YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

A couple of weeks ago we went to Ennis, Montana, northwest of Yellowstone to photograph ospreys. This last Sunday we went back and spent 5 more days there. The more time I spend around Ennis, the more I like it. There are plenty of tourists in Ennis but almost all of them are fishing the Madison River. There are very few photographers or sightseers. Driving around the lake, the Upper Bear Trap, and some of the county roads can yield anything from bald eagles and ospreys to foxes and grouse. I spent over 12 hours at the Ennis fox den and saw the foxes for all of about 45 seconds. Pretty bad RER (reward to effort ratio) on that. But the whole area is just pleasant and there are a lot of other animals than foxes.

Another nice thing about Ennis is that it is semi-close to Yellowstone. We have found many areas around Yellowstone that are beautiful, have lots of animals and are relatively tourist free because all of the tourists are in Yellowstone.

The foxes are still at their same den. During the brief time I saw them I thought the babies looked the same as a couple of weeks ago but their tails seemed fluffier and they have gotten much shyer. The last time we saw them the babies spent a good bit of time out of the den playing. This time they came out a couple of times, looked at me, or at least my car, and dove back in their den. So you would think I would move on to other things, but I dearly love foxes so I kept waiting.

One thing that is obvious from watching these foxes is they don’t mind sheep and the sheep don’t mind them.

We did see a few other nice animals including a family of dusky grouse, six full grown chicks and their mom. The only way we could separate the mom from the chicks is by they way she called and the chicks came running. You won’t see seven here because I couldn’t get them all into the same frame.

Unfortunately we also saw several turkey vultures. There is nothing wrong with turkey vultures but as global warming increases they are becoming more and more common in Montana. Forty years ago we never saw them in the western part of Montana. I do have a lot of respect for turkey vultures. They are smart birds and have very sweet dispositions (I only know that because I have a good friend who does wildlife rehab and she loves getting turkey vultures).