Thursday, June 26, 2014

June 26, 2014

Today is gray, rainy and chilly.  I've seen 3 black bears and just missed 2 wolves this morning.

This is my last day in the park for this trip.  I'll be heading home Friday and arriving late Saturday afternoon.
June 25, 2014

It was a busy day. Each time I tried to do something, I kept getting sidetracked.

It started at the Blacktail site around 6:30. It was densely foggy, but just around the turnout we were looking from. ½ mile either way on the road was clear. After about 30 minutes, the fog cleared, but not much was happening and it stayed that way till 9:00. We managed to see 5 wolves - 2 adults and the 3 pups for a total of maybe 1 minute.

So, it was off to Cooke City to update the blog. But, I stopped outside the Ranger Station in the Lamar Valley to see what a bunch of people were looking at. It turned out to be coyote pups – 4 of them. The den is under a large rock high up on the hillside. I had learned about this den about 4 years ago, but hadn't seen anything there since. The pictures are not very good as the pups are small and a long way away – about 200 yards:






While I was there, a couple I had seen in several other places came along and we watched them until the went behind the rock. Then, we noticed people looking across the valley at what turned out to be a grizzly bear high up on Specimen Ridge – probably 3 miles away.

After the bear went over the ridge, I packed up and headed on my way. 2 miles down the road, I stopped again. This time is was a herd of bison, including calves, swimming across the Lamar River:



The current was so swift it seemed that they would get swept away, but they all made it. I have video of it and will try to upload it to youtube when I get home.


I finally made it to Cooke City, got the blog updated, and started back to camp for lunch. One more delay was to be had. Baby antelope near the Specimen Ridge trailhead:



Finally, I could get back to camp and lunch. Well, not quite. I had told the couple at the coyote den about the falcons near Calcite Springs and, as I passed, I saw their car, so I stopped. The falcons, chicks and all, were gone. We talked and looked about a bit and decided that something must have gotten into the nest. This story has more to it, though.

After lunch and a nap, I decided to go to Gardiner for some groceries. On the way out, I saw several very small elk calves in Mammoth Hot Springs, so, on the way back, I stopped to photograph them. I parked the truck and walked over. But they were all lying down and just looked like brown lumps on the green grass so I didn't take any pictures. As I got back to the truck, I saw it had been taken over by this:



It was a very angry bluebird. It would fly up to the window and attack its reflection and then go back and perch on the mirror. 2 men walking came around the back of the truck and scared it away, but it just went over to the other side of the truck and started attacking that side. I kept inching closer and photographing until finally it flew away.

Traffic through Mammoth was a mess, so I took a shortcut through a residential area. There I saw several people photographing something in a tree. I had heard of owls in the area and, sure enough, this was one of them. I got the big lens out and got sidetracked again:



I stopped back at the Blacktail site on the way back to camp and stayed for about an hour, but nothing happened, so I left. On the ay back, there was a crowd gathering at Floating Island Lake, so I parked just down the road and waked back. It was a black bear high up on the hillside above the lake. No pictures, I just looked for a bit and left.

I finally got back to camp and, before going into the trailer, talked to a man camped across the road. In the discussion, he mentioned that he had seen the falcons, including the chicks, at Calcite Springs. I asked when he saw them and he said around 3:00 pm – 2 or 3 hours after I had seen the empty nest! I'm going to check it out in the morning and see if they are back or not.

Finally, I got into the trailer and got dinner and prepared the photos for the blog and wrote this up. It's now about 9:00 pm and I still have to do the dishes before bed.

It's been a busy day.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

June 25, 2014

Just a quick post - just this morning I've seen 5 wolves, a grizzly bear, 4 coyote pups and a herd of bison swimming the Lamar River.  Pictures later.
June 24, 2014

Ducks!

The day started at 6:00 am and I went over to the Blacktail site to see what was happening. Nothing was happening. Some people had been there for an hour and seen nothing. I stood around for about 30 minutes and still nothing was happening, so I decided that today was not going to be a wolf day.

