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: