YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

This morning I was intent on heading over Dunraven to see if Mini Mom and her cub were still around but did check the Yellowstone picnic area first to see if Rosie and her three were in town.

Headed up towards Tower and immediately ran into a number of cars parked along the road and photographers standing and looking down into the hole.  Drove by and saw a black bear down below, in the thick trees and such so almost did not stop but am glad that I did.

I did join the photographers for a few minutes but when someone told me that we were only about 60 yards away from the bear I decided it best to leave – besides, the shots were not good anyway.

About the time I got to the car and was standing and talking to some folks I noticed a cute little chipmunk sitting on a tall stump with nice light shining on it so decided to take a few shots.  Shooting the chipmunk turned out to be fun because people would stop to ask why 3 big lenses were pointed and when we told them it was a chipmunk they thought we had gone a little bonkers. But, one photographer did appreciate the beauty in what we saw and so decided to join us.  This turned out to be a great decision because had we left we would have missed the fox.

And so we turned our attention to looking for the fox and I spotted this woodpecker in the tree and it managed to keep us entertained for awhile.

But once the fox was spotted all else was forgotten, including the bear.  People would come along and say, “You know about the bear, don’t you?”  And we would nod.

And so, in that one little spot in Yellowstone, we had a great time photographing more than what had been available for the past two months.  But, the day wasn’t over yet.  Maybe for good photo ops for me it was over but people were seeing bears all day long.

Before I got to Calcite, right at Tower, a few pronghorn caught my eye.  While I was photographing the buck I heard him call to his girl and realized that it was the first time I had hear a Pronghorn so that was very special.

After the fox disappeared I went up to Dunraven and spent the rest of the day up there, waiting for Mini Mom to come down the hill.  Unfortunately, Mini Cub did not want to come down the hill and so we waited and waited.  I finally left at about 5:30 and they were part way down but in a terrible spot and I could see no good way to get images safely.  Besides, the bears were feeling the pressure from the crowd on the road and I did not want to be part of that.  I felt like there would be a mad rush to capture them as they crossed the road and then down into a steep ravine on the other side and it did not feel right.

But, here is another shot of the two from yesterday.

I did stop back at Calcite because I had heard that Rosie and cubs had made quite an appearance – even put on a parade and went swimming.  But, strangely enough, the boar was still in the area.  I don’t know where Rosie was and there were no photo ops on the boar so I headed up to Swan Lake Flats where the elk rut seems to be pretty strong.  Might go up there tomorrow because there were several nice bulls and herds of elk.  Oh, and I saw the mountain goats at Golden Gate.

So, that makes 5 black bears spotted at Calcite, a grizzly in Little America, a sow and cub on Dunraven, a large grizzly at Grizzly Overlook, Raspberry in her usual spot and The Preacher at Grant.  Also heard that a sow and cub were seen yesterday at Swan Lake Flats. And, 3 mystery wolves were near Indian Creek Campground, and 755 and his lady were in Hayden.  The usual Junction Buttes were in the usual place.  Still weak signals on the Lamars.

The park went from being dead to an explosion of activity overnight.  Really good to be seeing the coyotes and the foxes again.