Several times, I had heard about some harlequin ducks down near Le Hardy Rapids, so I decided to try to photograph them. All I knew was they would sit on a rock in the Yellowstone River near the base of the rapids, so I went down and started looking. At the first turnout below the rapids, I found this:



I don't know what kind of ducks these are, my books don't seem to have them; but they clearly aren't harlequin ducks. (today, the 25th, I learned that they are mergansers.  Thanks, Bill). So, more searching was needed. I moved up the the turnout right at the bottom of the rapids and, after a bit of walking around, found them:






The rest of the morning was spent driving out the east entrance road and napping.

Along the way, was this scene:



I planned to check out the North Fork of the Shoshone river, but I got to Sylvan Lake, about halfway to the east entrance, and stopped. It was a pretty lake, so I just sat looking at it for a while. I got attacked by a nap and the next thing I knew, it was an hour later. So, back to camp for lunch.

Then, I drove out to Cooke City to use the internet to measure the distance again out to the wolf rendezvous site, using a different method. This time I got 1.75 miles. I think this is a more accurate measurement. On the way back, I saw 6 mountain goats on Baronette Peak and this duck near Pebble Creek:



Then, it was back to camp for a shower and a grilled steak for dinner. It's been thundering and raining off and on all evening, so I've been inside reading.
June 23, 2014

After yesterday's rest, I felt much better today. The weather was much better, as well - sunny and into the 70s. It was also the best day yet for wolves and bears.

I started by going out to the Blacktail site and was immediately rewarded with seeing 2 wolves laying out in the open. Then, we began seeing others. By the time the morning was done, we had seen all 10 wolves in the pack – 7 adults and 3 pups. Partway through the morning, Rick McIntyre and Jeremy, one of the wolf researchers came by and stayed for over an hour. According to Jeremy, one of the wolves we saw this morning was a new, to the researchers, member of the pack. At the time, they didn't know anything about this wolf – male or female, where it came from, age, or anything. This isn't a very good photo of it, but it was around a mile away:




Another wolf – a black juvenile – was also in that area and posed for me:




Then, I was going to go to Cooke City for internet and talk to Doug McLaughlin about buying a new scope next year. Mine has served me well, but I have been getting more and more disappointed with its limitations, so I think it's time to move up.

But, I got distracted. The bear with 3 cubs was near the road and I got this photo:



The focus is wrong, but it's still pretty good.

Then there was a wolf in the Lamar Valley.

Then, there was another bear near Pebble Creek:



And then it was lunch time. So, I went back to camp and ate. Then, I finally got out to Cooke City, and I found Doug and talked to him about the scope. He was very helpful. If things don't change, I'll by it after the first of the year.

On the way back, there was an antelope near the road:



Then, it was back to camp for a snack and a nap. Then, I went back out to the blacktail site and saw all 3 pups briefly.

On the way back to camp there was another bear at Phantom Lake:



Along with a couple more bears, I saw 7 today and had 14 wolf sightings. That's a pretty good day.



June 22, 2014

Today was cold and rainy and I slept in. Getting up at 5:30 and staying up till 11:00 was starting to wear on me, so I declared a camp day. I did laundry and napped, took a long shower at Canyon and napped, dealt with the fresh and waste water tanks in the trailer and napped.

It was a good day.
June 21, 2014

It's been a slow couple of days, but somehow, I'm not getting back to camp until well after 9:00 pm.

Each day I start out by going over to the Blacktail turnout to see the only dependable wolf sightings. This is the only rendezvous area that is visible from the road, so there is always activity in the early morning and late afternoon. I end the day there as well.

In the late afternoon an d evenings, there are usually people who have never seen a wolf, and usually a couple of kids who desperately want to see one, so it's very gratifying to be able to show them. Usually the scope is set low to the ground and, when the wolves are out, there is a crowd around it, each one taking turns looking through. Otherwise, we're standing around talking about all kinds of things. It's kind of like a party with no music or alcohol. We'll be standing talking, but there is always somebody looking through a scope for some activity. Whenever they see something, the call out and all the scope owners jump to get their scope on whatever is happening and the line to look forms, with the little kids first.

During the day, I'm either back at camp for lunch and a nap and chores or out looking for wildlife to photograph or checking on things I heard.

Yesterday, I checked out a way to see further back to the west in the Hayden Valley, where the Canyon pack sometimes goes. With a short walk, you can see for several miles beyond a ridge that blocks the view from the road.

