YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

After an all day snowstorm yesterday, Yellowstone was bright, white, clear and cold this morning.  Not as cold as it has been but felt much colder – brutal comes to mind.

I heard some folks talking about hearing the wolves howling and so pulled over to see if I could find them.  Thought that I spotted something and so got out of the car without hat, coat and gloves, for a quick peek through the scope and boy was that a mistake.  I jumped back in the car and turned the heater on and continued to look from there.

Laurie and I were scanning and scanning and we could see the elk getting disturbed but no wolves.  I kept looking and everyone was packing to go to a different spot when I noticed some elk looking at something.  And, then they turned and ran up the hill a ways and turned to look again.  And then they were off and running and so I scanned behind them and there came the wolves.  About 5 of the Junction Buttes, although I lost track while trying to show everyone else where they were.  It was a pretty good spot because they were a long ways off and without the elk behavior I never would have seen them.  After that the wolves went and bedded and became boring.  And, I had nothing left to do.  Did see some coyotes trying to hunt some elk on the way in but will save that for later.

And, I was stopped at Floating Island, watching a small whitetail buck when suddenly a chase was on.

And, this post is about ruts and boy behavior so we can slip a couple of whitetail shots in.  Besides we see them so seldom, particularly the bucks, that it was a real treat to watch the chase.

It was early but with bright blue skies and very cold temps, I was not inspired to stay in the park so headed towards home.

And then I decided to go check not the big horn rut and had a little fun watching the guys chatting with one another.

It was clear that he wanted his buddy to get up so it would be a fair fight but his buddy was being kind of stubborn.

And then the big boy got a little more pushy and the little guy knew it was time to get up.

And then he wanted to make sure that his buddy went away.

His buddy did not go far and there was no fight but that big guy was not going to have any loafing on his shift.

And, meanwhile some of the kids were trying to take a nap.

And so were their moms.

But, the big boy didn’t want anyone resting and so went around and nudged everyone to their feet.

And then he turned his attention to me, sitting about 60 yards away, in my car.

The big horn rut is really just getting started and the good fun is coming up soon.  This is just a little guy himself, and he thinks he will be in luck, but the big boys were up on the hill watching the folly of the youngsters.  For, when the time comes and the girls are ready, the big, big boys will be there.