YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

The park seems to be on an every other day cycle of activity, which in a way is good because it allows for some down time.  Except that people are just out looking that much harder!  Today, I am so grateful for the gift of time here in Yellowstone because the urgency to find more to photograph is gone – but one never knows just how much time that they have and so there is a fine line between taking for granted and sitting back to enjoy some more.

We had a day when every black bear family was near the road and throngs of people gathered to see them.  One bear jam after another and getting from point A to B was nearly impossible – or at least took forever.  But, there was a lot of excitement and many smiles during those slow days.  Not only were the adult sows with the cubs out and about but the boars were trying to crash their parties and the sub-adults from previous years were trying to get in the mix.

Rangers tried to hold one boar back, off of Rosie but he would have none of it and so they finally gave up and let him take his chances with the feisty mama.  Kind of mean of the rangers really because that guy did not have a chance.

Suffice it to say that his visit with Rosie and the kids was short lived.  When Rosie came back from her run she cooled her belly in some water and celebrated another victory.  Apparently, the boar decided to try his way with Angry Mom as well but that did not go well either.

I was on my way south when the boar interrupted my journey. And, so I continued on and found absolutely nothing to photograph down there.  Was happy to see a lot of elk in Pelican and Hayden valleys for the wolves but nothing else of note.  And, so I returned, just in time to see Rosie in a field and on her way to the swimming hole.  With a little luck there were perfect parking places and I was just in time for the action and able to move on quickly.

I was cheated when the cubs were spooked off by other creatures and decided not to take a swim.

After getting through the Tower bear jams there were bison and big horn jams to get through on my way to Lamar for the evening.  But, on a whim I decided to stop at the kestrel and finally found the nest.  Well, it was right there in the open, how could I have not seen in?

And there was the flicker nest also, which is right below the kestrel home.  Quite an hospitable tree!

And then it was on to Lamar and a wonderful evening with the boys of the pack.  See separate post.

Last night, or yesterday even, I did not see any wolves and so this nursing mama coyote will have to do.

On the way home there was more drama at Floating Island.  This is the first year that this prime location has had great activity.  Once again there was a bear and an eagle but this time a dead mule deer.  Not sure if it was taken down by the black bear or another animal but this guy was going to sleep with his dinner.  It was pretty dark so couldn’t really wait out the action but I got the impression that the sandhills were going to join the bear.  The male sandhill did a little dancing when he came in and that is always fun to see.  Nearly time for them to nest.

See you again soon!

Deby