Today I went to Bozeman to a camera store and got a few baby pictures along the way:








Friday, June 20, 2014

June 19, 2014

Back to chasing wolves and bears. But today involved moose and mountain goats as well.

The day started with a trip over to see if the blacktail group was visible and if could I learn where to look to see them. Success was had on both fronts, sort of. I found I had been looking in almost the right spot, but not quite. Today, when I was corrected, I saw 3 wolves. But it was pretty dull. All they were doing was sleeping. As my neighbor here in camp said, you can only watch sleeping wolves for so long and then you get bored. I quit after 2 hours. In my defense, I was letting lots of people look through the scope at them, so there was something to do. The cold wind also had something to do about it.

Around 9:30, I left and went over to the Lamar to see if anything was happening. It turns out I missed a group of wolves digging out a coyote den and killing most of the pups. Instead, I got to see a group of mountain goats:



And a moose with twin calves:



Not bad, but not as exciting as a wolf/coyote battle.

After that, there were bear sightings and another look at the falcon chicks and a nap.

In the late afternoon, I went back to the Blacktail site and managed to see all 3 pups... for a total of about 2 minutes...from about 2 miles away ... in about 2 hours of standing around and talking and looking. But that's the price you pay to see wolves around here, sometimes.

It wasn't a bad day though – 7 wolf sightings, 3 black bears, 2 grizzly bears, 8 mountain goats and 3 moose.

June 18, 2014

Today was a rest day to escape from chasing wolves and bears – mostly.

I got up at 5:30 and went out to see what was going on at the bison carcass at the east end of the Lamar Valley. Not much. A pair of courting grizzlies was there, ignoring the carcass. It was cold and spitting rain. I stayed till about 7:30 and then left. I decided then that I would take a break from the wolves and bears.

What I really wanted was a long hot shower. The shower in the trailer will get you clean, but it's not a luxury. You get yourself wet and turn off the water. Then you lather up and rinse off, turning off the water again when you're done. I wanted a luxurious long hot shower and the cold wet weather made that even more appealing. I drove over to Canyon and saw the line for the showers was out the building. So I went down to the Hayden Valley to read and wait. It was 32 degrees and it started snowing – hard. So, back to Canyon and wait inside. An hour later, there was still a line, so I bailed on that. The snow had quit, so I went back over the pass to Roosevelt Lodge to use their shower – no waiting! I should have gone there first.

Then it was back to camp for lunch and a nap.

About 1:30, I woke and drove into Gardiner for some groceries. Sandwich stuff, parsley for the shrimp scampi on tonight's menu, ice and Coke. I was going to look something up on the internet with my computer, but the places I normally got connected had changed and I didn't want to deal with their hassles, so I tried using the phone. It worked! Cool!

Back in the park, I went out to the Lamar Valley for another look, but nothing was happening. I stopped in the Lamar Canyon to photograph at an Osprey nest and caught the male coming in:



Then, it was back to camp for dinner, filling the fresh water tank, draining the waste water tanks and writing these blog entries. Tomorrow it's back to bear and wolf chasing. The reports are that the wolf rendezvous site on the Blacktail Plateau was active today. I'll go out there and stake it out. The weather is supposed to start warming, too.

June 17, 2014

This was a busy day. Wolves, bears, and mountain goats (well, one anyway).

It started at around 6:30 when I arrived at the bison carcass at the east end of the Lamar Valley. There were 2 grizzly bears and 3 wolves there and lots of activity. The bears would trade off feeding and the wolves would get in when they could:



The bear with the collar, on the left, is Scarface. The other bear is a healthy younger male. At one point, the 2 bears got into an argument and the wolves took advantage:




After about 90 minutes of this, it started to rain, so Yoshi and I went into Cooke City to do internet stuff. That's when I last updated the blog. When we got back about 2 hours later, the bears and wolves were gone and a 4th wolf had replaced them. This was 889F, a collared female. The number is the number of her collar. That's how they “name” the wolves here. You'll hear someone say ”Oh, I saw 755 today” or “889 was with 925”. By referencing the wolf chart sold in the bookstores, you can tell which pack and individuals they are talking about. In this case, 889 is a female who was born in the Mollie's pack and has paired with 755. 755 was the alpha male of the Lamar Canyon pack. They don't know where he came from, most likely outside the park. About 18 months ago the alpha female and 755's brother, 754 were killed by hunters just outside the park. That destroyed the pack and he's been searching for another mate since. They will call it a pack when they have pups that survive a winter. So far, this hasn't happened. If it sounds like a large soap opera, that's because it is.

