Sunday, May 31, 2015

I got up early today and saw this as I was leaving camp:

And if was off to the Lamar Valley for, hopefully, some wolves. Alas, it was not to be. Nobody saw any wolves along the whole northern corridor this morning.

So, I went back to the coyote den to see if I could get a photo. I sort of succeeded:

It's not bad for objects less than a foot tall at around 1/3 of a mile. More work is needed, though.

After all morning there, it was back to camp for lunch, a nap and shower. Then I'll update the blog.

Saturday, May 30, 2015

Not much wildlife this morning but an eventful one.

Found the wolf watchers just after 6:00 this morning and was about 10 minutes late for the only wolf they saw. I hung around until about 11:00 talking to people, helping a ranger find a deer carcass in Soda Butte Creek and watching bighorn sheep several miles away.

At one point Rick gave a talk about wolves 925M and 926F and how he was killed and she found a new mate and helpers.

Around 11:00 decided to head back to camp for lunch. Just past the Lamar River bridge were a group of people with cameras, so I stopped to see what it was. Birds. Specifically, a woodpecker building a nest: 

While I was taking that photo, there was a loud scraping noise behind me. I though it was a car bottoming out as it pulled off the road to park. But then someone said “He hit that car!”. I looked around and about 50 feet away parked across the road was a car with its side all scraped up. Just a bit further was a car stopped off the road and partway up the hillside. Several people ran over and opened the drivers door where the man was shaking violently. He apparently had a seizure and lost control of his car. One of the women there said she was a nurse and was tending to him while the driver of a Yellowstone Association bus that was parked called in for help. About 10 minutes later an ranger came and about 10 minutes later and ambulance. That's when I left, not wanting to be in anyone's way.

After lunch, I went back to the Lamar Valley, but I was delayed by another bear jam. The same black bear and 3 yearling cubs were right along the road.

Just after getting into the valley, I stopped at Dorothy's turnout 

Map 

where there were several cars and trucks. There I saw Tom and his wife (whose name I keep forgetting). They are a couple from Maryland who had been coming to Yellowstone for years, but I hadn't seen in several years. The last time I saw them, they had to leave quickly as she was having some kind of medical emergency. Both of them have had cancer, so everyone was very concerned. So, I was happy to hear that she completely recovered and all is OK.

They had found a coyote den on the floor of the valley and were keeping watch. The mother was sleeping nearby while the father was off hunting. They have 8(!) pups. Whenever the pups come out, it's just a riot. Think 8 puppies all tumbling and tussling and exploring all at once. I'll try to get pictures this week. I stayed there until nearly 6:00 pm, showing people the sights and talking with Tom and his wife.

Friday, May 29, 2015

The rain seems to be gone. Today was partly cloudy with just scattered showers. Not the horizon to horizon gray and almost constant rain.

I got out early and went out to the Lamar River Trailhead to see if anything was going on. There wasn't Rick McIntyre, the wolf project biologist was there and he said he was getting the radio signal from 2 of the collared wolves, but they weren't moving. The pakc had been out hunting yesterday and apparently was successful as the alpha female, 926, was seen in the evening with a big belly full of food for her and the pups. The consensus was that they were taking the day off.

So I went looking for bears. I found 10 through the day. Back near the Specimen Ridge trailhead I saw a black bear with 3 yearling cubs.

Map

After that, it was back top camp for lunch and chores. Next, I headed over the pass to Canyon for a shower. I got there at 1:30, just as they were closing for cleaning. That meant I had to wait till 3:00 so I went looking for stuff to photograph. I found some ducks:

After the shower,. It was back to camp and, after reading a bit I had dinner.

After dinner, I went back out to the Lamar Valley to see if anybody was seeing anything. On the west end, I found Bill H., the bear man. He had a grizzly way up high on Specimen Ridge, so we watched that for a while. I let a Chinese couple use my scope – she was having all kind of trouble seeing the bear, but finally got the hang of it. We then got a quick glimpse of a large black bear before it disappeared in a gully. Then, on the way back I saw another black bear with 3 yearling cubs. It may be the same 4 I saw this morning but I don't think so as they were across the river.

Finally, I took some photos of bison calves:

Thursday, May 28, 2015

Gray and rainy today.  I'll do internet stuff and just hang out,

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Today was a wolf day.

I got up around 6:00 and headed out to the Lamar Valley but wasn't seeing any sign of wolves or the watchers until I got to Hitching Post:

Map

There, all the wolf people were packing their gear away and heading west, so I turned around and followed. A few miles west at Hubbard Hill, I found a place to park and set up the scope with a bunch of the others.

Map

There we saw 6 wolves – 5 members of the Lamar pack and 965M, a member of the Prospect Peak pack who seems to be on friendly terms with the Lamars. We watched as they continued west and then, 3 of them came down off the hills and crossed the road. The other 3 stayed up north in the hills. I got one decent photo of the wolf called Mottled. He's a former Prospect that joined the Lamars after the alpha male of the Lamars was killed in march. He seems to be afraid to cross the road and will only do so at night.

Then, they started back east, and the parade of cars and people moved with them. A couple of miles east, I stopped and set up the scope and camera. As the 2 groups moved east, they would periodically stop and howl to each other. I got a couple of pictures. I managed to get several OK photos.

The gray one is 956.

They are grainy because it was a gray day and I needed to set a very high ISO on the camera. These were around ISO 10000. One of my goals on this trip is to get better pictures, especially through the scope which these were.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Tower Fall Campground, Yellowstone

Well, that didn't work as planned. It came out OK, though.

When my alarm went off this morning at 5:00, it was raining. The barn photo needs the sun on the barn, so I knew that wasn't going to work. So I went back to sleep and planned to look for the bears later.

At 6:00 am, I got out and drove to where the bears had been seen. Sure enough, there they were:

Some of the closest and best grizzly photos I've gotten.

Then, it was drive up to Tower and get a campsite. Once again, it was intermittent rain all the way up. I got lucky and one of my favorite sites was open. It's back away from the road and overlooks the creek. I can hear the creek as I type this.

One added bonus is the bison in camp. He seems to like it here.

1002

Then it was off to see what could be seen. What was seen was bears – 7 of them, all black bears.

First was a single bear at Floating Island lake. It had a chunk of something it was guarding. I heard 2 stories as to what it was. One story had it as a bison calf it had killed yesterday. The other story was something that had died over winter in the lake and was just coming to the surface. Either way, all it did while I watched and dodged the rain was lay there and, occasionally look around.

This was attended by the usual traffic jam.

Next was a mom with 2 cubs at Lower Hellroaring. The traffic jam was way too big, so just looked as I drove past.

Next was a mom with one cub near Petrified Tree. They crossed the road in front of me and it as too fast for pictures.

Finally, there was a single black bear below Rainy Lake. Another giant traffic jam, so, instead of adding to it by stopping, I just looked as I drove past.

After dinner, I went out looking for wolf watchers and didn't find any. I did find an antelope with a newborn calf:

That's probably the best picture of the day. She had 2 of them and brought them, one at a time, across the road.

Monday, May 25, 2015

Hatchet Campground

Today was the usual driving across Wyoming thing. The weather was unusual, though. It was rainy and not windy.

As usual, I stopped just east of Grand Teton Park and, as usual, the campground was nearly empty.

My plan was to try the barn picture again at sunrise, but I got to talking to the campground host and he told me of a grizzly bear with 2 cubs that had been hanging around the Oxbow Bend area of the park. That's just a couple of miles off the route back from the barn, so decided to add that to the list.

I'll set my alarm for 5:00 am and see what happens.