be my best pictures of the whole trip. A coyote was hunting and I was in just the perfect position with the setting sun for this sequence:

This was the last day in the park. I'm driving home on Sunday. I should arrive in late afternoon or early evening. The weather forecast looks good.

Friday, January 30,2015

This was the coldest day yet. I saw temperatures of -4 several times this morning. It was bright and sunny most of the day, however.

On my usual search for the wolf watchers, I stopped in the Lamar Valley for this photo of the low lying fog:

I finally found the watchers at Slough Creek:

They were watching some wolves lounging (with the phone through the scope):

Later, we saw more wolves preparing to nap:

That's pretty much all the wolves did today. We saw and heard these howling for a bit, but mostly they just lay about.

I had been having trouble getting the camera attachment to work properly with the scope, and today Doug Mclaughlin, the man I bought the scope through, was there (he's the 4^th from the left in the picture above). He looked at it and said I was using the wrong eyepiece. I had the other one back at the room, but that was an hour's drive away, so I thought I would fix it when I got back in the evening. The instructions aren't very clear on how things are supposed to got together and I figured I would have to fiddle with it some. Well, later, I met a man who had the same setup as mine and I got a look at it. Immediately it was clear how the parts fit. Since it was only 12:30 and all the wolves would be napping for the next few hours, I decided to go back to the motel and get the part.

On the way back, I encountered a coyote and it made an OK test for my fix. Not great because I was looking into the sun, but it would have to do:

That's better than I had been able to do previously.

Then, it was back to watching the first wolves sleep, hoping they would wake and do something interesting. They didn't.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Nice weather today. It was sunny and chilly all day, but with no wind, it was pretty nice.

The morning started with a wolf:

This was taken through the scope from about ½ mile. We watched it as it climbed through the trees to a ridge line way up high. There it joined the rest of its pack and they all bedded down for their naps.

Since nothing more was going to happen there for a while, I moved west looking for things to photograph. I found a golden eagle:

And the bighorn rams I've been seeing all week:

There were also the moose I've been seeing and several coyotes that were too far for photos.

After lunch, I went back to where I could see the sleeping wolves and waited. Around 3:00 they woke and started moving around, playing and chasing each other.  I counted 8 of them.  I tried to take some pictures, but they were over 3 miles away and all I got were very blurry spots on the white snow.  After a bit, they then moved over to the other side of the ridge and I didn't see them again, even though I tried.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

More wolves – sort of.

As forecast, today was gray and wet. It wasn't cold, though. Almost all the way from Gardiner to the east end of the Lamar Valley was 33 degrees. The morning had snow off and on:

I got a late start and the first place I saw anybody was where we were watching the Junction Butte pack from yesterday. I talked to Lizzy, one of the Wolf Project researchers, and she said they were seeing the Lamar pack from the Confluence turnout. When I got there, it was full – no place to park my truck. The next turnout was also full, so I continued on thinking I would see them later. I stopped about a mile past all of that and tried to see the wolves from there, but had no luck. I did see 2 coyotes that were keeping a close eye on the wolves, though.

So, I moved further east and came across the moose I had seen yesterday. After parking past them, I walked back with the camera and tried to take some photos. But the snow started and the camera kept trying to focus on the snow instead of the moose. I did get a few, but the flat light doesn't make for a very good picture.

Most of the rest of the morning was spent hanging around waiting for a parking place to open. When it did, I climbed up a steep slope

and sat in the snow looking through the scope, just in time to see all 8 wolves bed down for their midday nap. It felt like I was sitting on a cliff face and nothing was going to happen, so I climbed back down and was able to see them from the bottom of the hill. OK, but they are still sleeping. Now, it became a game - where else could I see them from? So I and headed west to see what would turn up. I saw some folks up a small hill and joined them. You could see the sleeping wolves from there, but just barely. Back to the east, I put my snowshoes on and climbed a knoll, but the view was blocked by a small hill.

OK, enough of this it's lunchtime. After looking all over, I realized I left my lunch back in the motel room. Since not much else was going to happen for a while, I decided to call it a day.

The weather was starting to clear, however. Here are 2 pictures of the same area about 3 hours apart:

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Wolves! (finally)

Today started like yesterday – chilly and dark at 6:30 in Gardiner. Just like yesterday, I drove into the park and, just like yesterday, it got colder the further I went. By the time I got to the Lamar Valley, it was 0 degrees and foggy.

Just as I got there, I passed all the wolf watchers going the other way. So, I turned around and sort of followed them, stopping and looking at stuff along the way. When I got to the Hellroaring overlook, the turnout was full of cars and people with scopes looking out into the valley:

I couldn't park there, so I went about 1/3 of a mile back, parked in an empty turnout and walked up with my scope. Since it was a bit of a walk and the scope and tripod are heavy, I didn't bring any cameras, except my phone.

When I got there, they were seeing wolves – lots of wolves – 8, in fact. It was the entire Prospect Peak pack. They were running all around. Since the only camera I had was my phone, I tried to take a picture with it through the scope:

But, since we were about 1 2/3 mile away, it doesn't look like much. The dark spot on the left side of the dry pond is a wolf. It gets better.