889 fed for a while and then headed down the valley, with about 30 cars in tow. She was paralleling the road and this great long caravan was following along. Several times, the rangers stopped the traffic so she could cross the road. This went on for nearly 4 miles. I managed to get ahead of her and setup the camera at a turnout, hoping she would pass close. She did:



Here, you can see how much she has eaten:



She looks like a watermelon with legs and a head. Her collar has a GPS so the researchers can more closely track her movements. That's the white box you see in the photos.

After she passed me, she crossed the road again and headed up into the hills. That ended most of the day's entertainment.

I did learn something about yesterday's incident where the bull bison brought the calf to the carcass. The story is that female bison will not adopt an orphan, but males will. This was a large healthy bull who had, apparently, adopted the newly orphaned calf. I guess it was showing that mom was gone and he was now the guardian.

Later in the day, I stopped back at the falcon nest and got a few photos:



And, towards the end of the afternoon, I went over to Swan Lake to see if I could find a grizzly with cubs that others have been talking about. No luck, but I did see a mountain goat up, close. I didn't know that they lived there:



The rest of the evening was spent back in the Lamar Valley watching the carcass. A steady stream of bears and coyotes came along and I spent the time watching and talking with all the people who came by and letting people look through the scope. A newlywed couple from Indiana stopped and stayed quite a while watching the action. Another couple from Indiana who couldn't believe we were seeing much through the scope, until they saw for themselves stayed a while. Finally a man and his mother from Florida stopped and got all interested in taking photos through the scope.




Tuesday, June 17, 2014

June 17, 2014

A quick post - no photos yet.  I'm in Cooke City updating the blog, but have seen bears and wolves on the bison carcass this morning.  Photos later.
June 16, 2014

Today was about wolves and bears and coyotes.

I slept in today and didn't get up until 7:00. I went out to the Lamar Valley and there wasn't anything on the carcass. Yoshi was there. Then, a fellow came along and said there was another carcass further up the valley with wolves and coyotes competing for it. After a bit, we found it. There was a coyote on it. After a while, the coyote left and a grizzly arrived – it was Scarface. This is, after all, his front yard.

At this point in the valley, the river is about ¼ mile from the road and the carcass was maybe another ¼ mile beyond that. So, Yoshi and I decided to take our cameras down to the river for a chance at better photographs. We stayed until around 1:00. The bear left and the coyote returned. Also, some eagles arrived, including a juvenile:




Another interesting event happened. We had heard that the dead bison was a female that had an injured leg. Around noon, a bull with a calf came over and circled the carcass:



We think the calf was hers and the bull was taking it back to mom for the last time.

Then, it started to rain, so we got out. While we were there, though, we were comparing the performance of our respective cameras. We both had the same thing – a Canon 7d with a 600mm f/4 IS mark I. My pictures were much sharper than Yoshi's, though. After some talk and swapping lenses, we decided that his needed to have the focus adjusted. I was going to go do laundry, so he asked if I would help him do the adjustments while the laundry was going. That sounded like a good idea to me, so we headed over to Canyon. We got his camera adjusted and I was able to do the same with mine when the 1.4x extender was on. I was never happy with its performance before, and I thought that might be the problem.

The, after eating lunch, it was back out to see what was happening. When I got there Yoshi had already gone out to the river, so I joined him. There was a wolf feeding, but the bear was coming back. The wolf left and the bear started eating, and with my newly adjusted camera I was getting better pictures:



But, the wolf hadn't gone far. It was just getting out of the way while the bear had his turn. After a half hour or so, the bear left and the wolf resumed.

While all this was happening, a large crowd was gathering down near the river. This is a 1/4 mile walk through sagebrush and swampy land that's been stomped to mud by bison. It was getting noisy with kids yelling and throwing rocks in the river and adults shouting to each other. It was making the wolf nervous – it kept looking back at us. Yoshi and I had to finally tell the people to be quiet as it was disturbing the wolf. Everyone was asking to look through my camera and generally being pests. Normally I don't mind that at a turnout, but we had gone down there to get away from all that.

