Sunday, August 23, 2015
Wolves and a Bear
I was not planning to do any wildlife
watching today. Today was supposed to be some internet stuff and
fishing. It didn't quite work out that way.
On the way to Cooke City, I saw some
people I knew. The way they were set up told me that there may be
some wolf activity to be seen, so I stopped. The story was that up
in the hills above the road, the Lamar Canyon pack pups had been
seen. So, I got my scope out. Back up the road was another group of
people with a different angle on the scene. They said, over the
radio, that they were seeing a grizzly bear in the area the pups had
been seen. More interesting. No sigh of the wolf pups, though.
After about half an hour, they said the bear was heading down the
hill in out direction. Really interesting, so I got the camera out.
Soon enough, we saw the bear coming down. It crossed the road about
200 yards away and headed up the valley, ignoring the fishermen.
Then, we heard howling from both sides.
The pups were to the west of us and the adults were across the
valley to the east. After about 15 minutes, we started to see the
pups. One here in the sage, another there on a hilltop. It became
obvious that they were heading down hill, so we watched and waited.
They crossed the road near where the bear did. (the pictures aren't
very good because the heat waves made it impossible to focus)
Then, they crossed the creek
Shook themselves dry
And waited for the 4th one
to arrive
Not a bad morning.
I did go fishing in the afternoon, but
only caught 3.