After about an hour of this, the wolves all bedded down for their midday naps, so I moved on. I went back to the Lamar where the fog had burned off under a sunny sky and the temperature had reached a balmy 15 degrees. I stopped at the Lamar River trailhead and took some photos:

Including a selfie with my new hat:

It's really warm and the sides flip down to cover your ears.

Then I decided to take a short hike up Pebble Creek. The trail was well packed, so I didn't need my snowshoes, just the cleats. The trail passed over the creek many times with just the packed snow as a bridge:

After I got back to the truck, I headed back west thinking I would stop at the first overlook to see if they wolves were still there. I got delayed.

First, just past the Soda Butte cone were 4 moose laying in the snow. The pictures are terrible because it's a very dark moose in very bright snow

Then, at Coyote turnout, wolf watchers were there watching 8 members of the Junction Butte pack way up high, below Specimen Ridge. We watched them for about an hour until they all left down the ridgeline and into the trees. So, everybody moved down the valley hoping to see where they went. We found them up on South Divide. We could see them from a turnout just below the Lamar River bridge. At one point, 7 of them posed for us in good light and I had the camera ready for the scope:

I'm still working on getting better pictures through the scope, but from a mile away, this isn't bad.

All in all, a good day.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Another no-wolf day.

It was clear and fairly warm in Gardiner this morning (about 30 degrees), but as I got further and further into the park, it got colder and colder. By the time I got to the Lamar Valley, it was 5 degrees and very foggy.

When I got there, I saw all the wolf watchers driving the other way, so I turned around and followed. They stopped at Slough Creek and I learned that they had detected no radio collar signals to the east, so everybody was moving west to try other places. I followed along for a bit, but, as they were having no success, I decided to not look for wolves today and focus on scenery photos.

I found a few.

When I got back to the Lamar Valley, the fog was gone and it looked like this:

The fog and cold air had created heavy frost on the trees making this scene:

After taking a few photos of the trees, I put my snowshoes on and walked out a bit:

It was still cold – about 15 degrees – but there was no wind and the sun made it feel warm.

Further up the valley, I saw this:

The bighorn rams were still hanging around the Lamar River trailhead, so I got lots of pictures like this:

By then, it was 2:00 pm and I needed to do some laundry, so I went back to town.

Oh, yes, the wolf folks finally did see some, but from very far away and just intermittently. I'll try again tomorrow.

Sunday Jan 25, 2015

Since I was late arriving to see the wolf activity yesterday, I left an hour earlier this morning. It didn't matter, nobody was seeing wolves anywhere.

The weather today was warmer – in the 30s – but mostly overcast. The sun came out for an hour or so this afternoon, but soon the clouds covered it.

The first half of the morning was spent looking for wolves. At one point, about a dozen of us climbed up a trail that was a foot deep in snow attempting to get a glimpse of a reported sleeping wolf several miles away. We didn't see it.

After that, I decided to go photograph stuff and work with the scope instead of hunting ghosts.

First was a bull elk that's been hanging around Phantom Lake:

Then, as I got near the Lamar Valley, the sun started to peek out, and I took this picture:

Further up the valley, there was this bighorn ram digging around in the snow looking for something to eat:

While his buddies lounged on top of the hill and watched:

Next was another scenic place:

By now, it was time to head back to town for dinner and put all this together. Just as I was leaving the park, however, there were a group of antelope:

All in all, a good day. The weather is supposed to be warm and clear the next couple of days, so that should be nice.

Saturday Jan 24

Snow, snow, and more snow.

Sunrise was around 7:30, so I left the room around 7:00 am. It turns out was too late. By the time I got out to the Lamar Valley, I missed the wolves chasing an elk in the creek.

It started to snow when I got there and it would snow off and on until I got back to Gardiner late in the afternoon. I did see wolves, either through fairly heavy snow or from over a mile away - and sometimes both.

The weather cleared after I got back to town and is supposed to stay that way for the rest of my trip, except for one morning.

I did get a picture of a coyote on my way back to town:

It was hunting around in the snow, occasionally punching through.

Now that the weather is supposed to clear, I'll take some scenic photos. In the sun with all the snow, the place is stunning.

Friday, January 23, 2015

I made it to Gardiner MT today. As soon as I got unpacked in the room, I called then went over to Doug's place to pick up the scope I ordered. It came in 5 boxes. After a bit of visiting, I took all the stuff and went into the park to put them together and see how it worked. Doug said that they hadn't seen many wolves that morning – just a few very var away.

The weather was all cloudy at the time, and the roads a bit icy. It wasn't really cold – in the high 20s. I stopped at the Hellroaring overlook. It has a parking area big enough for me to back the truck in so I could use the tailgate as a work table. It was pretty icy as almost all turnouts are around here.

I got it all together and spent the next hour fiddling with it and talking to people who stopped to see the view.

By this time, it had cleared, so I drove down into the Lamar Valley. The road was icy in the shady spots, but was clear in the sunny areas.

Of course, didn't see any wolves, in fact, the only interesting animals were a group of bighorn sheep just near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek.

So, I drove back to town and spent the next 3 hours at a presentation by a woman who spent 2 months on Ellesmere Island – way up the the Canadian Arctic working with a BBC documentary crew filming wolves. She was the biology consultant for the program. It's part of a series called “The Hunt” and is supposed to air in October.