One more interesting thing happened. While the wolf was feeding, the coyote returned. Normally, these two are bitter enemies. They compete for the same food. This time, though, they fed together:



After they left, it started to rain again, so we left as well.
June 15, 2014

Today started like yesterday – up at 6:00 am and out to check on the bison carcass in the Lamar valley. On the way, I saw 2 black bears in the Calcite Springs area.

This morning, the grizzly that was there last night was back. It stayed for just a few minutes and then left. Yoshi showed up just after I got there.

Doug McLaughlin stopped by after the bear had left and gave us 2 useful pieces of information: they were seeing wolves from the area of the confluence of the Soda Butte creek and the Lamar river. The other piece was where to go to see the wolves around Blacktail Plateau.

For 2 days now, I've been hearing about a rendezvous site on the south side of Blacktail, but with no more information, I was having trouble visualizing where the viewpoint was. I had an idea and Doug confirmed that I was close.

So, off we went up the valley to the confluence and, sure enough, we saw 2 wolves – the so-called 755M/889F group. They were just laying in the grass a good ways away and then got up and left over a ridge. Soon after, a grizzly came past the same area and Yoshi identified it as Scarface, an old bear he has photographed a lot.

After a bit of adventure with some bison coming down the road and all of us scurrying to get in our vehicles, I left in search of the Blacktail viewing area. It was just where Doug had said – below the self-guided trail. The rendezvous site was a long way from the road. Someone said you needed the Hubble Telescope to see it well. It's not quite that far, but at the limits of my scope's capabilities. While I was there, a single wolf carrying something crossed into the trees.

After a bit, I thought I would go check on the Hayden Valley and then go out to West Yellowstone in search of some screws to fix a blind in the trailer and a new level. The level I've been using to get the trailer level seems to give conflicting information. Turn it one way and it says level, but turn it 180 degrees and it says way off level. Time for a new one.

On the way, I saw Yoshi's car at the Calcite Springs turnout, so stopped to see what he was up to. He was waiting for the black bear with 3 cubs to make an appearance and, in the meantime, was photographing marmots. There was a family of 5 living in the rocks and down timber across the road. I got my camera out and joined him:



We had been told that the bear of interest had left the area, so we were just about to pack things up and move on when she came over the ridge with all 3 cubs in tow:



The mother bear moved down the hill with the cubs just a cloud of activity around her:




Finally they all settled down for a nap and we left.

The rest of the day was driving and coming up empty on places to see bears or wolves. Nobody was seeing anything at any of the places I stopped. The only thing that was any good was this elk near the road south of Canyon:




There was bison close on the other side and the traffic jam was epic. I was able to get into a turnout and out without much trouble.

Along the way, I got the stuff in West Yellowstone, and put a temporary fix on the blind. I'll make a permanent one when I get home. Then, it was a shower, fill the water tank, empty the waste tanks, make dinner and do this blog post.

It's been a long day and I'm tired. Tomorrow is laundry day, so it should be a lot easier.
June 14, 2014

Today was wolves and bears, with some antelope, eagles and falcons thrown in for variety.

The day started wet and cold. It had snowed in the higher elevations and the peaks were white. I went out to the Lamar Valley to check on the bison carcass. Around 7:00 am, a grizzly came along and fed on it for about 15 minutes. It then looked back the way it came and left, like it was getting away from something. But nothing ever showed up. We stood around talking about why, but couldn't come to any conclusion.

One surprise happened, though. A fellow came up that I thought recognized. We looked at each other and he said “I know you”. It was Yoshi, a fellow I had met 2 years ago here. He's an instructor at Santa Clara College and, in the summer, is trying to be a professional photographer. It was good to see him again.

So I decided to move on. I went further up the valley and came across a group of antelope. 2 of the juveniles were sparing:



Then, the idea was to go down to the Hayden valley to check on the wolf situation.

When I got there, they were seeing 2 wolves of the Canyon pack, way way along the west edge of the valley. Maybe a mile away. It was cold, around 40 degrees, windy and occasionally a few snow flurries. Along with that, the sun was heating the ground causing all kinds of waves in the air making it difficult to focus the scope that far away. After about an hour, 3 grizzlies came along the south edge of that part of the valley – a mother and 2 large cubs. The cubs were almost as big as her. The conditions were so bad, I didn't get the camera out. Instead, I stood around talking to a retired couple from Broomfield, Colorado.

Then, it was back to camp and I tried to fix the inverter, but it was dead. It was a cheap one and I guess I got what I paid for – one season out of it. I'll replace it with a good one when I get home. In the meantime, I can't use my microwave. I'm not sure I can survive that hardship.

After reading a bit and a nap, I went back out to the Lamar valley to check on the bison carcass. But I got a bit sidetracked. Near Calcite Springs, there is an overlook where you can see a peregrine falcon nest:






Then, I moved over the the Lamar valley. Around 7:00 pm, the bear came back and I took some photos:




It's a long way off, so the pictures aren't very good. The arrival of the bear brought lots of people to watch:




By 8:00, I was done and headed back to camp for dinner.



June 13, 2014

After writing yesterday's blog, I left for Cooke City to post it. I was told they had free internet at the visitor's center and wanted to try it. It was the best connection I've had in the Yellowstone area. I'll use it for the rest of this trip.

On the way, there was a black bear grazing in a meadow of flowers near Pebble Creek campground. As I drove by, I took several photos out the window, but then parked at the campground and walked back with the big lens.



About an hour and 250 photos later, I left.

Before leaving, a group of girls about 8 years old came along. They were in a class with the Yellowstone Association – an organization that does nature tours and classes. I let them look through the camera at the bear and then let them take pictures with their point and shoot cameras through mine.

Later in the evening I heard about a bison carcass in view of the road near the west end of the Lamar valley, so that was to the the goal this morning.

I left around 6:15 and got there in about 15 minutes. The turnout was filled and I had to park on the side of the road. There was a coyote feeding on it, but that's all. I waited around for a while and then decided to come back later. Something would find it. I'll go over to the hayden valley and see if anything is happening there.

On the way back past Calcite Springs, I encountered a bear jam. There's a black bear with 3 cubs in the area and they were out:





An hour later, I moved on. I got down to the Hayden Valley and after a duck jam (a traffic jam caused by ducks on the river), stopped at Gizzly Overlook. Nothing was happening for a while, but then, after about 20 minutes, a white dog-looking animal came into the valley. At first I wasn't sure if it was the alpha female of the Canyon wolf pack or the white coyote that lives in the area. After a bit of study, I was convinced it was the wolf. It was way too far away for pictures.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on errands, a shower, dinner and chores. I went back to the Lamar valley to check on the bison carcass, but it was all alone. A black bear had fed on it earlier in the day, but no wolves or grizzlies. I'll go back in the morning.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

June 12, 2014

This morning was moving day. I moved to a site in the same campground that has lots of sunshine:



My solar panel is very happy. I'm running the trailer, running the computer and putting 7 amps into the battery bank. All is good.

This afternoon, I'll go into Gardiner and update the blog and then maybe see if there are any bears to photograph in the Tower area.
June 11, 2014

The weather has been sunny and cool. Low 40s at night and 60s during the day.

Today was mostly a driving day. This year was the first time in over a decade that I didn't use my checklist when I packed the trailer. So, of course, I'm finding things I forgot. One was a towel. So I decided to drive to West Yellowstone and buy one. Along the way, I could check the phone service and just see what was going on.

After West Yellowstone, I went over to Old Faithful, intending to see it erupt. What a mess. I have never seen that area so crowded. The large parking lot was completely full – not a space to be had. I ended up parking around the back of the stores near the cabins. Of course, the geyser had just erupted and it was another 90 minutes before the next one, so I decided to move on and see it another day.

I went around to West Thumb and then up along the lake. When I got to the Hayden Valley, there was a grizzly out along the river feeding on an elk calf it had killed this morning. It was half hidden by the river bank, but occasionally you could see it move around:



After an hour or so, it got up, strolled over to the river:



Swam across:




And moved up to the trees above the river on the other side.

The only other excitement for the day was I got to take a hot shower at Canyon.